Donuts and fuel-efficient rental cars

My No. 1 tip for renting a car: Bring Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.

Before picking up our rental car at Avis this morning, the kids and I grabbed a dozen glazed for breakfast. We had a few leftover (thank goodness we have some self-control in our family) and I offered one to the associate at the rental car counter. I figured a donut might break the ice before I started negotiating.

My second most important tip: Rent a fuel-efficient vehicle.

Our family car is a Volkswagen station wagon that gets 22 miles to the gallon on the freeway. This mileage is decent but for a long road trip I wanted something more efficient. I decided to rent a small economy car. At the Avis counter, I realized this is actually difficult to do.

"How about an SUV? I can offer you a Ford Escape. That might work well for a family of four," said our friendly Avis associate Linda Corsinotti (pictured above).

"No! We need the most fuel-efficient car available," I explained. "We're driving Route 66 all the way to Chicago. We're on a tight budget. We can't waste any money on gas."

"How about a Toyota RAV4?"

"No, too big. Got anything smaller? What about a hybrid, like a Toyota Prius?"

"We don't have any small cars in the lot right now. Something might come in later."

"Okay, we'll wait," I said.

So we stood around for 10 minutes and finished off our donuts.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! I've got a Ford Focus!" Linda called over to us. "It just came in."

"We'll take it."

So we rented a Ford Focus (pictured below). We'll save $200 on gas by taking this more environmentally friendly car that gets 35 miles to the gallon, rather than our wagon. That'll buy us nearly 300 donuts.