RetireJapan

For those of you who like driving, but don't want the added expenses of owning your own car (car cost, parking, insurance, yearly checks, etc), I think Times Car Share (and probably the others) are an incredibly good deal. Sure, this is an extra expense on top of your normal lifestyle, but if having a car or driving in general is important to you, you can see it as a deal in respect to owning a car outright.

I've been a member for about 1.5 years now and use it around 4 times a month, for various types of journeys. It's now my go-to for trips outside of Tokyo as it has always seemed to be cheaper for me than using a standard rental company.

Listing some of the perks:
1. You can pick it up and drop it off at any time of the day, no need to do it within business hours.
2. You can book it 1 minute before you want to use it, and pick it up immediately.
3. No need to speak to any staff member.
4. Not only close to stations/airports, can be found in the most residential areas ever, you probably have some close by.
5. Can be used for short trips (starting at 15 mins each).
6. Great deals for longer trips (12 hours, 24 hours etc).
7. A 'safe driving' point system that gives you access to 'level-ups' which have benefits such as paying the same price for all grades of cars, and having no monthly fee.
8. A normal point system where you gain points as you use, and these can be exchanged for money off coupons, parking discounts etc. I exchange this for a 6 hour discount (~4500 JPY off) ticket every few months.
8. Usually easier to book than standard rentals. I booked a relatively last minute trip to Okinawa a while back, during a peak period - all rental places were full apart from one that quoted 120k JPY for 11 days or so. Times ended up being 50k, and a much nicer car.
9. Flat insurance fee of 330 JPY per trip, not per day. Optional.

Other things to note:
1. You don't pay for gas. If you buy a night pack, or drive for 6 hours or more, you pay a distance fee of 16 JPY/km. For full on driving trips on highways, this doesn't always work out to be the best solution.
2. You get a 440 JPY discount if you wash the car (at their expense), and again if you fill up the gas (at their expense). I use these to get 880 JPY off on most of my trips.

Here's a screenshot of how much this has costed me over the past year or so. Sure - it's quite expensive, and you might say that having my own car would be cheaper, but this includes trips that start on the other side of the country, where my only choice would be to rent rather than use my own car. Similarly, at my level I now have access to 'Premium' cars for the standard price, so am regularly driving cars that would cost 6m JPY+. This is incredibly useful for large group trips where I drive a Serena (8 seater) - I know if I had my own car it wouldn't be this big!
I am thinking of switching to Careco, or having an account with them too, as I would love to be able to drive some of their Jaguars etc. But the pure abundance of Times sites and the fact that my membership is free has made this a difficult decision for now.

Keen to hear everyone else's thoughts too!

Fully agree with you. I used Times for about two years. I enjoy driving and the convenience of owning a car, but after I started keeping track of my expenses, I realized I was paying 600,000yen/year on an annualized basis (50,000yen/month) to own and operate a car. That figure included everything (gas, parking, shaken, taxes, insurance, tolls, etc, all annualized). Given that I used the car about 6-8 times a month, that worked out to over 8,000yen per use! That felt crazy expensive, so I decided to give Times a try. Using them, I rarely got over 20,000yen/month, didn't have to hold back or think twice about using a car, and also got the advantage of being able to try lots of different cars (albeit economy class).

There were a few downsides, namely, my daughter was small at the time and I had to get the car seat set up each time, either I would get the car and drive home, or carry the heavy thing to the car. The other inconvenience was that Times was super popular where I lived, so despite about 15-20 lots in the vicinity, I'd often have to walk up to 15min to get an available car. Those inconveniences, while mendokusai, weren't enough to convince me to go back to owning though.

I finally gave it up when I bought a house that came with a free parking spot. With the parking cost gone, I now pay just a small premium over what I would with Times, and the added convenience (now with two kids, carrying car seats around would not be very feasible) makes it worthwhile. Also, I'm pretty frugal with buying, I never pay over 500,000yen for the car itself.

But yeah, I wholeheartedly agree that Times is a good deal for the casual driver who likes to use cars occasionally.

I used them as I needed a car so infrequently and it was far cheaper than the full day rental/etc from Times/Hertz/etc.

It worked fine until I had kids & the need to bring a baby chair AND a baby to the car at the same time. Didn't work any more.

I'm the opposite probably. We've always had a couple of cars (now with two households we have four!) but I imagine we will downsize to one between my wife and I within a few years and probably explore Times. The nearest lot is slightly further away than I would like it to be (2km) but certainly not a deal breaker.

mighty58 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:37 am I realized I was paying 600,000yen/year on an annualized basis (50,000yen/month) to own and operate a car. That figure included everything (gas, parking, shaken, taxes, insurance, tolls, etc, all annualized). Given that I used the car about 6-8 times a month, that worked out to over 8,000yen per use!

This is a really great way to think about it. When you have to rent a car, it feels like an added expense to your trip. Especially if the trip is something like going to the supermarket. However, that expense is not removed by owning the car, and as your calculations show, ownership can even be more expensive. If anything, the rental costs make the costs of car usage clearer.

I hated Times Car Share for a couple of years, because you *must* have a credit card in order to register. It took me that long to get a card, and even then it was via a connection. I really can't understand why they cannot accept things like direct debits. It's the same for the ETC card (possible without a Credit Card but not worth the hassle). I know it's a risk management strategy on their part, but I really wish CC-only companies would provide alternative payment methods for those without credit cards. I used to use a similar service in the UK, no credit card required.

Viralriver wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 7:59 am ...

Very interesting numbers - thanks for sharing!

We regularly use it and it is a great deal and super convenient for non-regular drivers. There are a few downsides:

1) No guarantee there will be a car close by when you need especially at popular times. But if you are able to book reasonably in advance I have never had an issue.
2) up to 6 hours gets you free mileage but beyond that you pay 15 yen per kilometer. For long journeys using a regular rental is usually cheaper.
3) the vast majority of cars are smaller hatchbacks and the larger cars are quite a bit harder to find and more expensive so if you need to carry a lot of people or stuff it may not be useful.
4) they maintain the cars well but on a few occasions I have found the car left in not so great condition by the previous driver or almost on empty.
5) there is a 1000 yen monthly charge so if you don't use it fairly regularly it is not worth it.

Sounds like a good system for people who would otherwise have to pay for parking and don't have small children.

The last time I rented a car was in summer Hokkaido, just 3,000/day thanks to a lack of customers. Previous to that we paid about 5,000/day in winter (pre-COVID).

Rental Hint: some companies have a cheap "omakase" plan where you get whatever they feel like giving you.

eyeswideshut wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:20 am there is a 1000 yen monthly charge

880 yen. And it only applies if you don't use either car share or times car rental in the previous month.

adamu wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 6:51 am

eyeswideshut wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:20 am there is a 1000 yen monthly charge

880 yen. And it only applies if you don't use either car share or times car rental in the previous month.

you are right!