Team-BHP - Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

Looks like ZoomCars have added a new location closer to E-City. Following is an excerpt from the mail i received:

"The Zoom team is pleased to announce the official launch of our 7th site on Hosur Road opposite the Nandi Toyota showroom. If you live in Electronics City, BTM, or HSR Layouts, well, Zooming just got that much more convenient!!

The site will have Figos, Ventos, and Scorpios for your driving pleasure. Our same friendly 24x7 fleet executives will be present to help ensure that your pickup/drop experience is incredibly smooth."

Received this new year mail from Zoom cars listing out T-BHP among other top press where they have figured prominently over the last year. The entire email is attached.

Courtsey mail sent to registered customers -

We appeared on the front page of the Times of India, and we had stories in the Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Gigaom, Team-BHP and Entrepreneur Magazine, and were even on CNBC! The Economic Times named us one of the 14 start-ups to watch in '14.

Used Zoom car services for 12 day to Mangalore, Coorg, Mysore trip. Was trying to book Scorpio buy was booked well in advance for new year. So our 1800 kms drive as on Ford Figo.

The entire booking and payment process was smooth. The customer service was proactive about my queries.

Picked up from Malleswaram , Brigade gateway. Car was ready and pickup process was smooth. Hardly took 15 minutes. There were some scratches on the car were shown to me and duly noted on their agreement sheet. Mr Shivakumar proactively took care of pickup process.

Returning process to was also hassle free. Submitted about 4k fuel bills. Expecting a quick reimbursement.

Wish they start or tieup some pickup services from Airport / Railway stations. This would make the whole process even more smooth.

highly recommended..

Zoom is now offering weekly and monthly packages for all it's cars. They seem to be really picking up. The max kms allowed daily has also been increased to 225kms with an increase in hourly rental.

The weekly and monthly rates do look pretty promising. A Ford Figo can be rented for a week @ Rs. 12,000. This includes fuel costs upto 1,300kms after which they charge additional rates per km.

The same Figo can be rented for a month @ Rs.40,000 including 3000kms of fuel costs.

On the other extreme, the BMW 320d is available for 35,000 a week or 1.15 lakhs a month.

Compared to owning one of these cars, the rates look quite good. I haven't really done the maths yet but on the outset this should start a new trend.

You can actually buy a small petrol car and have a zoom car to rent on any outstation trip.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vid6639 (Post 3348696)

The same Figo can be rented for a month @ Rs.40,000 including 3000kms of fuel costs.

That's 12,000 rupees worth of diesel. Businessmen can write the 40K off as an expense, for a net gain of another 12K.

Net net, an entrepreneur / company is renting a Figo for 16K / month. Makes sense if you are a heavy user, but not for most of us.

If you want to rent short-term, it's okay. But if you want a car for the longer-term, you'd much rather lease it from a professional leasing company. It works out MUCH cheaper.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vid6639 (Post 3348696)

Compared to owning one of these cars, the rates look quite good. I haven't really done the maths yet but on the outset this should start a new trend.

You can actually buy a small petrol car and have a zoom car to rent on any outstation trip.

I'll be a little sceptical regarding this since our society (especially the members of our families who don't sit in the driving seat) would not approve of any ideas where you own a smaller car than your neighbour. :D

However, I would personally not need anything more than a premium hatch if a 7-seater or sedan is available on rent for those one-off trips where I'll need more than my regular drive.

Disclaimer: If these agencies decide that it is more 'profitable' to skip the variants with safety features when buying to their fleet, those are no longer an option for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zenren (Post 3349464)

Disclaimer: If these agencies decide that it is more 'profitable' to skip the variants with safety features when buying to their fleet, those are no longer an option for me.

Till now they had lower models Scorpio and Figo. Recently they added top of the line Titanium Ecosport's but these have not made their way to customers yet.

Hopefully in future they add cars like the City and XUV500. Compared to Scorpio, XUV500 W4 or W6 would be a good rental option.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3349326)

If you want to rent short-term, it's okay. But if you want a car for the longer-term, you'd much rather lease it from a professional leasing company. It works out MUCH cheaper.

Hi GTO, any suggestions for such long term leasing companies based in Mumbai. A friend of mine is looking to buy a car, but he will only need it for a year, as he would return to US later. Calculating the depreciation, maintenance and time& effort to sell, im wondering if this would work out cheaper for him.

Folks,

Apologies for the delay in this - was genuinely busy.

I was seriously considering an MUV (between Ertiga & Innova) and I came across Zoom self-drive car rentals (offcourse right here in Team-BHP!). We were 6 of us, and had to drive down to Pune during the last week of Dec.

We rented a Scorpio from Zoom - booking was very easy on their website. I had to do 2 bookings as it only allowed 5 days at a time and my need was min 8 days. The Scorpio was ready for me when I went to pick it up - just run 24K kms and had recently undergone the 20k service. It was a July registered car! The executive explained the car functions and also showed the scratches/dents on it (and noted it in our contract). The navigation (tablet!) didnt work for us but we were hardly dependent on it. Apart from this, everything else was just great. We had a great time with it, and the kids loved the last row (we chose the 7 seater). The ride was indeed bumpy but nothing to complain about. We filled diesel twice and were promptly refunded the same. Total kms driven was around 2.1K. It just cost us about Rs 12 per km + entry tax in Maharashtra. They provide 35% discount on monday thru thursdays. The car return was super smooth too - they were extremely courteous and very professional. It took about 15 mins, and the exec actually said sorry that it took 15 mins - usually its under 10 mins return!

Overall, I would rate he experience as 5 star, and would highly recommend it to anyone! Secondly, i dont see a need to buy an MUV since my need would just be about 10-15 days in a year.

Zoom has now introduced Ford Ecosport's into their fleet.

Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India-1553181_373310922805824_1044239571_o.jpg

Looking at the photos, these are the high end Titanium spec ones with 2 Airbags, ABS and Microsoft SYNC system.

Rates of the Ecosport are just Rs.75/hour more than the Figo.

Rs. 325/hour
Rs. 3250/day (Max 225kms)
Rs. 15,000/week (Max 1,300kms)
Rs. 50,000/month (Max 3,000kms)

Mon - Thurs is an additional discount of 40% on hourly and daily rentals.

More details on their new revamped site: http://www.zoomcar.in/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Y@SH (Post 3350042)

If he is okay with a 3-4 year old used car, that might be the most cost-effective way. It won't attract much additional depreciation in the next year.