Mary Fallon at Sharable.net:

…the answer to lower costs may be to source cars that are actually designed for sharing rather than for the private ownership model where carmakers’ profits depend on selling as many expensive and disposable cars as possible.

Zipcar’s predicament suggests that designing products for sharing may be key to making certain sharing systems viable. When developing products to be shared, one must consider different design principles than the ownership model of consumption such as low cost, standardization, reliability, modular components, durability, and absence of non-essentials.

The article concludes with a survey of ten products designed to be shared.