Car clubs & hire

Co Wheels:

Co Wheels is Oxfordshire’s biggest car club, with many locations across Oxford, as well as in Abingdon, Eynsham, Wallingford, and Henley-on-Thames. With a £5 per month membership, you can book a club car in any of the 60 cities in which they operate online or over the phone. You can book for as little as 30 minutes or for a few days, and only pay for the time you have the car (from £5.75 per hour or £44 per day) and the distance you drive it (from 14p per mile). Insurance, cleaning, servicing, and refuelling is covered in the service.

Zimbl:

You can use Zimbl to rent an electric car for £8 per hour or £80 per day. Cars can be collected from a Zimbl Hub (three in Banbury and one at the Redbridge Park & Ride in Oxford) or will be delivered to you for free if you live in Banbury or meet at a public place in Banbury. The first 5 kWh is free, and then it is 30p per kWh after that. There is no joining fee. For £299 per month, you can join their commuter club and receive 50 hours of access to a Zimbl electric vehicle in Banbury, which will be delivered to your door in the morning and collected in the evening. 

Enterprise:

With Enterprise’s Car Club, you can rent vehicles across the UK by the hour or by the day. Rentals include fuel, roadside assistance, and insurance. The standard membership fee is £7 per month or £60 per year and you can upgrade your membership to get cheaper rentals. Currently the first year of the membership is only £10 for Oxfordshire residents. Hourly rental rates start at £8.23 and daily from £66.15, and mileage is charged at 27p per mile. The only rental location in Oxfordshire currently is in Witney, so this car club is likely more useful for traveling.

Local car clubs:

Some towns in Oxfordshire have their own car clubs. For example, Hook Norton has the Hooky Car Club. Memberships is £7.50 per month, and it only costs 72p per hour and 28-44p per mile to hire a car. That includes fuel, road tax, insurance, servicing, MOT, and roadside assistance. A true deal!

You can also hire a car or van without joining a car club using commercial car hire companies, which typically rent by the day and have a central location to pick up from, or car sharing sites, such as Hiyacar or Turo, which enable people who are not using their cars all the time to hire their car to others. Google to find out what services are available near you. Unlike car clubs, you will typically need to pay for refuelling and insurance with a car hire.

In case insurance is not provided when you hire a car, Cuvva provides short-term insurance for borrowing a car for as little as one hour.

Looking to rent a wheelchair accessible vehicle for a trip? Whether you'd like to be the passenger or the driver, there are several companies out there to help in the UK, with one being WavsGB. Google to find options near you. The Accessible Planet and MotaClarity also provide more information about what kinds of vehicles are available and things to keep in mind when renting.