Toyota Prius Heading to Rental Counter

Rental car companies normally don’t care how efficient the cars they rent are, nor do most customers. Even if you’re renting a car for a week, you can probably live with the gasoline costs. That’s not stopping both Hertz and Avis from adding hybrid Toyota Prius models to their fleets.

Hertz will add 3,400 Priuses worldwide by 2008, the company says, at a cost of $64 million, with 1,000 of those cars hitting fleets as early as next week. The company is starting a “Green Collection” that also includes conventional gasoline-engine models like the Ford Fusion and Toyota Camry. The aim is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The company is also renting Priuses by the hour in New York City. Of course, they’ll cost more to rent per day than a standard gas-powered car.

Avis will also add 1,000 Priuses to its fleets by the end of the month.

These numbers are relative drops in the bucket. Hertz has a fleet of 410,000 vehicles in the U.S. and Europe. That makes the move smell of marketing rather than corporate responsibility, but you have to start somewhere, we guess. It also aims at the small “carbon footprint” movement in the travel industry, where vacationers look to create less pollution when enjoying their time off.

Hertz, Avis Add Hybrids To Fleets (USA Today)

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Comments

Nice move,
Hertz!

Toyota has over a dozen Toyota Rent-A-Car shops in Houston, TX. My company rents from them exclusively when we travel within Texas or need to get rental cars for our customers (we're in the auto repair business). They rent all the Toyota models except the MR2 Spyder and I've rented a Prius several times. Saves significantly if I've got lots of city driving around the Houston, D/FW, or Austin areas. From what I gather, these shops are only in Houston, unfortunately.

resale value coming down.

resale value coming down.

I doubt it Juan. More consumer visibility for Toyota actually.

don't know your story, but is almost gospel in the industry. the more fleets and rentals, the less the car is worth. have always been under that impression.

i understand that for every 1k rebate the resale value goes down by $100 or something like that. is a similar thing with fleets and rentals.

A low resale value and the fact that a car is common among rental fleets are two symptoms of the same problem: undesirability. Rental companies primarily buy cars that are deeply discounted because the manufacturers have trouble selling them. As long as the rental companies don't flood the market with used Priuses the resale value shouldn't change much.

Problably not now, but in one year or so, the resale value of this car will be lower due to fleet sales. It happens with all the cars.

Yeah! take a look at the taurus

Lil'Tom-
While what you say is correct, there's a double whammy here. Once you begin to fleet sell to rental companies (who only keep cars a few years at most), there is a significant increase in the number of vehicles available used. Supply and demand causes price/value to drop. So low resale value, while caused by undesirability, is also caused by rental sales (which are SOMETIMES caused by undesirability). However, the few thousand vehicles here aren't going to make much difference.

Top Rent a car is Bulgarian company specialised in car rental services, developing its business all over the country. It's one of the leading companies in this sector in Bulgaria.

Top Rent a car is Bulgarian company specialised in car rental services, developing its business all over the country. It's one of the leading companies in this sector in Bulgaria.

I think it bodes well for Toyota to be renting its cars and especially its hybrids. The more people that see them and drive them, the more they will be accepted. Not everyone lives in Los Angeles where the Prius is as ordinary as a SUV in St. Louis.

Has anyone outside of say LA tried to rent one of these cars. I have tried to rent one for the last 10 trips I have taken. I have tried in cities from minneapolis, to Denver, to indianapolis. Guess what no cars. The whole thing made a great article but I have yet to find a single prius for rent in any city I have traveled to. Has anyone else found this situation to be true. I am not sure I want to rent a prius anymore as the prius drivers are now considered the worst drivers on the road. I have never seen such a complete group of inconsiderate, selfish, and road rage inducing drivers in my life. It used to be old men wearing hats were the ones to look out for. Now it is anyone in a prius. It is not the cars. I have driven a few of them and they are snappy little cars. More then able to stay in thier lane, stop approriatetely, and plenty of power to get out of the way. I think they are so busy watching the blinky lights and worrying about thier economy they forget to keep eyes on the road and drive in the real world. I have to say that when I test drove these cars I found myself watching the dashboard more then I should have. Sorry for the rant but if a few of these people see this the world will be a safer place for all of us on the road.