35% (or 25%) of hybrid owners don't buy 2nd hybrid

There you go again Troy, but I actually agree. In my state we try very hard to make sure hybrids are not advantageous, so I will certainly look at non-hybrids when the time comes. The only thing Prius has going for it, its such a darn good car overall. If Toyota marketed a non-hybrid Prius, the hybrid market would be smaller quickly.

 

The sadness of the low repurchase rate in of 2011, primarily Q2-Q3, is negligible compared to the massive damage and loss of life from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami early that year, which shut down the major factories and severely constrained the hybrid supply for months.

That leads to a selection bias -- loyal customers have incentive to delay a trade until the supply returns to normal, while non-loyal customer have no reason to delay. This is very apparent in the Q2-Q3 figures for 2011. The fact that we haven't seen similar reports for normal supply years since hints very strongly that this selection did occur.

According to other sources at the time of the original report, there was nothing sad about the loyalty figures listed here. Other models are no better.

 

Outdated surveys have basically no leverage on what will happen with the next-gen offerings in 2015/16, especially taking economic recovery into account.

 

The Prius is a good car but it's still too much of a premium for your average person to consider viable. Sure there are a good number of enthusiasts who like the car, but sales need to progress beyond these.

We pay over $8 a US gallon, yet sales of hybrids are stagnant. What sort of profit do Toyota make on the cars. Are they selling at a reasonable profit or are they trying to fleece owners? Why are hybrid options always significantly more expensive?

 

Yes, please do check that second link, as I did earlier. 2011 Q2 (26.4%) and Q3 (30.9%) are well below the lowest of 2009 (34.7%) and 2010 (36.6%). The surrounding quarters of 2011 both exceeded 40%. Other car models would love to have such model loyalty.

No, you are just back with your old FUD tactics.

 

took the new out of news.

 

This article is almost 2 years old. What is the current information?

 

This 'news' was discussed ad-nauseum back in 2012 IIRC the year.

If Troy wants to troll, I want something more current. As for the article, pointing out that people do not buy bad hybrids again is not exactly front page news, or that people tend to buy different kinds of cars to serve different wants/needs in multi-car families.

Buying a Prius, and then later buying a truck e.g. is quite a bit different than replacing a Prius with a truck.

Few people have been driving hybrids for longer than 12 years in the US, yet you say you have bought three, implying each car has been kept at most 4 years. I don't know what you are doing wrong, but you most certainly have not paid a 10k hybrid premium on each car.


Are you buying used in awful condition ? Get smart, and buy a new or newish Prius that will last 10 - 20 years. Then the ~ 3k premium of the hybrid will settle into a rounding error of your total cost per mile.

 

I think this article has been debunked or at least put in perspective before. How does toyota do in loyalty?
Cars With The Most Brand-Loyal Buyers - Forbes
Toyota does fairly well, but the prius leads toyota in customer loyalty.

Now that is second quarter of 2012, the polk study picked a different time period, which of course was exceptional for toyota. This is loyalty in bought anouther toyota. But if you want something different than a prius, toyota did not give you many hybrid choices in 2011, now there is the prius c, v, phv, avalon hybrid, and much improved camry hybrid.

Na, there was something bigger going on, the toyota unintended acceleration scandal.

As to buying anouther hybrid, IMHO figures still must be pretty low. Most trading in hybrids bought the original with the old epa mpg figures, and greatly under performed those numbers. Add in the huge hybrid premium for cars like the Lexus Rxh, and the battery problems with the honda civic hybrid, is it any wonder non- prius owners are not likely to buy anouther hybrid? They are much more likely than the normal market though. 25% non-prius hybrid ownwers buy anouther hybrid, versus around 3% of non-hybrid owners. That is over 800% more in perspective.

Yes and with relatively low gas prices, looking to stay bellow $4/gallon outside of california for at least the next year, tco for a non-hybrid looks attractive. In california with high gas taxes, long commutes, and CARB instituted refinery regulation that causes gas price spikes, the market for hybrids is quite good. We have a tale of two markets. The federal government could institute higher oil taxes, and reduce other taxes, but instead have instituted cafe requirements. CAFE is likely to push more hybrids into the sytem, but not as a large percentage of the market.

 

I don't know.
Coincidentally I just created a post about enjoying operating a hybrid. This is the first I've ever owned.

As long as I can afford it, and assuming the technology isn't replaced or surpassed with something that is simply better, I really think I would always consider a hybrid.

I'll admit that the idea of getting a 2nd Truck or SUV as a back-up or specific use vehicle has occurred to me. But I'm pretty impressed and sold on Hybrid Operation.

Unless years of ownership reveal some ugly unforeseen underside? My next vehicle will probably also be a hybrid.

 

Blah blah.

If you want to offer some transparency, post for each car:
Model,Year bought, MY, purchase price, odo reading when purchased

And while the Honda Insight first hit American shores in Dec 1999, nothing you have said leads me to think you bought one 14 years ago. Right ?

 

What's with the HIGHWAY only efficiency?

Excluding city & suburb is not constructive.