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How Many Prius Do You See?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by twittel, Dec 30, 2010.

  1. twittel

    twittel Senior Member

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    Naturally, being a new Prius owner, I look for other Prius on the roads, but I just don't see many. Of course, I live in a small community, but even when I drive to big cities I'm still not seeing many. The few I do see are the Gen II varieties. Sooo, I'm wondering out loud, if GEN III's are not selling so well? If that's true, the impending fuel price increases predicted for this summer may very well cause a Prius-panic at the dealerships. Currently, I'm not aware of any Prius III waiting lists and my impression is that dealers are discounting. Based on my perceptions, I have to assume that the car is not selling as well as it used to. I just can't believe that "market saturation" has caused sales to slow down, or come to a halt. What are potential Prius buyers holding out for? Is it really the economy; i.e. jobs, money, more important issues?

    Happy Motoring,

    Tom
     
  2. cycledrum

    cycledrum PSOCSOASP

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    Here in the SF Bay Area which may be the Prius capital of the USA, 3rd gens are selling but not in huge numbers. Toyota Sunnyvale claims they are selling 25/week, but they've had over 200 available for a while. Piercey, Fremont, and I'm sure many others have over 40 3rd gens on the lot.

    At Piercey, maybe 20 are 2010's, but the rest are 2011 which is good since those only shipped a couple weeks ago.

    On the road, I see 3rd gens several times a day, but nothing like seeing Civics, Camrys or Accord which are all over.
     
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  3. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    I just took a trip across NC to Winston-Salem and then to Raleigh before returning to Wilmington over the holidays. I was amazed at the number of Prius that I saw on I-40 and in both cities. I would say there were an equal number of Gen III as Gen II.

    I see the Prius all over Wilmington. There were definitely a lot of Gen III's sold in the past year. Once again I see about an equal number of Gen III as Gen II in Wilmington.

    There has definitely been a slow down in sales in the last quarter of the year as the local dealership had 14 on their lot recently for the first time since I started looking at the Prius in 2007.
     
  4. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    "actually" despite Cycledrum's assertion, here in Western WA (the "true" Prius capital of the World) i would estimate more than 10% of the cars on the road are Priuses.

    now granted we do have a lot of support here. i am in the State Capital, Olympia and the state mandated alternative fuel vehicles as first choice for state fleets and some departments have better than 25% of their vehicles are Priuses. at my previous work location across the parking lot the Dept of Natural Resources had about 12-13 cars parked there. all were hybrids except for one passenger car and one pickup (8 Priuses including all 3 generations and 3 FEHs)

    that is pretty normal. the Olympia FD has 6 Priuses (their ratio is not so good since they have a million pickups and full sized SUVs) and the list goes on and on
     
  5. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    I was listening to NPR this morning and two somewhat related stories caught my attention.
    1. Auto sales in the US actually declined in 2010...and 2009 as well if my memory serves me correctly. So yes...fewer people are buying new cars, and that's almost certainly economically related. It's easier to put up with non-functioning widgets, and/or repair the car that you already have than it is to pull the trigger on a new one, especially if you're un/under-employed, and you have a mortgage payment on a house that's only worth 75-percent of what you owe on it.
    2. In the same story, they mentioned that Toyota lost a lot of market share in 2010, as a result of 17 major recalls (NPR figures, not mine) and 'other factors'.
    My personal theory is that that's only part of the story. Toyota's quality control may not be slipping as much as the rest of the industry is catching up to them, negating the price delta between big "T" and their competition---especially on the Korean peninsula.

    Add to all that, the Prius is still a niche car. With gasoline at $2.88 a gallon, (this morning's prices) the G3 is just now starting to make economic sense in terms of payback for the "Hybrid Premium"...and there are a lot of "hybrids" out there, albeit some pretty lame ones (Escalade Hybrid?) in terms of real fuel savings.

    I think our car is somewhere around #12 in terms of number of units sold in the US, depending on how you warp the numbers. Some people do not consider a pickemup truck to be a "car"---despite the fact that 90+ percent of them are bought and used as....cars.

    Toyota is selling every G3 that they bring into the United States, and I suspect that if gas hits $5 a gallon, they'll start importing more Priuses to meet increasing demand. It's going to happen eventually, since although gasoline useage in the US is somewhat flat (NPR actually said that it's declined slightly) world gasoline demand is VERY high---and climbing rapidly.
     
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  6. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    I am really surprised just how many there are in Alaska. Since I take the most traveled highway in Alaska, I see most of them. In fact based on those numbers in a previous post, Alaska fits right in the middle of per capital ownership.
    This is all surprising since Alaska is truck country.
     
