Drive my car, please

This story is about the economy, the environment, and the philosophy of sharing. But to get there, we’re going to begin at the movies.

There’s a scene in the 1986 movie “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off” where Ferris convinces his friend Cameron to let him borrow his father’s car. Maybe you remember it.

CAMERON: The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California. Less than 100 were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion...

FERRIS: It is his fault he didn’t lock the garage.

In the movie, Cameron says his dad never even drives the car – and Ferris considers that enough of a reason to borrow it for the day.

FERRIS: Look, this is real simple: whatever miles we put on … we’ll take off.

CAMERON: How?

FERRIS: We’ll drive home backwards.

Okay. Stop. Think about how much you drive your car. You might drive to work – then you just park your car all day while you’re inside. Or you leave town for a few days – then don’t use your car for the next three weeks. Meanwhile, plenty of other people don’t have cars, but sometimes need them.

FERRIS: Cameron, I’m sorry, but we can’t pick up Sloan in your car. Mr. Rooney would never believe Mr. Peterson drives that piece of shit.

CAMERON: It’s not a piece of shit.

FERRIS: It is a piece of shit. Look, I don’t even have a piece of shit, I have to envy yours.

Now you don’t have to envy people who have cars. Three new companies in the Bay Area are trying to match unused cars with people who can use them – it’s called carsharing. So you, with that car in the garage, can make a few extra bucks. And you, who need a car ... well, you might get to take your neighbor’s Ferrari out for a spin.

FERRIS: The question isn’t what are we going to do, the question is, what aren’t we going to do? If you had access to a car like this, would you take it back right away? ... Neither would I.

KALW’s Casey Miner went to find out why people share their cars.

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ALI FENN: My car is a fun car, it’s a big, jacked-up Jeep, oversized tires...

WILL ALDRICH: Here we are at my car, it’s a 2005 black Subaru Outback.

DEIRDRE ARAUJO: We are now approaching my 2005 Ford Focus wagon...

ALDRICH: It also has a roof rack so you can accommodate four bikes, two snowboards, up to eight pairs of skis.

ARAUJO: Privately, we call it the “frumpmobile” at work.

FENN: It’s fun – you can take the top off, it’s a fun car. Great sound system.

ALDRICH: It’s also something you could drive to a meeting and not feel like you’re slumming it too badly.

The three people you’re hearing from have a few things in common. They all live in San Francisco. They all own cars. And they’d all be happy to let you rent those cars – even though they’ve probably never met you.

FENN: I had my first rental within a week. It was interesting, slightly awkward – the person was like, “How does this work?” I said, “I guess I just give you my keys and you drive away.” It was very easy.

Ali Fenn’s got the jacked-up Jeep. She drives it maybe once a month; the rest of the time, it just sits in her garage. A few months ago, she found out about a new company called Getaround located just down the street from her. She could register her Jeep on Getaround’s website, set a calendar saying when it was available, and charge people whatever she wanted to rent it.

FENN: I charge $15 an hour or $50 per day.

Renters pay for gas, and the company provides comprehensive insurance, so the car’s totally covered.

FENN: Once it was gone overnight, I walked down through the garage and the car wasn’t there. I thought, “I have no idea where my car is at this moment.”

JESSICA SCORPIO: It takes a certain kind of open-minded person to want to rent their car out to a stranger.

Jessica Scorpio is one of the founders of Getaround. She says successful car-sharing is all about striking a balance: if you’re going to share something as valuable as a car, you need to feel like you’re in control.

SCORPIO: It’s important for us to maintain the sanctity of car ownership for members to help them start. They can evolve their own model as they go along.

Ali Fenn says that’s what helped her make the leap.

FENN: In the past I’ve had cars I wouldn’t let anybody touch, including the one I have now. But it got to the point where I thought, “What could possibly happen?” You have to believe people are in it for the right reasons.

A few thousand people are signed up for the Getaround service, mostly in the Bay area, but also in a few other cities. A similar company, RelayRides, also has a few thousand people on board; a third, called Spride, is doing a pilot project with City CarShare. The cars run the gamut from late ‘90s sedans to a brand-new Tesla Roadster.

SHELBY CLARK:  We’ve got a number of Priuses, a bunch of SUVs, a truck, a big cargo van.

Shelby Clark is the founder of RelayRides.

CLARK: Yesterday someone was considering enrolling a converted parking meter – you know, those three-wheel parking meter things?

The interceptors.

CLARK: I think that would be great. You could park in motorcycle parking.

People use the service to make money – that Tesla will run you $50 an hour. But Clark says the main point is for people to be able to access the kind of car they need, when they need it.

CLARK: People are becoming more and more comfortable with sharing. But at the same time, people don’t really want to compromise on their lifestyle. And I think sharing goods is a really great way to do that.

So will car-sharing work for those of us who don’t have fancy rides? I decided to find out by signing up my own car: a 1998 Honda Civic. Dark green and awesome. I picked Getaround because they have cars and renters in the East Bay, where I live.

Jessica Scorpio met me at Getaround’s offices in San Francisco to take a look.

SCORPIO: I’d say this is probably on the old, beatup end of the spectrum, to put it kind of bluntly I guess.

Okay, but still – my car runs just fine. I’m sure I can convince someone to rent it. I sit down with Scorpio to create my car’s online profile.

SCORPIO: So, here’s where you can check off the features…

Features are not something my car has a lot of, but I do have air conditioning … let’s see … I do have … nope, I think that might be the only feature that my car has. To give you all a sense, the available are features convertible, leather interior, GPS, sun roof, moon roof – I have none of those things. DVD system, roof rack … sadly, none of those things. Audio is also something I have none of, my car radio has been stolen so many times I have stopped replacing it, but … you can gasoline in my car. That is what you’re going to get with my car. Given that, I think I should set my hourly rate to the minimum, which is $3. So it’s a bargain, folks.

Scorpio told me that character matters – people want to feel like they’re having an exchange with a person, not just an object, so it’s good to list a car’s special selling points. But in the end, the point is that our cars don’t define who we are. They’re just tools, like anything else.

SCORPIO: A lot of people just trying to get from point A to point B, so anyone who just needs a car will be happy to get wheels, I would say.

So, a few days went by, and no one was biting. Even at $3 an hour, I started to worry that my car just wasn’t good enough. But then, finally, I got a request.

CHRIS BROOKS: My name is Chris Brooks, I’m from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Brooks told me he came to California more or less on a whim. The mood just struck him one day...

BROOKS: ...and here I am.

MINER: Well have a good time this week.

BROOKS: Yeah, thanks for letting me use your car.

And that was that: I handed him the keys, and away he drove. Over the next few days I often found myself wondering where my car might be, how it was doing, if I’d ever see it again.

A few days later, I got a call.

BROOKS (voicemail): Hi Casey, it’s Chris. Just wanted to let you know your car is back in one piece, all safe and sound. I didn’t park it in the same place – there was mud, so I parked it a little further down. Anyway, thanks for letting me drive it, and you have a great weekend.

Brooks dropped off the car in pristine condition: he filled up the gas, even made me a new set of keys. It was nice to have my car back, but in the end, I’m just as well off without it. If I really need to drive somewhere, I can always rent someone else’s car.

In San Francisco, I’m Casey Miner for Crosscurrents.

Would you share your car? Let us know on our Facebook page.

This story originally aired on March 31, 2011.