Have you ever had the thought while driving around town, “That looks like a mighty fine automobile, I’d love to pilot that” – well wait no longer my friends because RelayRides is here! RelayRides allows people to rent their own personal vehicles out to strangers so that they to may experience the thrill of your 1998 Chevy AstroVan. No more obnoxious sales person pointing you around the auto mall at cruising speeds to help you shop for a car. You can now get a stranger’s brand new Toyota Yaris up on two wheels while rounding corners for less than $40/day! The service was founded in 2010 and unlike most rental services the company doesn’t keep or maintain any vehicles; their users do. The company does however provide a $1 million liability insurance to every owner for the rental period for cases where the stranger wrecks your car. RelayRides also performs basic background checks on the owner’s vehicle registration as well as looking into the renters’ driving records to ensure a safe transaction.
When you pick a date and time on the site or app the owner of the car must contact you within 24 hours to confirm the arrangement. You will then get the pickup address and the RelayRides site will email and even text you to remind you of the appointment. You can also ask the owners various questions about the car to make sure it has features you need or to clarify any particulars missing from the online description. We arrived at the owners house on a Saturday morning to pickup the Fusion and strangely enough it was similar to picking up a rental car with a bit of a “test driving a used car on craigslist” vibe. The owner went over the exterior of the car noting any scratches and verified my drivers license with a form from RelayRides. The owner was nice enough to give the Fusion Energi a full charge and the gas tank was full as we set off.
The Ford Fusion Energi was well kept by the owner and whoever he may have rented the vehicle to prior. The electric motor fully charged got us about 20 miles before switching back to gas and driving as a hybrid for most of our weekend trip. The leather interior was very comfortable and the cabin was very spacious for four adults. We had reviewed the 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid when it first came out and the car still holds up as one of the best cars in the segment. The Fusion Energi adds the ability to plugin the vehicle for about 21 miles and bests the Accord (13 miles) and Prius (11 miles) plugins. For the majority of my driving habits on any given day the Fusion would run on gasoline more than half the time and I still think the 40 miles of range for cars like the Chevrolet Volt would be the threshold to really persuade me to pay up to plug it in. Your mileage may vary and I understand that most drivers don’t commute 40+ miles each way.
Overall the RelayRides service works well so long as every part of the transaction flows smoothly. The service does of course offer insurance should anything happen and renters can choose a Basic package with $2,500 deductible or the Premium insurance which has a $500 deductible. Overall the cost for us to rent the Fusion was around $47/day with insurance which would generally get you a base model Chrysler 200 or Nissan Altima at a traditional car rental company. RelayRides features a wide range of cars from a Tesla Model S for $300/day to older trucks like a 96′ Dakota for trips to HomeDepot at around $29/day. For the car crazy, like myself, the service has the benefit of giving an exact choice of car and trim you want to rent. It is up to you to decide if the ability to choose the car and avoid waiting in line at a rental place is worth borrowing from a stranger. As for me, I have been eyeing a Ford Raptor on there for $60/day and it’s calling my name for the next weekend adventure.
Head to RelayRides to see what cars are available in your area!
I looked up the B7 Audi S4 and the B8 (V8) Audi S5. $65 and $120 per day, respectively. Hmm, this got the excitement juices flowing.