One of the most important things as use as parents is our car. We need it to pick our kids up from school, to go and buy groceries for the whole family and not to mention, road trips with the family! We recently got the chance to do a SOCAR review to try out the service and here’s what we found.
While most families have a car of their own, thinking of getting a second car is always on our minds because of the need. But how often does that need arise? Enough for us to justify having two cars we have to maintain and pay for every month? Hence, SOCAR meets that gap for parents when we need a second car for special occasions.
For my own family, the need for the second car comes up when my husband has to go out of town for work or when he has meetings that he needs the car for and I still need a car to get around town in KL. So we decided to give this SOCAR service a try to see if was as convenient as promised.
Booking the car was easy – all we had to do was download the app, input our details as well as run our NRIC through the system for verification. All in all, the process did not take too long and was relatively easy. Then it was time for us to choose a car.
The SOCAR platform has many cars to choose from – from the very functional Perodua Axia to the more luxury options like BMWs or Mini Coopers.
For us parents, the cars that usually come to mind would be MPVs or SUVs. Thankfully, SOCAR had a wide selection of those including Honda HR-Vs and Mazda CX-5s.
We decided to book a Honda HR-V and one of the cool features that SOCAR has, if you are not able to get to a location where the SOCAR is parked, is to pay a small fee to get the car delivered to you instead.
This is very convenient for parents who are not able to go out to collect the car.
So, that’s what we did. We booked for the car to be delivered as well as picked up from our apartment building so there would be no hassle of trying to return the car.
At the stipulated time, the car was downstairs from my apartment building and all I had to do was turn on the bluetooth on my phone, open up the SOCAR app and it was as easy as that! The car was unlocked and ready to be driven.
However, before the car is driven, renters are requested to take a picture of the car from different angles and upload the images onto the app. Make sure the road tax is also valid before hitting the road.
From there, the car is yours to use. When we “returned” the car, we simply parked the car back at the lot it was left in within the apartment premises, then we locked the car and went home.
At the “expiry” time of the car lease, we received a notification saying that the car had been successfully returned.
The experience was easy and convenient. We also liked that there were many options of cars available for us to choose from, which varies from parent to parent and their present needs. The pricing is also reasonable as you only pay for what you use.
If you are considering to get a second car that you aren’t sure will be fully utilised, we would encourage you to try out SOCAR first to lessen the financial burden on your household expenses.
