Car-Sharing: First-World Problems

Dan Smith built a fence around the Mercedes 250 parked on the apartment property he manages in the congested Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. The vehicle bears the logo of the car-sharing company car2go. Smith says the car is parked illegally.

Smart cars until recently were scattered about our neighborhood. The two-person vehicles sporting distinctive teal-blue and white colors and “car2go” logos were parked on the streets. The diminutive Smart cars have largely disappeared, replaced by car2go Mercedes Benzes. The car-sharing car2go, begun in 2008, is owned by Daimler AG, the company that manufactures Smart and Mercedes Benz. They decided their customers needed a more prestigious ride.

Zipcar, founded in 2000, had most of the car-sharing business until Daimler started up car2go in 2008. (Avis-Budget purchased Zipcar in 2013.) Zipcars, typically Hondas and other plain-vanilla marques, are usually parked in off-street lots in designated spaces.

Not wanting to miss out, BMW Group began its car-sharing service ReachNow, featuring, you guessed it, BMWs and MINI Coopers. They have just entered into a joint venture with car2go, cleverly named Share Now.

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, Dan Smith claims Share Now – see previous paragraph – did not respond when he called them. He says the towing company told him to call the police and the police told him to call a towing company. So Smith put metal posts around the car and strung wire around the posts. He wants Share Now to pay $300 for fence supplies, $65 a day in impound fees and a “$500 renter harassment fee.”

The car-sharing company’s response? “Share Now will not tolerate anyone attempting to extort our business by essentially holding our property for ransom. We will not hesitate to take legal action, and we expect the police department to uphold their obligation to help property owners recover their stolen property.”

And so it goes.

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