How To Rent a Prius

In the spring I traveled to Springfield, Illinois to attend the wedding of my dear friend Suzanne.* There wasn’t any other good reason to visit Springfield, so I had never been there before, and did not realize how much rich Abe Lincoln** history the town hosts, or that a fellow kick-ass blogger lives there and is the source of much super-cool knowledge, such as where to get a design-your-own Bloody Mary on a Saturday morning.

To get to Springfield, IL from Los Angeles in a reasonably cost-effective and timely manner, one flies to Saint Louis and then drives the rest of the way. I thought this would be a good opportunity to rent a hybrid vehicle, and set out to reserve one.

Except I couldn’t.

Extensive research – and by this I meant more than four clicks from a search result page – revealed that Enterprise would be my best bet. They proudly advertise their hybrid rentals, but that way can be a dead end. You can pick a city that offers hybrid – or even electric – vehicles, but there’s no telling if they’ll have one for you when you get there, even if you have a reservation.

I put on my investigator cap and made a few phone calls to find out why. Turns out, the corporate headquarters of Enterprise just happens to be in St. Louis, so I wound up chatting with Lisa Martini, who, besides having an awesome name, told me that because hybrid vehicles are available in much lower numbers, Enterprise “is at the mercy of the manufacturer.” In other words, even though there is great demand for them, the supply has not yet matched it. And so the majority of the hybrid vehicles in their fleet are concentrate on the coasts, with a scattering throughout the midwest. And of those, many are often snatched up by business commuters.

That was all lovely and interesting. But I was traveling on a specific date, and there was no flexibility, and I didn’t want to roll up in St. Louis and hope that someone had a hybrid available. Because of the journalisty nature of my inquiry, Martini was kind enough to arrange for one for me and Auntie Lisa, my traveling companion. Sure enough, when we got to the St. Louis airport’s Enterprise office, a little blue Prius was waiting for us around back.

Here’s the cinematic masterpiece of me showing off:

So my memory isn’t so good. That Prius wasn’t blue at all.

Now that lots of you have already driven one, here’s more old news for the rest of us: driving a hybrid is a little bit weird. First of all, you don’t need a key, except to lock and unlock the doors. You turn the car on with a button. I half expected the car to chime like a Mac on startup. The danger here is that the key itself is easy to leave behind, since it’s not in the usual ignition spot when you park. More than once, I left it in the cupholder. Not a smart move, especially when you are in a strange city, and the car is not even yours.

The whole fuel consumption thing was lost on me, too. The Prius has a space-age dashboard with graphs and schematics and interactive displays that show you how much gas you’re guzzling depending on what mode you’re in. There’s a full gas mode, a gas/electric mode, and a purely electric mode, which nobody ever uses, and I still don’t know why. Stewart was interested to know how many miles per gallon we were able to hit, and honestly, because the display was so confusing, I don’t even remember. I do know that we only filled the tank once, and not even all the way. It was just to return the tank to the right level for the end of the rental period.

The rest of the Prius driving experience was fine. It was a kicky little car, and I liked it. But unless the rental companies get more of them, I’m not going to be seeking one out again. The additional cost (about $30) over a regular full size car isn’t worth taking the chance, or maneuvering my travel plans to fit the car.

In summary, you rent a Prius where they are plentiful. Otherwise, you’re out of luck.

*Suzanne with her freshly appointed husband, Chris, enjoying their first meal as a married couple:

**Abraham Lincoln poses behind Auntie Lisa outside the capitol building:

***Here we are with Kelly, aka Mocha Momma, and her main slice, The Cuban: