AbstractIn this article, we propose two meshless collocation approaches for solving time dependent partial differential algebraic equations (PDAEs) in terms of the multiquadric quasi‐interpolation schemes. In presenting the process of the solution, the error is estimated. Furthermore, the comparisons on condition numbers of the collocation matrices using different methods and the sensitivity of the shape parametercare given. With the use of the appropriate collocation points, the method for PDAEs with index‐2 is improved. The results show that the methods have some advantages over some known methods, such as the smaller condition numbers or more accurate solutions for PDAEs which has an modal index‐2 or an impulse solution with index‐2. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 95–119, 2014