Dashboard: April - January 2013

Perhaps their numbers are year over year rather than monthly?
Otherwise they really don't work at all.

 

All true. However, the numbers they mention are correct in that they are comparing April 2013 to April 2012.
How valid or meaningful that comparison is, is up for debate.
The most meaningful trends are of course long term trends. A few months is vastly better that a single month. I would argue that year over year is better yet with the best being multiple years of monthly trends.
Comparing one month in the second quarter to the average of the first quarter is virtually meaningless except to show seasonal trends.
Interesting information for showing seasonal trends but meaningless to show consumer interest in a product.

I do agree with you though that he article is picking a single timeframe (year over year) which shows just a tiny part of the puzzle.

 

Tell you a couple things about Camry hybrid - Noticed most of the units at dealers are the hybrid LE (base) model. Few are the XLE. ....

I positively would not buy the Hybrid LE Camry. Why? It has a mechanical adjust driver's seat which just doesn't adjust up for me.

I've phoned it in to Toyota Corporate : Either man up and put a power adjust driver's seat in Camry Hybrid LE or AT LEAST make it a 'few hundred dollars more' option as in Non-hybrid Camry LE.

A salesguy said, well the solution would be to get the base XLE hybrid, but, not many of them in inventory. Not that I'm looking to buy, just looking.

I'm not too thrilled about the way Camry hybrid is optioned out and packaged.

Is Toyota flooding dealers with hybrid LE's hoping mostly taxi drivers will snatch them up?

Camry hybrid is a great sedan with one drawback : There is virtually no pass through the rear seats for cargo.

Fusion hybrid trunk is a bit smaller, but seats fold to make a better pass through. Somehow Toyota needs to improve this. My sister said they rely on the pass through for cargo at times.

 

Wild guess, but one or two cars that may be affecting sales of hybrids and Camry hybrid are the new Accord sedan which just hit the 30 mpg combined mark and to lesser degree Altima which is at 31 mpg combined. btw, Accord was #1 selling car April '13. Both models are all new and looking good with 'smart key entry' and push button start in higher trims. CVTs also.

These type cars are simple, very affordable, have huge trunks*, great interior room and solid history.

Every Accord comes with BT, USB and rearview camera. Starts at $22.xk sticker. How to beat it?

* Except for Ford Fusion non-hybird whose trunk not so wide. Better fix that.

We still live in an era where 30 something mpg highway is apparently good. Television says so all the time.

 

Booo .....

What's the word on Prius Plug-In?? 599 last month? Ouch!

I think there's plenty of them on lots. They get tax credit.

I noticed early on it's good bit more expensive than reg Prius and sticker says only save $100 a year in 'fuel' costs (1,100 vs. 1000)?

Fellow cyclist said he wished PiP had about twice the EV range. Maybe that's the big prob?

 

I'm posting a bunch, but I'm guessing part of alt vehicle challenge is conventionals are getting a bit better on gas. Direct injection, CVTs and such are bringing out a few more MPGs. Their lower cost, simpler drivetrain and arguably better driveability helps sales I guess.

Toyota needs to pull some magic for the 4th gen Prius which needs to be more than just evolutionary this next time around. Better scrap the unusual interior, go to indy rear suspension, somehow make the look 'more mainstream' (how to do that?), better driveability.

 

PiP sales are low because they are not officially available in most states.

Bob, I completely agree with you.
Each time frame has its own challenges and shows different aspects of trend data.
I like the four months you use and I know you understand seasonal trends. Just want to make sure others do as well.
My favorite chart though is sales vs month since introduction. Of course, that has all sorts of challenges as well.

 

Its really not that hard, last year the fusion hybrid was a generation older and more expensive. The redesign is taking camry hybrid sales yoy in april. The avalon hybrid and lexus es hybrid also not available last april are taking some camry hybrid sales.

The fusion hybrid has a trunk designed for the way it looks, and for most people looks are more important than a cubic foot of trunk space, otherwise we would all be driving '70s style cars.

 

I like this unrelated chart better

 

New Corolla can help. We will see

 

The efficient car market definitely is not closed, otherwise how would have camry hybrid sales grown so much in 2012. YoY though camry hybrid got new competition from

Lexus ES
Avalon
fusion
c-max
Lincoln MKZ

There were over 9000 cars sold in april in the models I suggested. Hybrids with more power and nicer interiors than the prius had a big rise in 2013. The camry simply lowered its own conquest rate, as drivers had more choice. That looks like a healthy growing market to me. If camry can lower its hybrid premium in the next redesign, then a higher percentage of camries sold will be hybrids. The hybrid premium seems to drop with every generation of hybrids.

 

I remember when my wife when the kids were young we had about 2 Camry's, and a Toyoda Cressida once. They are big and safe, 4 doors great for children, and not that expensive. I can see many young families buying Camry's Hybrid to drive down gas costs and reduce CO2 out of the tail pipe.

 

Is it 3.2 or 9.73 billions?

 

its $3.17 Billion for the quarter, $13.8B for the year. The lower yen helps export profits, and most of those are to america.

There were fewer prii sold last quarter, but the weaker yen made the imported cars more profitable.

I have a friend that works in the san antonio truck, and he says its at full production. The mississippi factory is also chugging away. This presents considerable cost cutting from when the corola and tacoma were made at UAW and California NUMMI, most of the costs of transition are now over.

The thing I worry about is this good news for toyota may be bad news for america. Toyota may be thinking again that it is profitable enough to not move prius production to the US.

 

Sales volume for fuel efficient cars are more relate to gas price.