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Why own a car, when you can go get?

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That's the slogan of one company providing an alternative to car ownership. Here's our experience with them.

Why not just have our own car?

Another time I'll write a full post about that, but suffice to say that car ownership is a pain in the neck. The servicing, the maintenance, the repairs, the parking, the traffic, the registration, the insurance, the cleaning...

For my wife and I, about 98% of our transport needs can be done on foot, by bike, by train, bus or ferry. Maybe 99% if you include rideshare. So we choose to avoid the pain (and cost) of car ownership.

However, car use (I think of it separately from car ownership) can be handy in certain situations. We had one of those situations last weekend. Here's how it went.

Booking a car

My wife signed up for GoGet, and booked the car online for the time window she needed it.

As a first-timer, she received her little membership card in the mail. On the day of the booking, GoGet sent her a reminder email about 20 minutes before the booking started.

Grabbing the car

The reminder email also gave the exact location of the car, which was about 250m from us.

It was easy to find with the orange branding.

As soon as the booking started, we could swipe the membership card over the built-in sensor behind the windscreen, to unlock the doors.

Inside, the car key itself was attached to the car on a retractable cord. Handy for never losing the key. :)


There's also a fuel card attached if the car need refilling. GoGet pays for the fuel, but we're charged a per-km fee to cover our usage.

Summary

GoGet seems most suitable for short, occasional uses within the city. Convenience trips more so than long driving.

There are also other options available including rental cars, Car Next Door and rideshare. This post is not intended to be an add for GoGet.

On this occasion my wife chose GoGet for the ability to have the car overnight and because car rental prices are a bit high right now. Also it was an advantage to pick up the car just around the corner, rather than at a rental company location.

Psychology of cost

It seems expensive when you first look at the hire cost. But the idea is that it's a replacement to owning a rarely-used car.

So while the hire cost may look high; when compared to paying for registration, insurance and servicing etc, it's quite affordable - if used only occasionally.

I guess that we're essentially splitting the cost of car ownership with the other users. Much better than having to pay the whole lot, when we rarely need a car.

Further reading

How to waste a year's wages (cars are a big chunk of it)

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