Prius sales in US plunge by 25% in first half of 2016

Interesting article. I suspect that when they talk about "sales" they are actually talking about "deliveries". Toyota had a string of (weather-related) problems that affected Prius production for about the first 5 months of 2016, so not sure whether this indicates a trend of a hiccup.

 

I am not too surprised. For folks in areas that are more environmentally conscious, you might not notice much. In other parts of the US things might be different. Here in the heartland of oil business, I have been scouting for a gen4 prius (on the street) for a couple of months and finally I saw one, only one.
There are still a lot of other gen prius here, but they were all sold when oil price was high. In all local Toyota ads, it's filled with SUVs, pickup trucks, dealers just don't waste their air time or paper spaces asset on something most customers don't want.
People just don't look long term and quickly forgets the pain. Sad, isn't it?

 

this has been discussed ad nauseum, but there are a number of factors involved.
first, we've seen some of our own members move up to rav4, avalon, bev's, other plug in's and etc.
but the country as a whole are certainly enamored with low gas prices and large vehicles.

i think it's human nature for the most part. only higher gas prices and government regulation can move most people away from their pleasures.

 

Solution is simple. Prius must become a pleasure

 

The F150 has been the most sold "car" in the USA for months without end. Gasoline price or not.
The new Prius has come out at a moment where the gas prices (WW) are "politically" low. But it had to come out as Toyota needed to ramp up the TNGA which is the basis of all its future developments, and the new HSD which will be used on a number of vehicles WW. The Prius is way more strategic to Toyota, than any article writer out there seem to understand. Way more.

And as much as every body talks about the environment, Paris agreements or not, I can understand that somebody living in a non densely populated area (and 95% of the USA territory is very sparsely populated) and you don't see and smell the exhausts of cars, the last thing you think about, in a daily world of big wide multi-lane roads/highways, huge parking lots, and overall really big huge cars, is getting a "small" car that saves fuel.

And because most people buy based on emotions rather than any logic, and Prius is not a cool brand/model like a BMW, and there is still a lot of skepticism about the HSD (and Toyota is not doing a good job IMHO to explain its benefits), people tend to prefer a conventional car, even here in Europe.

The reality of things is that, as Toyota already predicted back in the 90s (that's is were the whole idea of the Prius came from BTW), most drivers spend their time in urban or suburban driving, with a lot of traffic jams. Most people forget that most of their km is actually driven not on a highway devoid of traffic, where surely a diesel would beat the crap from a Prius, but is being stuck in a traffic jam. Daily.

So there they are, with a start stop clunky 19th century vehicle, with gears, crawling along from red light to red light. Bumper to bumper, even in smaller cities. Thinking they bough a fuel efficient vehicle - yeah right, when you can drive at 40km/h constant in a city, or when you are in a suburban road at 90km/h, or on an highway at 130km/h, free of traffic jam. You hit a traffic jam, start stop traffic, and the EU and EPA ratings are useless. Only with the Prius so far I can always match the EPA ratings, and even the EU ones in some specific not too rare situations!

As soon as the fuel price will go up, xEVs/Hybrids, will become all of a sudden the most beloved cars. And if you see the car manufacturers' strategies, which are more thoughtful than their own customers, everybody as a xEV/Hybrid in their portfolio/roadmap. Because the time will come when their vehicles of today (and the technologies they are based upon) will be useless. There is a lot of work going on in the background to change a lot of well established but inefficient technologies, like the 12V networks.

Also not to forget, the Prius (like any other car) it is not a product with a short market life span. A quarter or even more than one with lower than average sales, doesn't mean much. Cars are a multi-year commitment and a big investment for a lot of buyers.
Except maybe for US drivers (and increasingly many more EU ones) that finance it getting on debt, want something big for their big expanses of space, to fill up with falsely cheap fuel.

Once the OPEC countries have suffered enough pain in the effort of destroying the competition, nothing will prevent fuel prices to get back to 4$/gal or more...

I personally still believe that I don't like to waste money out of the exhaust pipe, I have better things to do with my money. And nobody pays my fuel, so I couldn't care less to have a big truck, or a diesel that does 10L/100km while stuck in city traffic, which is what happens 90% of the time I am in my car (unfortunately!).

 

Well even if the gas was 99 cent a gallon . I still would get the Prius on the spot. The Prius is more than just saving the planet or gas . This is my opinion. Don't believed everything the media write.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Low gasoline prices in the USA. I paid under $1.80 this week ... not the $1.25 of last year .... but, still cheap overall fuel expense given the higher MPG that new cars are getting. Sedan sales are down across the board -- people who would have bought a midsize sedan are buying crossovers. The MPG penalty is low under current conditions vs a sedan ... people like the perceived utility. Overall -- people are buying large trucks and SUVs .... nothing changes .. this is how is always works.

If gas prices reverse and go up, people will move to smaller vehicles. I don't think this will occur until the $3 mark.

 

Well said (your entire post). I don't think that most people who are revelling in relatively cheap fuel can fore-see it going up again, let alone quickly and, I suspect HIGH. Locally, it went up 22% last week ($1.06c/l to $1.30), and there were letters to the editors of newspapers, interviews on radio&TV. I reckon they haven't seen anything yet. Politically, there could be many triggers world-wide.

When I went on the search for what car to buy this year, I started with a clean spreadsheet, (though with Prius coloured glasses) and ended up with about 15 cars which I'd be happy to buy, put in cost of service, insurance fuel depreciation etc over a 3 and 5 yr period. When I changed the fuel price to 75% more than today's price, Prius jumped from ¼ way down the list right to the top.

 

The Prius is all about MPG utility -- without the higher fuel costs it's edge is reduced. The higher purchase cost is mitigated by fuel and running (maintenance) expenses. They also have a higher resale -- but not all of the higher initial cost.

We use both of our hybrids -- so we put a lot of miles on them. Even with the reduced fuel costs .....they have worked out very well for us.

 

FYI: Here gas costs 1.25€/L, which is 5$/gal (at current X-rate of 1.09).... and this is quite cheap...in EU and in general.
When gas prices where high, it was more like 1.6€/L // 6,7$/gal and in Italy it landed at 1.8€/L // 7.5$/gal (difference are due to taxes, not raw gas price; same x-rate used). I know nordic countries have even higher prices. And no, we don't necessarily drive a 5th of the distance...

So I am in dismay when here people insist in buying gasoline cars for the city (or let's say traffic jams - here everything and everywhere is clogged at rush hours), or even diesels when they are all the time in city traffic and very rarely on the highway doing many km. Lucky they have so much money to throw away.

 

I can't wait to see on August 1st what toyota will do with the Prius incentives due to the decline in sales. It currently stands at 0% for 60 or 0.9% for 72 and not combinable with the discount. Or $1500 rebate and I'm talking about my local regional offer.

If toyota allows combining the offers or a bigger discount then that would really help me seal the deal on a new Gen4. I'm guessing they will just keep the incentives the same though...

 

I hope they do, or even sweeten it a little.
I placed an order for a Pri4 4 weeks ago. I negotiated discount but the final price will be determined upon delivery -- which will be in September most likely...

 

What type of discount did you negotiate?

 

I leveraged Costco Auto Program.
In Houston area, it is Invoice Price - $1600.
Combined with the $1500 CB, I negotiated another $140 off, so it brought down my III w/ ATP from $29700 to $24,700.

 

What does "leveraged" mean?

 

Holy crap, I guess I have to log into Costco and get my quote.... You say it's invoice minus $1600?? Really?? And then the $1500 off?? Wow! Is Costco pricing regional if you know?

So in essence my dealer straight lied when they said their quote to me was $400 better than Costco. Go figure. They were way, way off..

I have been trying to get a straight answer on how the Costco program works but have yet to... I didn't want to log in and get all the emails and non stop calls from dealers (I work nights and calls piss me off).... Did you use the Recomemded dealer or did you go to the dealer of your choice with that info and see what they said?

 

take advantage of.
That saved me A LOT of effort. Before I decided to go that path, most dealers would only give a few hundred dollars on top of toyota CB. Others would give ZERO discount for orders.

 

Costco Auto is regional, because you will need to put in your zip code as well as vehicle model. Not all dealers participate in the program.
Your miles might vary though. While I bought our 2016 Mercedes GLC, Costco Auto only showed $1000 discount off msrp, but I was able to get almost $5,000 off without the program.
It's totally a different case when it comes to my Prius negotiation.
Dealer lying? I trust they are all nice people to start with, but when nice people are pushed hard against sales goals, commissions, and family/kids to feed, anything can happen....

 

Really that awesome. Here Miami Florida is a different story. Lol

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.