East Bay Hourly Car Rental Market Heats Up With Avis Purchase of Zipcar

Avis' purchase of Zipcar, which was announced Wednesday, pits the company against national players like Hertz On Demand and regional players like City CarShare.

Zipcar, which offers hourly rentals, has cars at several East Bay locations: in Emeryville, Berkeley, Concord-Walnut Creek and Oakland. City CarShare has vehicles in Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Fremont and Oakland.

Hertz has just two short-term rental locations in the Bay Area, one in San Francisco, the other at St. Mary's College.

Competition also is growing with peer-to-peer rental services, such as Wheelz.

If you use hourly car rental services, what experiences have you had? Do you prefer one service better than the others?