What a Loonie Will Get You

I'm sure by now everyone's heard of the fabulous Bolt Bus and Mega Bus companies that allow you to ride the Eastern seaboard for as little as $1 each way. But (and I never thought I'd say this) this morning, I just read about something even better. Maybe it's that Canadians have to get a point up on us, but Canuck car rental company CityFlitz is offering rental cars for $1—or one loonie—per day.

Pretty awesome, eh? I think so.

So, with everything, there are a couple catches (but nothing, mind you, that would prevent me from renting one). For one, the service is only available in the Greater Toronto Area (though they're looking to expand to Vancouver), and the car must stay within those limits. The driver must also drive the car about 19 miles (30 kilometers) each day the car is rented. Oh, and each car is basically a mobile billboard, advertising brands like Yahoo, North by Northeast Film & Music Festival, and Global Ryan’s Petfoods, according to a recent report.

“The reason why our rental fee can be so low is the fact that our advertisers want to have their branded cars on the road so they can achieve maximum exposure to their target audience,” President and CEO of CityFlitz Andreas Kotal says. “We are able to offer this exceptional value of $1/day rentals to consumers as part of the agreement to maximize exposure of a client’s branding.”

The bonuses? You get to drive a MINI Cooper or a Smart Car, and each car has Wi-Fi access. And it's $1. That's one dollar Canadian. You can't even buy a bottle of maple syrup for that.

Photo: CityFlitz

Subscribe to this blog's feed

Comments

[Noah]

Yeah, a $1 rental car sounds alright (isn't that like 22 US$ anyway?), but here's why a $1 Bolt Bus is still way better:

1) You don't have to go to Canada.
2) You can use the free wireless without getting distracted and swerving into a snowbank or something.
3) Taking a car off the roads = a good thing.

In conclusion, this idea gets a thumbs down from me. Call me when you get a free penguin with your rental.

[Katie]

Noah's right: I can't think of anything more sustainable than a free-penguin-with-rental promo.

[Horse N. Buggy]

I think this is a fabulous idea and I hope it catches on in the US. There's got to be a limit on how many consecutive days you can rent this thing. Otherwise, you could virtually "own" a car for as little as $1 a day.

[Jayantha]

vety good idea

[Jayantha]

very good idea

[Kaya]

I am a student journalist doing some online research for an article I am writing about greener transportation solutions in a car-obsessed society, and I came across this post.

I must say that I am very surprised to see an article cheerleading a business such as CityFlitz on a "sustainable travel" website. Didn't anyone read the catch about having to drive the car for a minimum of 30km/day in order to be allowed use of the service?
The company claims that they are "environmentally friendly" because their cars are all fuel-efficient. But consider what they are actually doing:
- putting potentially hundreds of additional cars onto the road
-encouraging people to drive, rather than take public transit which is already available and much more sustainable than people renting a car that needs to be driven at least 30km/day to do a grocery shop 5kms away. Or carpooling, which makes a lot more sense than one individual renting a car. In Canada, the average number of passengers per car (including the driver) on the highway is 1.2. No wonder we are facing an environmental crisis. We are TOO obsessed with cars.

Basically, companies like this are putting a "green" mask on a money-hungry corporation. This is not a greener alternative.
I understand that these cars are practically owned by advertisers who are in business to raise brand awareness and, ultimately, make money. But as far as I am concerned, they have no place to call themselves an environmentally friendly service. No car that runs on gas, no matter how fuel efficient, is environmentally friendly, ever.