As a subsidiary of the Daimler car company, Car2Go has been offering Mercedes-Benz and Smart Fortwo cars for easy-access rental since 2008. Patrons who don’t have a car, but need to get from point A to B can rent a car for minutes, hours, or even the full day.

Car2Go cars are parked throughout service areas, so renters can pick up a car near them whenever they need it. A membership card and PIN number provide access to vehicles, while a ratings/review system helps to keep the cars looking clean and professional. Fees include insurance and a prepaid gas card. Car2Go cars are part of an ever-growing industry of car sharing.

Keep reading for pros and cons, plus Car2Go reviews from real users.

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The Good

Simple Rental Process
Insurance
No Late Fees
Ratings and Reviews
New Collaboration

Simple Rental Process

Car2Go has cars all over, so users can reserve a car 30 minutes in advance, or they can just go to an available Car2Go vehicle near them. Cars open with a special membership card. A PIN is entered to unlock the car, and then renters can access the navigation and keys. When drivers are finished, they can simply park the car in an approved designated parking spot in their area. Reservations can be made on the Car2Go app or website.

Car2Go has a great system for giving members access to vehicles quickly. While registering might take longer than with other car sharing companies, the ability to access available cars with a simple membership card is a convenient perk.

Additionally, the ability to end rental times without returning the car to its original location (users park the cars in approved areas instead) cuts down on rental time and is just convenient. The mobile app makes reserving and renting a car convenient, so renters can gain access to their ride quickly.

Insurance

Every member of Car2Go is covered by insurance during the rental period:

Liability Insurance
Collision/Comprehensive Insurance
Uninsured Motorist Insurance

Personal Injury Protection is not by Car2Go. Insurance details vary by state. The deductible is $1,000.

No Late Fees

Unlike many other ride-sharing companies, Car2Go does not have any late fees for returning from a trip later than expected.

Ratings and Reviews

The Car2Go app has a ratings and reviews system in place to make sure that all cars in the fleet are adequately neat and clean. This monitoring effort helps renters to have a positive experience.

New Collaboration

Car2Go is partnering with BMW’s DriveNow service to form Share Now. This was announced in February 2019. More details to come.

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The Bad

Rates
Mileage Limits

Rates

While Car2Go offers rates by the minute, hour, and day, it does not have the cheapest hourly or daily rates on the market.

Car2Go is a Daimler company. Only Mercedes and Smart fortwo models are available. Finally, while it is certainly not the only company to do this, Car2Go charges a one-time $5 application fee, which some other companies don't require.

Car2Go has no annual or monthly fees, but charges a $1 Driver Protection Fee for the first 90 trips of a year.

Rental rates vary but start at an hourly rate of $15+ and a daily rate of $80+, depending on the model. Car2Go fees include the following services:

Gas card
GPS
Parking (Rules vary by city)

Mileage Limits

Car2Go rental cars are allotted 150 miles per day. Exceeding this amount will result in a $.45 charge per mile. We could not find a limit to the number of days you can rent a car with Car2Go.

Each trip must start and end within a designated Home Area.

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The Bottom Line

For customers that use the sharing service somewhat often, who are in a location with many Car2Go vehicles, and for who are looking for convenience over style, Car2Go is a solid car sharing option.

Consistently using the sharing service often justifies the initial membership fee, and living in a Car2Go-heavy location makes this service worth the investment over time.

Residents and visitors can drive a Car2Go rental car in the following U.S. locations:

Austin
Chicago
Denver
New York City
Portland
Seattle
Washington, D.C.

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User Reviews

Star Rating

1.4

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23 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

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1 grade

87%

Sentiment Criteria

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CarlaM New Port Richey, FL

Best car rental experience ever!!! I rented the car all day and went to meet family I’d never met before. The car I picked was all gassed up and I didn’t have to deal with a gas station! That alone was worth the money. Had the car from 8:15AM to 5:45PM and all that for less than $95. Fabulous!!!!

2 years ago

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Teresa Austin, TX

During the summer in Austin, it is impossible to get into cars that aren’t parked in the shade. When the screen overheats- which happens ALL THE TIME-the display doesn’t work, and you can’t see the code to unlock the car. And that is the ONLY way to unlock it. Customer service is not able to do anything to unlock it remotely, so you’re left taking your chances with the next car (and the next, and the next).

