I am hoping the Prius will not be built in the US. I have more luck buying Honda or Toyota build in Japan. My 2007 Honda Accord EX has never had any problem only regular maintenance. I sold it a month ago with 200K miles and good resale value. I have no luck with my Toyota Avalon because they build and assembly here. I had problem with my Honda Civic because they build here. I purchased a 2012 Prius which is still Made in Japan, hopefully it will be fine, too early to tell.
^^ I must disagree here. My household had an excellent experience with a Honda Accord from Ohio, kept much longer than you kept your imported unit. The Subaru from Indiana is not aging quite as gracefully, but it is still very good, far and away better than the Detroit-based models that preceded the Honda. I'd love to see a Prius plant open in the U.S.
Re: I am calling foul Whoops, I somehow had a cut and paste problem. I meant to include these too: USDJPY=X Basic Chart | USD/JPY Stock - Yahoo! Finance USDJPY=X Basic Chart | USD/JPY Stock - Yahoo! Finance I'm not sure how it does. You can see the worst point for Japanese automakers was around August 2011 thru Feb 2012. The Yen's gotten weaker/dollar's gotten stronger since then, so the timing seems off.
Re: I am calling foul Now that I re-read your posts, I'm really confused by your statements. Uhhh, did you look at the graphs, esp. of the past year or so? Why do it now when the Yen has gotten weaker compared to the periods covered by ~August 2011 thru Feb 2012? Weaker Yen is good for Japanese exporters like Toyota. If Toyota was really concerned about losing less money and making more money, they should've reduced supply and raised prices when the Yen was strong, back when $1 USD == 76 to 78 yen in ~August '11 to Feb '12. I've been following the Yen a bit and posting about its strength hurting Japanese exporters for some time now. Example from http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...rius-price-increase-coming-2.html#post1414367 : From an article I cited at http://priuschat.com/forums/other-c...normal-we-won-t-live-much-longer-deviant.html (article at http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...-we-won’t-live-much-longer-with-that-deviant/ ) written September 2011:
Re: I am calling foul Clearly you have me smoked as far as following currency goes. I am at best an amateur there. As far as my mistype in my second post goes... all I can say is I interchanged words lol. It happens when you're doing 50 things at once. Im not in the export business, so I have no way to interpret how any of this works, what costs are incurred by companies doing it or what would make sense to give an opinion. I'm merely regurgitating and speculating. Thats why when Dianne disagreed, it didn't hurt my feelings. It's not my field.
Re: I am calling foul I actually don't follow exchange rates that closely but I watch NBR | Nightly Business Report every weekday (which is every day it's aired). Each day, they list the exchange rate of USD vs. a bunch of foreign currencies and the Yen is in there. I've also traveled to Japan 4x. In 3 of those trips, the Yen was MUCH weaker than it is now. When I see the numbers daily (e.g. 80.x, 76.x, etc.) on NBR, they have some meaning for me... I don't do any sort of Forex trading or speculation. I know 0 about it vs. stocks and options. I also pop into TTAC every now and then. Sometimes the subject of the exchange rate comes up.
Re: I am calling foul This may as well have been in Spanish. I'm pretty sure I even twisted my head a little while reading it. My father is in wealth management so a bunch of this stuff is a bit inherent to me, but overall it is still foreign.
hmm again, hmm. I see 1053 Prius on the allocation for the first part of May. And, a few more v wagons, some c, and PHEVs as well. Added to current ground stock in the SoCal area, no shortage yet! While it would be nice to have more c's and more wagons and obviously more PHEVs.. I see no "shortage" and no announced increase in pricing. Thought I'd update the thread with some new facts.
