A Missed Opportunity to Reach the Magic Number- 60 MPG

I was trying to say that 195/60R17 and 195/50R19 are tires of the same width wich is not usually the case.
So unusual that these tires are not availlable in store...

 

Toyota tends to design the Prius for their home market. The tire sizes aren't available here, but seem to be common in Japan.

 

I agree if they could advertize 60 mpg would have been good marketing. I recently got a 2023 LE and ave mpg for the each tank of regular gas has been over 60 mpg, kind of careful driving, not hypermiling. Just trying to max EV ratio.

Right I have calcd 3 tanks so far and all over 60. One was a little over 65. So far my max trip is 87 mpg on an about 18 mile ride.

 

Just get a Prime. I've taken four 2600 mile R/T on gas only, but my overall mpg for the 15 months and 25K miles is over 80 MPG. And that's with only around 6 KW available on a full charge. Add 50 per cent to that for the 23 Prime's larger battery, and even with half the miles highway, we should be well over 80 mpg aggregate...

 

Take a look at some of bmw I3 tire selections

155 width hmm. Supposedly going back to the 70’s VW tall skinny tires are more efficient, what does your bicycle have?

What is truly pathetic is that it should cost Toyo absolutely nothing to offer a motor option stateside but due to our ideotic platform laws (the thing that blocked the solar roof) they can’t sell the 1.8 here without $15,000,000+ in government testing.

I don’t believe Canada has any such requirements so in theory Toyota should be able to sell the option there without harassment.

Toyota instead of lobbying against EV mandates should have lobbied to alter the Reagan era platform laws (the thing that effectively bans manual transmission options) to actually make sense instead of the stupid we get.
The government used to hand out exemptions left and right due to low volume and hardship in testing to company’s as large as Ford so I would think they would have an argument, hay we have this very efficient car option that pollutes less but your law bans it.


Hey maybe in twenty years we will get a plug in Nissan E-power stateside.
Nissan didn’t want to bother paying the testing fees to offer their more efficient hybrid version here either

 

Gen4 to Gen5 mpg differences between both Prius and Prius Prime is so ridiculously negligible once the numbers are past 50mpg, I don't know what's the big deal. '22 Prime vs '23 Prime at 54mpg vs 52mpg, at 12k miles it's like a $40 difference in gas.

Sorry folks, but the reality is sedans/hatchback is a dying breed and Toyota needed to inject life and youth into the Prius line to prevent its decline. Toyota found the fountain of youth formula for the Prius and the product is ON FIRE. Dealerships are selling these vehicles on the very same day they get the allocations.

If you're being sore over the reality of a hundred or two in lost gas savings, that's too bad because the trade off is the non-Prius buyers are flocking to the product now. The Prius line cannot survive on existing Prius owners alone. This is a home run in all aspects, and no significant number of people really care about 60mpg on a Prius other than hardcore Prius fans.

 

In general I agree about making the Prius more appealing.
I will wait to see sales numbers though, as evidence of ‘hitting it out of the park’.
Supply of these cars has been… lackluster.

 

Yeah we’re still in the fools-rush-in phase, coupled with abysmal inventory.

 

This fool is getting the vastly improved Prius while trading his old one in at cost after driving it for 3.5 yrs. Early bird gets the worm.

 

I'm the biggest moron. I've paid next to nothing to drive multiple brand new Toyotas since 2020 due to buying everything at MSRP and selling every vehicle for what I've paid even after accounting for taxes and interests. The absolute hottest Toyota I currently have and am selling was purchased when it was first released(gasp!) Had absolutely no issues despite being a first year model.. just Toyota things I guess.

 

That's the SE. The XSE is 48mpg.

That's because there was a shortage of 2022 available. The 2023 being delivered might match the numbers sold for the 2021.

 

I won't quote you because your post is funky lol, but yes even at 48mpg vs 54mpg it's approximately $200 difference or so which I mentioned in my 3rd paragraph. No one buying a new Prius will be bankrupt by a $200 increase of fuel costs, and if it bothers someone that much... Well you wouldn't be buying a new car in the first place anyways so the point is moot.

