Toyota Suspends Prius Fleet Sales in US

Tempus, thanks for the update. Hopefully this will help address the waiting times for us little guys. Not to take an alternate spin on your topic, because it is of value, but I'm going to use it as an opportunity to vent; hey Toyota, thanks for the news, but UGH, how about an official announcement that official pricing, tech specs and the like have been released for the US, and 06 production has begun.

 

Hm. That's not good.

 

I'm wondering if this isn't a response to the unfair tax break legislation. If Toyota can only sell X number of Prius before consumers stop getting the tax break, presumably they want to make sure as many of those cars as possible are actually bought by consumers.

(Hey, a white Prius just drove past my window...)

 

I don't see how this will help at all in that regard... 60000 is 60000 no matter how you delay it.

The explanation probably is that they are simply not at the manufacturing capacity to meet demand, which stinks.

 

Not a delay. They're suspending fleet sales, presumably to help more individual customers like you and me get the tax credit.

I don't know if the energy bill excludes fleet sales. I doubt it does.
If that's the case, and Toyota did not suspend fleet sales, fewer individual consumers would be eligible for the credit because a chunk of the 60k would be used up by fleet sales.

 

Oh i see. I didn't read it close enough. .

Alright, I take it back. Maybe this'll be good news for those of us in line.

 

If that is the reasoning behind the suspending, kudos to Toyota to try and help out more consumers after the suspect tax breaks.

 

I would guess that this is from pressure from the dealers because of demand. Not some magic bullet that Toyota has come up with. There is a lot of pressure from dealers who can't get product to sell and that leads to PO'd customers and poor corporate relations between the dealers association and Toyota. Fleet sales can wait fill the customer pipeline first.

 

As someone looking to buy an 06 in the spring, I take this as good news since it can only help the supply side for the consumer. I am selfish in that I would prefer to not have to wait months for my car. I anticipate demand will be strong. I am also hoping that gas prices stay lower since people have very short memories and may not think they need this car with the gas prices low.

 

My guess is that waiting lists are back to '04 levels or higher, and that we just haven't heard anything "official" about it.

We don't have any idea what the "national state of knowledge" is re: the tax break, but my feeling (and that's all it is) is that knowledge of it is somewhere in the 20-33% range and climbing rapidly. Together with the reality check of having looked $3 gas in the eye (no matter how much it's now dropped), there are almost undoubtedly more Prius-interested folks out there than ever.

Wonder if Toyota has the ability to ramp up production yet again.

 

The more rare the better better resale value for my 06 that i ordered thru corp

 

You are missing a detail here ..
ALL consumers that buy prior to, and in the quarter in which 60K sales are reached will receive the full credit. Then, a phased decrease in the credit unrelated to number of cars sold will occur one calendar quarter at a time.

Toyota has a huge reason to fill the private consumer pipeline as much as possbile for the first half of 2006.

 

In fact, he did get it by a later post (earlier than your response).

 

I am not a cynic, but good business practices (money) would require this. Fleet sales are ALWAYS a discount. They will now sell ALL their Prii at MSRP. They don't NEED fleet sales to sell all they have.

I have a hard time believing that they are trying to make the individual consumer happy.

 

Well it would certainly be in their best intrest to sell to consumers first until the 60,000 limit is reached.

Consumers would make a purchase decision based on whether or not they can get the tax credit. A consumer that can't get the tax credit may not buy. Commercial and government fleets don't get the tax credit and are likely to be purchased even if there is a 6 month wait.

 

I think it's a matter of mindshare as well. They could sell the Priuses to a fleet, but a government organization doesn't exactly spread word of mouth as quickly as if they put it into the hands of a consumer.

And I think that their consumer customers would be more pissed than a fleet customers if they missed out on the tax break...

 

I wonder if this means that Walmart won’t get their 100 Prii, and will need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how they can mitigate the damage to their transportation budget bottom line?
http://priuschat.com/Walmart-and-Hybrids-t12021.html

 

My dealer called today and told me production on 06 started on 11/1, and pricing should be out next week. We'll see how accurate he is.

 

I saw that same info in a little thread in the main forum...
'06 Production Has Begun!

I hope your dealer's accurate about the pricing, I'd like to know how much those 06's will be rather than just guesstimating...