I am on a mailing list from Big Two Toyota in Tempe AZ - got this today:

"We wanted to let you know about a special shipment we received from Toyota for not selling the Prius over MSRP." Big Two Toyota is a family owned dealership, and we also have the lowest sales in the Valley.

Please let me know if you are interested in any of these vehicles.

Respectfully,

Big Two Toyota
Fleet Director

1. Seaside Pearl with FE, BC, CF, EF, GN, and WL MSRP is 26839.00

2. Super White with FE, BC, CF, EF, GN, and WL MSRP is 26839.00

3. Super White with FE, BC, CF, and EF MSRP is 26,731.00

4. Seaside Pearl with FE, BC, CF, and EF MSRP is 26,731.00

5. Driftwood Pearl with FE, BC, CF, and EF MSRP is 26,731.00

6. Driftwood Pearl with FE, AM, CF, and EF MSRP is 23,741.00

7. Super White with FE, AM, CF, and EF MSRP is 23,741.00

8. Millenium Silver Metallic with FE, BI, CF, and EF MSRP is 22,766.00

Well, I'll be! Haha. I can just about guarantee that if it truly is a shipment "bonus," Toyota is trying to keep those prices down to keep demand high. They don't want to hit that point where quantity demanded plateaus. That will kill the hybrid.

Hi All:

___Prius II’s at MSRP or less and availability has been available for a little while now …

50 Hybrid Choices in US by 2010 (BBC)

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Even if we all buy a Toyota Prius for long trips, bicycle to work and spend our vacations sorting recyclables there will still be more to do because environmentalists lose their political power if any of these things actually work. I base this theory on the fact that everyone now conserves a lot more than they ever did, yet nothing seems to make a difference.
-----------------
Bobwilliams
New Cars

The Toyota Prius has little or no viability FE wise for long trips. The HSD is only advantagous in city stop and go traffic wherein constant coastdown or braking energy can be converted into "free" fuel.

The big, ONLY, advantage for the HSD in the RX, HL, GS, and LS is for marketing to those with the "boy-racer" teeny-bopper 0-60 mentaility.

"nothing seems to make a difference..."

Then you need to drive across MT, KS, or even southen CA and see all of those wind turbines. Or check into the matter of "Amateurs playing with ATOMS" just north of New York state's border. At least they're trying.

But if you mean "nothing seems to make a difference" in terms of the earth's environment none of us will live that long, either way.

In a world of 'cut and paste', plagiarism is technically easy. But having had my words once stolen and then sent to me under someone else's name, I know the burn, the anger. So let's take a look at this example:

Here is the original source:

http://www.weoped.com/profiles/blog/...ogPost%3A21042

The original poster lifted these two sentences directly from someone else's work, word-for-word, and never gave any attribution to Daniel B. Kline. This was their first theft.

Their second theft of services was found in their signature line that tags to a competing web site. GreenHybrid like many other 'for free' web sites, sells advertising space. But this thief tried to use their signature tag to advertise another, competing web site. This is theft of service since they always had the option of buying web site space from Internet Brands.

Finally, they executed a bit a of web vandalism by posting something having nothing to do with the original, three year old thread about Prius sales. This dilutes the quality of the user forums by posting a useless noise posting.

We checked the source IP of this first time poster (always something of interest) and found it was sourced from India. This is one of two countries that seem to be home to 'whack a mole' spammers. That they didn't reply after another user quoted their posting is another signature of 'hit and run' spammers.

So to make things clear, plagiarism and signature SPAM, is not condoned. Nonsense postings are somewhat OK if not abusive. If I made any mistake it was in not deleting the SPAM before it could be quoted. Well quoted it is but the SPAM link has been 'fixed' and the user banned.

Bob Wilson

After April 3, use e-mail to contact me:

Well, I disagree with your opening para. I get mpg usually over 50. I seem to have worse results in stop & go.

Wow! Thanks, Bob.

Hi Martin,

I was lucky to be trained by Jason, Eric and Richard in the art of moderating. By no means am I skilled at it but I felt it important in this case to draw back the curtain and show a little 'sausage making.'

Still, the subject, "Dealer in Phoenix has Prius cars for sale, no markup..." is important. I've seen some scattered reports of west coast dealers offering "cash back" and other incentives for Prius. Plus there is the problem of the new 2010 'cannibalizing' the current model.

I think there is life in this old thread.

Bob Wilson

After April 3, use e-mail to contact me:

The point I was trying to make is that there are quite a few vehicles, roughly equivalent vehicles, that can attain hwy MPG equal to, or even better than, the Prius.

The Prius is actually operating with a rather serious handicap on the hwy versus others.

If a goodly portion of your driving isn't city stop and go then you should look elsewhere.