Should you rent from Getaround, Turo, Zipcar, or Enterprise?
By: Matt Williams
Tags: Car Rental, Mobility, Car Sharing, Sharing Economy

The ease of avoiding car ownership is easier than ever. With the average cost of car ownership hovering around $800 per month in major cities, using public transportation, Uber, and scooters makes sense on a number of dimensions. Increasingly, city dwellers have the option of supplementing these with car sharing for quick trips to the grocery store or a weekend getaway using peer-to-peer car sharing platforms like Getaround and Turo. Likewise, companies like Zipcar have sought to make cars available in every neighborhood and college campus.

The landscape for car sharing (and car rentals) is changing rapidly and each company changes its pricing schemes and incentives fairly often, but I set out to identify the most cost effective options in Chicago, Washington DC, and San Francisco. In short, Getaround typically provides consumers the best value, with Turo following closely behind. If you prefer gas included, Zipcar may be your best option, but the cost of gas doesn’t make up for the difference in cost. If you want additional peace of mind with premium insurance protection for a higher price, Turo is your best bet, but tracking down an available car and accessing it can be the most difficult of the four services. There are several other factors that might impact your decisions, but the analysis below focuses primarily on price.

Getaround provides the most straight-forward pricing on both its website and app, showing you the total cost of your rental with no surprise fees as you check out. The company recently offered incentives to encourage owners to follow a standard pricing pattern, so there is a fair level of consistency between cars of equal value, although prices vary depending on the hour and day. A compact sedan (Nissan Versa, Toyota Corolla, or Ford Focus) was typically priced at just under $5.00 per hour for a two-hour trip and approximately $43 for a full-weekday trip. A weekend trip costs about $85. In many neighborhoods in Chicago, DC, and San Francisco, Getaround consistently has cars within a 5–10 minute walk.

Turo’s pricing scheme is the most complex and difficult to both understand and navigate, but the total prices for trips are only a few bucks more than Getaround. Turo advertises prices set by owners, which can vary wildly even between the same make and model of car. Once you checkout, Turo will charge separately for insurance and a trip fee that also varies greatly. On a Ford Focus priced at $29 per day (one of the lowest in the city), standard protection adds an additional $11.60 and a required trip fee adds an additional $6.75 for a total of $47.35 per day and $94.70 for a weekend trip (this owner prices weekdays and weekend the same, but many increase rates for the weekend). Switching to Turo’s minimum protection or declining insurance altogether would lower the daily price to $43 or $35.75 per day. Premium insurance (with a $0 deductible) brings the total to $58.95.

Zipcar is likely the most well-recognized car sharing brand and unlike Getaround and Turo, is not peer-to-peer. Comparing on prices is complicated by the fact that Zipcar rentals include the cost of gas, but the pricing differences are large enough to easily rank in order of total costs. An hourly ZipCar rental will typically start at $10; however in most Chicago, DC, and San Francisco neighborhoods, typical sedans (Volkswagon Golf, Toyota Corolla, or Ford Focus) start at $13.25 per hour. On a two hour trip, you’re likely to use about a gallon of gas, so for comparison to other platforms, you can subtract a few bucks from the rental; however, the overall price easily outpaces Getaround for a short-duration trip. On a weekend trip where you may use a full tank of gas, the cost of that gas (within Zipcar’s allotted 360 miles) would not cover the difference between either Getaround or Turo’s pricing with ZipCar coming in at around $200 for that trip compared to $85 or $95 for Getaround and Turo.

Enterprise’s website is fairly easy to navigate and to quickly review various options and prices. A weekday trip in late August in Chicago runs at about $47, while a weekend trip will run you $132 making Getaround or Turo the obvious choice for the weekend trip. Experienced car renters know that at many airports and times of the year, you can access substantially lower prices from Enterprise and other car rental agencies, so there are certainly times when this will be your cheapest option. On the other hand, prices can skyrocket to a much greater degree than they typically do on car sharing services.

Here’s the full results for a search in Chicago spanning 10 am–12 pm on an upcoming Wednesday, a full weekday (10 am — 10 am the following day) and a weekend trip (10 am Saturday — 10 pm Sunday). For those under 25, additional fees are also added. The focus is on economy sedans with many other options available across platforms and companies.

Getaround

Ford Focus: $4.96/hr; $43.26 weekday; $86.28 weekend. Insurance with $1000 deductible is automatically included.

Getaround is currently offering $40 off your first trip as well.

Turo

Ford Focus: no hourly rates; $47.85 weekday; $94.70 weekend

Secondary insurance with $500 deductible (standard option) with options to decrease or increase protection levels

Zipcar

Ford Focus: $13.25/hr; $100.25 weekday; $200.50 weekend

Gas and insurance with a $1000 deductible automatically included

Enterprise

Compact Car: 22.16/hr; $47.95 weekday; $132.26 weekend

Gas and insurance not included; some people can cover insurance with their credit cards.

Full disclosure — I share my cars on Getaround and Turo and receive a referral bonus if you rent through Getaround using the links here.