Join the City Car Club - the alternative to owning your own car

Getting into it was easy. I didn’t have to meet anyone to pick up the keys. I simply swiped my car club membership card across a reader in the windscreen, and the doors opened with a gentle ‘clunk’.

Inside, I adjusted the driver’s seat, keyed my personal pin number into the onboard computer kept in the glove box, and it released the keys into my hand. The car was mine for the day.

There were a few minor irritations. The previous user had left a used tissue in one of the cup-holder compartments – although the car was otherwise far cleaner and tidier than my own. More annoyingly, I couldn’t at first work out how to re-tune the radio. It was stuck on Galaxy, and when I did manage to change channels, it was only to Radio York. Help!

Worst of all, once I had finished my short drive into town, I couldn’t work out how to lock the car. I tried waving my membership card across the windscreen reader, but the doors refused to lock.

I dialled the City Car Club membership helpline and explained the problem.

“Have you tried using the keys?” asked the pleasant woman at the end of the line.

Um, no, I admitted, red-faced. I thought you had to use your card.

Only when you have finished your session, she explained patiently. Until you have logged out of the computer, you use the keys.

Welcome to the great alternative to owning your own car.

Wave goodbye to the hassles of finding a parking space in York – there is a designated parking space for every City Car Club car in the city. Forget the cost and worry of maintaining your own car – the price of petrol, the insurance, the car tax, that new gearbox that always seems to be needed just when you can least afford it.

City Car Club membership is only £50 a year, and for that you can use one of the cars as often or as little as you like – for an hour or a day at a time, to suit you.

The cost is reasonable, at least compared to the cost of owning a car you don’t use very much. It is £4.95 an hour or £49.50 for 24 hours to book smaller cars, £5.95 an hour or £59.50 for 24 hours for larger ones. That even includes 50 miles worth of free petrol.

Okay, so the Citroen C1 I’m driving isn’t the sexiest car in the world. Its little petrol engine is a bit noisy. But the car has four doors, as well as a boot big enough to fit your shopping in.

And it is surprisingly nippy and manoeuvrable on a quick jaunt out to Clifton Moor. Fun, even.

Across the country, City Car Club, a commercial company which often operatures in partnership with local councils, runs hundreds of cars in several cities. In York, there are just 11 at the moment, dotted in designated parking spaces around the city centre. But as club membership in the city increases, says the company’s commercial manager Keith Kelly, the car club will negotiate with the city council to get more designated spaces, to take more cars.

“We have 11 cars in York and 14 spaces, so we have a bit of capacity to grow,” he says. “As soon as those spaces are all filled, we will work with the city council to find more locations.”

The council, eager to reduce the numbers of cars in York, is keen to promote the club. City Car Club advertising materials carry the logo “in partnership with City of York Council.” And council boss Andrew Waller is a big fan.

“It is good for people who only need to use a car once or twice a week, especially for people living in the city centre where there is a shortage of spaces on the street,” he says.

“If we can reduce the need for everyone to own a car, that not only benefits the environment, but can save people money. You get all the benefits of being able to borrow a car when you need one, without the costs of running it.”

That is the official, council line. But how reliable is the club for people who use it regularly?

Denise Stuart, boss of the inward investment organisation york-england.com, admits that until recently she was one of those die-hard motorists who would never have dreamed of giving up her car.

Every morning, she drove to work in York from her home in Scarborough, then every evening drove back again.

She was clocking up 500 miles a week, and spending two hours a day driving, so that when she did get to York she’d have a car to use as and when she needed.

Then her car broke down and had to go into the garage for a week.

She bought a week’s rail ticket, came to York on the train – and signed up to WhizzGo, as the car club was then known.

“And now I have tried it, I think it is fantastic,” she says.

She has saved a fortune in petrol, has a more relaxing journey to work: and still knows she can have a car whenever she needs one in York.

“It really works. If I need a car, I can get one from Nunnery Lane, close to the station. It’s fantastic,” she says.

Okay, so the choice of cars is limited: in York, really only a small Citroen C3 or an even smaller Citroen C1. “But you don’t need a big car around York,” Denise points out James Wilson, a 33-year-old product manager with Great Rail Journeys Ltd, a York-based company which arranges escorted rail holidays, is an equally enthusiastic car club member.

James, who lives in The Groves with his wife and two-year-old son, Alfie, books a car for an hour a day most days so he can drive Alfie to his childminder on the other side of York.

There is a family car, James says – but his wife needs it to get to work in Hull.

Until he joined the car club, he had little option but to book a taxi to take Alfie to the childminder – which could cost £20 a time. “So the car club was the perfect solution.”

He uses a car parked in Park Grove, which is just a short walk from his house. And he has found it to be very reliable.

You can book up to a year in advance, he says: and so far, the car has always been there, waiting for him. “It has never not been there.”

And is it clean when he picks it up? “It is how you would expect a hire car to be. It isn’t cleaned after every use, but it is cleaned regularly, and it is always in a respectable condition. The club is just brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. The perfect solution for us.”

City Car Club Q&A

How do you become a member?

Visit citycarclub.co.uk or call 0845 330 1234. The club will arrange for a DVLA check to make sure your driver’s licence is in order, and you’ll be asked to pay a year’s £50 membership fee in advance. It arranges insurance for you.

How do you book a car?

Simply go on to the car club website, type in your postcode, and it will bring up a map showing you the nearest cars to where you are. Then book online. There are 11 cars in York at the moment, scattered around the city centre in locations such as St Leonard’s car park, Union Terrace car park, Nunnery Lane car park, Park Grove, Fulford Road and York University.

How do you collect a car?

Along with your membership pack, you will be sent a swipe card and a PIN number. Turn up to collect the car, swipe your card across a reader on the windscreen, and the doors unlock. Key in your PIN number into the car’s onboard computer and it will release the keys to you. Then drive off. When you have finished with the car, return it to the same parking space where you collected, log out, replace the key in the glove box, and use your swipe card to lock the door.

How much does it cost?

That £50 annual membership fee, then £4.95 an hour for smaller cars (£49.50 for 24 hours) or £5.95 for larger cars (£59.50). In any 24-hour period, 50 miles of free fuel are included in the cost.

Drive further than that, and you pay 24p a mile.

What happens if you need to fill up with petrol?

There is a fuel card in the car. Simply fill up and use this card to pay.

Do you have a choice of car?

Not much. York at the moment has only Citroens, mainly C1s and C3s, a legacy of the days when the Car Club was run by WhizzGo. Other cities elsewhere do have other models, including Fords and Vauxhalls, some of them estates. In future, the range of cars available in York will increase, says City Car Club commercial manager Keith Kelly.

What happens if there isn’t a car available when you need it?

Members report being able to access the car they want 98 per cent of the time, the car club says. “And if their precise choice isn’t available at the time they need it, there’s usually a suitable alternative nearby.”

What if you are late returning a car?

You can extend your booking using the on-board computer, or by calling the club’s 24-hour helpline. “We’ll do everything we can to accommodate you,” the club says. “If someone else has booked the car immediately after you we will try to move them to another car. We will not pass on any of our costs if you let us know in advance that you are running late… However, if you’re late and do not let us know you’ll be charged a £20 late fee and every hour or part of an hour over your original booking time the hourly rate will be increased by 1.5.”