"Toyota (Charts) reported its best-ever October, with overall sales up 13.6 percent. Its hybrids suffered because lower gas prices make the premium price harder to justify. Prius, the hybrid flagship, saw its sales fall 8.6 percent, though to a still-healthy 8,733 for the month." http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/01/magazines/...rtune/index.htm
Oh yeah, I'm printing this puppy to PDF so I can whip it out next summer when all these people are complaining about $3.50 / gallon gas.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Nov 6 2006, 10:36 AM) [snapback]344572[/snapback]</div> That will be when the "free gas for a year" option on their current gas guzzler expires.
Well, I can happily say that we still have our Prius, and will likely keep it until it doesn't run anymore. We've still got our old car (Kia, usually 23 mpg) to have as a second vehicle if the need arises, but it will most likely be traded in a few years for either another Prius or something better, if something better is available at that time.
The funny thing is that most of them probably thought they were getting a deal. P.T. Barnum was right; "There's a sucker born every minute"..
1. My Prius is a comfortable, roomy, quiet, reasonably luxurious, fun to drive car that just happens to get nearly twice the mileage and emit significantly fewer emissions than you'd expect from something like this. 2. Energy prices tend to go up, not down. Simple things for simple minds, I suppose. [smile]
Wonder if they considered the 'tax credit' effect, where people who were planning on buying a Prius in October rushed to get it done in September to get the full tax credit.
Just goes to show that John Q. Public cares more about his pocketbook and his convenienve than he does about environment and energy independence. The sad part is that we can give ourselves 50-75 years of tranistion time before oil becomes totally impractical as a fuel...or we can give ourselves 10 years by acting like oil is the first beer keg at a frat party.
There's definitely a tax credit effect going on - no doubt about that. Also, it's pretty clear that the increase in truck and suv sales is a direct result of 1. the gas price dip and 2. the fact that manufacturers have been going nuts with the rebates and low finance rates on the trucks and suv's. Not to mention that Joe Consumer doesn't care if he saves money or if he is spending more than he's making. He doesn't care if he only uses his SUV to its full potential five days out of the year. Bigger is better. One of my relatives looked at me like I was completely nuts when my wife and I bought a Prius with a kid on the way...instead of buying an Expedition or whatever other aircraft carrier is on the market. Also, let's see what happens after election day with gas prices....
