Carsharing, yes; owning, no #4: Ready to go
As you can see in the pic, my car sharing user card arrived in the post today. That's nice, 48 hours after I faxed all the documentation they requested. The pic also shows the T10 cards that allow 10 trips on any kind of public transport in Barcelona Metro Area, on up to 4 different transport modes.
Now what I have done is checked the reservation system at the website, which is really easy to use. The reservation management screen is very simple: simply choose the start time and date for rental and the time you want to return the car. Cars must be rented at least for one hour.
Then simply choose the location and drop station. Note that I must return the car to the same station I took the car from. Avancar has 21 stations in the city of Barcelona and 4 additional ones in nearby cities (Granollers, Sabadell and Sant Cugat del Vallès). All the stations are in easy-to-find parking lots and most of them are at just a few minutes from a public transport stop or station.
Finally, the systems asks me to choose the car I want and gives an estimate of the cost of the rental, without figuring in miles driven. Continue after the break to find about the cars available.
Related:
- Carsharing, yes; owning, no #3: Registration process (and reading small print)
- Carsharing, yes; owning, no - An AutoblogGreen writer's story, pt. 2: Knowing your provider
- Carsharing, yes; owning, no - An AutoblogGreen writer's story
All cars available are diesels with the latest emissions technologies available. There are 5 types of cars, as follows, and I've added approximate model, engine size, HP and CO2 emissions.
Utility
-Renault Clio 1.5 dCi (70 HP, 120 g/km)
-Opel Corsa 1.3 CDTi (75 HP, 119 g/km)
Compact
-Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi (100 HP, 161 g/km)
-Renault Mégane 1.5 dCi (85 HP, 117 g/km)
Stationwagon
-Renault Mégane Grand Tour 1.5 dCi (85 HP, 117 g/km)
Familiar (5+2 seats)
-Opel Zafira 1.9 CDTi (100 HP, 162 g/km)
-Renault Grand Scénic 1.5 dCi (85 HP, 137 g/km)
Minibus (9 seats)
-Opel Vivaro 2.0 CDTi (114 HP, 220 g/km)
[Source: Spanish websites for Renault, Opel and Ford]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mike 5:18PM (10/19/2007)
Is it cheaper to rent for a full month then to own? Access to the car for 12 hours a day?
Reply
Xavier Navarro 5:21PM (10/19/2007)
According to my calculations, a full month rent is prohibitive. First of all, leases are only available in Spain if you have a company (or work on your own), but there are renting companies. Their prices are just too high for a private user.
Avancar lets you rent the car from 1 hour to as much time as you want, although regular fares apply until 8 days. Then you can have a special deal.
But for more than a few hours, it's far cheaper to use a low-cost rental company, or even some offers by major rentals (Hertz has an agreement with Avancar for this).
Reply
Rodolfo 5:32AM (10/20/2007)
If you ever plan on visiting Switzerland, there is a similar carsharing system called Mobility. Due to the fantastic transportation system throughout the country, they count more than 73'600 members by now.Principle is quite simple: if you drive less than 100km (combining with train), you have over 6000 cars all over the country at your disposal. If you plan on driving more than that, you can benefit from convenient rates from Avis or Herz.
Reply