Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Street Experiences (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/)

-   -   Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/133357-zoom-car-reviews-self-drive-rentals-india-31.html)

I am still trying to figure out how to go about my booking.

Option # 1:
Should I factor in the approximate distance I am going to use the car for? I have a 660 km round trip planned for April. I leave on 18th morning around 4 am and return on 19th night around 10 pm. If I key these values in, I get an XUV for 7000 bucks but only with 380 kms limit. Rest I pay per km of usage.

Option # 2:
Should I book in advance for X days to get about 700 km of free fuel usage and park the car in my apartment until I set off for the trip? Does that work out cheaper?

By the looks of it, Zoom seems cheaper in Bangalore?

I intend to visit Bangalore for a week from 24th March. Can I register with them and book a car, or will I need a Bangalore address to do that?

No. You can book your car from anywhere. Just be sure that your DL is uploaded and verified by them first, and then make your booking. Take the car from the location nearest to you! :)

I think your best bet here would be to go with the point to point booking, at the aforementioned time, as that kind of works out to be cheaper.

However, another option you can do to be on the safer side is that you can take the car on 17th at 10 PM, and return on 19th at 10 PM. 48 hours. 480 kms.
Why am I saying this is, because if you take the car during the previous night itself, you stand to be secure and your car will be clean and ready for you. I have had two experiences with Zoom where during an early morning booking, the fleet executive was nowhere to be found (turned up after half an hour) and the car was handed to me in a dirty condition as there was no water available at that time to wash the car. Hence.

Hello, in Bangalore, on Mondays to Thursdays, the XUV rental is Rs.115 per hour, or Rs.11.5 per Km.
From Fridays to Sundays, the XUV rental is Rs.175 per hour, or Rs.17.5 per Km.
Irrespective of the day of the week, extra Kms are charged Rs.15 per Km.
Hence, it will be cheaper to book by Hours on Mondays to Thursdays & cheaper to book by Kms on Fridays to Sundays.
Also, be on the lookout for offers from Zoom on their web-site, sometimes you get very good ones.

This depends on the car & whether the booking period includes weekends.
For the cheaper cars, on weekdays, it's cheaper to book by Hours ( i.e. Expected-Distance / 10 ) rather than Kms.



Another advantage if you book by Hours is that you get a discount since you'll be returning the car earlier :)

Also, "pad" your booking schedule by a few hours to give you some leeway in case of delays.

Had my first experience with Zoomcar this weekend and it was quite good.

Rented an EcoSport for three days from the Silk Board (Ibis Hotel) pick-up point. This is one of the locations where Zoomcar is running a trial for unlocking the car by SMS. Well, I sent an SMS and the car just didn't unlock. Called up customer care who tried to remotely unlock the car - it didn't work for him as well. He then provided me the contact number of an executive who came down in about 10 minutes with the keys. He probably had forgotten to set the car up for SMS unlocking, as there were no keys in the glove box as well. Filled up the checklist using the Micromax tab and off I went.

Anyway, initial hiccups apart, it was a very good experience. Got a spotless six-month old car which had run about 37,000 km. The car was in good condition except for some minor issues due to mishandling by previous users. Zoomcar does provide several useful accessories including an auxilliary cable, phone chargers and a torch.

Dropping the car back was a breeze - filled up the checklist, put the keys in the glove box, stepped out and just waited for a couple of minutes to make sure that the car locked automatically.

I had booked the car for 71 hours and drove 707 km, so did not incur any additional charges. Had also used a 50% off coupon code during booking, so eventually ended up paying only 4200 rupees for 3 days. Also, got a 125 rupees credit for returning the car 5 hours early. So, on the whole, I would call it a really good deal.

I am planning for a trip to Leh Ladakh with my friends during the month of July by hiring a car from Zoom car. We called the Zoom car @Delhi Location and confirmed that the car can be hired to Leh Ladkh for a period of 10 days. We have Zeored in on two vehicles - Ecosport and Scorpio. Can you please suggest me which one will be the ideal vehicle for the trip which starts from Delhi? Am very much interested to hire the Ecosport but my only concern is that - Will the A pillar Blind spot make a huge difference during the ride?

Not an expert on hillstation rides. However, I took Ecosport from Bangalore to Coorg and Wayanadu both are no comparison to Leh. Then, on one occasion when we were forced to slight detour due to elephants on the road, Ecosport struggled. The road grip was less than satisfactory. I was not also happy about the stock tyres which were on the vehicle I hired at Bangalore Zoom. I ended up having a tyre burst and paid for it:(

Regds

I picked up Zoomcar yesterday from Hosa Road (Opp. Bosch) and the SMS unlock worked well. I returned the car past 12 midnight and I called them to lock the car.

I forgot to collect a tennis racquet from the car. Customer care team gave me their executive name and I informed him that I will collect it today. Today morning he brought it to Hosa Road Jn and handed over to me.

Overall, I'm happy with their car and service.

Zoomcar newbie here, need help with a few questions:

1. I only see hourly booking options available, nothing for weekly or monthly. Are those options just pro-rated from hourly rates (e.g. 10km/hr > 240 kms/day > multiplied by # of booking days)?

2. Driving over allowed kms is explained clearly (chargeable on per km basis, car-dependent), but what about under-utilizing the allowance? E.g. My booking entitles me to 600 kms but I drive 400 only? Do I get some sort of refund/credit for the balance kms or do I pay for the days I kept the car anyway, irrespective of actual driving?

Yes, there are no separate daily or weekly options. The hourly rates are extended for your duration of booking. So, you get 240 km for 24 hrs of booking, and so on.

There is no incentive for driving reduced kms. In such cases, you pay for the time you kept the car. However, if you return the car early, they will give a credit of 50% of your booking charges for the balance hours.

Thats not a happy ending for any Trip!! Thanks for the info!

Can anyone please let me know a dealer who can offer Duster from Delhi to Leh? TIA!

So it looks like Zoomcar has pulled out Nano from its fleet, out here in Pune. I don't see it anymore on their website.

Plus it's been a while since they updated their fleet, been waiting for them to get the 3 series to Pune, fingers crossed!

The Nano's are available in Bangalore for Rs.19/hour including 10kms running for every hour of booking.

That means you can rent a Nano for 24 hours for Rs.456 and use it for 240kms!

Not sure how they are able to price at less than 20 bucks!! It pretty much removes the need of a second car in the house.

In Delhi, the pick up and drop points are such that only people staying in South Delhi can pick up and drop a car conveniently.

This is a major turn-off.

I am still recovering from this shocking price!
If we consider the FE of Nano to be around 20kmpl and price of petrol at Rs 70/litre, we get a per km running cost at Rs 3.5/km.
But Zoom's rules are for an hour 10km @ Rs 19 :Shockked: which makes it Rs 2/km. Capital cost of purchasing Nano is out of the question.
Let us see how long can Zoom afford to pay from their own pockets.

Maybe Tatas have agreed to bear some cost to improve brand image of Nanos stupid: