Prius is a "no sell" to most, why ???

I bet the 2010 will bring many fencesitters into the fold.

To me, the styling is a big improvement, front, rear ...

Many don't like the center console, but that arrangement is common is 'sportier' cars and most like sportiness

the 10 should have some more power, which would be nice for the steep hills

The seating / ergonomics ... I'm really hoping this is much improved in the 2010. Folks, it's just not good enough in stock trim on the current model. Yes, if you happen to be a certain size and shape, perhaps it works for you.

I think the things above are the important stuff - how the car looks, how it feels to sit in, and how it performs.

The other stuff is nice to have.

'Course high gas prices always bring more Prius buyers.

 

everyone's got different likes and dislikes. you like the prius and that's cool, but others may like a different shape, sound, feel, whatever. don't take it personally. when it's based upon misinformation, then you've got reason to take issue. but there's a reason so many different vehicles are available- life would be damn boring if we all drove the same thing.

 

It would be bloody hectic waving to all those Prius drivers!!!

 

"It's over priced, under sized, and about as fun to drive as a toaster. Add to that the high maintenance costs and the need to replace a very expensive battery on a routine basis and you can see why no one wants one."

Ummm. I'm confused. I'll give you 'over priced' (well higher than non-hybrid). I'm not so sure about 'fun to drive' - my previous car was a MB E55, which was DEFINITELY fun to drive but also only got about 17MPG, but I'm not missing much with the Prius (we have 2 of 'em). Maybe I'm just getting older.

The ones that get me are 'high maintenance...and the need to replace a very expensive battery on a routine basis". My maintenance hasn't been high, and it's a Toyota, which isn't known for high maintenance (like say MB). And, replacing that battery - it's guaranteed (like all the electrical) for 100k miles. How much will it cost you to replace a hydraulic transmission in a 'normal' car? I think it ends up being about the same...

I drive mine to reduce the amount of money I send to foreign interests, which act against American interests in many ways. So, yes, I'll put up with 'less fun', and be happy!

FWIW.

 

That is probably why you may have missed that Tom combined every incorrect Prius stereotype into two sentences.

 

Ummm...his post is called 'sarcasm". Pretty good actually. Thank you Tom.

 

I need my sarcasm sign.

Are any of you fans of the TV show The Big Bang Theory, which features two nerdy physicists who are roommates? On one show, one of them is having a hard time catching sarcasm from the other. The sarcastic one says "Do I need to hold up my sarcasm sign?", to which the other replies "You have a sarcasm sign?!?" :doh: It's a very funny show, especially if you live with a nerd or happen to be one.

Tom

 

I certainly hope Tesla is ignored by the big 3. Only horrible things would happen to Tesla if bought by one of the big 3. While Tesla is adapting to the economic downturn with layoffs and plan changes, they are not depending on Uncle Sam to solve their problems. As far as the backlog, that is the exact opposite problem of the big three.

 

I've been using :madgrin: for that.

 

To the poster speaking about the comments from co-workers. I go out for lunch every day and usually have 2-5 people (including me) in the car. The first time we hit 5, someone commented "uhm.... Maybe I'll hang back. Could be tight in your car". We all went and everyone said "wow. There's a lot of room in here". Every single time that's what I hear. The top comments from those who have never been in one:

1. There's a lot of room in here
2. It's really quiet.
3. This is pretty nice.
4. How much did this cost?
5. What's your mileage?
6. You get WHAT for mileage?! Holy crap!
7. Wait... The car is on?

Usually this happens within the first minute or two. And actually number 7 usually happens higher on the list, otherwise the list is pretty accurate.

 

OK, I have a lot of friends who are "car people". I am heavily involved in the collector car hobby in my area. These people know me, and then see me drive a Prius.......they are amazed, and have asked why.
I needed something that would get me back and forth to work and to take on vacations. The Prius suits me nicely for that. I do love the car, and so does my wife. (she bought it actually). I drive it a lot, mainly the 27 miles each way to work 5 days a week, and on one vacation so far, racking up the mileage easily.
But, during the summer months, it is top down cruising in one of my Corvair Convertibles, or Dodge Convertibles, or in my Thunderbird, or the Lincoln Mark V I just picked up. I enjoy driving, and enjoy my cars. And my friends know this, and wonder how I can enjoy driving a Prius! They don't get it........and it is hard to explain. But amazingly, most of those people have their daily car as well as their hobby car(s).
For them, a Prius is a tough sell.........it does not have the seat of the pants gut wrenching performance they seek.
And it does not help that a comedian makes the Prius out to be a car for gay people.
(Not that there's anything wrong with that).
The technology of the car scares people, me too to a certain extent. I'm a hands on kind of guy who has restored cars and changed my share of motors and transmissions, and do the regular repairs to all my cars. Very seldom do any of my cars have repairs farmed out to someone else. I even have my own tire machine and spin balancer, not to mention a lift. The Prius may have a lot of things to maintain I am unequipped to handle.
The technology, in some ways I am a geek who relishes this stuff. But have no idea how to text message or even to receive one. I have an ipod, but am resistant to high def TV and digital TV. I still use VHS tapes to record TV shows I want to watch later, and have no idea about DVRs and how they work.
I'm going to be 53 in a few weeks, and am amazed at the changes to everyday life around me, and cannot keep up.
The Prius, to a lot of people, represents a future they are uncertain of, and vehemantly resistant to. People, do not like change to things they are used to.

 

Hello swi66, great post. I'll be 74 shortly and find all the new technologies challenging, interesting etc. I'll admit to not understanding, sometimes even the bare essentials, I can search for answers if need be. Probably centuries ago one could virtually ignore change, but not nowdays, it's happening too fast. I think the first sign of really getting old is when you lose this quest for knowledge. The number of retail clerks that don't have the slightest idea of how anything works is amazing. I had a clerk in a well known electronics store did not know that the AM antenna in the radio was only for AM and not FM. We are speaaking of ~50 year old technology here. Congradulations to you for your quest, and your collection of cars and especially knowing why you bought the Prius.:cheer2:

 

The thing I've been told the most by anyone who's ridden in my Prius is they don't feel at home with all the digital electronic controls. I have to admit it took me a while to get used to it myself. My better half drives it maybe every couple of weeks and treats each drive like it's a whole new learning experience. I think some people adapt easy, most don't and would rather stay with what they are used to. So, in one word, inertia.

 

Unfortunately a lot of people in the UK get their car news from Top Gear, which regularly criticises the Prius (regurgitating the Hummer rubbish, only naming a Land Rover rather than the Hummer - I can't find any source for this - and insinuating battery issues, although not stating things outright so it can't be challenged). Petrol-heads are definitely scared that their noisemakers will be taken away.

These attacks make a lot of people see the car as 'fake green'. There's a lot of advertising trying to associate everything with the environment, so people are a bit wary of anything green. Toyota haven't made enough emphasis on the Prius as a car. In fact they barely advertise it.

The Prius is actually a bit big. The best selling cars are generally smaller - the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reported that 30% were 'lower medium' class (e.g. Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra), 32% were 'supermini' class (Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa), and 0.9% 'mini' (e.g. Smart - the BMW MINI is too large now and falls into the supermini class). The Prius counts as 'upper medium', which accounted for 16.1% of sales.

In the UK in 2007 the Ford Focus sold best, then the Vauxhall Astra (now sold in the US as the Saturn Astra), Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa, Volkswagen Golf and Peugeot 207 before the first comparable car in size, the BMW 3 series. Those six accounted for 23.9% of all sales.

Japanese cars actually don't sell all that well. Non-European cars (if you count Ford of Europe and Vauxhall/Opel as European for this purpose) only appear in four of the nine categories: the Chevrolet (Daewoo) Matiz and Hyundai Amica sold best in the Mini category (although as stated above this segment is very small), the Honda Civic was fifth in the 'lower-middle' segment, the Mazda MX-5 second-best among sports cars (beaten by the Audi TT), and Honda won the SUV segment with the CR-V - Toyota's RAV4 was third. (SUVs account for 7.3% of the market.) Japanese cars are generally seen as being for old people - yes, a sweeping generalisation.

