Prius rental....

[hattaresguy]

So my truck is in the body shop fixing a boneheaded dent I put in the bedside, so I get to play the rental car game.

Enterprise did a rare thing and let me down, I had three choices, a thrashed out 6 pot Mustang, a VW Beetle, and a Prius. The Prius was the cheapest and less annoying than the peoples car so I went with it.

Good:
It rides surprisingly OK, not good but OK. Weight from the battery maybe?
You can see out the back, which on my last rental a Ford Fusion was not happening.
It looks like a pikachu

The bad:
No power whatsoever. None, the rat on the wheel under the hood must be tired.
Typical cheap Toyota interior. I love the 1980's green graphics in the archaic center display. I mean would it kill them to do a proper digital dash? Are color LCD screens that expensive? Ergo's suck, its the typical we are Toyota so love us while we take your money for granted stuff. My 1993 Camry blew this thing out of the water inside.
The brakes suck. They can't figure out the regen thing its all hurky jerky stopping.
A CD player? Really Toyota is this 2005? Where is the XM or Sirus that everyone but you guys have standard...Maybe I need to see if my grandmother has a CD case in her CTS, oh wait GM doesn't do CD players anymore.
No auto headlights? Really its 2015 the cheapest Chevy Silverado has automatic headlights and has had them for a dozen years. Really Toyota is a $10 sensor to much?
I also love the three positions for the wipers, that's it three! Talk about penny pinching!


I also discovered a few buttons on the cluster that have eco, power, and EV on them. Now being a Tesla fan I'm thinking oh EV that is good! Nope its not. No speed, power or range...don't see the point. Oh wait if your 16 and trying to sneak your GF out that makes sense. But I'm not 16 and don't need to sneak around so it doesn't do much for me.

Eco just makes the rat under the hood about as motivated as a DMV worker. Now on to power, see last weekend I was cruising around in my friends M3 convertible and that M button does all sorts of good stuff. So I'm like here it is this button will make it drive like a good car, at least like a Corolla! I mean what can I expect. Yep it does do that, kind of still a bit off.

It gets slightly better MPG's than my business partners 428I around town, and while the 428I isn't exactly a great car to be honest, its still more or less a real car... Quite frankly a diesel E class would do close enough, fuel at that pricey yet.

All in all I don't get the point, if you want an EV get an EV, if you want a cheap little car get a cheap little car.

Counting the days until I get my truck back...

Do you think Enterprise would be [censored] if I painted it yellow?

 

[Rand]

I think some of the complaints are things you would get used to. Like the regen brakes.

Also a truck with relatively massive tires and long wheelbase will ride better than just about any car.

 

[hattaresguy]

The regen I'd probably figure out, but I'm comparing the ride to cars. It does ride better than a Versa or Corolla I'm guessing because of the weight of the battery.

It rides better than my truck which is a whole other thread, my truck rides stiffer than I think it should. I don't think Ram got the spring rates quite right on the regular cab trucks.

 

[Wolf359]

Now you know why so many people hate the Prius. It's a base model rental, don't expect too much from it. It's certainly not an E class. I'd actually prefer a cassette player, at least that way you can get a cassette adapter that has an input so you can plug in your mp3 player/ipod/iphone, that is assuming it doesn't have bluetooth or some other aux input.

 

[raytseng]

I think half of your complaints have to do with you've probably gotten a couple seasons old cheapo fleet model from enterprise.

You're treating it like a test drive, which it is not.

All basic rental cars are not going to have the set of features that you would want for yourself. They are getting the least expensive model and doing the bare minimum. Especially from enterprise which is a rental company not targetting premium rentals.

I don't know priuses, but I'm pretty sure the midmodels or higher models have the electronics and convenience packages you were complaining about.

very few people buy the base model for themselves, it's marketing 101 to put the base model so people mainly buy the mid-model.
Then they can unload the base model for fleet reasons.

 

[hattaresguy]

I have had a number off good rentals from Enterprise. The Fusion was OK, just needed a bigger motor but it had leather, before that I had a Buick Regal which I loved. Really surprised me on that one. Than I had a Ram 1500 SLT which was not stripped and was a great truck. I also had a Chevy Silverado which again was a great truck and an LT so middle of the road options wise.

I disagree I have had some decent cars from Enterprise in the last couple of years.

I'm not complaining about anything that an $18k Chevy doesn't have, I assume the Prius costs more than $18k.

