car2go

If you’re looking for transportation to replace your personal automobile Car2Go is not the way to go. It’s simply to expensive and the home area is incredibly small even after several years in San Diego.
But, if you think of transit like a diversified portfolio of options, Car2Go is great. Add in the bus, a dash of your own bike (avoid DecoBike), a sprinkle of your two legs and a friendly Über driver and you can easily be carless in San Diego. That’s not to say that there won’t be frustrations, but for a city in the southwest US it’s incredible that living without a car is a possibility.

After 2 years of using this company’s service I realize that I should have just bought my own vehicle. Even if things are running smoothly it is not cheaper than riding the bus. Plus, too many times I have been unable to end my trip when I have somewhere to be, and I can’t leave BECAUSE I CAN’T END MY TRIP! Then of course I get charged for the time. Put on hold when I call customer service and never get a response back via my emails. I will be honest and say that car2go did help in a few pinches, but as it stands now I am done. After I post this review I am deleting my account and going shopping for a car. Thanks for the memories car2go…

I’m from Seattle and we have a car2go system here as well. I use it at least a few times every week living downtown and love the convenience.
I got a chance to use the San Diego system recently during vacation (more than I wanted to due to the awful DecoBike system) and loved it. It’s better than Seattle’s for a few reasons.
The Seattle system is swamped. When you park a car it’s immediately reserved by someone else in most neighborhoods. Also, in busy areas, there often isn’t a car when you need one.
In San Diego we were able to get a close car immediately everywhere we tried. Often it was the same car we arrived in hours earlier. I don’t know if that’s a good sign for car2go San Diego’s business, but it was good for us!
The electric cars are amazing. They are solid, speedy and handle well. Seattle just has gas ones; the electric are so much better!
Parking was super easy, especially with the reserved spots in many locations. Seattle doesn’t have reserved spots, it’s all street parking.
Put some reserved spots at the airport and we would have never used Über.

Don’t believe the free minutes. They expire before you even are authorized to drive the cars

By far the worst system next to the bus. At least 99% of the time the bus is running. It’s always a toss up when it comes to car2go and the fact that you never know if a car is going to unlock for you or even be in the right spot that’s showing on the map. Their customer service isn’t too caring either. It all very much sucks because it’s such a great business idea. I’ve had car2go for almost 2 years now and unable to ride the bus, for extremely personal reasons, car2go is what I thought I was going to rely on. I pay them a good amount of money to use their very unreliable service.

unreliable experimental vehicles. untested. glitchy. never where you need them. won’t turn on won’t shut off. won’t turn on. won’t shut off. won’t unlock. makes you late for appointments. don’t count on these for anything time sensitive.

Carolyn and Diana are very helpful,
They helped a lot answering all the questions i had regarding the membership.
Car2go rocks!
Makes it easy to move around town.

Car2go’s financial department has no idea what they’re doing. Bunch of IDIOTS. I’m constantly calling about charges that don’t quite add up. When I ask them to explain, they talk so quickly and just simply read off charges to me that I can clearly see on my app. Thank you but I’m asking why a «$ 1 protection fee» has never been mentioned to me in 2 years. Or how about its JULY and they locked my account for an outstanding balance from last DECEMBER. Car2go is a joke. Don’t use them. I’m currently trying to BUY a car because I’ve had so many hassles with this company.

I’ve been using car2go for a couple months, since moving to South Park after living out of the country for a few years. So far the experience has been awesome — there’s always been a well-​charged car nearby which works great, and I’ve even managed to move a whole apartment’s worth of furniture (except for a couch) in these things.
My only vehicle is a scooter, so car2go is what I use when I need a car, which is about once a week. I save TONS compared to owning a car, and haven’t had to crawl around under some beater to replace a CV shaft or timing belt in ages. I don’t miss it.

Just signed up for Car2Go. Convenient, but, haven’t had the best experience. Every time we parked it, in a compliant area, it would tell us there was no data service. When you restart and move the car it tacks on to the price, which is BS! This has happened both times we have taken the car. Worst part, we parked the car in the same place we took it from and, again, got the «no service» error. Crock of sh*t, if you ask me. Fix it or I take Lyft and Über.

Great service. Use it 2x per week to travel between the beach, downtown, and uptown. I’m confused by the amount of negative reviews.
I suppose nobody looks up car2go on Unilocal unless they have something bad to say? It’s not like a bar/​restaurant.

