Comments on: BMW Rolls Toward Zipcar’s Turf With Hourly Rentals

By: 7 Steps Toward Shared Vehicles in 2010: Cleantech News «

7 Steps Toward Shared Vehicles in 2010: Cleantech News « — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 05:11:14 +0000

[...] customers rent any current BMW model by the hour from the company’s event center in Munich, BMW Group broke into car sharing this fall. It wasn’t the only example of a big auto company moving into Zipcar’s turf in 2010. [...]

By: Marco A.

Marco A. — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:44:20 +0000

It sounds more like BMW is letting people take their cars out for an extended test drive, overnight and beyond. They’re only bothering to charge rent so they can collect demographic & financial data on potential customers and offset the cost of maintaining inventory that’ll eventually have to be sold as used cars rather than new. It could even be that they’re using rental charges to filter out the real potential customers from luxe-tourists who just want to drive a BMW for a day.

As to Zipcar, there’s nothing stopping them from loading their fleet with BMWs if that’s what people want to rent. They already have Minis, Priuses, and other models a cut above the Ford/GM fare on display at a typical competitor’s rental lot.

By: Hughk

Hughk — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:08:00 +0000

Why does this site appear black with only some text. I have to highlight to see the text.

By: Moving toward a Car-Free City « Pollution Free Cities

Moving toward a Car-Free City « Pollution Free Cities — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:59:05 +0000

[...] BMW Rolls Toward Zipcar’s Turf With Hourly Rentals (gigaom.com) [...]