> "So I figure they’re selling them in Europe, where they can get much more money for them."

And Canada. I've been saying this for the last month. With US dollar low, and demand for Prii high, Toyota is selling Prii where they make the most money. Almost end of story.

I ordered my Prius here in Ottawa, Canada for $1k off of Canadian MSRP ($29.5k Canadian for Canadian base == Touring pkg 2++). I got my VIN day I placed the order on May 6, 2008. It was in port of Vancouver. It took 23 days for me to take delivery: May 29. If I was living in Vancouver I would have had it much faster.


Toyota is a for profit business. They are not stupid. They are not a charity.

What else did you expect ? (Not that anyone could have forseen all this, but in retrospect.)

Re: Why are Prii so hard to find = Shoddy Reporting

Almost end of story? Not really. In fact not at all.

The sales numbers certainly don't support these allegations. In fact US sales are up 2.2% year on year with 2007 and are on pace to at least match the 181,221 units sold last year which is I believe is capacity. Looks to me like when gas prices took off the invenotry on the lots quickly sold and was not able to be replaced fast enough. Why would anybody quote a car dealer as a source is beyond me. Especially when the hard sales numbers are readily and freely available from Toyota at their website. As usual, shoddy, lazy reporting + anecdotal evidence = misinformation that unfortunately gets spread as fact

PHP:


May, 2008

                  ----- MONTH --        -- CALENDAR YEAR TO DATE --
                                    DSR %                          DSR %
                  2008    2007    CHG        2008      2007      CHG

JAN             11,379   8,299    37.1     11,379     8,299     37.1
FEB             10,893  12,227   -14.5     22,272    20,526      6.3
MAR             20,635  19,156    16.0     42,907    39,682      9.5
APR             21,757  13,056    58.3     64,664    52,738     21.4
MAY             15,011  24,009   -39.8     79,675    76,747      2.2

Why are Prii so hard to find?
I normally find mine in the garage or driveway.

We pay almost twice the price for a fully equipped Prius to the US price so I wouldn't be surprised if Toyota go where the money is. Something like oil prices really.

How often do you lose it?

I suspect that the Chinese olympic organizers are also buying quite a few in order to reduce air pollution during the Olympics, or at least to make a better impression.

Despite the overall increase in year to date sales, I still find the drop in May a bit mysterious.

Why? Look at the combined April/May sales and you'll see that they are similar. Difference being that Toyota sold a ton in April this year, when they didn't sell many last year and then sold a ton in May.

Because I don't know why there are such large month to month swings which don't seem to fit the typical seasonal pattern.

They are building Prius in China for the domestic market.

Re: Why are Prii so hard to find = Shoddy Reporting

But I read it on "The Internets". It must be true.

Another possibility is that his dealer was getting short changed for dealers with better Prius numbers. Perhaps his dealer has been pounding Sequoias?

Dealers aren't getting as many Prii due to demand. Toyota can't keep up because of battery manufacturing constraints:

Battery shortage restrains production of Toyota hybrids - International Herald Tribune

I was talking to my Toyota dealer sales manager and he said they had 30 Priis on backorder. I see more and more on the road every day. There are three in the parking lot at my work. Supply and demand I knew that would come in handy from back in the school days.

I bet it is still easier getting a prius now.. than it was in 2004 when they were only making 3000 a month...

Ooooo. Watch for splinters.

There is an element of truth in this. It's just part of big business on an international scale. While the US sales are by far the biggest in terms of units sold, the volume of money 'lost' due to exchange rate losses is also HUGE. A 15% reduction in currency means a $3000-$4000 loss in revenue on a $20000-$25000 vehile. It might be better to ship these to Canada or Europe or Australia or Asia in stead of the US ( see prior post on this last month ).

That being said there is another issue that is peculiar to Toyota's way of doing business. Those stores that invest and build new facilities have first call on all vehicles before the others are divvied up to the rest of the stores. It's Toyota's way of rewarding the owners/investors for expanding and making Toyota look good. These new stores are also allocated additional vehicles depending on the size of the investment.

This isn't so much of a problem except that in times of short supply. You know which vehicles the GM's of these new stores will demand as part of their allocation of extra units. How is this pertinent?

Our store is the newest and largest on the E Coast. It's a huge investment and as a result it will get a huge extra allotment of whatever the GM wants. These units will necessarily come from someone else's 'normal' allotment. 'To the victors.....' so to speak. Next year some other store(s) will have new investments so they will get part of what we'd expect to get.

It forces the owners to sell fast and invest even faster to stay ahead of the pack. Laggards really suffer.

Sales numbers. This will give us an indication of what's going where.

Last year the US sold 181,000 units.
In toto Toyota produced ~280,000 units.
For the upcoming year Toyota has projected a 60% increase in units to something in excess of 400,000 units.
If we get our 'rightful' share the US should have about 300,000 allocated to us, I think we will NOT get this many. Currency, growth in other areas, etc. To be revisited in 12 months.

I've posted this here a couple of times in answer to the same questions..it will clear up a few questions.

Toyota's "turn-and-earn" allocation system rewards dealers with whichever model they're selling the most of on a day's supply basis.

Production ordering occurs 90-120 days in advance of arrival, the shorter time for West coast dealers closer to Japan, current birthplace of all Prii (about to change).

About 6-9 months ago, Prius sales were soft compared to prior years, so the production orders were modified to respond to market demand, and some dealers didn't market Prius aggressively. Those dealers with Prii in stock at allocation time then had a reduced "travel rate" that reduced their Prius allocation. Once a dealer starts losing allocation numbers, it's very difficult to recover when the market rebounds since all other dealers are selling to the walls.

Yet some of the most vocal dealers screaming for more Prii were the same ones sitting on them 6-9 months ago, refusing to discount to maintain their travel rate.

Battery supply is a part of current supply bottlenecks, but some dealers brought the pain on themselves by not selling aggressively enough.

This is the way it's been for decades. Dealers tend to be warm weather friends. The smart ones play the game and are rewarded.

An article just last week said that Toyota has the Prius at maximum production capacity which is just barely over 25,000 Prius per month (made in Japan). In which they allot 60 % of them (about 15,000) of them for the US each month.
That equals out to 300,000 worldwide (excluding the China built models) and about 180,000 made for the US. If you look at the sales figures from one of the above posters it looks like it is currently dead on. I assume the reason they can't increase production now by adding a line at another factory that has a vehicle with lighter demand has something to do with that the battery manufacturer (Matsushita) is already close to peak capacity.

Pauly Toyota in Crystal Lake has 2 in stock right now. The dealer I go through usually has a few in stock at all times, but is out of both the Prius and Camry, but has the highlander. I believe Pauly has them still is because they don't deal on them. I gave them a shot at selling me a Camry Hybrid and they blew it. OTOH the place I got mine from deals, and that is why they get them and sell them quickly. They sell 30-40 a month, sometimes more.