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One of the best parts about moving from Oakland, California, to New York City was leaving my car behind. At least, that's what I thought until the pandemic hit; suddenly, the subway was off-limits, and a car was the golden ticket to wide-open escapes outside the hard-hit city.
It didn't take long to realize that renting a car in this city is both a massive hassle, and massively overpriced. Grabbing a rental (of which there are a finite amount) requires planning ahead, and not just when it comes to reserving one. You might need to take the subway to a bus to a shuttle to the airport—just to sit in airport traffic once you're finally in the driver's seat. And while there are apps for cars sprinkled throughout the city, if you're planning to take a multi-day trip, the cost per day adds up.
As these many pains dawned on me, a friend told me she'd recently starting using a rental car app called Turo. It's like Airbnb for cars, she'd explained to me in shorthand: Regular people put their cars on the app, at a rate they set, and you search until you find a price, size, and model that fits your needs. It's not limited to New Yorkers, either—the app exists in over 5,500 cities throughout the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. But the real appeal? Prices for cars started in the low twenties per day. As I was looking to drive from Brooklyn to Maine over a full week, the total price was comparable to renting a car through a major rental company for just a day or two. My pandemic pod and I were sold.
After renting a Dodge Avenger from a woman in New Jersey for that first trip, followed by a Toyota sedan to visit the Poconos in the fall, and, later, a Hyundai Sonata that got us to our campsite in Clarence Fahnestock State Park right before winter hit, the deal was sealed: Turo was the only way we'd ever rent a car again.
Even though you rent through individuals, everything is formalized and executed through the central app. When I had a question about the car itself, I was able to message the renter directly; when I had a billing question, Turo's customer service helped me right away over the phone. My insurance company, State Farm, treats Turo like a regular car rental company, so I was also protected at no extra cost, which gave me peace of mind (it seems most other insurance companies do the same; the bigger question is whether the plan you have already covers rental cars). There are also company-wide policies, like COVID-era cleaning protocols, and free cancellation until 24 hours before a trip, that sweeten the deal.
I've learned a few things in the process, of course. While I like renting from an individual—we've had pleasant, albeit short, interactions with every renter—there are some drawbacks. People have lives, and things happen. We loved the woman we rented from the first time around, and booked her car a second time, only to have our reservation canceled at the last minute due to a family emergency. Turo helped me find another rental on the spot, and offered a $50 reimbursement for the Uber to get to it, but it was certainly stress-inducing in the moment, and the selection of cars at the last minute was limited.
Though Turo is available in dozens of major cities (Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco among them), because users often pick up rentals from someone's home, many cars are in more residential areas outside the city. For example, none of the rentals near New York City are actually in New York—they're in New Jersey, so at times, we've done the train-to-bus-to-car hoop jumping we initially wanted to avoid. But to save money while doing so makes the effort worthwhile to me. (Perhaps those renting Teslas, classic Mustangs, and Maseratis, which you'll also find on the app, feel differently.)
As summer comes, though, I'm already thinking of where my next Turo car rental will take me—and I hope more travelers catch on.