  7. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    u mean "$2.88?"
     
  8. badbilly60

    badbilly60 New Member

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    my town is only 35000 and we see a new prius or 2 atleast every week.kina cool.
     
  9. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Awww crap. Good catch! Thanks!!!

    Fixed.
    (I used $3.88 instead of $2.88 to describe my local fuel prices....)
     
  10. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    When we were driving a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid it seemed like there were a lot of Prius' on the road. Now that we're in a Prius, they seem rarer. I do believe there's a phsycological factor there... Anyway:

    By far the majority of Prius in our area sport taxi headgear, mostly older, some third generation. And they are very prevalent, in our 'burb, more so downtown, at the airport, and so on.
     
  11. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    hey no prob...typos i do all the time. but, i am afraid it wont be too long where $3.88 will be wishful thinking. we aint too far from that now. i paid $3.18 at the cheapest place in town. you being on the Gulf has the advantage of cheaper gas. enjoy it while you can
     
  12. tonyrenier

    tonyrenier I grew up, but it's still red!

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    Remember, the Gen II was produced from 2004-2009. I work at a clinic where two of the Docs drive Gen II, one came to work one day in a bright blue one. I thought he had his pastel gold repainted. But he was rearended and that totaled his 2004, so he picked up a 2008 for insurance plus 63.00, less miles, heck of a deal. I have an "untrained" eye so I can't tell one year from another. Try counting any other Hybrids, bet you can't come up with more than 10 in a day 'cept the Prius and maybe the Civic hybrid (wheels a dead giveaway). If gas hits 5.00/gallon, we'd best invest in security systems and LoJacks!
     
  13. Jim Clark

    Jim Clark Member

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    MANY! See many Prius in NoVA. BUT, to my surprise, I have yet to see a Prius taxi. With the number of miles taxis drive, the Prius would be a no brainer. Their #1 cost has to be fuel. The 50% - 60% savings would be considerable.

    Assumes 100k miles per year.

    Prius - 45 mpg average at $3 average cost per gallon = $6,666 per year.

    Crown Vic (most used in this area, probably replaced by Taurus) - 20 mpg = $15,000.

    Hmmmm, after doing the math, maybe the $8k per year savings isn't worth it.
     
  14. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    i usually cant tell a civic hybrid unless i am behind them or close enough to read the emblem on the car.
     
  15. Ted in Olympia

    Ted in Olympia New Member

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    As Dave said we see a lot of Prius on the roads in Olympia but I think it's more like 2% (or less) and not 10%. Most trips to downtown you can see several but there are a ton of other cars driving around and you certainly do not see one in ten Prius.

    What gets me is that I think 50% of them are Gen III. You would think you would see a lot more GEN I and II around since they have been made a lot longer but I'm really surprised how many III you see. Our local dealer must have been very busy selling the new cars; they got me to buy one.

    TED
     
  16. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    Ted; it sounds like you need to spend more time on the "greener" side of town!!
     
  17. Ted in Olympia

    Ted in Olympia New Member

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    Not many outside of Olympia would know what you mean by this Dave. I do my best to stay away from the Westside but I guess my daughter is going to Evergreen in the fall so I may spend more time up there; or at least she will.

    I'm as far away from being "green" as you can get but the fiscally conservative side of me loves my Prius. So far I can see no downsides to owning a Prius and I'm almost surprised that you do not see 10% or more on the roads. Drove it for work the other day (they reimburse me 50 cents a mile) and the 50 mile round trip nearly paid for my whole tank of gas.

    TED
     
  18. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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  19. donee

    donee New Member

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    Hi All,

    I saw $3.27 for regular while out on the road today.

    I have to think 1 in 20 to 1 in 30 vehicles on the road when one is out in the western surburbs of Chicago is a Prius. 2nd Gens are very common, but 3rd Gens are catching up in recent months. Most of the summer, 3rd Gens were not common at all. This is not saying that 1 in 20 regestered vehicles are Prius, but that 1 in 20 vehicles on the road probably are.

    The Prius is just so ideal for suburban driving. And so allot of them get sold here.

    There was once a time when one would see twice as many HCH-1 s around as 2nd Gen Prius. But now its more like 3 to 4 times as many Prius to HCH-x Plus Insights.
     
  20. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    I see Prius all over the place in little Adelaide. There are plenty of Gen III around to.
    Camry Hybrid has only recently been released in Australia but they are becoming pretty popular to.