I'm a senior and I've had ZipCar since freshman yr. It's ok, but nothing fantastic. But I've taken 10+ trips with ZipCar and need to rant about them so here we go.

There is a student discount program, that gives free membership for ur first year so you just have to pay for a vehicle and the time you take that vehicle out. After the first year you pay 25$/year plus the cost of renting the vehicle. It's usually $100/24hrs for a honda or toyota rental, and you get 180 free miles. if you go drive more than 180 miles, you're charged a few cents per extra mile. You don't need to pay for gas, they give you a card for it on the dashboard of the Zipcar. The way it works is that you get a physical card (zipcard) that you have to scan on the windshield of the car to unlock the doors. the key will be inside but you can't lock or unlock the car with the keys, only your xipcard.

I've used Zipcar to go on trips up to NH and Maine, taking out the cars for a few days. If you want to go on long trips, you have to book the car a week ahead of time. The cars are USUALLY in working condition, and interiors always smell like weed. Honestly, this means you can hotbox the zipcar without repercussions. I've done it a few times and they have never followed up with the smoking charge. But in terms of drivability, they function and I've never been concerned about safety. Obviously check the brakes, blinkers, tire pressure, etc before you go.

Now. Although everything above sounds good, ZipCar has TERRIBLE AWFUL ATROCIOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE. I've had 3 trips that I had to cancel because I relied on Zipcar transportation to get there. One of these trips was for an academic seminar I was supposed to attend to present my research project at. just know, broken cars will still appear on the app, so you might be getting a vehicle that doesn't connect to the door system.