A lot of emphasis is put on driving dynamics in the UK motoring press, but to be honest, the previous best-selling car (before the Focus was introduced) was the Ford Escort which drove like a dog - the press criticised it hugely but it didn't have that much effect (and the previous Astra was second top, and also a dog). Still, the Prius is definitely not as positive to drive as the Focus or Astra, though I think the ride is better than the German cars.

The scale of fuel taxes means that changes in the crude oil price has a smaller effect on price at the fuel pump. The price today was 85.9 pence per litre, which breaks down as 50.65 pence fuel duty (fixed), 11.2 pence VAT (charged at 15% of sale price) and 24.05 pence for the fuel, retailer's costs and profit margin. At peak, the highest price I paid was 119.9 pence, less than 40% higher despite crude oil prices being nearly four times what they now are. That actually de-emphasises fuel economy quite a bit.

Perhaps the new Vehicle Excise Duty rules will change things a bit. This is the yearly tax to own the car, and it's based on CO2 emissions: more CO2 emitted per km driven, the more you pay. Currently there are seven bands, with the Prius, 104g/km CO2, falling into band B and attracting a charge of £15/year (regular petrol or diesel cars pay £35, there's a £20 discount for 'alternative fuel vehicles'), while a Ford Focus 1.6 emits 159g/km, band D, paying £145.

From next April there will be 13 bands, with the Prius being still band B but the Focus being band G; the Prius will attract a £20 charge with a £20 discount for no overall charge, while the Focus will cost £150. The plan is to charge a different rate for the first year of ownership from April 2010, with the cleanest cars (below 130g/km) being free in the first year, while the most polluting (over 160g/km) get penalty rates. I don't think this goes far enough, even the highest rates amount to only the equivalent of 500 litres of fuel at today's prices.

While the Prius is still very efficient, it isn't the most efficient car on the market. That honour goes to Ford's Fiesta 1.6 Diesel, Volkswagen's Polo BlueMotion 1.4 Diesel, Seat's Ibiza Ecomotion 1.4 Diesel and MINI's Cooper D, Smart's fortwo coupé and Toyota's own iQ. There are other diesels with lower fuel consumption as well but I've adjusted for the higher energy content of diesel fuel. Nor does it emit the least CO2: the iQ and Smart are lower for petrol vehicles, and the Fiesta, Ibiza and Polo are lower among diesels. Having said that, it's now one of the oldest cars on the list, the most recent change having been in December 2003 - the only older car is Toyota's Avensis. I wonder if testing a more recent example would give different results!

 

Others are dumb, you are smart. There's no other reason.

 

To: Mike Dimmick, Thankyou for thay very extensive post on fuel prices and taxes in the UK. Americans don't know how lucky they are, but eventually we also will travel that route of outrageous taxation on vehicular traffic. I have often wondered why Europe and especially the UK doesn't give up on private trasportation. But, we all like our cars, don't we? Cheers.

 

My friends who live in Burnley Lancashire UK told me they "would never drive a Toyota, Paki's drive Toyotas". I wonder how widespread that attitude is? It seems a very strong attitude in the northwest of England.
My apologies if anyone takes offence to the use of the term Paki, referring to someone from Pakistan or Asia/middle East.

 

Here's my take

The Prius at its current MSRP is a little high for the features it gives you, in MY opinion. I have a 2005 and at that time MSRP was pretty reasonable, now with the strengthening ¥, it's a bit higher.

Bad economy -> combined with relatively high MSRP doesn't make it look all that great

Low gas prices -> not a big savings on gas compared to when gas was 4$ consumers won't see 50MPG as great savings when MSRP is relatively high

The style is getting old. It's been out since late 2003. The new one is also coming out, and since people know that, they might be waiting for the new one... Especially if the rumors are true.

If i were in the market for a new car... And I didn't have money... I would go for something cheaper like the Fit as previously stated.

If I were in the market for a new car.. And I did have money... I'd be buying a Lexus, Cadillac, etc.

If I were in the market for specifically the Prius only... I'd be waiting for the 2010 Prius.

 

It's an individual attitude

My home is in Burnley too and I drive one both here and in Greece. The Greek one isn't exactly green it being a Land Cruiser with the thirstiest V6 you ever saw.