Renting a Prius!
 

So I'm in LA at the moment - sort of a mini vacation visiting my family that's out here on business...

My parents rented a car for my mom to get around town. My mom isn't a big fan of driving in heavy traffic, so they added me as a driver... We went outside to pick a car - and they just so happened to have several Prii available :thumbup:


I now kinda regret leaving my SG back in Orlando :p

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I personally think it's an awesome idea to rent these cars (renter is Alamo, which I think it also Enterprise) :thumbup: They get a gold star sticker from me :p

Gaa! I was in LA on the weekend too. And they rented their last Prius minutes before arriving at the rental counter.

Were you at the LAX Budget on Thursday afternoon, by any chance? ;)

EDIT - never mind. I see you got it from Alamo.

How did you like the car?

Also, I couldn't believe the number of Prii I saw in LA.

I totally loved it... You had to try to get below 50mpg :p I only wished the switch over to the ICE was a little less sensitive.

As for the number.... I think that has something to do with the HOV exemption stickers. Awhile back, for $100, you could get a hybrid exempt HOV sticker and drive in the HOV with less than the posted number of people. But they only had a limited amount, and I'm fairly sure people bought the car expecting the sticker - but didn't get it.

Was that your first time driving one?

It's been a long time since I've driven one (when the gen 2 came out I pestered the local dealer to let me try one though he knew full well I wasn't in the market). I distinctly remember my conclusion: "this is one of the coolest cars I've ever driven".

My best friend's mother let me drive her NHW20 when she came to visit... Other than that, no. But I too came to the same conclusion - it's very cool, and I completely understand why people added a bigger battery :)

The car isn't "slow" by any means... But every time you come to a stop and start driving again, the car makes you want to launch slowly to stay in EV mode.

Cool!
 

That's cool!

I rented 2 from that facility recently -- lemme guess -- they kinda hide them in the back row (National). :thumbup:

RH77

Make that "all over California"...not just LA. Other than SUVs and big pickups, it's unusual to see a full sized car here. I live half way up a rural valley with a single road wandering up its middle, with driveways and small tertiary roads leading off it, so going to and from town I see every car on the road. It seems like half of the cars are Prii, TDi's or Metros (plus lots of pickups...this is still commercial farming (vineyards and nut orchards) and ranching country).

In fact, within the past couple of months two of my immediate neighbors have added Prii to their driveways. The cars are very popular in Cali. :thumbup:

I second that, up here on the North coast of Cali there seem to be two types of cars: Brand new Prii, and brand new hulking +3/4 ton trucks/suvs.

Hybrids seem like such an industry cop-out. Most people really need pure electric vehicles and ICE trailers for trips. With that said, I wonder how the west coast would deal with their already mega-****ty electric grid and lack of power during the summers.

Umm, nice non sequitur... :p