Hybrid Car Sales Stall as Cost of Going Green is Turn-Off

I see more and more Prii on the road every day...where are the numbers coming from?? Some folks waited to compare the Hi Cam to the Prius. I like knowing that I am part of the LUNATIC FRINGE! Duh!

 

CNW Market Research is a company that does "research" for clients, i.e. companies that pay them to do research. As in most such cases the results of the research will match pretty closely what the client wants. What bothers me most is that supposedly reputable news organizations such as the London Times repeat this crap as if it were verified fact.

If you want to know why they come up with the results they do you would have to know who paid them, and that's something you most likely will never know.

 

OTOH: They do cite verifiable sales numbers and point that some may be waiting for the next improvement.

Isn't production still limited due to battery supply? So, sales may be down due to lack of inventory.

'Course, accusing us of being on the 'lunatic fringe' is sooo helpful and instructive, eh?

 

Sigh, CNW is the same "company" that has been publishing drivel claiming that hybrids consume more energy over their lifetime than Chevy Tahoes and Hummers based on totally bogus numbers.

http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=2...62&#entry289262

His study might be interesting if it didn't have such bogus figures like it costing $2.5 MILLION to DISPOSE of a VW Phaeton and $325K to DISPOSE of a Prius which they claim cost $13K to make. They crux is the problem is that they claim the horribly unreliable Hummer H2 [check Consumer Reports] will last an estimated 197K miles while a Prius [with an EXCELLENT reliability record] somehow lasts only 109K miles. The Ford Expedition which a not so good reliability record somehow lasts 284K miles... right.

Another great claim is "This means that when gas prices go up, these people don't rush out to buy more hybrids. "They buy a Chevy Aveo," says Spinella. "It delivers the same fuel economy as a Prius, but at half the price." Right...

From http://autos.msn.com/advice/CRArt.aspx?contentid=4023460, Consumer Reports got 44 mpg in the Prius and the Aveo made it in the worst fuel economy for small cars w/27 mpg w/a manual.

Car and Driver got 42 mpg w/a Prius and 24 mpg w/the Aveo per http://www.caranddriver.com/roadtests/7701...rius-page4.html and http://www.caranddriver.com/roadtests/7867...-ls-page3.htm.l

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(brandon @ Jul 23 2006, 01:22 PM) [snapback]291001[/snapback]</div>

Sales of the Prius are slightly down this year. I guess that has nothing at all to do with the fact that Toyota has produced slightly fewer of them this year. I don't suppose that the plant where they make them isn't maxed out or something or that certain materials were diverted to the upstart of the Camry Hybrid since raw materials for the hybrids, particularly battery production is limitless, right?

Demand for the Prius has obviously dried up. I'm only supposed to be waiting 3 months for one this year, unlike my 4.5 month wait last year. Oh my? Does that mean that demand for the Prius is actually 33% less than it was?

 

Oh, silly me! I paid full MSRP. :blink: Guess if I were smart I could have bought one at a discount since they're so unpopular. But, gee, not a single dealer in California was interested in selling me one at any discount whatsoever. And since my daily commute of 120 miles (round-trip) was costing $110/week, I felt some pressure to make a buy. In my Prius, my weekly commute is $35. And then there's the trivial issue of the $3,150 tax credit--which will expire on September 30.

 

Perhaps the author of the article should familiarize himself with the auto industry trade paper The Automotive News. There was an article several months ago about new vehicles' 'turnaround' time, i.e., the time a vehicle, on average, remains on a dealer's lot from the time it arrived to the time it is sold.

As one would imagine, the vehicles currently with the longest lot time were SUVs, mainly mid-sized. I think the vehicles with the longest lot time were the Hummer models (mainly the H1 and H2).

The vehicle with the shortest 'turnaround' time was the Toyota Prius, with an average time remaining on a dealer's lot of just two days.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the Toyota Prius still has the shortest lot turnaround time.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rudiger @ Jul 23 2006, 04:16 PM) [snapback]291130[/snapback]</div>

Yep, http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2006-0...tage-usat_x.htm talks about the 2 days supply of Priuses.

It just drives me up the wall that this moron/shill Spinella keeps getting so much attention from the Prius w/all his false information.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(brandon @ Jul 23 2006, 01:22 PM) [snapback]291001[/snapback]</div>

I am part of the lunatic fringe?? Oh, that is soooo cooowelll!

At NO added expense, may I add.

 

We should recognize that this kind of baloney being promulgated means there are a lot of conventional car makers worried that they've missed the boat.

 

You mean I am in the lunatic fringe group again! Why is it always me. :lol:

 

Low resale values on a Prius? Is this article for real?

 

OK, enough of this. I request that Prius drivers near Bandon Oregon organize a hybrid car 'fact session' in CNW's parking lot there. I shall make every effort to attend. It would be nice to meet with others of the lunatic fringe.

Fight media with media.

 

The article says...

Above is wrong information.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/datearchive.html has monthly statistics about "US Sales of Hybrids".
Following my collected data...

Code:

        2005     2006
Jan     8,455   15,868
Feb    10,400   14,957
Mar    16,619   17,861
Apr    20,974   21,707
May    16,887   23.554
Jun    19,223   23,048
=======================
       92,558  116,995   26% increase

Ken@Japan

 

Thanks for the accurate info.

It has to be one of the mysteries of the cosmic mind that "sales are dropping" while everywhere you look folks spend months on the waiting lists and the on-hand available inventory at local dealerships has gone from 8-12 vehicles down to about 2.

 

Is responsibility in journalism a more recent myth or a historical one?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mirza @ Jul 24 2006, 07:31 AM) [snapback]291419[/snapback]</div>

Don't throw mud on the entire profession just because there are some corrupt and venal practitioners. Journalism is a tough business. The organization responsible for the above MISinformation is not made up of journalists. <_<

Puh-leeze.

We all owe it to ourselves to check our sources in every encounter, whether the information we receive is from the internet, print, or broadcast media--or even from our friendly local colleague at the proverbial water cooler.