Prius Rentals

[mastermann]

Why does Enterprise no longer carry the Toyota Prius. It's the perfect car to rent. ERAC should like it because:

1) It has a relatively low sale prices, especially without the "goodies" like navigation, leather, etc.

2) It has a very high resale value.

3) It gets very high MPG--desirable for customers.

4) It has enough room for Enterprise to call it a Standard-sized car, or may even an FCAR.

...I know, a PT Cruiser is really a compact and an Impala is a mid-sized, but not in the world of ERAC.

[slave no more]

Originally Posted by mastermann

Why does Enterprise no longer carry the Toyota Prius. It's the perfect car to rent. ERAC should like it because:

1) It has a relatively low sale prices, especially without the "goodies" like navigation, leather, etc.

2) It has a very high resale value.

3) It gets very high MPG--desirable for customers.

4) It has enough room for Enterprise to call it a Standard-sized car, or may even an FCAR.

...I know, a PT Cruiser is really a compact and an Impala is a mid-sized, but not in the world of ERAC.

Toyota probably is not giving ERAC the deal that they wanted. Idiot customers could never figure out how to drive them so they would complain about renting them. Those are probably the reasons.

Originally Posted by mastermann

Why does Enterprise no longer carry the Toyota Prius. It's the perfect car to rent. ERAC should like it because:

1) It has a relatively low sale prices, especially without the "goodies" like navigation, leather, etc.

2) It has a very high resale value.

3) It gets very high MPG--desirable for customers.

4) It has enough room for Enterprise to call it a Standard-sized car, or may even an FCAR.

...I know, a PT Cruiser is really a compact and an Impala is a mid-sized, but not in the world of ERAC.

If an impala is a midsized car, then what is a fullsize?
For all of me Clerks fans out there, this is for you.


Randal: This job would be great if it wasn't for the fuckin' customers.
Dante: Which ones?
Randal: All of them!

A full size is a Crown Victoria or the late, great Chevrolet Caprice.

The Impala (nee Lumina) and Grand Prix were called mid-sized back when Chevrolet made Caprices and Bonnevilles. The Taurus has always been Ford's mid-size, below the LTD/Crown Victoria line.


Over the years, ERAC (and other rental companies) has begun calling mid-size lines full-sized. Now, they are even calling Japanese vehicles like the Honda Accord and Nissan Altima full sized. These imports may be bigger than they were before, but they are nowhere near the size of the old bench-seat, column shift widebodies of yore.

Sorry, the crown vic , Lincoln Town car ect are not full size cars they are Luxary cars I think you are forgeting there is a class between luxary and FCAR that would be a premium size class. In the rental car game most cars are not put into thier classes by size BUT almost all are determined by the cost of the car (ie the new Dodge charger is a premium car but is no bigger than a Malibu inside).

Just a little FYI

[mastermann]

The five size classes were divised years ago, when the "BIG THREE" traditionally made five sizes of cars. Years ago the lineup looked something like this:

ECAR = Geo Metro/Ford Fiesta, Festiva, Aspire/Dodge Colt
CCAR= Chevrolet Cavalier/Ford Escort/Dodge Shadow, Neon
ICAR= Chevrolet Corisca, Malibu/Ford Tempo, Contour/Dodge Spirit
SCAR= Chevrolet Lumina, Pontiac Grand Prix/Ford Taurus
FCAR= Chevrolet Caprice/Ford Crown Victoria/Dodge Diplomat

"Premium cars" were the size of full size cars but came from "premium" brands such as Mercury, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Chrysler (not Dodge). Cars such as the Buick Roadmaster, Olds Delta 88, and Grand Marquis were part of this class back in the 1980s.

"Luxury Cars" were the two "luxury" brands--Lincoln and Cadillac

Over the years, the industry has gotten cheap and blurred the size classes. What would have been an SCAR or even an ICAR years ago is now an FCAR. It made me cringe when the rental agent tried to tell me that a Pontiac G6 was a full sized car and a Maxima was a luxury car...before driving off in my weekend special Aveo.

Enterprise bought about 3,000 Priuses back in 2004 with an unusual early buyback clause. When gas prices spiked, Toyota was selling the Prius faster than they could build them. Thus, they bought back all of the ERAC Priuses and distributed them through their dealer network.

Today, the Prius is frequently selling above MSRP with waiting lists at dealers. I doubt Toyota would want to use their excess capacity to make ERAC cars. Slow selling models often get "dumped" on rental fleets at steep discounts, while hot selling models are sold retail.

We tried to pass off a PT Cruiser as a Fullsize. It even made me laugh trying tos ay it with a straight face

Originally Posted by mastermann

The five size classes were divised years ago, when the "BIG THREE" traditionally made five sizes of cars. Years ago the lineup looked something like this:

ECAR = Geo Metro/Ford Fiesta, Festiva, Aspire/Dodge Colt
CCAR= Chevrolet Cavalier/Ford Escort/Dodge Shadow, Neon
ICAR= Chevrolet Corisca, Malibu/Ford Tempo, Contour/Dodge Spirit
SCAR= Chevrolet Lumina, Pontiac Grand Prix/Ford Taurus
FCAR= Chevrolet Caprice/Ford Crown Victoria/Dodge Diplomat

"Premium cars" were the size of full size cars but came from "premium" brands such as Mercury, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Chrysler (not Dodge). Cars such as the Buick Roadmaster, Olds Delta 88, and Grand Marquis were part of this class back in the 1980s.

"Luxury Cars" were the two "luxury" brands--Lincoln and Cadillac

Over the years, the industry has gotten cheap and blurred the size classes. What would have been an SCAR or even an ICAR years ago is now an FCAR. It made me cringe when the rental agent tried to tell me that a Pontiac G6 was a full sized car and a Maxima was a luxury car...before driving off in my weekend special Aveo.

a lot of shit has changed a lot since then. we have had 3 presidents and 2 major wars since then. and I was 9 years old in 1988. get over the old days when a crown vic used to be a fullsized car. suck it up.

[mastermann]

Back in 2004, I used to be a regular $9.99 weekend customer. The branch I frequented had a cool manager named "Mike" who would hook me up. Although I sometimes got an Aveo or Hyundai, I would often get nicer cars like a Prius, Camry, Tahoe, and sometimes even a Cadillac Deville. I would use my university alumni assocation discount code to waive the underage fee and change the rate to $8.44 per day. The total weekend always came to $31.02, with all taxes included.

One day I found out that Mike had been fired (not because of me). The new person running the branch tried to upsell me on the underage fee, CDW, and upgrade charge. He was the one who told me that a G6 is a fullsize ($10 upgrade per day) and a Maxima is a luxury car (I had one of those as a special the week before but he wanted $20 PER DAY). The new guy also told me that he had never lowered the rate below $9.99. After a bit of haggling, he honored my deal very grugingly for an Aveo. If that's not bad enough, he even wanted to charge me for an extra day at the end of the rental (he backed off on this, too).

Circumstances later forced me to purchase a new car so I no longer frequent ERAC except when I am traveling. I bought a Prius because I liked the ones at ERAC so much.