The un-informed rental car companies

While my car is in the shop today, I have a rental that the Toyota dealer arranged through Enterprise. Much to my surprise, it's also a Prius. My car is a Driftwood Pearl #9, and today I have a Silver base model. I've never really paid much attention to the differences, and other than the nav and phone being missing, I feel like I'm in my car. Not a whole lot of other differences that were obvious. I do now understand why there's a display option for toggling back to the Energy Monitor screen. I never realized that some models don't have an Info button on the wheel.

Anyways, I was talking to the Enterprise agents while I was doing the paperwork, and of course they were saying how the Prius is always being rented, and it's in great demand. But no one there knows anything about the car itself. When I told them I was getting about 50-52 mpg overall, they were floored. They've only seen averages in the low 40's. I spent a few minutes explaining how to improve the mileage, which most of us here already know, such as feathering the pedal, riding the brake as you come to a stop, getting into "coast" mode by partially depressing the pedal. They loved it. Apparently, most of the Prius renters are asking them how to best drive the car, and they had no clue. Most renters return the Prius and are somewhat disappointed by their mileage. They loved hearing these pointers and thought it was great that they could now talk to people intelligently about the car. It's really a shame there isn't a cheat sheet or something to hand out with the rental docs for people who are specifically interested in the car's performance.

 

Danny, I think that's an excellent idea. Other than this site, I don't know where else I would have found this type of information. The other Prius-related sites are nice, but they don't have the level of detail and knowledge base that this group has.

We've all read that more recent Prius buyers, who were interested primarily in higher gas mileage, are continuously disappointed that the numbers, although higher than pure ICE, are not what has been advertised. These buyers are completely unaware of how to optimize their driving since some of these techniques are the complete opposite of how you would drive another car.

If you need volunteers to help, let me know., Around here, I'm already getting a reputation as the Prius Poster Child.