"High fuel prices created a buzz around the efficient vehicles. But as consumers do the math, the cars are becoming a tougher sell..." http://www.businessweek.com/autos/content/...0317_119134.htm
There's nothing new in this article: every criticism and misinformation has been stated somewhere before. Even when mentioning the Prius, it was in passing. They spent time talking about how Ford's lack of advertising resulted in low sales and briefly mention the Prius as being in the "hip crowd". And then finish it off by referencing the Consumer Reports article which CR itself has already recalled as inaccurate. As I said, nothing new here.
When I last had my oil changed the only Prius on the lot was a 2004 no options and 37K miles. But there were a half dozen Hybrid Highlanders sitting there. It appears that hybrid versions of regular cars are not selling as fast as the distinctly hybrid Prius. It will be interesting to see how the Hybrid Camry does.
pricing will be a key factor for the Camry Hybrid. If they want to sell more, they better not "pull a HiHy"
Talking to my salesman last week while I was at the dealer for an oil change. He said hybrid sales are slowing in the Eastern part of the US. He attributes this to selfish, me my and I attitude of many people who would rather pay more for gas than do the right thing. I have to agree!! (I was not surprised to find he has recently becomes a prius owner also)
This was a good comment: People see the Prius and only think about gas and sticker costs and if they will add up after 5 years. No one mentions what the tech of the Prius will save you besides gas. The Prius has no starter or alternator, no pump, belts or pulleys for the steering system, the regenerative braking generator does your braking so you'll never replace the brake pads. You have no distributors, no spark plug wires, no throttle cable. You also have no transmission. And the big one- Toyota has never had a nickel-metal hydride hybrid battery fail since they first came out in 1997. So the $3000-10000 amounts you hear for battery replacement are completely false. The other mistake you always hear compares the Prius to the Corolla. That is wrong, the Prius is equal to a Camry XLE, not a Corolla. The Prius has no transmission and doesn't need the room for it under a long hood. Check the features and the performance of the Prius and the Camry XLE and the $6000 difference disappears.
Funny, Prius sales are up for Calender Year 2006 over Calender Year 2005. HiHy and L400h are up too, since they weren't around in Jan/Feb/Mar 2005. Check back in early September. (You know, after the hurricanes hit the oil rigs and stuff). Oil production in the gulf is still down almost 25% since Katrina/Rita. (Official numbers come out tomorrow). Nate
just another reason to raise the price of gas before we have another million inefficient vehicles put out on our roads.
The high-ticket Prius repairs we have heard about so far included HV batteries, transmissions, and inverters. They have all been extremely rare, often "subsidized" by Toyota, but I think it is wrong to say failure-free. My A/C water pump belt is almost 5 years old, so I better replace it someday, along with the radiator hoses. The new model Prius still has those parts, and rubber still gets old eventually. Hard to say how long the friction brakes will last; 150k miles front and 300k rear is basically a guess. Even though not specified by Toyota, Prius maint probably should include brake fluid and transmission fluid changes, and cleaning the fuel injectors and accelerator butterfly. Intervals of 60k miles, maybe longer. Other aspects of long-term maint are pretty well spelled out by T, and it is up to us to control the prices paid. For conventional vehicles, automatic transmissions and brakes have their own repair industries! It is indeed a good thing to be avoiding them with Prius. Potential dollar savings are hard to estimate, but I bet the automatic transmission is by far the larger.
I've been saying it all along, price, price, PRICE! I can easily justify the price difference of the Prius to let's say a VW Jetta or something like that for space, functionality, etc. But, when you are comparing the exact same vehicle with its non-hybrid counterpart, $2,000+ is just too much money. This is even more true with the Highlander which has a large hybrid to non-hybrid differential. Some people care enough about environment and gasoline costs, but it makes it very difficult for the average buyer to justify. IMHO Ford is way off in the weeds as well with their pricing structure. Kermit isn't going to change the fact that a hybrid sitting right next to a loaded Escape carries a $3000 difference. Tack on 4WD and it is even more. And, I wish Mercury well in their starting price of $30k.
lol, prius is so hard to sell, when they dont have enough of them! 6 days supply, hottest car in the USA, for 3rd year in the row...