2 years ago

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william tuck Seattle, WA

Car2Go has a feature that will lock the engine so the car doesn't start in case you forget to lock the door. I had no idea they do this since the app says nothing about it. The only problem with that was I was in the middle of nowhere (Olympic National Park) with no cell service. After walking 3 miles on Hwy 101, 13 miles away from the nearest town I was forced to call 911 for help (thank goodness that worked) but unfortunately three squad cars passed us heading to another situation. Finally I found a spot of cell phone service and called customer service to find out what was going on and explained my situation. The guy on the phone unlocked the engine on the car and after a 4 mile and two hour ordeal walking with my legally blind girlfriend through a rain forest the car finally started. Upon returning to the city I called and asked them if they thought their car was more valuable than my life? All I got were sorry, not sorrys and we'll forward your concerns to the main office and they will contact you. Well they haven't contacyted me back and the best thing I can say about their service and policies is that they are awful and wreckless. I am by no means a drama queen but this situation was not good and quite frankly dangerous. I shudder to think what would happen if a less compitent individual was stuck in the same predicament and was hurt or killed because Car2Go cares more about their car than their customers. Avoid at all costs

2 years ago

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KJ Chicago, IL

I joined Car2Go 7 years ago and was an instant fan, and spent years telling everyone how much I loved the company. Sadly, they have taken a turn for the worse. Two weeks ago I found out that I was locked out of my account for a strange billing problem, which shouldn't have been an issue because I had a valid credit card linked (and hadn't changed it recently either), and I didn't even have a balance on my account. I just happened to find this out because I opened the app and NEEDED to use a car...no email, no notification, just LOCKED OUT. Assuming it was just a simple fix, I called customer service and explained that I'd checked on my credit card (I even changed it to another card just in case) and asked them to please unlock my account. No luck, they went into some strange explanation about how actually, they couldn't see what was wrong with my account, and that someone above them had to review it. Fine, I thought, BUT NO... NOT FINE AT ALL! Finally, after following up with an email, and a few more calls, each time being told stranger and stranger reasons why my account was locked (needed to change my password, needed to check my drivers' license number, etc.) I was finally told that I was PERMANENTLY SUSPENDED and that the decision was final. I still have absolutely NO IDEA what I did (and needless to say, the guy from customer service had no answers either). I have to imagine that it will eventually be difficult to stay in business by locking out loyal longtime users, and then never explaining to them why. Perplexed, sad, and finding a new car-sharing service.

2 years ago

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aralyn hughes Austin, TX

They have consolidated all calls to a call center, not local answering anymore. The people are very nice but have no clue and cannot be helpful because of no training and no power to help you. There call center people are from Greece, Hong Kong, you name it and 1. do not have car to go service and have not clue how the car system works except by a book . 2. I live in Austin where the temperature is 100 F plus for most months. Thus the 3 digit code you need to get the car open can't be read. The answer they have is call us for the code. How inconvenient. Plus I am standing by the car waiting in que to get a service person, then they put me on hold so after standing in 105 temperature for 25 minutes, I need a ride to ER. They don't fix this problem, continue with the same system. I started with them 2007 or so maybe and this is the worst it has ever been. Car share like Lyft and Uber is better. Cheaper to than car to go.

2 years ago

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CR Brooklyn, NY

I had one of the worst experiences ever with this service. I reserved a car in Brooklyn to get to a business meeting that was about an hour away. Since this was my first time using Car2go and I wasn't sure exactly how it would go, I gave my self 3 hours to get to the meeting. The first car I booked wasn't in the area it was supposed to be, so I called customer service and they cancelled it so I could book another car. I was told "this never happens". I had to walk 15mins (in 90 degree heat) to get to the second car, got in, pulled out and the maintenance light was on. I was not interested in the risk of being stranded on the side of an NYC highway, so I called them again. The next closest vehicle was a drive away, so I had to drive to the area, find parking for the maintenance light vehicle and then walk another 12 mins to the new car. Five miles into my trip in the THIRD car, the gas light came on. Finding a gas station in a seemingly unsafe part of town was not the highlight of my day either. I was an hour late to my meeting. I was told by the customer service representative that they would give me a "refund". At the time of that conversation, I was just worried about getting to my meeting and trusted that would happen. I have been back and forth with them for the past 2 months trying to get the refund I was promised with no success. Just last week, I was charged (2 months later) for a toll and their service fee which was almost equal to the toll amount. I have been shocked at the poor customer service from this company and have now asked for my account to be completely deleted. I do not want them to have access to charge anything additional onto my credit card.

2 years ago

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Alvina Woods

I joined Car2go when it first started. I was able to sign in. I didn't use the service and then some years later tried to get organized to use it. However I had changed my email address and my telephone number meanwhile. I called many times and they always sent something up to a higher admin. There was no resolution, no phone call after frustrated attempts, no real help. I have a great driving record, a great credit score and they couldn't make it happen for me. I am still trying one last time but am considering another company. The service was extremely poor. The people on the phone did try but couldn't make it happen.

