It even worked on the first try.

No car purchase for me any time soon. About four years ago, our 237K Tercel died. I considered hybrids, but for an average of under 5K miles/year (we moved from the country into town about the time the Tercel was dying), I could not justify the cost, and bought a Mazda Protege with 40K miles on it for about a third of what a hybrid would have cost. Had we stayed out in the country driving 20K miles/year, the choice might have been different.

So my rentals on business trips have been purely that, rather than trials, though I've been more than a little interested in the cars. I had been renting the usual run-of-the-mill and was increasingly unhappy. I generally care about cars only as functional objects, but function does matter, and a car that rattles my *** off or can't play a CD annoys me. Add to this the car rental companies' rigorous equation of "compact" with "economy" -- they don't rent good quality small cars. But I like small cars, and consider a larger car to be a downgrade. So I kept looking (even asked on FlyerTalk) and eventually located Fox / EVRentals. The HCH and Prius are small-to-medium size good quality cars -- and from Fox I can reserve them by model instead of just category.

Of course, now that I've had the chance to drive them, I won't go back. And I fervently recommend the rental experience for anyone interested in buying either hybrid, if any Fox outlet which carries them is within range.

I like both the HCH and the Prius and if I were buying, I might have a hard time choosing between them. There are differences which will matter to some, and if I were researching for purchase, I might find differences which matter to me.

So, the differences below are in the category of "just different", not good or bad or preferential except as noted.

The Prius is Buck Rogers, in-your-face about the fact that you are using this technology. Honda has done a stupendous job of making the HCH feel and drive exactly like the cars that people are (unfortunately) accustomed to. Someone who has never driven a hybrid can drive out with a HCH without even noticing anything different, but will need a quick lesson on the Prius. The Prius can give more information about recent efficiency, but that's probably only relevant when you are new to it. The Prius automatically resets its charts when you fill the gas tank; the HCH gives you normal A and B trip odometers which include MPG figures that reset along with the mileage, giving you more control on how you monitor the efficiency.

The Prius is larger, takes more space to park but has more space inside. The HCH has a traditional solid small car feel which I like. Nonetheless the Prius has a smaller turning radius.

The Prius is more fun in terms of experimenting with the technology. I once had to creep at 3 miles per hour for half an hour, and watched it top 75 mpg as the engine stayed off and it ran on the battery. OTOH, this is probably almost totally irrelevant once you've driven it long enough to get used to all this.

Having the efficiency (mpg) constantly displayed is extremely enlightening as to how driving habits affect it. This is true of both cars, though it's somewhat better displayed in the Prius. The contrast between driving a level road and driving up and down mountains is shocking.

I find myself REALLY objecting to the driving habits of most Americans -- flash off at the green light, pedal to the metal, push hard to stay in front of your neighbor. While I'm looking at the gas mileage instead of trying to save three seconds, and thinking how much better we'd all be with a little more cooperation, in particular if we all accepting accelerating a lot less quickly. Why does it matter so much who is first in line at the red light? Hybrids do that to you.

Both cars do much better when the engine is kept hot. This seems to be the major factor for both, rather than the city/highway difference. Both can do extremely well in either city or highway driving, but both lose a lot when driven for only two or three miles with time to cool down in between.

I can't compare the efficiency. One thing that renting makes clear is that maintenance will matter, and I'm sure that Fox isn't taking the time to monitor efficiency and to tune for top efficiency as an owner will. I see major differences in efficiency from one car to another of the same model.

Non-hybrid-related features probably came out on different schedules, but since Fox undoubtedly specs the cars for their own purposes, what I've seen may or may not represent what an individual could/can buy on the open market. For instance, Fox had MP3 CD players in one before the other -- I won't mention which because AFAIK that's just a matter of what Fox bought. Similarly I've had one car break down on me (probably alternator failure), and that's too small a sample to be worth mentioning which it was. Of course since I've only been renting, I have no idea about maintenance issues.

I dislike the Prius' cruise control -- it cancels the setting when you even slow down very much, and always if you come to a stop. The HCH's cruise works normally. The Prius has the standard on-the-column cruise; the HCH has a very well designed on-the-wheel cruise which I like. The HCH's cruise stays on when the ignition is turned off and back on; the Prius' cruise must be enabled each time you start the car.

The Prius, bizarrely, has an American-style parking brake (foot operated). The HCH has a parking brake operated by hand, as God intended.

I dislike the bar across the back window in the Prius. Well duh, does anybody like it?

The Prius has a lot of on-the-wheel controls which I suppose can be very handy once you memorize them. Many weeks of driving it have been insufficient for me to memorize more than part of them. The Prius gives you the choice of memorizing these on-the-wheel controls (which are not even backlit) or going to the touch screen, which requires too much eyes-off-the-road time. I think the HCH's controls are generally better designed for these reasons.

I've had problems with the CD players in both (skipping). When you put an MP3 CD in the Prius and do random play, it only does "random within folder", no option for "random on entire disk". At least in the rental cars, neither has an iPod interface or even an auxiliary input. If I were buying, I'd probably look carefully at audio options (dealer and aftermarket).

But I still like them both ...

Was that more than you asked for?

Edward