Getting Around with Getaround

Documenting damage before getting in.

The parking spot that was "too good to be true."

I used to own a car in Washington, DC, and I loved the freedom of being able to hop in and go anywhere whenever I wanted. However, I would have never let anyone other than my closest friends use my car. Since selling my car, though, I’ve been missing that freedom, so I was looking forward to this opportunity to not only drive again in the city (which I actually really like), but to also share a car that we could conveniently pick up near our apartment.  

I chose Getaround because insurance was included, lots of cars were available, and the sign up seemed easy. In fact, it was almost unnervingly easy to sign up. I did have to put in my driver’s license information, but the “check” of my record took less than 30 seconds. Did they actually check? I don’t know, but Getaround let me rent a 2007 Toyota Camry that could take four of us to Oakland for dinner on Sunday evening.

Finding the car was easy using Getaround’s iPhone app. I was able to unlock the car remotely with the app, which seemed like magic. After two minutes inspecting the car and submitting photos (see above) to Getaround via the app, we adjusted the mirrors, pulled up our directions, and took off.

The car itself was fine. It hadn’t seen a car wash in a while, but the gas tank was full and the inside was clean and free of odors. As I drove, I noticed some noises and rattling, as well as the maintenance light flash on the dashboard, which concerned me. On our way, we tried to use the freedom of the car to see other sites, but because of traffic, we ran out of time and instead headed directly to dinner.

Dinner was great and the getting there and back to our HomeAway neighborhood was uneventful despite maintenance concerns (and California drivers!).

Parking was entirely different. If there is not a designated parking spot, Getaround wants you to park the car inside of .5 miles from the owner’s address. That stipulation was only in the fine print, though, and we worried about parking outside of the .1 radius indicated on the app. We also needed to park the car in an area where the owner wouldn’t need to move it for 24 hours. In a neighborhood with street cleaning and tons of parking garages, meeting these requirements meant driving around for 45 minutes before landing in a parking spot that we thought was probably “too good to be true.” Frustrated and tired, we locked the car through the app and left it.

Overall, Getaround offers convenience and freedom for a reasonable price. On the down side, I had flashbacks about breaking down and how frustrating it is to find parking in a crowded city. Could we have rented a newer car? Yes. Could we have gotten one with a designated parking space? Probably. But those options come with a higher price tag that may not have made renting the car through Getaround more price effective than sharing an Uber. Maintenance, traffic and parking vs. freedom and convenience:  sharing or not, when it comes to using a car in the city, some trade-offs never change.