I look back to my review on 4÷17÷2012 as if you’re an old, weathered and forgotten ex-​girlfriend, Car2go. I believe I was one of the very first members in San Diego and we were quick to hit it off. We went everywhere together and not only were you easy, you were also a cheap date.
Flash forward a few years and you’re virtually erased from my memory. Yeah, your name (app) is still in my phone, but bigger and better options have arrived and you’ve become increasingly more difficult to use and much, much more expensive.
Why’d I leave you? The billing is a mess and having multiple rides lumped together on the statement is quite simply… confusing. Every other app out there has real-​time information on how far I went and how much it cost me when I exit the car, so why can’t you?
The hardware is a crap shoot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but mostly the latter.
The prices! Ugh, what started off as an affordable one-​way trip before a night of boozing is now an unpredictable annoyance. Why bother when I can pay about the same price in an Über and not have to deal with finding parking, getting pulled over or getting a ticket.
I’m gone, baby. Well, for now at least. Pull it back together and we may give it another try, C2G.

I would really like to think that car2go is a good service, but I have had the worst luck with the cars as well as the connectivity. I have to call 3 out of every 4 times I try to use on of the cars to complain about something. Tonight I tried to park in 8 different spots a fair distance apart from each other. The car would never end my trip because it couldn’t connect. Last time the car wouldn’t run and had to be left on the road. I was really hoping that my luck with this service would get better, but even when I call the center it takes 5 – 10 minutes to connect with someone to deal with the problem.
Lyft is going to be my new go to service besides my own car. car2go has just dropped the ball way too many times.

I didn’t want to give this company a bad review for a long time since their concept was the best there is, but they’ve sucked wayyyy too many times. Getting charged because their system decided 25 minutes later that «there was a technical issue» and that I needed to go back to end my trip, being stuck in the car because it wouldn’t end my trip, and having to wait for them to answer the phone in order to end a trip was really not worth it. They’re now at a point where they don’t even answer calls and will just continue to charge, so I’ve had to file a dispute and the whole thing is too much of a mess. Car2Go, please go out of business if you’re gonna keep sucking!

Great concept. Poor execution. Been using for about 6 months. Works about ½ the time. I’ve spent as much time on the phone with them trying to get a car unlocked as driving. Between cars not responding, showing they are blocks from actual location, access card not working, a stereo that won’t turn off or down from max volume, etc, it’s much more hassle than it’s worth. Too bad. Love the idea & love it when it works.
The fact that they are so quick to give you extra minutes tells me I’m not an exception, but the rule.
UPDATE: Sure enough, got an email for 45 free minutes an hour after standing at a car trying to unlock it for 25′, while on the phone support. Answer was to reset car, which would take at least another 15′.
I took the bus.
That said, the phone support & customer service is very engaged and really tries to help. All the failures are mechanical or technical. I’ll probably continue to use Car2Go, but never without a backup option readily available. Hopefully, the improve the systems.
So you don’t think I’m just negative, I’d written a glowing review on our blog after the first ride.

Stressful, misleading experience. I had fun driving the Smart car, but this is not as care free and easy of an experience as they try to sell it out to be in renting these vehicles. Not to mention how expensive it is! Don’t bother — use public transit and walk where you need to get to.

I have had the WORST experience with Car2Go, and haven’t even been able to get through the application process.
I signed up for a membership, and a few days later received an email stating that I couldn’t be approved because of something on my driving record, but not what the problem is. When I received the member card in the mail, I called customer support and was told to take a copy of my driving record into the local office for a manual review. A little later the same day, I received the EXACT SAME EMAIL, still with a denial, still with no information. When I called, I was told that they don’t actually know why.
Full disclosure: I was pulled over a few years ago and got a ticket, which I forgot to take care of, resulting in my license being suspended. I got that taken care of and got my license reinstated about a year ago. Their guidelines require that your license currently not be suspended, no DUIs in 5 years (never), and no more than 3 moving violations in 5 years (one).
After reading the reviews here, I’m glad that this is the extent of my problems with them. I will definitely NOT be using them at any point in the future.

