I came across a link where you can send your senators/representatives in Congress a message regarding the caps that currently exist for tax credits on hybrids. Once a manufacturer sells 60,000 hybrid vehicles, the tax credit for that manufacturer begins to be phased out.

Several bills have been introduced that have language lifting the cap. Please ask your members of Congress to support consumer choice for cleaner cars by lifting the manufacturers' cap on the advanced vehicle tax credit.

If you are interested, take a moment to read the pre-printed letter. It can be modified by you. (I thought the sentence mentioning the Camry sounded out-dated, since that model has been in production already, so I modified that when I sent my letter.)
Anyway, here's the link for you to take a look at:

http://ucsaction.org/campaign/02_01_...ce=wacmicro_hc

Of course even with cars that still have the full tax credit, there's the whole problem of the credit exceeding the AMT. I lost about 15% of my credit due to this, but that's nothing compared to how badly a lot of people got stung by the AMT. They might as well have told us we were getting a $1,000,000.00 tax credit since with the AMT we wouldn't *really* get it anyway. <shrug>

Seems to me the main ones to benefit from the tax credit are the manufacturers. For example, the street price of a new Prius seems to be adjusting down as the tax credit phases out.

You are absolutely right and that's the purpose of the tax credit. It allows the manufacturers to sell their vehicles at a good return to compensate for the developmental costs for a period of time. For the consumers though we benefit by getting a tax break thus lowering our acquisition cost to say a 'normal' level.

Lifetime fuel usage: 2.1 GPC ( 1.99 recent )

The dealer gets the money not the manufacturer or buyer.

The purpose of the tax credit was never to get the manufacturer compensation, and if was sold as such it wouldn't have passed.

It was sold as a benefit to buyers and the planet, but the dealers in many cases just raised the price, in effect getting the credit.

Sorry this is not accurate at all. The dealer actually gets nothing as a result of the tax credit...unless it's selling the vehicle above MSRP. In that case yes the dealer is getting the money. For the entire 4 yrs that this Gen Prius has been out here in SE VA none have been sold above sticker. I do know that in some other areas this has not been the case.

At least in the last yr or two since the credit has been in place most regions have been selling at sticker price or some discount off sticker. In these cases it's the buyer and the manufacturer that benefit from the tax credit. The dealer gets nothing from it.

Lifetime fuel usage: 2.1 GPC ( 1.99 recent )

That works if you don't consider that many/most other vehicles sell for way under sticker. I bought my Element for slightly under invoice and my Tacoma slighty above, each several thousand below sticker.

Many hybrids have been selling well above sticker or at sticker, not thousands less. The manufacturer on the other hand doesn't get anything once the vehicle is sold to the dealer, unless the manufacturers are selling hybrids to the dealers for higher than their standard markup?

It's been seen with the Prius that the sales prices dropped suspiciously with the phase down of the credit, hence the dealer got the benefit and still is, if the vehicle sells for more than without the credit.

Toyota will likely hit its 60,000 cap even before it brings the Camry Hybrid to market in the fall of this year. Really?
__________________________________________________ __
My Autopartswarehouse.com Blog