Thrifty has very limited hybrid rental cars available at their airport locations. Even at San Francisco International Airport, it’s tough to find a Prius to rent from Thrity.

Thrifty Car Rental, not really one of the nation’s major rental car companies, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, a publicly traded company. Thrifty Car Rental and Dollar Rent A Car were formed in 1990 by Chrysler itself. The company rents mostly Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep cars in the United States. A quick check on Thrifty website also indicates other cars can be rented including the MINI Cooper S, the Hummer H2, the Ford Focus and even Ford vans, but they’re highly dependent on airport rental locations.

If you’re lucky, and if Thrifty decides to offer hybrids for rent at other locations, here’s what you do. Thrifty classifies the Prius as “Compact 2-4 Door.” So you’ll need to specify this car type while checking rates and availability, otherwise you can waste a lot of time looking around and clicking on “See More Cars.”

But you’re super lucky if you land at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). This is probably the only place in the U.S. that you can find a rental hybrid.

Here are some typical rates of renting a hybrid Prius from Thrifty at LAX. As we normally do with our other hybrid rental rate surveys, we took a look at three different rental rates for hybrid cars:

• a one-day rental (pick up on Monday and return next day); pick up June 15 and return June 16, 2009.
• a weekend rental (pick up on Friday and return on Monday); pick up June 19 and return June 22, 2009.
• a one-week rental (pick up on Monday and return the following Monday.); pick up June 15 and return June 22, 2009.

Here are some results. Note that taxes, surcharges and fees are not included in these rates, which could add more than $30 per day to the base rate.

Thifty one-day rental rate. June 15-16-2009: $114.59 per day for Toyota Prius.

Thifty weekend rental rate, May 19-22-2009: Average $105.49 per day for Toyota Prius, which is $316.47 for the weekend.

Thifty one-week rental rate. May 15-22-2009: Average $80.36 per day for Toyota Prius, which is $562.52 for the week.

Have you rented a hybrid from Thrifty? Share your experience with us.

Post from: Airport Hybrid Rentals

Thrifty Car Rental – Finding a Hybrid Rental Car Can Be Tough

One of two brands owned by Enterprise Rent A Car, Alamo Rent A Car shares the company’s commitment to fuel economy, alternative fuels, and alternative technologies. Enterprise Rent A Car, which also owns National Rent A Car, stresses its commitment to fairness, honesty, and transparency in all of its pricing policies and business practices. The combination of these two major corporate commitments has driven the Enterprise group, already the industry leader, miles ahead of any of its competitors.

The Toyota Prius is the only hybrid car available for rent in the United States as noted on Alamo.com’s website. A quick survey of the website yields the following information for renting a Toyota Prius hybrid from Alamo.

As we normally do with our other hybrid rental car surveys, we took a look at three different rental rates for hybrid cars:

• a one-day rental (pick up on Monday and return next day),
• a weekend rental (pick up on Friday and return on Monday), and
• a one-week rental (pick up on Monday and return the following Monday.)

The survey covers San Francisco and San Diego, CA on the West Coast. Several attempts to reserve a hybrid at airports outside of California yielded availability of non-hybrid cars only. Specific dates in May 2009 were selected to obtain the availability information and rental rates. Your own itinerary will dictate availability and rates at the time of your inquiry.

Alamo Hybrid Rental Car Rates at San Francisco Airport

1. Alamo one-day rental rate, with prepay savings. May 11-12-2009: $177.95 per day for Toyota Prius. Taxes, surcharges and fees are included.
2. Alamo weekend rental rate, May 15-18-2009: Average $124.40 per day for Toyota Prius. Taxes, surcharges and fees are included.
3. Alamo one-week rental rate,with prepay savings, May 11-18-2009: Average $134.02 per day for Toyota Prius. Taxes, surcharges and fees are included.

Note that you could save from $10 to $15 with prepay savings so be sure to select these options when reserving. 

Alamo Hybrid Rental Car Rates at San Diego Airport

1. Alamo one-day rental rate, with prepay savings. May 11-12-2009: $105.47 per day for Toyota Prius. Taxes, surcharges and fees are included.
2. Alamo weekend rental rate, May 15-18-2009: Average $57.45 per day for Toyota Prius. Taxes, surcharges and fees are included.
3. Alamo one-week rental rate,with prepay savings, May 11-18-2009: Average $81.96 per day for Toyota Prius. Taxes, surcharges and fees are included.

Again you could save from $10 to $15 with prepay savings so be sure to select these options when reserving.

So it looks like you can rent hybrid cars from Alamo only in California (Alamo’s Los Angeles, Sacramento and Oakland airport locations have hybrid cars), and rental rates vary widely depending on your destination. At least in San Francisco International Airport, Hertz and Avis seem to have better rates for renting hybrid cars.

Post from: Airport Hybrid Rentals

Alamo Rent A Car: Hybrid Rental Cars in California Airport Destinations

AirportHybridRentals.com is a blog to share information and deals about renting hybrid cars at airports in the United States and around the world.

Hybrid cars are become a key transportation tool to help fight automobile emissions problems, reduce dependency on fossil fuels to power our cars, and usher in a new era of clean transportation for travelers. While consumers are making a serious switch to cleaner cars and cleaner driving, car rental companies at airports in the U.S. and around the world are making their own effort to equip theirfleets with hybrid rental cars and other fuel efficient vehicles.

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Post from: Airport Hybrid Rentals

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