I tested out Gig car last weekend. It's a pay-by-the-minute car share service with the option of pre-paying for a day-long rental. To go out of area you need not just their app but also a card to lock and unlock the vehicle, so I ordered a card back in June, waited 6 weeks for it to arrive, and finally ventured out of town last week.
The pluses: the day-long rental is about $100 for a hybrid, including gas and insurance, which is $40 to $80 less than Zipcar and probably $100 to $200 cheaper than traditional rentals, if you can even get one in the summer for only a day.
Minuses: the car locks itself after 2 minutes of being turned off, so if you get on a car ferry like I did, you have to unlock the ignition just before leaving the ferry, which causes some panic as you can't idle on a ferry and it's sometimes hard to tell when it's your turn to go. I tried using the card to unlock the car on the ferry and the car got confused because I was still in the Gig service area so I had to back out and use the app.
The scariest moment was when I arrived at my destination way out on the coast and saw I had no cell phone service, and realized if the card wouldn't unlock the car when it was time to go, I was stranded a mile off the main highway with a car that was basically bricked. I positioned the car so it could be pushed in neutral down the hill *just in case!* and it caused me some angst that night, as I did outdoor work and toasted cheddar bread on a fire and drank cider and tried to sleep but mostly imagined all the horrible scenarios of not being able to unlock the car. I made myself repeat mentally: the card will work, and finally slept.
The card worked perfectly by the way. Got in, loaded up the car and drove away, shaking with relief.
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