Eco Friendly Driver

More ways to rent a prius

by Hilary on March 18th, 2008

Fox Rent a Car has been in business since 1989, and since at least 2006 they’ve been teaming up with other car rental companies to provide their customers with hybrids. According to a friendly commenter, they now have over 4000 hybrids in their fleet. One thing I liked from the website was their lowest-price guarantee.

Renting a hybrid on a long trip makes sense money-wise (if you don’t get ripped on the rental cost … this is where Fox’s guarantee really comes in handy) but renting a hybrid before you buy is also a good idea. Especially if you haven’t had much of a chance to test drive. I’ll tell you why…

We were at a car lot looking at the new arrivals lately (yes, technically, I was supposed to buy a car on Friday but then hubby came down with the flu … I think he may be suffering from sticker shock syndrome ;P) and the salesman had a surprising message for us.

“Don’t bother with a hybrid Camry,” he said.  “They don’t get much better gas mileage for the money, and they might wind up costing you a bundle. The last guy I sold one to - an older fella - was trying to park in the garage, thought he shut the car off, then bumped the gas when he was getting out and ran into the wall. He traded it in 3 weeks after he bought it.”

I trust this story is true for two reasons. 1) The salesman was willing to forgo a bigger sale to have a happy customer. They rarely go that route, but 2) a few months ago there was a brand new but technically “used” Camry hybrid on the lot.

I know several older people who do drive hybrids so that’s not the point I’m making here. I know a woman who is reaching 90 who is finishing up her PhD in Chemistry. She may be the first, who knows, and I’ve the grand opportunity of knowing her. She could figure out a hybrid, and I know some teens and middle-aged people who might struggle with it as well. (There’s a reason I didn’t tell my sister to buy a hybrid, you guys. She’s scary behind the wheel without all the doodads to distract her.)

Renting a hybrid gives you a chance to really get to know the car before you buy it, because there is a slight learning curve.  Keeping that in mind, however, it might be a good idea to make sure you have enough insurance coverage. :D

Most of the companies that rent prius, camry hybrids, etc don’t have them at all of their locations. If you don’t live near a major airport, it can be hard to rent through Hertz or Avis, for instance. With Fox you can rent a prius, or other hybrid, at branches in Arizona, California, Florida, Missouri, Texas, Utah, Washington (state) in the United States, and in Montreal or Toronto, Canada. You can also rent a hybrid car in select locations in Costa Rica, Guam, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, United Arab Emirates, and the Netherlands Antilles.

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POSTED IN: General, Hybrid Cars