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Any reason for considering Figo and not something bigger? Asking since you have a Beat which does not compare too unfavorably with the Figo. If you are comparing only fuel costs and paying almost double per km, makes sense to consider lets say the City which comes at Rs 11/km to the Rs 8/km for the Figo. You pay about 1.5 k extra but the incremental value in terms of space, comfort etc goes up exponentially. (Lets not start a debate of the relative merits/demerits of the suspension systems of the City vs Figo, this is just an indicative example :))

I say this because whenever I have rented a zoomcar (and I have done long ones to Goa, Hampi etc) over the K10 I have, I found the higher cost justified in terms of space/comfort/ride etc whenever the terrain, destination etc made the K10 not such an appealing choice. Think about it, if you were to hire a car with a driver, you will easily pay double of this, you may argue that the driver also comes with it, however for most of us in this forum, the self drive is also part of the appeal!

I agree with the others above that Zoom is a real vfm proposition PROVIDED you have analyzed your drive and are able to justify the premium. To cite an opposite example, when I did a solo drive from Bangalore to Kanha national park last year, I took my K10 since I would have been slaughtered if I had to pay upwards of Rs 10/km for 3000+ kms + state RTO charges for 3 different states (AP they reimburse though) Since I was alone, I could let comfort take a backseat. Many of the Zoom cars are not the with airbag + ABS variants so I could live with the safety aspect.

Happy choosing!

You're comparing fuel costs for an owned vehicle with the all-inclusive cost of a rental. Apples and oranges. If you calculate the all-inclusive cost of you own car for this trip, you'll arrive at a different number much closer to the rental's.

Even then, the rental obviously costs a bit higher but they need to earn something above running costs too, right?:) You also get a lot of intangible benefits (different car of your choice, limited liability etc.).

Thanks a lot folks for highlighting the running costs part, which I never considered, and just calculated the fuel costs. So, I did a quick calculation of the running costs of my Beat.

My car's OTR: Rs.5,15,000 (2011 March)
IDV (as per Insurance, renewed in 2015 March): Rs.2,15,000
Total depreciation: Rs.3,00,000
Age of Car: 4 Years
Annual Depreciation: Rs.3,00,000 / 4 (Years) = Rs.75,000
Monthly Depreciation: Rs.75,000 / 12 (Months) = Rs.6,250
Daily Depreciation: Rs.6,250 / 30 (Days) = Rs.208.33

So I come to the conclusion that my daily depreciation of the car is Rs.208.33.
This probably is the wear and tear of the engine and body and other components, but mainly excluding Tyres (because it depends on the type of usage - drifting, wheel spinning, sedate driving, etc).

Cost of tyres: Rs. 4,000 approx (average stock Apollo tyre, probably less even); Rs.16,000 total 4 tyres (already included in cost of car, but lets take it separately here).
Age of tyres: 4 Years
Annual Depreciation of tyres: Rs.16,000 / 4 (Years) = Rs.4,000
Monthly Depreciation of tyres: Rs.4,000 / 12 (Months) = Rs.333.33
Daily Depreciation of tyres: Rs.333.33 / 30 (Days) = Rs.11.11
So my total depreciation of the car, including the tyres costs me: Rs.208.33 + Rs.11.11 = Rs.219.44

A trip of 2.5 days means the car depreciates by Rs.219.44*2.5 (days) = Rs.548.6

Insurance Premium Paid: Rs.3948
Tenure: 12 Months
Monthly Premium Cost: Rs.3948 / 12 (Months) = Rs.329
Daily Preimum Cost: Rs.329 / 30 (Days) = Rs.10.9
For a trip of 3 days, insurance costs me Rs.10.9*3 (days) = Rs.32.7

Driver bhatta (if I hire a driver) = Rs. 300 per day
A trip of 2.5 days means I pay driver bhatta: Rs. 300*3 (days) = Rs.900

So additional expense of the depreciation / wear and tear of the car, driver charges and insurance premium comes to Rs.254.6 + Rs.900 + Rs.32.7 = Rs.1481.3, rounded off to Rs.1500.

As per my previous calculation, just fuel costs was Rs. 2606
And now, additional Rs.1500

Total comes to Rs. 4106. Still Zoom is expensive ! :D

I agree to many of you highlighting marketing costs, technology costs, employees, parking cost, etc. Makes sense, that could sum up to around 974 bucks extra (5080-4106) to make it Rs.5080 in total.

