It appears that there are always a limited quantity of certain colors of cars, the Prius being included in this. Does anyone know what the story is with the car manufacturers on how they determine how much of one color of a car to produce over another color?? When I was looking for my Prius it seems that the only colors left or should I say the colors that were more abundant on the lot was the Silver and the Driftwood Pearl. It seems that more of one color is being manufactured over another color. Do they produce the same amount of cars in each package level in every color? How do they really determine what they are going to produce? It seems that some colors are always in high demand and they don't have enough of them and other colors are the ones that get left behind with the choice being chosen last by many people. If statistics show that people like the brighter bolder colors like the reds, blues, etc. why don't they just produce more of them or at least an equal amount of each color? I really wanted a Seaside Pearl or Silver Pine Mica, but these colors seemed very limited in my area. I actually have only seen 1 Spectra Blue color so far, and have seen so many black and silver Prius.
I don't know about color, but the package #1 and 5 are most in production according to both dealerships I visited. Package #1 is Base and is BORING, I told one guy, he laughed and said it is quick to get off the production line. I was torn between red and blue; I've always wanted a red car. But the blue Prius is a great color. Oh well, I ordered red.
I would be interested to know this. My dealer said that my black one was rare, as black is not as common as the other colors.
When getting my car - I was told that the dealer ordered what was selling. Here in MA, one can find very few touring models and since that version was highly rated, I wanted that model but was told that I would have to wait a LONG time. I suspect it is the same for colors - they order what is selling.
I was at the dealer today having some work done and talking to a dealer. He came up to me and said wow the spectra Blue the rarest of the Prius.He was telling me the reason why is because they only made x amount and most never made it over to the USA. Toyota wasn't sure that the dark blue would sell LOL. He was saying he was not even sure they would do a spectra Blue in 09.
hmmm. whats the other blue? anyway I see mostly silver, SPM, blue, pearl (tan), some white, and a few reds here in Central FL. I saw exactly 1 black one. For some reason the silvers and whites sell more around here. *shrug*
The color ratios are based on sales projections. The results are somewhat self-fulfilling for the Prius. They sell all they can make, so the most common color becomes the best selling color. Silver is the most common and widely produced. Tom
Most common i think is white. I've seen hundreds around San Diego. UCSD operates probably 30 of them alone. Wanted a Silver Pine Mica, but White was my second choice
For the record, I asked about colors in 2006 before Magnetic Gray: Super White 6% Classic Silver 30% Driftwood Pearl 15% Barcelona Red 12% Silver Pine Mica 5% Seaside Pearl 20% Black 12% The dealers don't order colors or options. They get allocations.
here in NH i see every color of prius on a regular basis. if i had to guess which color was the rarest i would say blue.
My observation: The most common color I see is silver and after that, Seaside Pearl (blue). The dealers told me they don't ship any Spectra Blue Micas into the Midwest. I've never seen one. They also said they can't get package #4's here either. My brother in Las Vegas has a package #4 and he says they're common there. Go figure.
freshmtt, JimN gave you the figures that he learned for the 2006 models. I even had a dealer give me a copy of one month's production orders/runs (which I can't find now). I know it was in early 2005 & it was 35% Silver, 15%,16%, & 17% for Salsa, Seaside, & Tideland (from memory only & NOT necessarily in that order), 6% White (that's only 89% total for the colors I was interested in, leaving the remain'g 11% to be divided into the Black & the Driftwood). If I could find those sheets I would come back & post them more accurately, but I really don't see much need because now in 2008 (which is almost done anyway) we have a totally different mix of colors anyway (some have been deleted, some added, & some replaced by a similar hue of the same basic color). And who knows what colors the 2009's will bring very shortly. Ken (in Bolton,Ct)
Brighter bolder colors are favored by young people. That's why small economy cars are often in those colors. Older people like more boring sedate colors. I think traditional environmentalist Prius owners like the pastels for some reason. People like myself ("middle aged?") who bought recently for economic reasons may prefer solid colors. I like Black. So: young people: bright and bold. older people: boring and sedate. environment: pastel. ?: solid.
Maybe that explains why we picked Barcelona Red? It helps people to know it's our car! My dad laughed when we brought the Prius home--he accompanied us on our first road trip--and given the number of Prius drivers we passed who were around my dad's age, jokingly told us that everyone probably assumed it was his car! At least the red makes it clear that we're cool and Yoda's ours.
Well, "Arrest me Red" or "Fire-Engine Red", usually means you want to be seen, so I'd guess you are an outgoing person. Let's see, you: Posts: 73 Friends: 3 Color: Red Yes those numbers indicate you must be a social and outgoing person. Me: Posts: 395 Friends: 0 Color: Black Yes, I'm "somewhat" of a, umm, "mysterious, yet verbose loner" (with a family and kids so thus the Prius replacing the sports car).
