TIRE KICKERS: rent a Prius

My salesman, at Kirk Toyota in Grenada MS, let me 'test drive' a used Prius overnight so I could load all my stuff in (<-- see photo) to be sure a new Prius would work for me. My wife and I both drove it, about 90 miles, on both 2 lane and freeway. We got 42 MPG in the test drive, which was a baseline I have been improving from ever since.

'Around the block' just does not cut it.

 

Well it certainly depends on where the dealership is too. I decided to buy my Prius at the Toyota dealership in Asheville, NC (my previous car broke down on route to visiting family there). There was also a Nissan and a Ford dealership there....so I went down the line test driving a Prius, Altima, as well as a Fusion hybrid. The Toyota dealership just hands you the keys and lets you go anywhere. The Nissan dealership had their own course they wanted me to take (which even though there are highways around, they only had me take country roads). The Ford dealership also had a predetermined route for me to take, but at least theirs included a mixture of small curvy roads as well as highway. Being able to take the cars on the highway let me appreciate the handling of the Fusion as well as the Prius (the Fusion handles more like a typical sedan).

I borrowed my mom's car to drive back down to Atlanta to get my old title and such. I figured that if I were to buy a Toyota, I'd get it from the nice dealership in Asheville. I was also thinking about the Fusion, so I tried searching inventories of the Ford dealerships in Atlanta. The best one I found was in Marietta. I went there to see what kind of selection they had, and the sales guy still made me test drive their most expensive one.....even though the dealership is in the middle of a busy road. The only features he was trying to sell me on was the voice operated Nav (which bumped the price up beyond that of a Prius).

Anyway, besides being a good dealership, the Toyota place in Asheville is also in a good location. It's off a highway, within a busy road, as well as being accessible to smaller curvy roads. Can't find that in Atlanta! I also don't think you can find a Nissan Altima hybrid to rent here....Nissan's site says they're only in NY, NJ, and California

 

yeh.. thought about that too.. but nearest is 100 miles away..

never the less we bought a Gen III, and are happy..

never drove one before.. and this week traveling to DC, Hertz pre-assigned one for my gold rental!... really funny

Sam

 

That 'Rent a Hybrid' site thinks Raleigh is in South Carolina.

Anyway, the only place to rent a Prius in my area appears to be through Enterprise, which charges $108/day!

I looked at the Hertz site and they show no inventory in this area for Prius.