Hertz Partners with Nissan to Rent EV Leaf

If buying an electric vehicle is out of reach for now, perhaps you'd rather rent one and see what it's like? Hertz and Nissan announced the Nissan Leaf will be available to rent starting in 2011 in the US and Europe.

Nissan is touting the Nissan Leaf as the first affordable, zero-emission car, and just announced you can reserve one starting in the spring of 2010. But they have not announced what the MSRP will be. It will come with the batteries (there was a lot of speculation the battery pack would be leased, instead of sold with the car). Nissan expects 20,000 pre-orders to be made before it goes on sales.

Nissan will invite people to "opt-in" and receive updates and information about Leaf through a reservation system that will tell them when the electric car is available--either for test drives or to take home. Participants will receive the latest news about the company's zero-emission activities as well as information about Nissan Leaf and how to become "plug-in ready."

The Leaf will have a range of 100 miles or so and seats five.

"The partnership with Nissan seals Hertz's commitment to green-car rentals and firmly demonstrates our mission to advancing zero-emission mobility on a global scale," said Mark P. Frissora, Hertz Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said in a statement.

Toshiyuki Shiga, Chief Operating Officer of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., commented: "Our partnership with Hertz is an important step towards our goal of promoting widespread acceptance of electric vehicles. Together with our Alliance partner Renault, we aim to be the leader in zero-emission vehicles which we believe are one of the best solutions for sustaining the growing need for transport across the globe."

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Shopping for Used Cars Through Craigslist Just Got Easier

If you've ever been shopping for a used car through craigslist, this extension for firefox may be just the tool you need to get by (found via Lifehacker).

Let's face it, shopping through the web is a pain.  This add-on cuts way down on the number of searches you need to make before you decide to contact the seller.  Just look at the features.

• Gives estimated price from multiple sources. Also provides links for further research.
• Factory car recalls for the car model.
• Consumer reviews, this is the real gem.
• Car reliability information. It shows the msn autos page focused at reliability section. This shows what kinda engine problems occur in that particular car. Other info is also there but reliability info is most useful on that page. Takes like 2 sec to get idea of how reliable that car model is.
• Scans the posting and shows a highlighted message on top informing about:- accident car, rebuilt car, moving sale, one owner, suggests buyer to ask if the car was involved in an accident.
• Lists similar (year/make/model) ads from craigslist on top. This gives the idea of going price and the supply/demand.
• If there is a phone number in the post then it makes it easy to do a search of the phone number on Craigslist to find out if the ad poster has posted any other ads. This sometimes help in determining if its moving sale or a ad by a reseller etc.

You can see in the image just some of the results.  It quickly gave me estimates you should be seeing for a 2001 Prius, plus a bunch of reviews of used Prius, plus the recall notices you might want to ask the buyer about.

If that doesn't get you excited, then you've never shopped for a used car. This is almost all the information you need when you start looking for a used car.

The only bad part is this is an add-on for firefox.  It won't work on Internet Explorer or Chrome (or other web browsers).

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2009 Hybrid Escalade and Honda Insight Getting Big Incentives

According to Edmunds, the 2009 Hybrid Escalade and Honda Insight are now the 'Deals of the Month' list, with big incentives.

GM is working to move the 2009 Hybrid Escalade off the lot, to make room for the 2010 model

"There are finance and cash deals on several of GM's hybrids, largely because sales have been slow all year and the automaker is hoping to move the 2009 models off the lots before the 2010s start piling up," said Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell.

The Insight has faced heavy competition from the Prius, right from the start. So Honda is looking for ways to fight back through price. Since the Insight gets lower fuel economy, and doesn't have the same reputation as the Prius, the best way for Honda to sell the 'everybody hybrid' is to work with the price.

"And the Insight just hasn't been moving very well, so the reduced lease they're offering is a good hook to pull people into Honda dealerships to look at them," she said.
...
As a result, Honda is now offering the entry-level Insight LX, which has a base price of $20,510, with a discounted 3-year, 36,000-mile lease of $199 a month.

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Toyota Sets Up Cash for Toyota Site

Taking advantage of the 'Cash for Clunkers' program, Toyota has set up a site specifically for pointing out which cars are available from Toyota and Scion, that qualify under the government program.  They list 15 cars, but are careful to point out that certain options will disallow some of those vehicles.

Qualifying Vehicles [1]
Toyota			Scion
Avalon	Matrix	Tacoma	tC
Camry	Prius	Tundra	xB
Corolla	Solara	VENZA	xD
FJ Cruiser	Sienna	Yaris
Highlander	RAV4	4Runner
[1] Vehicles equipped with certain options may not qualify.

You can fill out a form to find local deals (dealerships, really) that are near you. I'm assuming that only the dealers that become certified under the CARS program will be shown here.

I expect other car companies will quickly follow suit with their own sites to 'help' consumers find their way.

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