Rent a Prius?

I rented a Prius for a weekend before even putting my money down. Hertz has good weekend rates - search for their "Green Collection." I think I paid $32/day or something and was able to try stuff that I wouldn't do on a test drive of a showroom new car, like taking it to Lowes and seeing how many bags of mulch fit in the back. It was a good use of $100.

 

Have you ever been in a Prius before? I think you might be surprised by the size of the cabin. Remember: it's actually classified as a "midsize" car.

However, it definitely is a good idea to try to rent one in order to make sure you have enough leg room, etc. Some taller people (i.e. 6'3"+) complain about the driver's seat leg room, while others of the same height are just fine. Some of the major rental car companies (i.e. Hertz, Avis, etc.) have them available in some locations and, actually, some dealers also rent them; you should call around and ask.

 

Good morn'g & welcome, Joe,

I didn't want to base the purchase of a $23,000 car on only a 20 minute test drive (dealer's choice of route) & info contained in a glossy sales brochure [that's how I got stung buying my unreliable & major repair prone VW Rabbit Diesel back in 1978 (my 1st & only new car purchase until the Prius because of that)]. So I started reading everything available about the Prius (& the Honda Insight & Civic Hybrid).

On the internet I found Mr. Kash's Prius Page (which until recently had links to tons of automotive reports & evaluations, crash test results, engineer'g awards, etc, etc), PriusOnLine, & PriusChat (both of which I eventually joined but in the beginning was just a lurker on). All the info gleaned from these sites made me fairly confident that the Prius would indeed be the wisest choice, but since it was hard to find a dealer in 2004 & 2005 who had a Prius on the lot available for a test drive, I wasn't able to be fully convinced. [When the Rabbit Diesel was really hot in !977 & 1978, at least VW had the smarts to withhold the certificate of origin (title) of one Diesel at each dealership so the car could NOT be sold & would be available for test drives].

If you were lucky enough to find Prius for test driving, the salesman chose the route to be used. Some chose wisely to demonsrtate the car's capabilities & some either didn't seem to care or else didn't have hills or moderately heavy traffic nearby to fully show off the features & advantages of the Prius. Plus the salesman might be constantly bombard'g you with reasons you should buy a Prius from him & not somebody else nor some other make, so you can't put your full attention into evaluating & analyzing your test drive experience.

For the reasons just stated above, I chose to rent a Prius from Enterprise in Hartford, CT (had to fight the state employees who Enterprise always had to have them reserved for) for a gloriuos 3-day weekend trip. That 3-day rental [with 3 people & all our luggage & under all kinds of driving condtions (with no biased comments from a salesman) was the best way for me to get all the info I needed to make the final decision to "GO for it" (& Enterprise left the manual in the glove for me to read in the motel room each night). I enthusiasticly urge all new owners to read it from cover to cover & make use of a highlighter (while doing this, you might also wish to start making your own index system of find'g something & when finished, revise & organize it into something more easily used than Toyota's poorly designed index).

That 3-day rental is what finally sold me on the Prius. I was teeter'g on the fence before that. If you're not really sold yet, then do a rental for a couple of days before you pay the money out for a purchase you may not be happy in [although for the small look on the outside, the cabin is plenty big on the inside---roomy enough in front for me at 5'10" & my brother at 6'2" & no problem with legroom in the rear (although a little tight on headroom in the rear in my 2005---but that chg'd in 2006 when they dropped the rearseat bottom cushion 2 inches lower)]. Look at it this way though, if you're not entirely happy with your purchase & you decide quickly enough (before the miles start to accumulate), you can probably turn around & flip/sell the Prius for at least what you paid for it (minus tax, title, & registration fees) or maybe even more. So I don't think you would lose much if you're not entirely happy.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

 

Well, comfort is a very personal thing, and it is certainly the case that the driver's seat doesn't go back as far as it could. I'm 6' and I am comfortable, but only with the driver's seat all the way back. Others on here have complained about the lack of height adjustment on the seat and the lack of a telescoping steering wheel. Neither are things that make a huge difference to me, but it's a deal-breaker for other people.

Getting a rental is a great idea to see if you're OK with comfort and if you can adjust to the ergonomics of the front seat.

Have fun!

 

I am 6'5" and found th leg room fine in both front and back. I also noted that I have better room to move my legs around in the Prius vs Avalon or highlander since they have a low center console. The Prius is open and allows me to move my right leg more. I only test drove so the comments are based on that but we also placed an order.