Toyota advertising

[malcolmnealmiller]

Why does Toyota not advertise the Prius? I am always amazed every time I see Toyota advertise the Echo, the Corolla etc and never say a word about the Prius. Are you observing the same thing? If so, what do you make of it?

[u4iia]

I guess it is timing at this point. Why bother if you are turning a nice profit and moving inventory on a good product. I think it almost sells it itself with word of mouth alone. Just my two cents.

[DaveinOlyWA]

its tough to advertise a vehicle that they cannot build fast enough to meet current demand. some here have reported now seeing commercials in various areas around the country especially CA where it seems that the waiting lists are done to less than a month.

in this area, the only adds i saw were the super bowl add and it ran for a week or two after the game but nothing since then. my local dealer still has a waiting list that is now shorter... less than 2 months but according to a few ive asked, many are jumping from one dealer to another to reduce their wait times so its tough to judge since many are getting cars elsewhere and not bothering to let them know they are no longer waiting. i guess about a month ago, they actually had to go through nearly 50 people to allocate the 15 cars they had gotten and only a handful passed because it wasnt the color or package they wanted.

as for other hybrids, since ive been sitting here (about an hour) i have been channel surfing and bouncing from one forum to another and have heard 2 HAH commericals.

[V8Cobrakid]

well.. i live in CA.. i see commercials on TV all the time. I even hear a few on the radio every once and a while. so.. they are there. they are just trying to hit areas where people are very familiar with hybrid. Or.. places that had huge waiting list with a lot of people.. like here. i believe CA is the largest consumer of the prius.

[yoda]

I'm surprised when they DO advertise it.

I love seeing the commercial (I've only seen it maybe twice) - it's fun to see your car getting advertised but.....

Why in the world WOULD Toyota advertise the Prius? Great car - easy sell, but THERE'S A WAITING LIST. They can't build them fast enough to meet the demand. WHY would they want to SPEND money to INCREASE this problem???

Also - I'm not certain that the Prius is a very high-profit car for them. I mean - yea, $26k is a good chunk of money - but let's look at what cars cost and what you're getting in the Prius. I was AMAZED to spend ONLY $26k for my pkg 6 Prius. My previous 2 cars each cost me $32k and they weren't NEARLY as advanced.

Yoda

[V8Cobrakid]

why advertise? simple.. they are putting all this money into production to make more prius. If they wait till there is no wait list.. then it's too late.

keep the car fresh on people's minds. Toyota knows advertisement doesn't happen right away.. you reflect and think of a commercial. so.. people hear this and they think.. hey.. look at gas prices.. or.. hey.. i'm thinking of getting a new car sometime soon. for most people, a waiting list is a good thing.

they know what they are doing.

[yoda]

Good point V8Cobrakid

8)

[V8Cobrakid]

hehe.. ty wise yoda hehe

[Tempus]

I see several Toyota Ads featuring the Prius every day here.

[Brian K]

Even here in Maine I see ads for them and wonder, "Why?". Don't misunderstand, I get tickled each time I see them even though the ads are few and far between.

Locally there is a 4 month wait at least.

The car pretty much sells itself and I predict that will increase; the price of gas won't go down, thanks to our legislature and their votes for free trade. Never have the Chinese have such good representation, but I digress... What else is "out there" in it's class? In hybrids, now we have "rocket cars" and SUVs and a shoebox, but only one common sense mid size car with a reasonable payload for the average family, and it's a really good vehicle.

When production begins to catch up to demand it might make sense to advertise. Or if another manufacture pulls its head out of it's patoot and builds a similar vehicle; otherwise it might be just to insure there is no lag in demand as V8cobrakid suggests.