 

[raytseng]

so you now got a bad rental off of enterprise.
Cross that off your bucket list.
It still doesn't mean every prius or every toyota has the issues you're talking about.


It's like eating the plain hamburger at mcdonalds and complaining why it doesn't have lettuce or cheese. Yea maybe you can already tell it's not for you, but you should at least eat a big mac before complaining that mcdonald's doesn't put lettuce and cheese in their hamburgers.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
No power whatsoever. None, the rat on the wheel under the hood must be tired.
Typical cheap Toyota interior.

Most(90% or more) Prius drivers don't care about engine power and/or acceleration, they care about fuel economy.

But I encountered a fairly new Porsche Panamera S got beaten by a slower than usual Prius in death stop to 50 MPH.

That Prius took about 30-40 seconds to get to 50 MPH but still managed to be about 4-5 car lengths ahead of the poser in the Panamera S.

I think the cheapest interior material is in Prius, never seen anything cheaper.

 

[raytseng]

For every argument you make on a feature that a car should have it,
A cheapskate (or car enthusiast) will say, i don't want to pay for aux inputs, or auto-sensing headlights, Those are needless things that I don't need, and just add weight and will break; give me $200 off instead. There are folks who would rather have roll-up windows then electronics.

So that's why they make it a choice and option. And everyone has a different set of criteria of what is important to them.
You can blame Enterprise for buying the base model, and I'm pretty sure the car isn't for you. But it's not fair to write off the whole brand when the options are available, and the car maybe right for somebody else who has different priorities

 

[eljefino]

Wife rented a prius. All I remember about the thing is it had the cheapest 185/65/15 tires money could buy. They were like super knobby good year vivas from walmart. Who names a tire after a paper towel? The Enterprice RAC supply chain, apparently.

A taxi Prius I rode in smelled like BO and had a bad rear wheel bearing. They probably use corolla bearings but they have to haul all those extra ions around in the trunk.

 

[AirgunSavant]

My 2010 Insight was much better than your ride it appears.
I really had no issues with it. Just the lease expired.

 

[hattaresguy]

I guess I'm not Toyota's target buyer.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
No power whatsoever. None, the rat on the wheel under the hood must be tired.
Typical cheap Toyota interior.

Most(90% or more) Prius drivers don't care about engine power and/or acceleration, they care about fuel economy.

But I encountered a fairly new Porsche Panamera S got beaten by a slower than usual Prius in death stop to 50 MPH.

That Prius took about 30-40 seconds to get to 50 MPH but still managed to be about 4-5 car lengths ahead of the poser in the Panamera S.

I think the cheapest interior material is in Prius, never seen anything cheaper.


Ever drive a Panamera with the 6 pot they put in them? They are an ugly car but Porsche makes an incredible vehicle. I just can't get my head around spending a lot of money for a luxury sedan with a 6 cylinder and at 310hp not a terrible powerful one at that. I'm tempted to pick one up for a lease but the AWD V8 which is the version I would think you should get is big bucks.

Porsche are whores when it comes to over charging you for every little thing, like a V8.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
I guess I'm not Toyota's target buyer.



Don't worry, neither am I, LOL!

 

[NHGUY]

Seemingly,Prius owners are only interested in the MPGs they get,not the handling,quietness,stopping,dash display,joystick controls,push button starts...etc.They can overlook a lot for a few bucks saved at the pump.

 

[hattaresguy]

Overkill I have been kicking around getting another car in the next 12 months, probably a lease so I can write it off and they all have one thing in common...V8's under the hood.

 

[DuckRyder]

I'd have taken the Beetle...

A Prius is an appliance. It is pretty good at being an appliance. If it has the proper tires at the proper inflation it should get decent mileage around town.

An enthusiast car it isn't...

 

[PandaBear]

You are probably expecting Camry Hybrid or something along that line than a regular Prius. However you would expect a huge fuel economy penalty (i.e. 10mpg less) and massive price increase (at $30k vs $21k).

EV mode is not for driving around town, it is probably more for moving your car across the street or in parking lot maneuver. After owning my PriusV for 8 months, I'd say the regen and acceleration still sucks, but for a station wagon that gets 42mpg, that gets driven for 80 miles round trip during weekdays, I can't complain too much.

 

[cptbarkey]

Rest easy friend, Toyota's sell hundreds of thousands and will continue to do so. Enjoy that Prius.

