Not only were Prius sales up double-digits in October over last year, but the solid sales also pushed the Prius into the "Top-Selling Vehicles in the US" list. The Prius had sales of 13,496 in October, an increase of 10.3% over last October.

Was your Prius one of the 13,000+ sold in October?

Toyota press release:

GENERATION Y OPEN TO NEW BRANDS, NEW TECHNOLOGY AND HYBRIDS
Survey Shows Generation Y Frequently Multitasking While Driving

TOKYO — Toyota's Prius hybrid was the top-selling car in Japan in September for the
fifth straight month ... Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest automaker, sold 31,758 Prius cars last month, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

Toyota said this week there was a backlog of Prius orders, numbering in the several thousands. Customers ordering the cars now won't get them delivered until after May 2010.

The Honda Fit is 2nd, while the Honda Insight has dropped back to 5th place.

Cash For Clunkers was a little too good to the Toyota Prius, leading to shortages across the country in August and an actual decrease in sales over July's numbers.  Compared to August 2008, though, Prius sales were through the roof, up 45.7 percent.  When will the Prius show back up on lots?  Will September's numbers decrease substantially due to the lack of C4C and no stock?  September has been a month of spiking gas prices (at least on the East Coast) due to hurricane season, so it should be an interesting month for the 2010 Prius.

The July sales numbers are in, and they are looking very good for the Toyota Prius.  Prius sales jumped 48% from June 2009 to July 2009, and 30% from the year-ago month.  The July sales were the best-ever for the Prius, and were surely fueled by the positive word of mouth created by PriusChat forum members like you.  Keep up the good work!

Were you one of the over 19,000 new Prius owners in July?

Sales of the Prius, which was remodelled in mid-May, jumped 258 percent to 22,292 units from the year-earlier month, data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association showed.

TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota's Prius hybrid -- already Japan's highest-selling car -- more than doubled its sales in June to claim the top spot for a second month, reflecting government tax breaks and growing popularity of products viewed as environmentally friendly.

It looks like the new Honda Insight is in for some hard times, sales-wise.  Honda sales figures for June show that Insight sales dropped 25% from 2,780 units in May to 2,079 units in June.  Over the same period the Prius' sales have risen from 10,091 units to 12,998.  It's hard not to point out that the Prius' increase from May to June was greater than the number of Insights sold in June. 

At this rate, it's going to be tough for Honda to reach their 90,000 sales goal by the end of the first model year. 

In it's first month on the block, the 2010 Prius is looking to be solid seller for Toyota - at least compared to the rest of the line-up.  With sales of 12,998 cars, Toyota sold 6% more Prius models in June than they did in June 2008.  Not too shabby considering the gas situation of June 2008.

The Prius is also the only Toyota with a positive increase compared to June 2008.  The RAV4 had a 0.6% increase, but that's small enough to call a wash. Year To Date sales are still down roughly 39%.

From the Washington Post:

"A legion of Toyota brass explained during hours of PowerPoint presentations that the new Prius has been designed to elbow its way into the upper ranks of the U.S. passenger car market..."

The Toyota Prius was Japan's best-selling car in May, while the Honda Insight dropped from 1st place to 3rd place behind the Honda Fit.

"I think a green car tax break and other incentives helped the sales performance (of the Prius) quite a bit," Akihiko Otsuka, chief engineer for the new Prius, told reporters in Toyota City, home to the automaker.

Shortages