“Meet the newest car2go: a 4-door Mercedes-Benz. Now available in D.C.”

by Prince Of Petworth January 30, 2017 at 9:40 am 28 Comments

car 2 gos
Mercedes-Benz GLA

“Sporty and spacious – This small SUV has room for 5 people, plus added cargo capacity with a handy hatchback- and all car2go GLAs have 4MATIC all-wheel drive.”

From Car2Go:

cla_502x20
Mercedes-Benz CLA

“Stylish and fun – There’s room for 4 in this 4-door sedan. Cruise around town in a smooth, comfortable ride – even everyday errands seem a little more exciting.”

“Introducing the car2go Mercedes-Benz

Our best upgrade yet: Brand-new 2017 Mercedes-Benz CLA and GLA four-door vehicles are now available as part of our fleet! car2go members in Toronto, Vancouver, Austin, Portland, Seattle and the Washington, D.C. area can drive a Mercedes-Benz car2go. And don’t worry – we’ll be adding more Mercedes-Benz car2gos in more car2go cities throughout 2017.”

It’s official! Meet the newest car2go: a 4-door Mercedes-Benz. Now available in D.C. pic.twitter.com/t6MXnQ45VK

— car2go D.C. (@car2goDC) January 30, 2017

Helluva upgrade…

smart
smart fortwo

“Zippy and easy to park – The smart fortwo can fit in almost any parking spot and can maneuver around even the craziest downtown rush hour traffic jams.”

anon

Weird. There’s no reason the car2go model couldn’t work with full-size cars, but I would expect Chevy Cruzes or some other practical (and given the circumstances, American) car.
- Prince Of Petworth
  
  From a press release: “car2go was initially piloted in Ulm, Germany in 2008 by Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, smart and car2go. Since then, car2go has evolved from an innovative mobility experiment to become the largest one-way carsharing company on Earth, with over 2.2 million members sharing cars on three continents. car2go’s free-floating carsharing service does not use fixed rental stations or require reservations. Instead, vehicles are spread throughout a city. car2go members simply use the car2go app on their smartphone to locate, unlock, drive, and park their car2go in any legal parking space within a city’s Home Area.”
- Sam
  
  I’m pretty sure car2go started in Germany. So adding a German car makes sense. Not sure what circumstances you are referring to.
- Ben
  
  Also, Smart Car is a division of Daimler AG – who own Mercedes.
  - Anon
    
    Car2go was initially a really clever way of using all the Smarts that nobody wanted to buy. (Following the initial surge in popularity, Daimler made a gaggillion of them but by the time they were rolling off the press, people soured on them for a variety of reason (they’re pretty horrible cars).
- Ted
  
  Car2go originally started as a way for Mercedes/DiamlerAG (the maker of Smart) to sell off excess Smart Cars during the economic crisis of 2007-08. It was also a move for Mercedes to meet their CAFE MPG standards. Mercedes was counting on the high MPG Smart Cars to help meet the CAFE standards so they could sell more high end/low MPG vehicles in the US market. Car2go was created as a separate company to take up the slack in low demand and help the CAFE standards. It was a happy accident that adequate mobile technology and the “sharing” economy came into the mainstream around the same time, and Car2go became a success beyond its original mission. Management put more focus on customer service (remember how back it was early on), expanding availability and improving the experiences. So what was originally a sales and regulatory trick, turned into a pretty good company.
  
  Unfortunately, I think Car2go has lost some of it focus. The constant increases to pricing and slow progress in innovation has decreased the overall functionality of personal urban transportation. UberPool and Lyft are almost always better value for short trips and avoid the hassle/risk of driving and parking. Adding upscale vehicles is a useful addition to the service, but I think this moves them toward being more competitive with traditional car rental services like Hertz and Enterprise, not innovative transportation services like Uber/Lyft.
eggs

I checked the map when I got this email and it appears that there are 3 total in the DC area – I’m guessing I will literally never see one haha. Pretty cool update to the system though!
- CapitalDame
  
  I saw the mercedes driving at Mass and 6th on Friday and was wondering what it was!
Hill Denizen

Yeaaaaah, I wouldn’t trust myself with these cars.
MtP

This is pretty cool, though I was more than happy with the upgrade they did to the new model SmartCars – such a smoother ride.
- kwame
  
  Agreed. Also the bluetooth capability for audio is awesome.
Ross

The new Smart ForTwo model is a huge upgrade to the previous generation, which was a pretty awful car.
- INWDC
  
  Agreed – I drove one of the new Smart models recently and it was a much better experience than driving the old ones. The old Smarts have no acceleration and wheels the size of cheerios.
KenyonDweller

We have three people in our family, and so this will allow me to use car2go much more often.
- Duponter
  
  Hell, even if one person, if you buy anything substantial at the grocery store, things could get crowded in the old Smart Cars. I used to be terrified of getting t-boned by a Metro Bus in one. Also, I’m pretty sure I never got in one that didn’t have the hazard light for the tires being on.
  - Hill Denizen
    
    Driving on the freeway in those things was absolutely terrifying.
anon

Is it the same rate per minutes as the SmartCars? It doesn’t say on their webpage, which makes me think it costs more, but has anyone figured that out?
- Ben
  
  It’s $19 an hour (vs $15 for the Smart Car) and $79 per day (vs $59 for the Smart Car)
  - amr_dc
    
    That’s a much better daily rate than you get for a similar Zipcar.
- KenyonDweller
  
  It’s 45 cents per minute, compared to 41 cents for the Smart Car. That’s about 10% more, which seems reasonable because a Mercedes is a lot more than 10% better than a Smart Car.
jaybird

I have a car2go account but have honestly never used it. It always seems zipcar works for getting around for an hour for cheap. When are people finding this to be the better option? I guess its the one way option….Never mind, I answered my own question.
- Anon
  
  I also like it because zipcar lost the spots that used to be close to my house. Now using a zipcar means tacking time onto each of the rental to get to it, when there’s usually a car2go that’s closer. I will also use it going downtown because it is easier to park. When I used to live in an area where a zipcar was less than 5-10 minutes away, I used it more. Now that it’s a 20+ min walk away, a car2go is almost always much closer.
- skaballet
  
  Yes, the one way option. It may depend on how often you drive, but zipcar always seemed more expensive especially since you have to pay monthly fee.
Anon

Oh good – even bigger illegally parked cars all over the city
- Anon
  
  With the GPS on the cars, they don’t usually let you end your ride if parked illegally.
- saf
  
  Sorry, but they are legally parked most of the time. You just don’t LIKE where they park.
HC

So is this one of those vague “insurance included” deals where you’re actually on the hook for a pretty high deductible when you wreck the car?
Anonymous

…when you gotta roll like a baller from Target or Trader Joes?

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