Toyota Prius sales are HOT!
To no one's surprise, with gas prices the way they're headed, hybrids are selling at record numbers; and also, as you might expect, the Toyota
Prius is leading the charge here.
Sales of the Prius rose 67 percent last month. Toyota cut the value of sales promotions on the five-year- old model to $123 per vehicle in April, from $1,471 in March 2007, said Jesse Toprak, of Edmunds.com.
"There's really no other car that's been out as long as Prius selling at this kind of volume with little or no incentive support," Toprak said...
"Gas prices certainly help."
Full story here.
Here's
AutoObserver's take:
Toyota Prius: 1 Million Sales and Counting
- Permalink | Comments (5)
- Posted by: Bob Holland May 16, 2008, 4:00 AM
- Categories: Hybrids
, Toyota
Interesting that what once was considered a niche vehicle with only a cult following is now arriving in the class of top selling mainstream cars.
I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall and the downside to the Prius to show up.
So far, no downside.
Never thought I'd say this but well done Toyota.
Excellent engineering.
The fact that Toyota is still offering incentives on the Prius tells me that the economy is more a factor than gas mileage. On a similar note, Honda isn't undercutting the Fit at all. In fact, there's a waiting list at my local dealer.
The local dealer (fitzmall) is selling them at full MSRP. They only have 4 in stock, too.
The incentives are probably to pay for local advertising.
Honda is getting about $10 grand less for the Fit, so it's a different market entirely.
I would buy a Fit over the Prius. It has a rear seat that folds "up," like many crew cab pickups, which would be great for our 11 year-old Golden Retriever Annie. She's now at a point where it's very difficult for her to get into cars, and the Fit's rear seat solution would be perfect for her.
$10K pays for a lot of gas and the Fit is a much more fun car to drive.