Zoom Car: Self Drive Rentals in India

[Vikhyath]

I was riding home from work yesterday in Bangalore via the 80 feet road connecting Kanakapura Road to Dr.Vishnuvardhan Road when I saw a new KUV100 with a red temporary registration sticker zoom past me nearly running me off the road into the bushes. This rash driving continued as the car sped over speed-breakers without slowing down.

After some distance on the same route, I saw around 6-7 new KUV100 cars with zoomcar stickers by the side of the road. This is the unfortunate condition of Zoomcars where the company procures new cars and the handlers abuse it. Add to this, the users who rent the cars too treat the cars in the same manner. I'm not surprised about the state of the cars operating under the company.

I hope the company tracks the car driving style information like hard acceleration and sudden braking while it is being handled by the company drivers too and not just while the cars are rented.

[jaaz]

Planning a trip Bangalore to Pondicherry. Still in a fix, deciding the service provider.

Before that, I've a query? Do, I need to pay RTO charges even If I pass through? If so, approx. charges for Tamil nadu and then Pondicherry.

Couldn't understand the logic behind pricing a premium for Baleno over Swift. And Jazz is priced more. KUV 100 is priced as Small Carr, lowest tariff. Are there any additional features in Baleno, i20 and Jazz? Or ZoomCar is milking the Customers as these are New Cars.

What are the Chances, that I get New Ford Figo, If I book one from ZoomCar. Most of the Old Figo's have already crossed 1 lakh kms on the odometer.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by jaaz

Planning a trip Bangalore to Pondicherry. Still in a fix, deciding the service provider.

Myles no other choice, and yes you have to pay RTO charges across two states.

Or you could just take your car, or catch a KSRTC Airavat.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by jaaz

Planning a trip Bangalore to Pondicherry. Still in a fix, deciding the service provider.

Revv is a decent option in Bangalore, never had a bad experience so far. Their choice of vehicles is as wide as zoomcar, and fleet condition is FAR better. Last I checked, they provide both limited and unlimited mileage options for separate rates.

[justwheels]

Originally Posted by jaaz

What are the Chances, that I get New Ford Figo, If I book one from ZoomCar. Most of the Old Figo's have already crossed 1 lakh kms on the odometer.

Although I have never used MYLES in Bangalore but my experience with zoom has luckily been decent. Yes the prices are on an upper side and pls take care that if you fill fuel, get an electronic receipt only. They won't refund Manual receipts.
Also, if you want a new ford Figo, try booking aspire. With the use of zoom cars crossing many kms, expect cars easily run more than 25k anytime.

Not sure of TN but Pondicherry tax is 250 + 100 iirc.

Hope that helps.

[zenx]

Anyone booked a Zoomcar from Chandigarh? Need one for a Spiti drive in April, and wanted to figure out if the vehicles are reliable enough for that.

[vishwaschettri]

Originally Posted by GTO

Oh well, it's not a pretty start to my first Zoom Car experience. They just called and said that the EcoSport is 'in poor mechanical condition' and they'll be giving me a KUV100 instead .

I am planning to rent Zoom for 10 days at the end of this month from Coimbatore. Your experience is scary and something like this will ruin my complete trip. I have no backup option.

My running is low for this period and myles is working out substantially expensive, so I had zeroed in on zoom.

Now I am in two minds.

Cheers
Vishwas

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by vishwaschettri

I am planning to rent Zoom for 10 days at the end of this month from Coimbatore. Your experience is scary and something like this will ruin my complete trip. I have no backup option.

My running is low for this period and myles is working out substantially expensive, so I had zeroed in on zoom.

Now I am in two minds.

Cheers
Vishwas

Don't worry with zoomcar, I took Zoomcar for 10 days from Coimbatore for my holidays to Munnar and Kodaikanal in December 2016. The interior were little shabby and one of the tyre was under inflated. But the Scorpio rented was in good condition otherwise. It had 22K kms on the odo. Travelled to the hills and came back without any issue.
Just ensure that you do a thorough check before taking over the keys.

[vishwaschettri]

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Don't worry with zoomcar, I took Zoomcar for 10 days from Coimbatore for my holidays to Munnar and Kodaikanal in December 2016.

