I was at a Honda dealership and we discussed hybrids in general. I'm on my fourth Honda and it will probably be replaced with a fifth one. In the conversation, I was told that Toyota was limiting Prius production to keep the profit margin on each individual car high. I have to consider the source, but thought I'd ask for comment. Of course keeping the Prius priced high is an opportunity for Honda to sell more HCHs.

 

Well,

there have been some rumours that they had to restrict the number of priuses to be able to provide enought camrys. The theory being that they have a supply problem of some sort. I don't know... it seems to be a similar rumor to what the HONDA guy heard.

In the end it's mostly just a rumor. My dealer had 3 Priuses on his lot (all gone whitin a few days) when I was there and more coming in. I had to wait all of 2 weeks to get my hand on a car with the colors and options I wanted. I also got my car for under MSRP.

 

I like to use Ebay completed prices to understand what the 'free market' price is for a Prius. By plotting the completed "buyer" and "Reserve not met" prices, you can quickly graph what has been happening in the past 60 days.

As for limiting production, I haven't seen that reflected in 'decreasing' Prius sales numbers. It looks as if every year, more and more Prius are being sold. Are there enough? no

A buyer, I would prefer to have the new Prius priced at say $9.95 or less. But a more realistic price would be Scion xB price.

I bought a 3-year old used Prius for ~$900 more than the new price for a Scion xB with the same features, ~$16,400. I don't regret it one bit since my gas savings are already saving one car payment per year.

The Honda hybrid is a nice car but the Prius fits our family better . . . my wife has back problems and the heigth of the Prius makes it easier for her to get in and out.

Bob Wilson

 

My intent of starting the thread was to see if there was anything to that remark. I was sort of skeptical of it...

If it came off remotely as Toyota-bashing, I apologize as it was not my intention.

 

I didn't take it as Prius bashing either. I just wanted to explain that although price is important, it is not the only criteria.

There is an archaine engineering practice that does a price-performance evaluation of competing products. Each feature is rated on technical and price merits. These scores are added up and if one product has top technical and best price, the decision is easy. But if there is a split, we take out those elements that are awash and re-evaluate the price-performance marks of the deltas. It is a lot of work but it usually leads to the best solution to meet the requirements.

Bob Wilson

 

I bought a 3-year old used Prius for ~$900 more than the new price for a Scion xB with the same features, ~$16,400. I don't regret it one bit since my gas savings are already saving one car payment per year.

The Honda hybrid is a nice car but the Prius fits our family better . . . my wife has back problems and the heigth of the Prius makes it easier for her to get in and out.
I have heard of the used 02-04 Prius holding its value, sometimes costing $5,000 less than new.
Here in Fla. They even had a case in 04' were the sales men would buy the car drive it & put 300-400 miles on it, then sell it on ebay or the autotrader as new/used make up some reason why they could not keep the car and still ask 20,000 for it... I have not heard of this with the hondas, ( but it may not be as publicized as toyota was).

My 04' Prius saved me $648.00 the first year of ownership in gas money..

I asked the wife if she would drive a civic hybrid next time we buy, I was surprised when she said she would rather have a hybrid camry or another prius as she has ridden in the civic and does not like it... oh well I tried..

I had also heard the rumor but it was not due to sales but rather they were slowing down production, to make way for the camry..

 

Years ago, my Dad's mechanic said Toyota and Honda had best reliability. Think I read they also have the most repeat customers. It's because of their history of delivering great products. I can absolutely see why someone could be hooked to either brand for life....

 

Where did you get your prius? Most importantly, how are you getting 46MPG driving around somerville??

 

I got my Prius from IRA Toyota in Davnvers. Nice dealership but a bit large (that might be why they seem to have a supply of Priuses).

My milage is actually up from that tank but since it take me several weeks between tanks it will be almost another week before I need to fill up again.

I do get good mileage by driving slowly and anticipating stops. I also try to avoid short trips that kills the milage. Latley I have been turning the heat on-off (from the steering wheel) so that I only ask for heat when the ICE needs to be running. That seem to help a bit. A lot of times I don't need any heat in the car after the first 5 minutes of driving.

 

Toyota and Honda, in addition to making the best vehicles have extraordinarily astute marketing depts. I cant speak for Honda as well as I can about Toyota but the Marketing/Sales/Production equation is very well controlled.

Typical Toyota situation from a retail view point. When one is sold, one is replaced and one is built; sell two, ship two, build two; etc. This is one of the key aspects of The Toyota Production method that all companies try to emulate. This allows Toyota to keep it's Days-of-Sales Inventory under 30 where others are running 90+.

If Marketing has determined that 8000-10000 monthly sales is the 'sweet spot' for the US Market then that's what we will get but these wont be built unless demand continues at the current level. It is good business to keep inventory equal to sales. Otherwise you can see what might happen as with GM/F. I have also heard that for the present the TCH is getting 'extra attention' to make sure it's launch is on time and perfect. This is another 4000 units monthly for the US market - from the same line in Japan. ( btw, that's only 2+/store per month on average ).

To state it more concisely, IMO they are not limiting the Prius rather matching the observed demand while increasing production to meet the expected TCH demand.