 

[JHZR2]

As a newly minted hybrid driver, who could buy a new e-class diesel cash (and almost did) but chose not to, I find some comments silly and others interesting. My take is below - not meant to be argumentative, just to give perspective as someone who has had rental prius, whose parents own a prius that Ive driven a good bit, and who drives a hybrid myself.

I put up a review someplace on here after driving my parents' prius against my accord hybrid. The Prius just isn't as good, Ill say that, but only time will tell if the accord hybrid will have the longevity. The Prius may not be that interesting, but it will absolutely last and provide high MPGs. My parents routinely get over 60 MPG on their drive out to the mountain house.

Keep in mind, I could buy two accord hybrids for the cost of an e-class diesel. Heck, I bought a new minivan and a new hybrid for less than Id put out for an E250. I may buy an E250 sooner or later, maybe even sooner... but the value proposition is a bit questionable to be honest besides that I love diesels. The HAH under sustained high speed driving does some interesting things to get MPGs up. It will cycle through EV mode even at 75 MPH to get some duration with optimized engine loading (which is NOT the engine load at that speed in terms of specific fuel capacity). If I were doing pure highway driving, a diesel would absolutely be the better choice, because it will return 42-45 MPG without the constant changing of modes to optimize returned economy. So its truly a matter of the tool for the job. That said, living on the east coast and routinely driving between NYC and DC, traffic can be the norm, and so practically speaking, the hybrid does still outshine by a bit. My lowest tank has been 46.4 MPG on RUG, which is cheaper than diesel.

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy

Good:
It rides surprisingly OK, not good but OK. Weight from the battery maybe?
You can see out the back, which on my last rental a Ford Fusion was not happening.
It looks like a pikachu


Yeah, it has a short wheelbase, isn't that light but not that heavy either, and has a transparent panel on the back. Its a bit better than the typical toyota couch suspension, but not a lot. It is OK.


Originally Posted By: hattaresguy

The bad:
No power whatsoever. None, the rat on the wheel under the hood must be tired.
Typical cheap Toyota interior. I love the 1980's green graphics in the archaic center display. I mean would it kill them to do a proper digital dash? Are color LCD screens that expensive? Ergo's suck, its the typical we are Toyota so love us while we take your money for granted stuff. My 1993 Camry blew this thing out of the water inside.
The brakes suck. They can't figure out the regen thing its all hurky jerky stopping.
A CD player? Really Toyota is this 2005? Where is the XM or Sirus that everyone but you guys have standard...Maybe I need to see if my grandmother has a CD case in her CTS, oh wait GM doesn't do CD players anymore.
No auto headlights? Really its 2015 the cheapest Chevy Silverado has automatic headlights and has had them for a dozen years. Really Toyota is a $10 sensor to much?
I also love the three positions for the wipers, that's it three! Talk about penny pinching!


I wasn't a fan of the power either. It was night and day compared to my accord hybrid. It was night and day compared to my 67hp, 34 year old 240D as well!

The accord coasts and regenerates better than the prius IMO, both when doing it benignly (just coasting with foot off the throttle) and braking. But the Prius is much more seamless. The Prius does well in changing states, though the states of operation and regeneration are not as well implemented once they are operating. One can see that the Prius operational system is more polished, but they are tuned differently.

I actually like the green display to be honest. It isn't as obnoxious, especially at night, as these big digital displays. Actually, when driving at night I turn off the HAH's display completely because that local light is too much and effects night vision, as it does in every single car Ive driven with a big digital display. Those digital displays are stupid and dangerous, IMO. Plus, Ill bet the green display will last a LOT longer before pixels start to fail, compared to an LCD. Some people keep their cars more than a few years...

Auto headlight is hit and miss. In my HAH, auto headlights also provide "courtesy" lights to stay on after you shut the car off. I hate those things. The auto lights in my 98 chevy truck on the other hand, are perfect. I agree that a really simple implementation would be good...

I agree that CD players are of marginal utility, but they often play MP3 files, and sometimes that can make them more convenient than USB sticks.

No excuse for non-intermittent wipers, besides that it is a rental car hitting a price point for fleets.

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy

I also discovered a few buttons on the cluster that have eco, power, and EV on them. Now being a Tesla fan I'm thinking oh EV that is good! Nope its not. No speed, power or range...don't see the point. Oh wait if your 16 and trying to sneak your GF out that makes sense. But I'm not 16 and don't need to sneak around so it doesn't do much for me.


