Renting a Toyota Prius to Drive from Houston

[shannonstar]

The title says it all. I am considering renting a Prius Hybrid for our drive from Houston to Orlando. We are considering buying one in the next two years anyway, so I thought it might be a good idea to try it out.

Flying is so expensive out of Houston right now (over 500/person), so even renting for two weeks seems like a good idea at 600 total. What do you think?

 

[Lewisc]

Make sure your rental agreement gives you unlimited miles (or at least as many miles as you need) and doesn't have any geographic restrictions. The "fine print" may void your contract if you drive outside a limited number of states.

 

[shannonstar]

Thanks. I know it will be for unlimited mileage, but I am not sure about leaving the state. I will definitely check into that.

 

[rachdd]

We are waiting to buy our airfare nad it is crazy how expensive it is to fly from Houston to MCO right now! (I would love if anyone has any insight on this) But, just FYI, you can fly from Austin for approx. $250!!

 

[overthemoon4mickey]

We are waiting to buy our airfare nad it is crazy how expensive it is to fly from Houston to MCO right now! (I would love if anyone has any insight on this) But, just FYI, you can fly from Austin for approx. $250!!

We are in Houston too. Thanks goodness for our southwest free flights! I just read either this past weekend or two weekends ago that Houston was one of the nations most expensive airports to fly out of. My daughter has a flight this summer to Minnesota and the cheapest we could get was $785 flying is becoming a luxury!

 

[richmo]

I would definitely check into the taking the car out of state thing. Chances are, if you're renting from a national agency, you'll be OK, but if you're getting a local rental, you might be restricted to in-state. But check either way.

When you're calculating the costs, don't forget to consider the impact of time on your drive. Driving will subtract a day or two from your vacation on each end. If you extend the length of your trip to compensate for the driving time, does the savings in money make up for losing additional vacation days at your job(s)? Time can often be more valuable than money, but everyone's situation with that is unique.

Of course, also factor in gas costs. Cars like the Prius see their gas savings in city traffic. On the interstates, they'll do about the same as anything else. You'll get the real savings when running around Disney, but not on the trip from Houston and back. At a minimum, you're looking at about $200 in gas (2000 miles just for the round trip...assume 40mpg at $4/gal=50 gal * $4)