GM's car-sharing arm Maven will offer customers in Los Angeles and San Francisco the ability to reserve Chevy Tahoe SUVs and Chevy Volt electric cars for a month at a time, breaking from the service's traditional rent-by-the-hour model.
The new option is aimed squarely at the tech crowd in San Francisco and the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, which means it probably won't be an attractively priced option for your next California vacation. Maven doesn't list pricing upfront for the month-long rentals, so you'll have to check the app to see current rates.
Still, there are some freebies that could make Maven an attractive alternative to the aggressive up-selling of traditional traditional rental car agencies. The month-long rental (which is actually 28 days) includes insurance and $100 worth of gas, and it costs nothing to sign up—there are no membership or application fees that you'll be charged by other car-sharing app companies like ZipCar.
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- GM's Maven Car Sharing Expands to San FranciscoGM's Maven Car Sharing Expands to San Francisco
GM will also throw in a dedicated parking space, presumably the one that the car would park in when it's not on a monthly rental. That could be valuable, depending on how close it is to your office and how expensive other parking options are.
Hourly prices for the existing Maven service, meanwhile, start at $8 for cars and $14 for SUVs. Hourly customers must begin and end their rentals at the same location; ending a drive anywhere, as you might do with Car2Go, is not allowed.
In a press release, GM said that it is planning to expand monthly Maven rentals to other cities, but for now it thinks the service makes the most sense for the "entertainment and entrepreneurial communities." The Chevy Tahoe, GM notes, is well-suited to hauling production equipment and crews between filming locations, while the Volt is a good option for trips through San Francisco's crowded streets.
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