Toyota profit for Prius Gen 3?

Toyota is a huge, well established company. Why in the world would they willingly offer any vehicle at a loss, or just break even? The Prius has been a good selling vehicle for years. Offering a Prius at break even, or less just doesn't make sense....

The theory that we'll lose a little on everything we make, but we'll make up for it in volume has always been a losing business proposition (unless you are a government entity).

Keith

 

These kind of inside figures will probably never been known to the public. The general consensus is that Toyota lost money on the classic Prius (gen1) but has made money on the 2004 and later models. Toyota has spread its hybrid system development costs over so many vehicles (more than anyone else by a factor of 2x) yet the iconic Prius would have paid for the development early in its life.

 

General Motors did that for years

 

Does your coworker have any documentation? If not, why do you believe him? Toyota hasn't sold any Prius at a loss ever. Since I mentioned it, I am as credible as your coworker. Nobody on the outside has any solid numbers on the Prius and Toyota will never release them.

 

In any manufacturing business, price structure is established (depending on supply/demand, of course) that a profit margin of 10% to 20% is realized. So, working backwards, one might be able to presume the following:
Sale price: $22,800
Dealer incenctives: $1700
Misc Costs: $1900
Profit margin: 15%
Cost to manufacture: approx $16000

These numbers are highly speculative, but I feel not far from reality given standard business practices.

 

It could be a loss leader but more likely they just make something modest and then their margins are much higher no the other models. I actually can barely believe that people pay as much as $7k extra to go from a base II to the V. Seems like money in the pisser to me for what you get for the extra cash.

 

Making a loss with Prius 3? Joking right? They are laughing their way to the bank. They don't get to world No.1 for playing nice.
The car is made out of the cheapest material they can possibliy find. If you look very closely at the car and how much they tried to cut cost you will think twice about how much this car really worth.

The sunglasses holder they dont' even bother to put some felt in it so it will not rattle. how much is felt to them? Nothing but they don't even want to put that in. What about the glove comparments? No felt in it either just hard plastic so you can't put anything in it without making a sound. How much is putting some felt in them? 10 cents? Lets make it 1 dollar, but yet they don't want to do that either.

Oh and the cloth for the seats. Have you really seen them once they are off. Terrible low cost cloth seats and they thought they are being clever by making it look like suede. Ohter car maker gives much better high tech cloth seats such as Audi and even Honda.

So yeah their cost to make the car probably is less than 5k.

 

ound:

 

Look at it this way.. Making an automobile (and all of its' components) is a labor intensive endeavor. If Toyota had to pay Detroit automotive labor costs, then it would be a money losing proposition at the current asking sales price.

Keith

 

If you look below in "Similar Threads", you will find the report back in April 2009 that Toyota make $3,100 profit.

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...oyota-make-3-100-profit-each-hybrid-sold.html

 

First year redesigned model (2010) will make less profit compared to 2015 model.

 

Now that is highly unlikely. The original Japanese only Prius was almost certainly sold at a loss. Maybe even originally (but not for long) at a per unit loss, IE the car cost more to build (including labor) then the selling price. This happens often to manufacturers on new products as the assembly line is running slower (and therefore labor costs per unit are higher).

 

pretty sure he was being sarcastic.

 

Seconded :rockon:

Felt is cheap. It may not be added because it may not wear well. My 2000 Maxima has no felt in the glove compartment or sunglass holder. I didn't check my other vehicle. The Prius' sunglass holder is small but does hold a single pair. My van's holder takes two, though

I would guess actual cost for a Prius II, assuming invoice is at, say, $22500, is ~$20,000. Not exactly sure, though, the margin probably is fairly modest. I am having a very hard time finding online with major brands what their actual cost is. I found some buffoon who said a $20k car costs about $2k, the rest being markup

EDIT: Now I see that $3100 above the numbers seem to gel with my best guess.

 

Business is profit, and Toyota is big business.

 

Probably Art Spinella. Just when you think no one else will buy into that sorry huxter, you find someone like the guy's friend above.



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