Montgomery County examines costly car-sharing program

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To rent or own?  
Cumulative costs for one car after four years:
Enterprise: $52,800
Zipcar: $89,200
County-owned Prius: $45,523
Source: CountyStat report

Montgomery County is taking a hard look at a pilot car-sharing program that costs taxpayers essentially $227 per hour of use.

The county paid Enterprise Rent-a-Car close to $300,000 from January through October so that employees could rent between 20 to 30 hybrid cars or sport utility vehicles by the hour instead of relying on underused county-owned cars, county records show. But the rented cars were used an average of only 130 hours a month while the county paid an all-inclusive rate of $1,100 a month per car, records show.

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