Dealers must be needing to make room for the 2020 Primes.

OK. The "nice person" in your post looked just like one of the certain-words substitutions made by the host-bot.

 

I think funding could have also come through the Farm Bills.

 

I didn’t ask because I’m going for a 2020

 

I was at my dealer near Allentown, PA last week for an oil change and state inspection. There were 85 Rav 4s on the lot, 2 Prius. It looks like they have no interest in stocking or selling the Prius in this part of the country. I don't think they will have any more interest in selling the 2020 Prius.

 

agree

 

The dealers buy and stock the vehicles that their customers are buying. Given limited resources (i.e. lot space, money to spend on cars, etc.) they will stock the lot with product that will move.

A local dealer near Omaha Nebraska has the following: Camry - 35, RAV4 - 40, Sienna - 37, Highlander - 86, Tacoma 2WD - 1, Tacoma 4WD - 21, Prius - 8.

Of the Prii, none are Primes. LE FWD - 1, LE AWD - 3, XLE FWD - 1, XLE AWD - 3.

A second dealer with slightly larger inventory has about the same mix, but with 17 Prius (no Primes). Five of those are 2018 models, then 2019's: L FWD - 1, LE FWD - 10, XLE AWD - 1.

In this local market, the Highlander is the highest stocked, with RAV4 running second.

 

Your kinda sorta correct. However their inventory is the result of the allocation system Toyota utilizes. It allocates the vehicles the region receives to the dealers based upon their past sales. So the low number of Prius' you are seeing is more the result of the regions decision not to bring them in.

 

Because when they look at past sales, they aren't selling a lot of them?

 

that would be a self perpetuating system. never had any pri, never sold any, never gonna order any

 

They have plenty of marketing people trying to figure out how to sell as many cars as possible. If they see a market, they'll provide the product. If there are few sales to be had, they'll focus on those products that do sell and not take up space on the lot for the slow movers.

 

then why do they advertise the fast movers?

 

Depends where you are. Around here, not so much. People want Rav's around here...

{edit} - As an example, we still have two, 2018's on the lot... Couple 2019's as well. They just don't sell that well anymore. In response to bisco up there - I can't recall the last time I ever seen an advertisement for a Prius sadly. You see any advertising for them up where you are? Around here it's Camry, Corolla, Rav that seems to get the airtime on TV.

 

IIRC, the Prius was advertised on the Superbowl two years ago.

 

I believe you are talking about this one.

 

These are competing with similar popular models from other makers. In the case of the RAV4 - Honda CR-V, Subaru Outback.

 

Yep, that's the one.

For kicks and giggles I checked a 75 mile radius for Primes on Autotrader and found 4 new and 17 used. The two big Toyota dealers I've dealt with in the past have 1 Prius each and they used to be loaded with them.