How to not own a car in Brussels

It can be an ongoing debate for city dwellers: to buy a car or not to buy a car? On the one hand, you don’t really need it. It’s expensive to maintain and frustrating to park. On the other hand, it would be convenient for certain things, and sometimes you have no choice but to rent a vehicle, which can get pricey quickly if you do it a lot.

Luckily, Brussels offers a few ways to have a car without really having a car that are both easy and inexpensive.

Car sharing

If you find yourself regularly needing a car, but not enough to warrant the expense or hassle of owing and parking one in the city, Brussels has two main car sharing programmes. 

The first and most popular is Cambio. The way it works is simple. You pay a monthly membership fee (€4 per month for the basic membership) that gives you access to one of hundreds of cars Cambio has parked in Brussels and throughout Belgium. You pay an hourly rental rate (between €1.55 and €2.00 per hour) and a price per kilometre (depending on fuel prices, how much you drive, and your membership level, this is roughly between €0.20 and €0.30 per kilometre). Cars must always be picked up and dropped off to the same parking space.

Cambio is perfect if you need a car fairly regularly for short trips – for example, a big weekly grocery shop. Hugely cheaper than a taxi or car payments, it’s also useful when you need to pick up or deliver large items once in while.

Your second option is Zen Car, which has a fleet of entirely electric cars that you may have already seen plugged into the various charging stations around Brussels.

Zen Car has a few disadvantages compared to Cambio. It’s only active in the Brussels region and has 26 stations, so availability might be an issue. Its monthly costs and hourly rates are more expensive, although you don’t pay per kilometre as well as hours. Also, the basic and cheapest car is a Smart car, so don’t plan on hauling large items or more than one passenger comfortably.

However, Zen is the most environmentally friendly option for those truly dedicated to cutting their carbon footprint. And even with higher prices, used sparingly, you’re unlikely to reach the monthly cost of owning a car.

Carpooling

A last option before you go sign a lease on four wheels is ride sharing and carpooling. With the internet, finding rides has never been easier.

Carpool.be is a website specifically designed for drivers and riders with the same daily or weekly commutes to find each other. Riders pay a small fee to the driver – always less than the cost of a train ticket (a trip from Brussels to Leuven costs around €3) – and they meet at an agreed location to share the ride. BlaBlaCar is another option, more geared towards longer trips, like Brussels to Paris or Amsterdam, but with local routes offered as well.

For parents, SchoolPool is an easy way to find families of other students attending the same school and to set up carpooling. This cuts down on the number of cars on the roads and saves parents a lot of time in the week.

Finally, there’s VAP, an online hitchhiking service in which riders sign up and receive a membership card. They then place themselves under designated VAP signs along the highway, showing their VAP card as they would a sign. Drivers have a small sticker in their car identifying themselves as VAP members, and can stop if they choose to pick up the VAP hitcherhiker along the way. Totally free, the idea is to make hitchhiking safer and more transparent.

Rentals

Of course, there’s always rentals, especially if you just need a car for a weekend trip to the Ardennes. While this is likely the most expensive option to access a car a la carte, unlimited mileage and weekend deals make it a good bet if it’s just a one-off trip. 

To price the rates at all the major rental companies, like Hertz and Avis, but also including some smaller ones, you can try Momondo or Skyscanner. However, some say that the Belgian website Auto Europe (French and Dutch only) often has the best rates.

Here are a few tricks to make sure you find the best deal.

1. Play around with cards and currencies

If you happen to have active credit cards from other countries – say a US credit card– then you can play around with the location and currency settings on the search engine.

If you’re just living in Brussels for the short term and keep your permanent residence elsewhere, it might be better to search the local website for your car, rather than the Belgian one. For example, search Hertz’s US website in dollars instead of their Belgian website. You might find deals aimed at tourists that are not offered to locals. Of course, you’ll have to book with your non-Belgian card and perhaps be prepared to show your foreign ID at the counter when you go to pick up your card.

Other times, it could be cheaper to search the Belgian or European site. A recent search on Skyscanner gave me a $5 discount when I changed my location to Belgium.

2. Location, location, location

Shop around at different branches of company in Brussels. Europcar might be offering one price at their more convenient locations at Brussels Midi train station, but a cheaper deal at their branch on Avenue de la Couronne.

 3. Are you entitled to any discounts?

Many workplaces have deals with car rental agencies. The best place to start might be to enquire if employees are allowed to rent at the corporate rate for personal use.

Also, you might already hold the key to low prices. For example, if you have a Carrefour Bonus Card that you scan when you go grocery shopping, you're eligible for a 15% discount on rent from Europcar.