GoCar / Car Sharing in Limerick

zulutango

GoCar have just set up in the city (train station). I got rid of my car last year because I wasn't using it enough to justify the tax, insurance and NCT costs and every time I went to use it the battery was flat. I can see myself using GoCar now and again for short trips. For longer trips I can rent a car in Enterprise on William Street for about 15 euro per day. For those that are interested GoCar plan on expanding and having a number of cars based in the city once the Council gives them the go ahead.

I signed up this morning and it's very quick and easy (and only 10 euro at the moment).

dunworth1

i like the idea of it but the €1500 excess is a bit high (they do offer an option to reduce this to 0 for €100)

panda100

Ooh That's brilliant! I'm going to have to get used to driving a manual car again so!

zulutango

They have electric cars in their Dublin fleet and these will be making their way to Limerick in time.

I find the whole thing very interesting. It's expected that individual car ownership will drop significantly in the next few years with the onset of car sharing schemes like these and then autonomous vehicles after that.

bazz26

Look forward to that day. Hopefully it will mean less congestion on the roads for those of us who enjoy cars and driving.

zulutango

bazz26 wrote: »

Look forward to that day. Hopefully it will mean less congestion on the roads for those of us who enjoy cars and driving.

In a world where autonomous cars are safer there's a good chance that humans driving cars will be outlawed altogether. Hard luck. You'll probably be able to go to a driving simulator where you can get a feel for how driving used to be though :pac:

jonski

zulutango wrote: »

They have electric cars in their Dublin fleet and these will be making their way to Limerick in time.

I find the whole thing very interesting. It's expected that individual car ownership will drop significantly in the next few years with the onset of car sharing schemes like these and then autonomous vehicles after that.

I had a quick look at their website when you posted this morning and thought they had missed a vital trick by not having ev's , delighted to hear that they have .

bazz26

zulutango wrote: »

In a world where autonomous cars are safer there's a good chance that humans driving cars will be outlawed altogether. Hard luck. You'll probably be able to go to a driving simulator where you can get a feel for how driving used to be though :pac:

Lol, people made similar claims about the demise of the book when digital media appeared yet the book is still around. I'll take my chances with continuing to enjoy my driving while the masses prepare to the shuffled around in their autonomous wagons. The less congestion the better, car ownership will just become a bit more exclusive.

highlydebased

Same concept as Zipcar which I use often here in London.

Very handy for one off journeys when you don't have a car.

Hopefully they will have cars available all over the city as just the train station is unusual.

zulutango

highlydebased wrote:

Hopefully they will have cars available all over the city as just the train station is unusual.

I chatted with them and they're hoping to roll it out across the city pending Council approval. Apparently some protocols have to be put in place and bye-laws amended. September is the target date.

dashoonage

Do they have vans at the train station ?

zulutango

dashoonage wrote: »

Do they have vans at the train station ?

Not according to their site. There's just one car based there. I can see the van option being quite popular though when it's available.

testicles

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keane2097

Yeah like the idea but always find the pricing a bit strong as well.

phog

testicles wrote: »

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I reckon, from just a quick glance at their site that if you require a GoCar vehicle for anything longer than about two hours then hiring a car is the better option.

phog

zulutango wrote: »

Not according to their site. There's just one car based there. I can see the van option being quite popular though when it's available.

I know they're testing the waters but only one car :eek: if I need a car now I need it now not later when another user is finished with it.

zulutango

Definitely if you need a car or van for more than a few hours then hiring one starts to become more economical, but there's also the convenience aspect. You'd be hard pressed to get the rental car company to open for you in an evening or on a Sunday. Filling out the forms takes time too. As well as that you'd have to get to their depot and return the vehicle there which may not suit either.

highlydebased

The whole point of these car clubs is that you can get a vehicle at the drop of a hat or if you feel like it out of the blue. Using enterprise or whatever means you have to go to their office during office hours.... Instead of just hopping in and driving away

phog

zulutango wrote: »

Definitely if you need a car or van for more than a few hours then hiring one starts to become more economical, but there's also the convenience aspect. You'd be hard pressed to get the rental car company to open for you in an evening or on a Sunday. Filling out the forms takes time too. As well as that you'd have to get to their depot and return the vehicle there which may not suit either.

highlydebased wrote: »

The whole point of these car clubs is that you can get a vehicle at the drop of a hat or if you feel like it out of the blue. Using enterprise or whatever means you have to go to their office during office hours.... Instead of just hopping in and driving away

You lose some of that flexibility when GoCar have only one car available

zulutango

They're hoping to have 15 cars based in the city in September (but need the Council to sign off on it). They were able to put one car at the station sooner than that by doing a separate deal with Irish Rail.

testicles

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zulutango

I know! They're super handy

zulutango

So .. I decided to give this a go yesterday.

I needed a car for about 2.5 hours and this ended up costing about 25 euro (although there was effectively a 20 euro discount for being a new member). It's a lot of money for a short enough trip, but my alternative was to get taxis which would have cost more and I wouldn't have had the versatility, or to own a car which makes no financial sense given my needs.

It's all fairly straight forward. You just log on to the website, book the car and follow the instructions.

A funny thing happened when paying the toll at the Limerick Tunnel. The cashier held me up for a minute or two to ask lots of questions about the car and how car sharing works. He thought it was a great idea. If you need a car a lot, then Go Car doesn't make much sense, but if you seldom require one and only for short periods then it will be probably be useful. I'm not sure how many people in Limerick fall into the latter category though.

zulutango

They've expanded their operations in Limerick and have a few more cars around the city now.

Poxyshamrock

Does that mean we'll have seven cars now or that there's just seven designated spots to pick-up/drop-off?

zulutango

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Does that mean we'll have seven cars now or that there's just seven designated spots to pick-up/drop-off?

Seven cars I think. If you go to their site and click on each of the locations it says there's a car available.

dunworth1

i was hoping to be able to use this from time to time but at €50+ for 2 hours its expensive

Miike

None of the new locations are showing up on the site for me?

zulutango

dunworth1 wrote:

i was hoping to be able to use this from time to time but at €50+ for 2 hours its expensive

How is it coming to that? Should be 8 euro per hour I think.

dunworth1

zulutango wrote: »

How is it coming to that? Should be 8 euro per hour I think.

You posted above saying it cost you 25 for 2hrs but that included a 20 euro discount for signing up

zulutango

dunworth1 wrote:

You posted above saying it cost you 25 for 2hrs but that included a 20 euro discount for signing up

No, it was 25 euro before the discount was applied