As a good daughter I’ve been planning my parents’ trip to Boston and environs and just experienced, once again, how cool Zipcar is. Not only does it serve well for those monthly grocery shopping trips, but it’s saving me $80 on a planned 3-day “leaf-peeping” trip to Vermont (I know, President Bartlett found that term humorous as well). Since for unknown reasons no cheap car rental is to be had in the Boston region (in CA you can get deals of less than $20 a day, in Boston the minimum is $40, and that will put you in a shoebox on wheels), I priced Zipcar instead and the result was amazing. All in all we’ll be paying $200 instead of approximately $280 and I can pick up the car a block away from my apartment instead of having to treck all the way to the airport (since local rentals are even more expensive). No paperwork to fill out, no business hours to plan our trip around, gas and insurance included.