There is currently no fleet incentive on the FEH. Fleet buyers are eligible for a $1500 invoice reduction on gas Escapes but fleet incentives for the hybrid have all been marked "N/A" since the supply crunch last summer. Order information in effect now includes a note by the Escape Hybrid section that says "Fleet Incentive Code (56M) will not be accepted at time of order entry or at time of sale reporting. The Special Fleet Account Credit will apply". A fleet buyer might get a fleet credit of $500, but that's probably it.

I checked with a friend at Enterprise who said their in-dealer offices are usually the only place to find certain cars. She said regular offices usually won't have the new Cadillac CTS available, but the location at your local Cadillac store will have several. She said their outlets inside Toyota dealers keep Priuses available for rent. She said there are about a dozen Escape Hybrids in my area (Denver) with this sort of arrangement. She said they are often as service replacement, but are also frequently rented by people who want to do a days-long test drive.

This explains why they always gave me an Enterprise Prius to drive when my Prius was in the shop, even though there were waiting lists to buy one. It was in the shop a lot, so I got to know the Enterprise guy pretty well.

 

Three years ago I was offered a free upgrade to a Prius from my subcompact at SF Airport because the guy in front of me refused to take it. I jumped at the chance for nothing more than trying something new. He was acting like it was powered by plutonium or something and made comments to me from across the lot that he wasn't crazy enough to drive it.
Driving it was a very educational experience, mostly positive with my only complaint that the brakes were incredibly grabby when parallel parking into a tight spot. Porpoised the car back and forth as if I was a rookie driving a stick. Being a gadget geek, I loved monitoring the readouts to see what the car was doing and how my driving changed it. A hybrid had never been a consideration due to our desire for AWD and the rather small mileage we rack up on each vehicle. When it came time to change our vehicles this year, there was a familiarity with the Hybrid driving experience, and this made considering the HiHy seemless. Hard to say if we would have decided on the HiHy without the Prius experience.

 

When my s.o. and i went to albuquerque last march, i asked if they had any hybrid to rent, if i remeber correctly, they said they had a few but the were all out but asked if we wanted to drive the 08 gas escape ( we always request fords) that they had just recived, but my s.o. being the guy that he is decided to spend the extra $15 a day to drive the expedion el and it 13 or so mpg way to much car for just the two of us. we are planning a trip down again in a few months and im going to make my reservation before so i can drive a hybrid

 

I am in SF in 2 weeks and reserved a Prius from Hertz. Hopefully I'll get it and compare it to my FEH. Otherwise it will be another Hyundai...

rcomeau