Car buyers hit brakes on Prius purchases

gas prices have been slowly rising around here for the past month and a ½. does it HAVE to be $3 before some sense is pounded into us??? or is the level of common sense inversely proportional to the amount of available cash in our pockets??

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hill @ Dec 1 2006, 11:59 AM) [snapback]356279[/snapback]</div>

Some people are!

 

Just an FYI - I purchased a new 2007 here in San Jose, Ca this past Saturday - no wait and there were about 30 available from Piercey Toyota. I got the exact color and option package I wanted (Silver-HK), and the wait was a whopping 10 minutes. Here in Cali there seems to be an excess of vehicles available (at least at the 2 dealerships I visited) and deals are being made big-time. I know the tax credit has been cut in half since October but I walked away with a price that was about $1500 below MSRP so I figure that compensates for the other half of the tax credit I'll miss. On top of that I bought through Costco so there were none of the games and BS that so many have reported elsewhere in this forum. And the car is great - outside of aircraft this is the coolest vehicle I have ever owned and I'm very happy with it on so many levels.

Thanks everyone for such a great and informative forum!

cc B)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt @ Nov 30 2006, 03:24 PM) [snapback]355869[/snapback]</div>

The CNN article seems to be mixing up the issues of tax credits for a 2007 model Prius and extending the 'full' tax credit beyond the first 60,000 per hybrid manufacturer. Sometime within the past 6 weeks, the IRS finished the paperwork to certify that a 2007 Prius counts for a credit with the current legislation, so the few who were able to get a 2007 model before Oct 1, 2006 are eligible for the 'full' credit of $3150 That just required Toyota and the IRS to complete paperwork.

Within the past few days, Toyota US announced they are seeking a change in the legislation that would allow the 'full' credit to be given for hybrids beyond the first 60,000 per manufacturer. That DOES require a change in the law, and as far as I know, it's just 'talk' at this point - no one has drafted legislation. Since none of the other manufacturers of hybrids have hit their 'full credit' limit but Toyota, no one else is yet pushing for that legislation.

CNN did a similar story just after the October sales were announced. At that point, the IRS had not yet certified the 2007 Prius as eligible for the credit. So CNN probably researched their 'new' story by looking at the 'old' story and not checking if anything had changed.

 

Even the current tax *credit* at the 50% level is great by historical standards. The Prius was in HEAVY demand in the old days of 2004 and 2005 when the tax *deduction* was $2,000. That $2,000 deduction only had a bottom line value in the $600-ish range. The current *credit* level is still worth better than double that amount.

The other thing that probably happened is that demand was higher with the coming of the lesser credit. I don't know if Toyota responded to that by moving as much production volume into the first 3 quarters of 2006 as possible, but it wouldn't surprise me. An analogy is what many companies see in the 4th quarter of their fiscal year where sales & manufacturing go crazy and end up stealing some business that would otherwise have been realized in Q1 of the following fiscal year. Q1 is often lackluster as a result.

All these credits and deductions have been nice, but it will be interesting to see how hybrids play out in the market once the goverment incentives are gone.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(uclabruins @ Nov 30 2006, 08:34 AM) [snapback]355694[/snapback]</div>

What gets me is that percentage-wise, the change isn't THAT big. Yes http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/11/01/027342.html confirms the 14598. A total figure wasn't reported in March 06 at http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/04/03/002900.html but I added up what I could find and came up with 13379. Usually comparisons are made for a given month to the same period in the previous year since there's so much variation month to month.

It's interesting that the media likes to focus on hybrids and SUVs as a whole. We don't seem to see stories in much bigger declines on vehicles. Take a look at http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/84...6Deliveries.xls for instance. Chevy Malibu sales are down 41.5% compared to the same period last year and off 19.5% YTD.

As a side note, Americans have such short memories about gas prices and it's clear they don't care about pollution and dependence on foreign oil. Tahoe sales are up 6.4% YTD and last month were up 69.8% compared to the same month last year. Suburban and Yukon sales are up 74.8% and 99% for November 06 respectively but they're down YTD.

 

Well, we just bought a 2007 Prius Package 1 as an internet purchase from a local dealer. We had 10 to choose from, with 3 with this exact package. We did NOT want all that dealer installed junk on the car, but it was already installed: tire warranties, bumper protectors, mats and cargo nets and VIN etching and window tinting. He offered to ordered us one in 1 week without all that stuff, but made us a deal to sell the car at 2% over invoice. We got the car, window tagged at $25,615, for $24036.

Mileage computer showed average of 24 mpg with 12 miles on the car. By today, with 212 miles we are up to 39.5 mpg.

I have learned the art of accelerating to about 35-40 slowly, taking my foot off the pedal and then reapplying in electric mode only. I've driven as much as 1 mile in electric mode only, my top speed for electric mode is 41 mph.

I'm almost embarassed that I got a discount off MSRP and I know folks who paid a premium. If you are in Colorado and want a Prius, come donw here and buy it, drive it home. You'll save enough to pay for the flight and the gas home.

 

Toyota's year-over-year November sales rose 15.9%

In the Fine Print

The Prius gas-electric hybrid mid-size sedan posted best-ever November sales of 8,008, an increase of 1.5 percent.

 

well, i think we counted almost 20 prius on the back lot yesterday, and there were a few in detail/prep, a few coming off a truck, and a few in the front display lot that we didn't count.

most of the ones we counted were driftwood, pine or silver. one red and one seaside.

 

Well, my wife and I finally bought our Prius today. We wanted a blue one, and there weren't many to be found in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I did find a couple at Toyota of Irving, and their website said they were doing employee pricing on all Prius. I got in contact with an internet manager, and over the phone, he offered me any Prius he had for just $200 over invoice!

We ended up getting a 2007 Touring model with Package #6, MSRP of $29,470, for $27,379! Wow, that was impressive. No games, no jokes, no hidden fees. We drove it off the lot, and were really happy with our Toyota of Irving experience!

Jonathan & Hilliary