Bingo mate !! The only possible and logical reason why I may hire a Zoomcar. But it would be a premium car, not a Nano or a Figo, which every neighbour of mine has one for me to test drive or try out.
May be I'll hire a Zoomcar City or a Ciaz or an XUV, when I am planning to upgrade my Beat !
Or may be a GLA or an A Class or a 320D when I am taking my wife for an anniversary drive or something.:D

To all, apologies if I may be sounding like a nagging old man who is de-moralising people to not hire a Zoomcar, but being my first experience of hiring a Zoomcar, I though it would be wise to do an actual calculation.
Probably wouldn't have done so if I had a plan to hire a Scorpio or Safari or XUV, where we are a group of people travelling. For a small family of 4, Figo turns out expensive than my own car. That's it.

If you have your car in the same town where the zoomcar hire takes place, by all means use your own car - unless the number of people you want to take along is too high, or you need a luxury ride for fun etc.

The usual time I rent a zoomcar is if I'm in delhi / mumbai etc for a day's worth of meetings, coming in on the morning flight and catching an evening flight back. Or when I land in Pune for a trip to Shirdi. In both cases, zoomcar works out far cheaper than the only other alternative - renting a cab. Especially for 2..3 days with driver bhatta, food etc to pay for.

More over, you've got to factor in the return on investment on the amount that you have blocked in buying your car, if you are buying outright or the interest on the loan if you are buying on EMIs.

We're all nags when it comes to our rides (owned, rented or whatever), nothing wrong with it!

It's your money, so you're definitely entitled to scribble on every spare envelope you can find:D. Rentals can be expensive, just not by as much as one may think from 'apparent' costs, plus they do have their own benefits depending on the situation one may find oneself in sometimes.

You are overthinking this, in my opinion. I use Zoom primarily in 2 scenarios:

• In my home city, if my own car is unavailable for some reason for short, time-bound trips
• In a different city where I have reasonable familiarity with the roads (e.g. Mumbai, Bangalore) and need to cover multiple stops with not much waiting

There may be a third scenario as well- where I want to quickly TD a nice car that I wouldn't normally have access to: a 320d or GLA, for example. But that's it. I would never consider this as a replacement for my own car.

I don't know if you've been through all the posts in this thread but on one of my visits to Bangalore I picked up an A class on a Saturday morning to go visit my tenant, pop into a friend's place nearby, take him and a couple of others to lunch and then await my cab pickup to the airport. I dropped the car off just before the lunch appointment, having covered about 60 km for a 5-hour booking, spending a very reasonable 1200/- in the bargain. It saved me the trouble of booking and getting into different cabs plus I got to rip the A class on the Outer Ring Road! :D

Zoomcar has a location at the Sadahalli gate just outside the airport (next to the McDonalds). And they pick you up at the airport arrival terminal, and pay the airport toll for the vehicle out of their own pockets (that's a cool 120 rupees either way right)

Just pick up the vehicle at the airport as you are anyway arriving in bangalore that day, then drop it off right there on your way back

Looks like Zoom is introducing some interesting packages. Just saw an update on a new own a car package.

You can rent a car from Zoom from Sunday 8PM to Friday 8PM with 250kms of running included for 2,500 bucks (Figo).

They have 2 options, one is to keep the car from Sunday night to Friday night for 3,500 bucks for Figo, 4,500 bucks for City and 5,000 for a XUV500.

Other is to return the car every night at 10PM and pickup at 7AM. The Figo is 2,500 bucks for the whole week, the City is 2,800 and XUV is 4,500.

Not a bad option if your car is at the workshop for repairs or you have guests visiting you from out of town and you need a bigger car.

http://www.zoomcar.com/commute

Is that a public offer or for select customers only? There's no mention of it on their website.

Looks ideal for someone with a long(er) duration, low usage scenario.

Sorry forgot to add link:

http://www.zoomcar.com/commute?ref=F...gn=ZoomCommute

Yes - a very useful scenario with multiple use cases - I'm traveling to a different office location for a week, or in a different city for a wedding etc. In such cases having a zoomcar available would beat paying for taxis all the time.

Got a mailer from Zoomcar about them adding the Delhi Airport site. It'd now be a convenient option to rent a car right after landing provided they bring the car to the arrival gate like they do in Bangalore.

Zoomcar will soon start its services in Hyderabad. Customers who sign up now, will get 30% off on their first rides.

Even I received this mailer from them. Also if you notice they are adding Innova's to their fleet. I guess it is only in the airport locations and I see it only in Delhi location. Y not Innova's in Bangalore and other cities?