For those of you who are interested in driving a hybrid, I am delighted to announce that we now have the Toyota Prius available at selected London locations in the UK. The Prius, which works on a mixture of petrol engine and electric motor, is available to book at www.avisprestige.com and has the added advantage of being exempt from the congestion charge!
If you would like to know more about some of the new greener cars we have available across Europe then you might be interested to read Rob’s post in March called “Green cars across Europe”.
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:47 am
Great to see Avis taking a proactive approach to “Green” issues: if I rent with Avis, can I make my rental carbon neutral?
thanks for your help
July 3rd, 2007 at 6:00 pm
When you make a booking with us online there is a link on the booking confirmation page which offers you the opportunity to pay to offset the carbon emissions from your rental. I hope this helps!
Rob
November 19th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Why is the car so expensive? It does not cost so much to purchase and has very low running costs.
Please, make the car cheaper to hire!
Thanks
November 21st, 2007 at 1:05 pm
I agree, renting the prius is expensive.
Generally Avis prestige prices are extremely high.
While some of the cars might be proper luxury, or sports cars that you would not find on a normal car rental fleet, other on there are the same as Avis offer on their normal fleet, such as the A4/A6 the C180/E280 etc.
However, book these cars on Avis prestige, and you will pay around 3 times as much as you would if you booked the exact same car from the regular Avis fleet.
Madness!
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:57 am
Hi Marcus, good question! There is a limited number of the Prius currently available at the moment as the market for hybrids is still relatively small. This means that, in general, it is difficult for car hire companies to negotiate good terms for hybrids and so the cost of sourcing these cars is significantly more than other cars of similar size. However, as the market for hybrids develops then hopefully in time we’ll be able to bring in hybrids at a more favourable price which can then be passed on to the customer.
Robert you also make a good point about Prestige. There clearly is a bit of crossover in fleet mix and some inconsistencies in our pricing between standard and Prestige fleets. I’ll pass this feedback on to Avis Prestige.
Rob
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I rented a Prius for 5 days here in the US, and I was amazed to find that the fuel gauge only went down a notch on the last day. I had deliberated bringing the car back without filling it up, until it went down that notch. Even then, it cost me only a few dollars, and i had been driving it for a week (admittedly, just around the Baltimore area and no long drives).
It is actually quite fun to try to “optimise” your driving to use the electric motor as much as possible. Each day, i would try to get further from the hotel before the engine kicked in.
I’d definitely recommend this car as a rental.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
It’s not quite the same thing but I’ve tried to “optimise” fuel consumption in my Renault Clio diesel. My mpg is gradually going down with my clearly sub-optimal driving. A while ago Stephen wrote some tips for economical driving (http://www.wetryharder.co.uk/?p=112). Personally I’m just not disciplined enough to drive like that but you might be interested.
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:56 am
I drive a Prius as my personal vehicle – and believe me…they still use fuel!! I would love to acheive the Toyota advertised 65mpg. It’s more fashion statement than saver of the planet. I still love it though!