2 years ago

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Smolio Brooklyn, NY

Easy the worst company you will ever have to deal with. They "locked" my account because of a $17 balance they claim was rejected by my credit card company. Apparently they use a credit processing facility in Europe that looks suspicious to real banks in the US, so their charges routinely get rejected. I gave them two different credit cards, neither of which they claimed "worked." Customer service is a joke: it takes 2 weeks for them to acknowledge that a charge has been rejected, they insist I call my bank to accept charge from their crappy credit card processing unit. Tried to cancel my account, they tell me they won't without $17 balance paid, which gets rejected over and over again. Worst company to deal with for all eternity.

2 years ago

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John Tissavary

When I first joined car2go three years ago the service was fantastic. Cars were generally available in all areas of Vancouver, BC, and any time I called customer service I got results right there on the spot. Fast forward to the new car2go I guess since the sharenow merger, and it's a 100% opposite experience. My account has been 'locked' for 3 months due to having a balance, which is absurd since there was a card attached the whole time. I changed cc almost 30 days ago to one I now use primarily and it's still locked, the balance still not paid, even though I've called customer service 3 times and re-entered the payment information several times just to be sure. I'm at the end of my patience with this, and although the last customer service rep was as helpful as he could be, if this doesn't result in an unlocked account I will be leaving car2go for good. Seems like I'm not the only person having issues like this, so obviously something is terribly wrong at the company.

2 years ago

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Chicago Girl

Car2Go policies are terrible. I’ve spoken with customer service now 5 separate times and each time the service rep was trying hard but the company maintains terrible anti-customer policies like 1) the reps can only stay on a call for three minutes and then it cuts off (obviously because they are too cheap to pay people for a 4 minute call. 2) the reps have no power to do anything. They are just there to read you the anti-help policies. So stupid for Car2Go- when the overall concept of the service seems so good. I wouldn’t know. I haven’t been able to use a car yet because the technology on their app is so automated that I can’t try the service. After a customer service call you get a survey which asks you “if you had a small business would hire the person who helped you?” And it’s only a Y/N reply. So after the owners of Car2Go decide NOT to help customers - they force you to throw their employees under the bus. So sad. Wake up Car2Go. You’ve got good people. Let them do their job.

2 years ago

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Nadia New York, NY

New to car2go and had awful experience: - 1st car: Didn't even move the car as the hand break was pulled up so hard I could not get it to unlock. After calling customer service, I was told to find a different car. I was charged for the rental and never refunded. Despite multiple calls and e-mails - 2nd car: Noticed that car drove funny but didn't think anything about it. After driving 45 minutes outside the city, a light appeared on the dashboard, saying that the ABS system was inactive. After stopping at a gas station and talking to a customer representative, I was told to drive it back to the city as this issue could impact the breaking. You can imagine my stress level. Not only was I afraid to drive the car back, but it also took me 45 minutes to get the nearest car. This resulted with us missing our daughter's soccer game. I was also told that I would get a "significant credit" for all my troubles. Instead, I was charged again and never refunded, despite multiple calls and e-mails. This company's customer service is absolutely awful and not worth the trouble.

2 years ago

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wren Portland, OR

i like the idea and it is super helpful but the customer service is unbelievably terrible. I've actually never dealt with more unhelpful representatives, and that is saying a lot because I do insurance billing. car to go is actually worse then health insurance claims. I've been locked out of my account and trying to get it going for three weeks. I am too tired to go into the details of all the problems with it- they didn't even send me an email telling me my account was blocked so I ended up stranded. They don't answer their customer service emails. I'm trying to look on the bright side- its better for me to just get on my bike and save the money. I can't support a company that is this hard to deal with.

2 years ago

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Danni Chicago, IL

I rented from car2go about 3 weeks ago, at first it was all fine & dandy because the car was foreign, nice and clean. but when my time was up I was very confused as to where to park the car. at first there was a park near my home so I parked there and then the app started to give me trouble so I reached out to customer service the customer service representative that was on the phone was very uneducated and made it very unclear on what I should do, I had to repeat myself to her more than five times (which obviously stalled more and more time because the more time i waste the more money i owe) she finally told me that the closest park is almost 10 miles away from my home which was very very inconvenient for me, so I had to tag along my mother and then we drove very far to park the car and then we had to call a Lyft just to take us all the way back home. when I was done i checked to see how much I owed they told me I owed almost $100 this app Car2Go is very very expensive I wouldn't even recommend it. I will recommend Avis or Enterprise any day over Car2Go. Fast forward to today I happen to check my car 2 go account and they informed me that I owe an outstanding balance so I need to reach out to customer service. I called customer service today and the lady told me that I owed an outstanding balance of $89 I asked her how do I owe an outstanding balance when the money was already there in my account the day that I parked the car at its home, she informed me that they did not know I had money in my account, she asked me to verify the last four digits of my credit card number I told her "NO" and then I hung up the phone and canceled out my car2go account I would not ever recommend this app to anyone else. They suck!

