My guess is the cooling off of gas price increases here in the States. Uugh! A typo in the topic title. It should be "Hybrids gain 49% over last June". "Can"? What the hell was I thinking.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Jul 9 2007, 09:32 PM) [snapback]475901[/snapback]</div> Didn't gas prices come down a bit in May and June? And I imagine from this point sales will drop a bit as people wait for the new 2008s. This is the significant part to me: "Although marking a decrease from the record-setting sales pace set in May, the sales results kept hybrids above the 2% mark in terms of new vehicle marketshare. Overall, sales of light duty vehicles in the US declined 3% in June from the prior year, with light truck sales decreasing 6% while passenger car sales increased 0.2%, according to Autodata." Truck sales down 6%, hybrids up 2%. Would SUVs be included in the trucks?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jul 9 2007, 09:10 PM) [snapback]475922[/snapback]</div> I believe that they are. The bigger ones that are based on truck chassis anyways. The CUVs may not count as trucks though.
I thought they were starting to curb sales of '07s as the '08s came into production. Wonder if that might be the cause. FWIW, I'm in Maine right now with my family. We were seeing so many Prii we started a game to see who could spot them first and you got a point. We're now completely bored with the game...there are just too freaking many! It's really unbelievable for this midwest boy from the lands of SUVs and Pickups (many with very legitimate needs) to see just car after car a hybrid and mostly Prii. I bet I've even seen about 10 1Gs up here.
I think some of the drop may have to do with availability issues. When we bought ours in May, there were 21 units listed as available inventory for the dealership. Within a week or so, they were gone. I've checked the web inventory every week or so out of curiosity and have never seen more than 2-3 units listed at a time throughout June. When we went for an oil change for our Tacoma, I heard a salesperson telling someone they didn't have any Prii on the lot, they weren't getting many in and those they did weren't sticking around. So even if they were selling 100% of their inventory in June, it is still going to be a drop from what they sold in May when they had a bunch of units on the lot.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jul 10 2007, 09:14 AM) [snapback]476059[/snapback]</div> Yeah, the prius is becoming one of the more common cars here in NE. Not that this is a bad thing! Before I wanted to drive something exclusive now I want more people to drive what I drive ...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Jul 9 2007, 09:32 PM) [snapback]475901[/snapback]</div> 08 production around the corner !
I just heard on the news today that the sale of consumer goods was down for June, and the largest sector that was off was car sales. So it's not just the Prius that didn't sell as much. It's everything.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SomervillePrius @ Jul 10 2007, 10:04 AM) [snapback]476111[/snapback]</div> Same here in northern IL, I see at least 5 or 6 during my trip to work and about the same or more on the way home. They are everywhere now!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pyccku @ Jul 13 2007, 07:29 PM) [snapback]478450[/snapback]</div> But year on year, prius sales are up substantially.
