Times Car Share

[TJKansai]

I did a one-day test drive of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV a couple years ago, and it convinced me to wait on getting one. I was disappointed the EV mode ran out of power (and switched to gasoline mode) after just a couple hours of puttering around locally.

[mighty58]

I assume some of the posters here are referring to Times Rental vehicles, as opposed to Times Car Share, when referring to the Vellfire or the Outlander PHEV? As far as I know, those models aren't available for use with Times Car Share. Times Car Share has a limited number of mid-large size vehicles, but the fleet is primarily comprised of smaller economy-segment cars.

[Tkydon]

I also discovered

Guts Rentacar and NicoNico Rentacar

Both are dirt cheap.

[Viralriver]

Thought I would add a comment to add some more information, and assure people that I am still using their service and think it's amazing, with the caveat that many of the discounts and much of the value is only gained from using it relatively regularly. If you are a once every 6 month usage person, I can't imagine it works out favourably, but there are some share programs which don't charge the monthly price, with a downside of slightly higher rental prices - Orix being one of them.

The above is a screenshot of my TCP (Times Carshare Points, I think). You can earn these points through various things such as filling up the tank (free), washing the car, filling out a 1 question survey on how clean the car is, leaving the car clean (if the next person fills out the survey), and literally just driving. Long journeys get lots of points (5 CP per 100km driven) so if I really recommend Times for road trips. More details are here: https://share.timescar.jp/about/tcp_program.html but I'll summarise the benefits:

There are 4 stages. You start on stage 1, and as you can see from the screenshot above I am stage 4.

Stage 2 benefits

1. No monthly fee to use the service
2. Can book cars from 3 weeks in advance (standard is 2 weeks) - makes it easier to book ahead for busy weekends, seasons etc

Stage 3 benefits

1. Middle cars can be used at the same price as basic cars
2. Premium cars can be used at the same price as middle cars

Stage 4 beenfits

1. All cars now can be used at the price of basic cars
2. 1,000 JPY off all rentals above 6 hours (nice, since you have to pay distance for these journeys)
3. 1 hour e-share ticket every month

The downside is that every point expires a year after you get it, so you can't just drive up to Hokkaido and back to hit stage 4 for life (unfortunately).

Usage tips

• You can actually enter the car 15 minutes before the time you book it - essentially a saving of 220 yen per journey. Especially if you're closing in on 6 hours but don't want to pay the distance fee, this can be useful.
• Once you 'unlock' basic pricing for middle and premium cars, these can make bookings on popular/busy days easier since less people will book them.
• If booking a really popular place/car (Okinawa, snow-tire cars) place a booking at midnight on the day it becomes available. You will only be able to book until 23:45. The next day, at midnight, adjust the booking to 23:45 of the following day. Tedious, but I've had to do this, and it gave me a car in Okinawa for ~10 days for approx. 60k during Golden week when rental companies wanted to charge me double.
• If you can find a Toyota CH-R, these have adaptive cruise control which is nice for long highway journeys.
• If booking a car to use on the day, you can see how much gas is available on the booking screen - find a triangle (low gas) to save 440 yen by filling it up.
• Always wash the car, an extra 440 yen saving. They don't seem to have a max spend so I've spent 10k+ on a wash once because I wanted to go through the machine and have a VIP service lol.
• Just before exiting the car, go online and adjust your end time to save money. I think originally they used to charge you just your usage, but I think this has changed now (so if you adjust it before returning the car, you'll spend less).

If you have other tips I'd be willing to hear them

[Tony]

[*]Just before exiting the car, go online and adjust your end time to save money. I think originally they used to charge you just your usage, but I think this has changed now (so if you adjust it before returning the car, you'll spend less).[/list]

I'm pretty sure that's not necessary. I often book the car for 2 hours, use it for an hour or just over and only pay for the time I used. I just checked my reservation email and return email from my trip last week to confirm.

[Viralriver]

Interesting, I definitely thought I was being charged extra recently - but might be wrong. I know there are some bugs/features for some types of bookings (like the ones where you can select your car from a garage) and these might be different. Next time I rent I'll check.