It's cheaper. We were spending $300 on a garage, almost $200 on insurance (liability only), $50 on gas, and the inevitable annual maintenance for an old car. We didn't have a payment, but I guess you could annualize the cost of the car over the life of it to come up with a couple hundred more per month.) Zipcar has a small annual fee ($50) and then is just $10 per hour or $69 per day (Some cars cost up to $14/hour). All gas is free up to 120 miles per day. So we figured if we went away three weekends a month (which we don't), it would still be cheaper to use Zipcar than to own a car in NYC. No Hassle. Owning a car is great. Until you have to park it, fix it or get into an accident with it. With Zipcar someone else does all of that for you. And the garagae is only a couple of blocks further than our current garage so it's not like returning a rental car to some far-off locale. It's fun. One of the great things about Zipcar is that they have fun cars. And, you get to pick the car for every occasion. Going to Ikea? Get a pick up truck or a minivan. Just scooting around town, get a Mini. Feeling guilty about driving? Get a Prius. I love that when we don't need a big car we can drive a smaller one, but mostly I love getting to drive a nice new car of my choice rather than my same old clunker all the time. It's Green. Zipcar has a whole page dedicated to the green benefits of driving Zipcar. Here is what they say:

• Members shed cars. Over 40% of our members decide against purchasing a car, or end up selling their car.
• They drive less. Car usage of individuals is reduced by as much as 50%.
• They use other transportation. Members use the most efficient means of transportation for the task - walking, biking, public transportation, taxi or Zipcar.
• Older cars are replaced with more fuel-efficient cars with more stringent pollution controls.
• With each Zipcar replacing over 20 privately-owned vehicles, we're changing the urban landscape. Fewer cars means fewer parking spaces needed, less congestion and less green house gas emissions.

For us, I know that driving a newer, more fuel-efficient and, whenever possible, smaller car is using less gas and emitting less carbon than driving our old car. Plus not owning a car in the city is a good thing to do. We've been Zipping now for almost a year and haven't really faced any problems. It's been convenient and cheap and fun. The only watch-out is that if you want to go away for a whole weekend you should reserve in advance because cars do get booked up, but there is a growing fleet of Zipcars in New York and you can usually find one even if it isn't at your closest garage. Join Zipcar and get $25 in free driving!