Enterprise Rent-A-Car Responds to CA's Growing Demand for Hybrid Vehicles

[jpak]

http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070109006072/enterprise-rent-a-car-responds-to-californias-growing-demand-for-hybrid-vehicles.html

SAN JOSE, Calif.-(Business Wire)-January 9, 2007 - Enterprise Rent-A-Car announced plans to add Saturn VUE Green Line Hybrid vehicles to its vehicle line-up for California renters in 2007. Currently one of the largest providers of alternative fuel rental vehicles, Enterprise is continuing to grow its fleet by adding a variety of alternative fuel vehicles including flex fuel, hybrid and bio diesel in select markets across the United States.

The first wave of approximately 160 hybrid Saturn VUE SUV's will be delivered the first part of 2007 to select branch locations in the Bay area as well as Los Angeles and Sacramento, with additional deliveries slated throughout next year.

"We continually look at the different fuel efficient vehicles and how to best integrate them into our fleet because these vehicles are very attractive to our customers," said Bay Area Vice President and General Manager Leonard Almalech. "The Saturn VUE Hybrids deliver 20 percent better fuel economy over the standard VUE engine, and if California renters show continued demand for alternative fuel cars we will add more to our fleet."

The introduction of the hybrid vehicles is just one of Enterprise's many environmentally-friendly initiatives. To commemorate Enterprise Rent-A-Car's 50th anniversary, the company is underwriting the planting of 50 million trees over the next 50 years at a total cost of $50 million dollars. The Enterprise Rent-A-Car 50 Million Tree Pledge partners with The National Arbor Day Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service in a long-term commitment to help restore public lands that are in need of reforestation. California is expected to benefit in particular from the tree plantings because of the onslaught of forest fires in the state each year.

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[phantom power]

1. I've always wanted to rent a Prius.

[flyingfysh]

3. Zipcar has them.

[Nihil]

4. Don't hold your breath

Whilst I agree that it would be great if you could do it, the reason
that I could buy a second hand Prius was that it was ex-rental ...

The hire company had bought half a dozen but found that most people
didn't want to use them (no idea what reasons were given). As a result,
they traded them back to Toyota.

There is practically no private second hand market here as people are
hanging onto them so the opportunity to get one when it popped up was
just too good to miss: I'd taken my wife & eldest son over in the hope
of a test drive of a new one (just beyond my budget but still dreamable)
and had the chance to test drive a 10-month old T4 with <5000 miles on
the clock ... for a price that was now just inside my budget (and a good
trade-in on my 9-year old Laguna) ...

It was about time that my luck changed! :-)

[tridim]

2. I rented a car over Xmas and was very disappointed in the selection

I reserved a Ford Focus, but was instead given a fucking Chevy Malibu, it only got 28mpg on the highway. What a complete POC that car was. Not that the Focus would have been much better, but at least it get's reasonable highway mileage.

Why do the rental companies insist on purchasing the crappiest cars possible?