Thanks, your post is comforting. I am also pushing to munnar from Coimbatore. How much and where did you pay Kerala tax? Did Zoom refund it? Are figo's at Coimbatore old model or the new one?

cheers
Vishwas

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by vishwaschettri

Thanks, your post is comforting. I am also pushing to munnar from Coimbatore. How much and where did you pay Kerala tax? Did Zoom refund it? Are figo's at Coimbatore old model or the new one?

cheers
Vishwas

Hi Vishwas, sorry for the late reply.i didn't pay anything at all. No tax anywhere. At the checkposts, the constables are well aware of Zoomcar. Didn't have any issues. They would ask for small 20-50 bucks favour. Although before taking the car, check all the documents completely. I was given both Kerala and Tamil Nadu permits.
Travel carefree.

Zoomcar refunded my security deposit and additional diesel cost that I incurred without any follow-up. I think the system is well oiled.
Zoomcar recently started their operations in Coimbatore, so relatively the cars are newer,but don't forget to do a thorough check of the car.

My total cost for 10 days came to Rs. 16465/-

[neeravnaik]

Zoomcar has a set of relatively newer cars (Baleno, i20, Figo Aspire, Endeavour) so if you select among those you increase your chances of getting a better car.

Otherwise In my experience Zoomcar's customer service experience is not good. Problem is lack of ownership and co-ordination between the various customer facing parties. You mail/call/meet them everyone will have separate responses and they will never talk to each other. Any request you raise through one channel will have to be repeated each time you meet them.

Myles atleast gives you one person to talk to and interact to to deal with most of your issues.

[sach.sri]

i am planning for a self drive rental ex-Bengaluru. PLanning for a trip of 12 days. This is my first time doing a self drive rental - need some advice which agency to go for?

Have looked at zoomcars and myles. Zoom rentals include fuel for the allocated km and their prices are almost same as what Myles charges.

Question is - does Myles also give fuel included in the rental? if not - then they will be very expensive as compared to zoom?

Are there other decent options available in BLR for self drive rentals - any agency that can be recommended?

looking forward to suggestions and feedbacks.

[vishwaschettri]

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Zoomcar recently started their operations in Coimbatore, so relatively the cars are newer,but don't forget to do a thorough check of the car.

Thanks a bunch for answering my million queries. Just one more, are the figo there old model ones or the new one?

Cheers
Vishwas

[GTO]

Originally Posted by GTO

Damn, I recently booked an EcoSport with Zoom Car in a city I'm flying into. Hope it's not a shoddy experience, although I'm not too confident now.

Originally Posted by GTO

Oh well, it's not a pretty start to my first Zoom Car experience. They just called and said that the EcoSport is 'in poor mechanical condition' and they'll be giving me a KUV100 instead .

Told them to buzz off. He then gave me an Elite i20.

Hahaha! Had a sexy experience with ZoomCar. The car I got was a brand new Elite i20 with just 1,000 km on the odometer. Curiously, it was an MH-registered car in GJ:


Base variant, but with airbags (now standard), seat covers etc. After-market head-unit provided, although someone stupidly chose one without Bluetooth:


Even the protective stickers weren't taken off! New as new can be:


1041 km. You could say that I helped running it in :


Elite i20's boot easily gobbled our weekend luggage up:


I had opted for their pickup & drop-off service. There was a last minute change of location, yet the driver willingly came to where I was. He arrived on time.

Was very happy to see the car and was looking forward to driving her around. As is obvious from my many posts on the forum, I'm a BIG fan of the Elite i20 diesel and this weekend was a good reminder of why. Superb quality, excellent 1.4L diesel, Hyundai's improved road manners & roomy cabin. This hatchback is a true all-rounder. Had fun on the open road too, but never abused the car (drove it like I would my own ride). One of the occupants was my sister who is usually chauffeured around in a Land Rover Freelander or Mercedes C250; even she was impressed with this li'l hatchback. 3 things I missed in our base variant were auto-locking doors, steering tilt & reach adjustment (standard setting was neutral though) and Bluetooth.

Beautiful Gujarat. What infrastructure! Didn't spot one unmarked speed breaker in this rural area:


ZoomCar team arrived on time to pick her up after 3 days of renting. I'd bought an AUX cable to play music from my phone and left it behind in the car, thinking the next renter can use it. 10 minutes later, these guys came into the hotel lobby and returned the AUX cable to me. I didn't want that, but appreciated the honesty:

[tazmaan]

Originally Posted by GTO

Hahaha! Had a sexy experience with ZoomCar.

This is so good and encouraging to hear after all the bad experiences listed below. May be our feedback is reaching them and corrective actions are being taken (At least I hope so).

I really want these self drive rentals to do well because at the end of the day if they do good business and sustain, we as customers will have options for holidays.