ipcar (www.zipcar.com) is a car-sharing club founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1999. The club members pay an annual fee and then have the opportunity to rent from a pool of available cars for a fixed hourly or daily rate. Zipcar is located largely in select metropolitan areas such as Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Members, called Zipsters, make reservations for a car on the Zipcar website and then use an access card to open the vehicle. The vehicle has a home base parking spot where the driver picks up and returns the vehicle. The clubwhich operates in more than 500 cities and towns, at more than 600 college campuses, and at 50 airportshas grown to more than 1 million members since its initial public offering in April 2011.

The Zipcar website provides details on membership and mentions a $8.00 monthly membership fee. A car can be rented for an hourly or daily rate. While the actual rate can vary, a car can be rented for about $8.00 per hour, which includes 20 free miles, or for a $75 daily rate, which includes 196 free miles per day, and a charge of $0.45 per mile for each mile over 196.

Required:

1. Assume you will take a two-day trip to visit some friends over the weekend and you will drive 432 miles. What is the total cost of this trip?

2. You are trying to estimate your monthly spending on your Zipcar membership. You plan to make four weekly trips to run errands like grocery shopping, going to the pharmacy, etc. Each trip will take about two hours and be about 16 miles. You will also take a trip over a three-day weekend to visit your family and expect the trip will cover a total of 482 miles. How much do you expect your Zipcar costs to be for the coming month?