Mike's NBC-TV stories

New ways to rent a car, truck or RV

The concept of renting a vehicle isn’t necessarily new, but there are changes to the way people are doing it these days. Now, it’s as easy as opening an app or website and tapping a few buttons to rent a vehicle from another individual, as PC Mike Wendland shows you in his report this week.

 

The app called Turo allows you to rent just about any type of car or truck, whenever and wherever you want. Turo covers about 4,700 cities across the country. One of the top features of Turo is that vehicles can actually be delivered to renters. The app is free for iOS and Android.

Zipcar launched in 2000 and is now available in more than 170 cities in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Europe, and more than 300 U.S. colleges and universities. It offers same day reservations, and insurance and fuel costs are included in what you pay. Numerous options are available, too, such as 24/7 roadside assistance. The app is free for iOS and Android.

And it’s just not cars. The Outdoorsy website lets you rent an RV, for a vacation, a weekend of tailgating or a cross country trip. Enter in your location and it will show RVs of every kind and size available to rent from owners nearby. Insurance and all the paperwork is part of the package along with 24/7 roadside assistance.

Mike is a veteran journalist whose video "PC Mike" reports have been distributed weekly to all 215 NBC-TV stations since 1994, making him one of the most experienced tech reporters in the country. His tech stories and videos have appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, the Today Show, The New York Times, USA Today and in numerous national newspapers and magazines. In addition to the PC Mike tech blog, he also publishes the Roadtreking.com RV Travel Blog in which he travels North America in an RV reporting about interesting people and places.