Streetcar - Any Views?
Discussion
At the moment, i do around 300 to 400 miles a month for work. I get a car allowance (%age of salary) and then 21p a mile.
In my team, at least 1 person a day will require the use of a car to get from central London to locations such as Guildford, High Wycombe, Reading, Maidenhead etc.
Being based in central London, we will have to drive in from home, park the car, pay for said parking, pay for congestion charge, use the car and then pay for parking when we return to town. The parking isn't cheap, about 4 per hour.
So, would we be better off using Streetcar? Hire it for a few hours, at say £6 per hour? The first 30 miles of fuel is free on a short booking (less than 48 hours) after that it's charged at 24p a mile.
My thought was to set up an account and use this for work, keeping my own car for my personal use, saving money on fuel, servicing, insurance, maintenance etc etc.
Has anyone done similar? Does Streetcar work?
Interested to hear your opinions.
In my team, at least 1 person a day will require the use of a car to get from central London to locations such as Guildford, High Wycombe, Reading, Maidenhead etc.
Being based in central London, we will have to drive in from home, park the car, pay for said parking, pay for congestion charge, use the car and then pay for parking when we return to town. The parking isn't cheap, about 4 per hour.
So, would we be better off using Streetcar? Hire it for a few hours, at say £6 per hour? The first 30 miles of fuel is free on a short booking (less than 48 hours) after that it's charged at 24p a mile.
My thought was to set up an account and use this for work, keeping my own car for my personal use, saving money on fuel, servicing, insurance, maintenance etc etc.
Has anyone done similar? Does Streetcar work?
Interested to hear your opinions.
Heh,
I just posted about my streetcar membership elsewhere which inspired me to do a forum search, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it. So while this is probably a bit late for OP I'll post what I think if it helps anyone else out.
For me streetcar is ideal. I have family with land up north (where the roads are *good fun* and land is pretty much free) where I can keep my cars at. Meanwhile, here in London, I can sub-let my car parking space (which ironically is slightly further away from the reserved bay where my two nearest streetcars, one of which I have put 20% of the mileage on, stay!) and yet have a car whenever I need it, which is mostly for spontaneous long distance trips, or when something heavy needs moving around. The golfs are not driver's cars (the most annoying thing, imo, is the drive by wire throttle) but they're reasonably comfy... specs seem to differ but most of the ones I've driven have had automatic wipers/headlights, cruise control, a/c etc. The steering is ludicrously over-assited, the brakes over-servoed, and the engines are anaemic (especially, alas the petrol... that's right, I prefer the diesel version). But that's modern cars for you anyway (comes with free thing trying to give you optimal shift points that might work for people who've never heard of accelearion sense and are going for world economy record, which is irrelevant anyway as the fuel is included in the price. And also the standard VAG depress clutch before starting due to stupid americans)
But for what you actually need from a car as a practical thing, rather than a thing to enjoy, they're great. Seriously. Really great. They're all over London, so pretty much wherever I am I can get a car from nearby. Insurance, tax, and fuel is all paid for in the fees. All you have to do to drive one is book it (takes about a minute) put a card you've got in your wallet on the windscreen, enter a pin code into a wee computer, take the keys from the glovebox, and you're set.
And the staff seem pretty cool too.
I'll report back when I see how quickly they pass on my details to the S172 they're almost certainly going to have gotten by now for making decent progress in the eye of a camera van.
I just posted about my streetcar membership elsewhere which inspired me to do a forum search, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it. So while this is probably a bit late for OP I'll post what I think if it helps anyone else out.
For me streetcar is ideal. I have family with land up north (where the roads are *good fun* and land is pretty much free) where I can keep my cars at. Meanwhile, here in London, I can sub-let my car parking space (which ironically is slightly further away from the reserved bay where my two nearest streetcars, one of which I have put 20% of the mileage on, stay!) and yet have a car whenever I need it, which is mostly for spontaneous long distance trips, or when something heavy needs moving around. The golfs are not driver's cars (the most annoying thing, imo, is the drive by wire throttle) but they're reasonably comfy... specs seem to differ but most of the ones I've driven have had automatic wipers/headlights, cruise control, a/c etc. The steering is ludicrously over-assited, the brakes over-servoed, and the engines are anaemic (especially, alas the petrol... that's right, I prefer the diesel version). But that's modern cars for you anyway (comes with free thing trying to give you optimal shift points that might work for people who've never heard of accelearion sense and are going for world economy record, which is irrelevant anyway as the fuel is included in the price. And also the standard VAG depress clutch before starting due to stupid americans)
But for what you actually need from a car as a practical thing, rather than a thing to enjoy, they're great. Seriously. Really great. They're all over London, so pretty much wherever I am I can get a car from nearby. Insurance, tax, and fuel is all paid for in the fees. All you have to do to drive one is book it (takes about a minute) put a card you've got in your wallet on the windscreen, enter a pin code into a wee computer, take the keys from the glovebox, and you're set.
And the staff seem pretty cool too.
I'll report back when I see how quickly they pass on my details to the S172 they're almost certainly going to have gotten by now for making decent progress in the eye of a camera van.
ShadownINja said:
Anyone else have comments on Streetcar?
Also, what about the renting out of parking space?
I think it's a fantastic product/offering. Around where I live in London (pleny of Streetcars parked nearby, not needing a car for commuting) it makes owning a car look like an utter indulgence.Also, what about the renting out of parking space?
Great technology, easy to book, good value, good customer service.
And they have Streetvans too, so you could have a Caterham as your only car and have a Streetcar membership as the practical transport and load lugging options.
).
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