Prius is the top selling of all cars in Japan for the FIFTH consecutive month!

In the USA, it has fallen off:
Green Car Congress: September Auto Sales Plunge in Aftermath of Cash for Clunkers; SAAR at 9.2M units, LDV Sales Down 41% from August, Hybrid Sales Down 48%

Over half of the USA hybrids, 55%, were Prius. The other hybrids including the Toyota hybrids, carved up the rest. The Honda Insight was number two followed by two Lexus hybrids.

September 2009 Dashboard: End of Clunkers Hurts Hybrids | Hybrid Cars

Bob Wilson

 

hmmm... interesting, especially with the large drop off in sales for US makes me wonder if the drop off is lack of demand or a reduced allocation?

 

Maybe it was due to the termination of the clunkers for cash program?

 

if there is no one waiting for a Pri right now, i might believe that.

however, i know someone at work now that is waiting for a pkg 2 as we speak. in fact, she complained ENDLESSLY when informed that she would not qualify for C4C program. not sure how long she has been waiting, but last i talked to her, she was.

that was a few weeks ago. things may have changed, we only share 2 days a week at work and shifts only overlap a few hours

 

I plotted Prius, Insight and RX400h sales and the Prius and RX400h sales seemed to parallel (using a log scale.) But the Insight, something bad happened in September. The Insight's best month was August and then really took a steep dive in September.

What we really need is some sort of "days on lot" or "days of inventory" to really understand how demand is stacking up versus available inventory. Of course it could be that our clever Toyota team has this very sophisticated annual sales model and ...

Bob Wilson

 

My local dealer has 8 setting on the lot that have come in to them in the last week.
3 blizz pearl
3 red
1 silver
1 winter gray

1 of the reds is a 4 with sunroof
and 1 blizz is a 3 with sunroof.

This is first time i've seen any sitting on the lot.

 

my dealer had some too the other day when i was getting oil changed in the SPM... 5 of them all in a row up front. but at the same time, 2 were being picked up (they always park new sales in same place) so dont know if they were available. i think what we have is a shortage of the very low and very high end models. iow, 3's and 4's abound...

 

there's tons of 2010 Prius' sitting on lots in the SF/bay area where I live. The issue is not many or any package IIs. I've found a couple here and there and dealers are charging an arm and a leg for them. The hype is a bit much for my taste and I'm seriously considering opting out of getting one because of it.

 

To me the most interesting news is Ford selling about the same number of hybrids as Honda. With the low price of the Insight I did not expect the numbers to be that close. Ford not only has comparable numbers to Honda, Fords are full hybrids while the Honda's are all mild hybrids.

 

Doesn't that just go to show that people prefer Hondas over Fords? Half were willing to go with the Honda for some reason, even though it's only a mild hybrid...

(*cough* reliability *cough*)