Well rest assured, I have not done anything illegal. It’s simply a very bad rental experience from Zipcar.

I booked the car for 3.5 hours in a rainy afternoon. Upon arrival, I noticed immediately that the car has been involved in an accident. All the right side seemed to have scratched really bad against a wall/fence, and there are dents all over. I called Zipcar immediately to report the problem, and regretted right after I hang off and opened the door. In additional to the interior of the car being really dirty, it was a weird, strange and never-experienced smell. It took me a while to realize what some friend has told me about weed. I am not 100% sure it is weed smell, but I don’t think there would be other thing else that I have not smelled in my life. I didn’t call Zipcar again to discuss such an issue, as my appointment time was drawing close at that time, because it took me some additional time to take photos of the damaged/dirty car.

So, in almost half of the 3.5 hours period of time, I was suffering from the weed smell. The smell itself, honestly speaking, is not that bad. The smell itself is not constantly sensed either. It only occasionally hit you and make you aware of it. On my way to the destination, I could bear it a little bit without suffering too much. It may be because it was still day time, not raining, and I could open the window when not on high way. However, on my way back, everything is worse. I had to close the window all the way as it was raining hard in a dark evening. In my less than 40 minutes way back, I constantly felt headache and nauseating. I had to get off the high way and took some fresh air. I also feel I became dumber when I finally arrived: I should have opened the window right after I got off the high way (as the rain was much less then) but I only remembered to do so when I parked the car into the Zipcar spot and was about to turn off the engine and jump out of the car.

Overall it was a rather bad experience driving a car that somebody else had smoked weed in. I am not sure if the scratches are due to an accident caused by such an influence. I’d personally never touch a pot.

On Zipcar’s side, how would they know and prevent such cases, and guarantee all Zipsters are good citizens? Would be an interesting thing to think about.