Toyota was offering $6000 off a Prime when I bought in 2021, so the model line was definitely struggling against America's insatiable desire for crossovers and SUVs. Toyotas are more in demand now than ever. Especially now that they are absolutely spitting out brand new model after model after such a long dry spell. Well-informed buyers that may have been waiting for the new models are now getting in line also. Although not everything is a home run(looking at the Tundra and Sequoia).

This high demand translates to crazy high resale value as long as you can secure an MSRP deal or better. Makes it rare that you would lose any money on them at this time.

 

Do you have a source for this 'high demand'?

In the last couple of years, there has been a lack of supply, not a rise in demand, that has created this issue.
A bit over a year ago, I sold a 2 year old Model Y for just over what I paid for it. This was the crazy market we were in.

If you have sales numbers that show different, I'd love to take a look.

 

Toyota had the foresight and will to heavily secure their supply chain due to the Fukushima disaster that interrupted their manufacturing capacity. They did this by contracting and helping their suppliers build out warehouses that stored at least 6 months running supply of critical parts needed to build their vehicles. This paid off in dividends because when the pandemic hit and were hit by severe supply chain issues, only Toyota was still able to keep up their manufacturing as normal as could be at the time. Since every manufacturer besides Toyota was punished for the industry norm of just-in-time manufacturing, this forced consumers who were currently in the market to flock to Toyota as they were the only ones who really had any meaningful number of cars coming in.

Think about how many brands are in the US. Now imagine ALL of their potential customers funneled to one single brand. That is why Toyota had empty lots. Not because there was a lack of supply, but because they were basically the only business in town.

I've personally purchased 3 new Toyotas since the pandemic started, with this incoming Prime being the 4th. I've helped secured 3 other new Toyotas for family and friends so I've got a rough idea of how it's been through these past few years.

Heres the stats from Toyota's website regarding their worldwide sales numbers:

2020: 8,692,168 Toyota's 2020 Global Sales down 10.5 Percent Year-on-Year | Sales, Production, and Export Results | Profile | Company | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website
2021: 9,615,157 Sales, Production, and Export Results for 2021 (January - December) | Sales, Production, and Export Results | Profile | Company | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website
2022: 9,566,961 Sales, Production, and Export Results for 2022 (January - December) | Sales, Production, and Export Results | Profile | Company | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website

They were able to INCREASE production capacity in 2021 and basically keep it the same for 2022 and onwards.

Compare this to GM which has been decreasing every year:

2020: 6,833,592
2021: 6,294,385
2022: 5,939,737

You got lucky with your Tesla. Ask any owner who still has one that has bought one pre-price cut, they've lost a limb in resale value. Absolutely volatile now with how unpredictable they are.

Toyota CANNOT make enough vehicles to satiate the masses at this time, and that was before they starting releasing so. many. new. models. And for a legacy automaker like Toyota whose product has a very long life cycle and being long in the tooth, it's all coming together to be a perfect, beautiful sales storm for Toyota.

 

The supply disruption from that disaster lasted several months. Toyota planned for such a disruption. The pandemic disrupted supply chains for years. Toyota's stockpile held for several months, and then they were in the same position as everybody else.
Toyota's October vehicle output to be weighed down by chip shortage | Reuters
Toyota Forced To Pause Production At Two Japanese Factories Over Chip Shortage | Carscoops
https://www.irishexaminer.com/motoring/arid-41067404.html
Toyota limits orders for Lexus in Japan due to chip shortage - Nikkei Asia
They are only giving new buyers a single key fob right now.

Toyota's number for 2019 was 10.74 million. A 19% drop will create shortages and empty dealer lots without an increase in buyers.

The Prius Prime sales in the US from 2021 to 2022 dropped by over a half. People here waiting for a 2023 had put a deposit down for a 2022. Toyota is not shipping enough this year to match 2021 sales. Prius sales dropped by over a quarter in that time frame. We might get enough to match 2021 sales.
Toyota Motor North America Reports Year-End 2022 U.S. Sales Results