EV mode is actually great. I have six cars currently, and if I want to get one parked deep in the garage, I may need to turn a few on. We know what that does for cars in terms of fuel and moisture dilution. The EV node isn't designed for speed or distance, but for some circumstances, it is great because it allows you to use the car without doing what we would all consider to be bad for the engine.

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy

Eco just makes the rat under the hood about as motivated as a DMV worker. Now on to power, see last weekend I was cruising around in my friends M3 convertible and that M button does all sorts of good stuff. So I'm like here it is this button will make it drive like a good car, at least like a Corolla! I mean what can I expect. Yep it does do that, kind of still a bit off.


What the heck would you think an "eco" button would do???!??? Come on, that's just silly. As for power, I agree that given 0 RPM full torque of an electric motor, it should be more capable. My HAH doesn't have a power mode, just normal and eco. I think that would be more fitting since these MPG-optimized cars are somewhat of a misnomer for power. That said, my HAH will do 0-60 in 7.1s, which I believe is somewhere near an E250. The prius is slow, so its a matter of ratings... Line 10.1s 0-60. Still, its faster than a tractor trailer and they manage to merge onto interstates, so...

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy

It gets slightly better MPG's than my business partners 428I around town, and while the 428I isn't exactly a great car to be honest, its still more or less a real car... Quite frankly a diesel E class would do close enough, fuel at that pricey yet.


Slightly? I find that comment dubious. Around town is where hybrids shine because of the ton of recovered inertia and the start-stop capability that is actually built-in.

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy

All in all I don't get the point, if you want an EV get an EV, if you want a cheap little car get a cheap little car.


Except that an EV has a very finite number of cycles to the battery, a MUCH larger battery with higher chance of failures (I run some very large battery design efforts and yes, Ive had high ups from Tesla's board in to talk so I know a bit about this). Additionally, its still limited by charging stations, charging speed, power capability, etc. An HEV just gasses and goes. IMO HEV and PHEVs are the way to go, not pure EVs. There are some benefits to pure EVs but they really only fit a fairly limited crowd, while HEVs can be implemented successfully most anywhere. I also think that AWD HEVs will be the future, with a standard drivetrain on one axle and the ev drivetrain on the other, providing AWD and the optimal combination of operations... But that's just me.




My review of the prius:

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Yesterday I drove a Prius both in highway and city (NYC) traffic. New model, privately owned,
All I can say now is that the HAH is best of breed. Ok someone can argue, as they did above, that the Camry hybrid, sonata hybrid and others aren't considered. Sorry. But the Prius is the standard for hybrid cars sold, and it's a real data point.

Keep in mind that the owners of this Prius routinely log over 60 MPG in it, so it's a very efficient machine; thing is, it has nowhere near the feel, driving dynamics or performance. Sure, the Prius clocks 10.1s 0-60 while the HAH clocks in at 7.1s, but it's more than that. There really is a substantial difference in throttle response, engine response and willingness to put power down that the drivability, especially with a few people in it, is substantially better in the accord. And remember, I keep and LOVE 30+ year old Mercedes diesel cars with hp and torque ratings in the double digits. So I know slow cars. But the Prius is a different kind of slow. A 240d is slow but willing, a Prius is slow and not. The HAH couldn't care less and just goes at will.

Another thing that bugged me on the Prius was regeneration. The HAH coasts MUCH better, and transitions into a regent mode at a higher level more readily. To the prius's compliment, the transition of states in the Prius drivetrain is far more seamless than in the accord. In the Accord, I'd describe it as the feel of a smooth auto teams shifting gears, just without the engine dynamics associated. It's really just a nearly unnoticeable bump, but you're aware something happened. In the Prius it's absolutely smooth and seamless.

We had a big piece of luggage, and a bob stroller (decently bulky for those in the know). It all fit in the Prius hatch, and I didn't test in the accord, but I wasn't totally impressed with the hatch volume. I suspect that if I had a Lexus RX hybrid, which was always a car I thought would be desirable, I'd say the same thing due to the glass shape, so it's all neither here nor there.

What I can say is that while I'm sure the Prius will do better on gas, and I'm sure I'd coax high mpgs out of it, I'm very glad that I got the accord vs a Prius.