First day of our vacation ruined by Car2Go in San Diego.
I’m from Denver, where Car2Go also exists. My wife and I signed up in Denver and got our cards, but hadn’t used them. I had rode with with a friend in Car2Go in Denver before, and really liked the idea. I also read the website to make sure I knew all of the rules. Wrong. Nothing on their website could have prepared me.
We decided to grab a car to go parked near the San Diego airport instead of renting a car, then drive it a few miles north to our destination. My wife used her card, and we were on our way (or so we thought). Our GPS in the car was working, but wouldn’t let us enter our destination (touch screen problems?). It was also an EV (electric vehicle) with about 75% battery capacity, so we used our smart phone to navigate to our destination.
After driving a few miles north of San Diego we were running low on battery (it died incredibly quickly) so we decided to look up a charging station. There was very little information on how to find a charging station except something on the key card that said «use GPS to find charging stations»… not helpful because our touchscreen was barely working, so we called car2go. they said to use our smartphones and look up Blink charging stations. We found one but had to go a few more miles north to get to it.
Upon arriving to the charging station we were informed that it was in a hotel so we couldn’t use it unless we were guests (even though it was listed as accessible in the app). At this point we were at 25% battery and dropping quickly, so we drove to the next charging station a few MORE miles north. At this point we were well out of the «home base area» but unfortunately we had no idea.
So we finally find a charging station that we can use and Car2Go’s Blink membership card wouldn’t work! After calling Blink they said there were problems with the Car2Go blink account and it would take a day to get it fixed, so I paid to charge the car. Also, they didn’t warn us that EVs TAKE MANY HOURS TO CHARGE. I thought it would be a rapid charge, but it took FOREVER. This was what ultimately ruined the whole day.
So at this point we’re about 20min outside of the stupid «home base area» which we were never warned that we were leaving (you’d think with GPS in every car it would be easy to warn you that you were leaving the designated area), and you can’t end your trip when you’re outside of the home base. So now I have to wait 3+ hours for the car to charge, and the whole time we’re being charged by car2go. I was incredibly stressed out and my wife was furious that on the first day of our trip we were going to lose 6+ hours because after we finished charging the car we still had to drive it back into the home base area, then find another mode of transportation.
I called Car2Go amidst this terrible journey, and talked to Brent? Brett? He was not helpful at all, and basically said that we were too far away for the fleet to get the car, and they would have to tow the car. We would be responsible for the tow cost (probably hundreds of dollars), plus a $ 100+ charge from Car2Go for leaving the car outside the designated «home base».
How do they not have a plan for this situation other than immediately towing the car and charging the customer HUNDREDS of dollars and blaming them? This seems like an incredibly likely scenario in this business (especially with a fleet of EVs with tiny batteries), and it was really terrible to be made to feel that it was our fault, and that if we didn’t waste 6+ hours of our vacation to fix the situation we would lose our entire vacation budget. This customer service experience was probably the worst I’ve ever had.
So after 3.5 hours of charging the car (that cost me 6 $) my wife drove us back into the «home base area», and we dropped the car off. We were so exhausted from this ordeal and had no energy to find a car rental that we took a cab that cost us almost $ 100. Then the next day Brett called us «to make sure we made it back ok» which was actually just an opportunity for him to tell us that they were charging us $ 76 (they did take $ 30 off. It was supposed to be $ 100+, but that minimal effort at customer service was a joke considering WE fixed the situation and it literally cost them NOTHING).
While we were killing time at the charging station we did some research on their website and found that many of their rules are not displayed anywhere in the car, and the only map of the san diego «home base» area we could find was in PDF format that you had to download from their website. The downloaded map was also poorly labeled, and you had to compare it to a real map to understand exactly where the boundaries are. It’s also difficult to even find on the website.
All-​in-​all, I’m considering submitting this complaint to the BBB of San Diego in an attempt to retrieve the $ 76 they charged us, the $ 6 for charging, and the $ 100 cost of alternate transportation.

Becky M.‘s fingers must hurt from typing numerous apology letters to all us disgruntled customers. I was recently checking my bank statement and noticed some questionable fees on my account labeled Car2Go. of course in doing some research, I’ve found numerous erroneous charges here and there for different amounts that, if I’ve read correctly, basically say that i sat in the car for a couple minutes and didn’t travel anywhere. Seriously. The record indicates that time was charged, but there is absolutely NO travel distance recorded. Intriguing to say the least.
Also, I received a parking ticket from one of these little buggers for «wheel cramping». Accepting responsibility for the offense is not the issue. The issue is notifying me via mail that I’ve received a ticket, they’re charging me $ 25 (plus tax???) to basically send me this letter about the ticket, and because somehow it takes over 2 weeks to notify me via mail from across town, I now only have 5 days to pay said ticket or contest… thanks for the heads up C2G. –_​–
I should’ve read these reviews before I signed up for this service, with the amount of glitches and shade this, «service» provides, it all ends up being a nice big box of pain in your a** wrapped up in a pretty little bow, parading around as «convenience.» Given our short 2 month relationship, and all hassle, C2G is about to be an Ex I will NOT miss.

I’ve been a Car2Go member since its first year open in San Diego. The concept is great, and it was very convenient when it used to be $ 0.36 a minute, but it is just too costly to even bother using. Considering there is Über and Lyft out there, I use Car2Go as a last resort and I advise the same for anyone who uses it. I want to give it a lower rating but there really isn’t any other service like it, and as inconvenient as it can be (system crashes, gps crashing, trouble starting/​ending trips, etc.), it can prove to be very resourceful.