Well OK, test-drive one and then rent one. The beauty of renting one is that you can drive it at night, commute to work, take a road trip. You can put it through it's paces in a way that you never can with a mere test drive. In the Texas gulf coast area Rent-A-Toyota is located in most of the dealerships in Houston and San Antonio. http://www.rentatoyota.com/Select-City.cfm I have rented numerous GenII and GenIII Priuses over the past few years prior to finally buying my Prius V.
That's what I did, rented one for a few days. One of the days I drove it for 1,000 miles! You probably won't find anything but level I or level II cars as rentals.
I did the same. I tested one over a long weekend and dId over 1000 miles in it! When the dealer knew how much I liked it they waived the charges and I only paid for the insurance. Good deal! At least this way you get to drive it in different conditions. I now have my 2010 T-Spirit, and love it.
In the UK Toyota offer extended (four day) test drives. The Prius definitely needs a lengthy audition, IMO.
A rental before a purchase certainly makes sense to me. Driving it without a salesman sitting beside you and over your normal routes rather than a preset route gives you time to learn a lot more about how the car operates and handles.
I'm too cheap to rent something, knowing I'm going to buy. I'd rather make my buy decision on user feedback, forum dialog and smooth talking salesman (LOL) Of course, I'm old enough to remember when there was no such thing as an internet-based forum, so our internet in those days was live face-to-face (real social networking?). Ooops, sorry; I dated myself on a tangent. Happy Motoring, Tom
Typically I can call Fremont Toyota and get one within a day. They always have III's with navigation and they're low miles and clean. One time the car had 3 miles on it. brand new. Toyota Sunnyvale rented me a V in Summer of 2009. Heard they don't rent the V's anymore, but IV's yes.
Still ... despite how the car looks and what other's think of it, you are the only one who can decide if it is truly right for you. A short test drive probably won't give you enough time to fully evaluate, whereas an extended rental will.
Here's something else to consider. Suppose you are planning to take a road trip. You can of course take your current car ... putting excessive milage on it and risking the possibility of a breakdown in an unfamiliar location. Or you can rent a new car, put the wear and tear on it, and keep you current car safely at home parked in the garage. This works if you own an old car that you don't quite trust to take a long distance voyage or if you own a new car that you want to stay new as long as possible. Rent a Prius to try it out, save gas, and avoid the miles on your current car. If you already own a Prius, rent another and put all those miles on someone else's car. THBS, I would probably drive my V instead of renting a II, III, or IV. Then again, it might be fun to rent a "v" when and if they are available to rent.
I tried to rent a Prius, for months - calling every rental place in Southwestern Ontario - and it just wasn't possible. The few places that actually did carry them in their fleet would not work with me in guarenteeing I could have it, over another car. No amount of haggling could convince them to pin it down for me. Insane! In the end, 3 test drives on my own in the GenIII was enough to edge it out over the Golf TDI. It was a close fight. I rented a smart car 5 years ago or so, before getting my own... but not to test drive it - rather to take the edge off the 4-month wait I had after placing the order for my own! I needed to get back into one for a few days to quell my excitement of taking delivery! Renting the smart was comparitivley easy - since at the time it was a "specialty vehicle" and everyone had them as novelties for a premium rate. -Iain
My dealership has 6 Prius TRAC cars. They are usually available. I am told that alot of people who have never driven one don't want those. But people who own Prius, thats all they want. I paid $39.00/day. Had it for 3 days and put over 1k miles on it. Then I bought one!