2 years ago

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Dasha Tsybulnik Austin, TX

This is the most expensive option for getting around town. You're advertising for them driving too, and they treat their customers terribly. Was with a friend driving. Had an issue with the car so we pulled over. Closed out the rental. Called customer service about the issue to which they said they'd escalate it to member services and then LOCKED THE ACCOUNT. For no reason they locked us out of the car and we couldn't rerent. We were also in the middle of nowhere, off the highway and it was 101 degrees. They never told us just calling to ask questions would lock the account. We called back and after 7 min on hold we're told nothing they can do, account is automatically locked when there's a claim on an account.. Also they knew it was hot and we were stranded from the first call and were never told that the account would get locked and that we could rerent. Crazy experience. I was shocked. Will never rent ever again

3 years ago

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Sheana Bull

I have been renting from Car to go for about a year. The past three times I have rented the care has been low on fuel, requiring me to go to a gas station and pay out of pocket for gas although that is supposed to be included in the fees. Yesterday, I rented a car--again low on gas. It ran out of gas on the way to the station. The car couldn't be pushed to the side of the road, so I was forced to put on hazards and sit on a busy road while I tried to contact the Car 2 Go staff. They offered conflicting and unhelpful suggestions--such as put it in reverse and try to back up--recall I'm on a very busy street with a lot of traffic. It was unsafe to get out of the car, let alone try to reverse it into busy traffic. A police officer arrived and called for a tow truck. The customer service rep couldn't tell me what I was to do--end the rental, stay with the car, or leave the car. I left the car. I later asked for a waiver of the rental fee, Car 2 Go told me "You will be responsible for the rental invoice as the rental was successfully used before the vehicle ran out of fuel due to negligence." This is blatantly ridiculous. Rent me a car without enough gas, then charge me for it when I run out of gas, AND call me negligent? I am canceling my car 2 go account and will strongly denounce them to anyone who is seeking a car sharing company.

4 years ago

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Ryan Knowles Denver, CO

Car2Go was super helpful for my friends and I freshman year of college when we did not have a car to get to the store. They are super easy to rent, and you do not even have to plan very far ahead! You just have to find a car near you, then you are in business.

1 year ago

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Aryn Portland, OR

I've been going round and round for a month now with customer service over a $6.99 charge that they can't seem to settle. After updating my payment profile several times over using different cards they still can't seem to bill me correctly and I have been locked out of their service for the entire month, and until they charge me correctly. Customer services has no authority to provide any assistance whatsoever, it's been an unbelievably awful experience. I'm just hoping that when all is said and done I'm not billed any additional fees for a late payment that they can't take care of.

2 years ago

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It's a no from me.

Complete Rubbish. I have been trying to cancel my Car2Go membership for months - and keep getting the run around. They have been charging my credit card unnecessarily and when I brought this to their attention they said I had to "prove it." I provided the documents, received a limp apology and they said they would refund the erroneous charges... take a wild guess... that has yet to happen. Absolutely do not recommend. Avoid at all costs. Their customer service is horrendous.

2 years ago

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Mary Jane Maxwell Washington, DC

Car2Go in DC deliberately provides vague and disingenuous rules and policies around parking tickets because ALL parking spots in DC are either: 1) metered; 2) zoned for residential parking with a 2 hr limit; 3) restricted time during rush hours. If DC parking cops feel like ticketing a Car2Go, which they regularly do, the last driver pays for the ticket. Car2Go has yet to work out a deal with DC city parking enforcement, and customers are regularly burned as a result. Not worth the risk.

2 years ago

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Sabrina donohue Portland, OR

Have used car2go a few times and didn’t have any major complaints, nice cars, typically convenient and cheap. However, I got locked out of my account for insufficient funds, but when I called to get it cleared up, they said it would take 3-5 days for the process to go through. 2 weeks later I have called and emailed and nobody has fixed the problem or even tried. Awful customer service and they obviously don’t care about keeping customers or making money

2 years ago

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Amy Portland, OR

We constantly get these cars parked on our street or in front of our house and sometime for weeks on end. This is ridiculous! So frustrated with this company and their cars staying in one place for weeks and the company doesn't even car about what it does to anyone except themselves! I wish they would ensure the cars would be moved in a timely basis.

4 years ago

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Daniela Portland, OR

I had reach now for almost a year. No complains excellent customer service. Then they merged with car2go and I need to get a membership with them... What I nightmare. The worse customer service. I asked to talk to a supervisor and the guy just hung up on me. I have never been do unhappy

2 years ago

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Alberto

really bad experience, they offered me free minutes to try, then they made me pay with a trick! Thieves

4 years ago

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