wall st. journal article

plusaf-
just read the article... 10 consecutive months? SWEET! wtg Toyota!

Side note:
Looked at YOUR site and saw the leather interior! LOVE IT! I assume you got it from the dealer this way since you reference a touring edition or whatnot... Is this something any Toyota dealer CAN do?

 

Perhaps a self fullfilling prophecy? I think half of the cars made are silver. It isn't like everyone orders their package and color and Toyota says "Hey, they really like silver BCs, let's make more of them!" Nope, we get on a waiting list, then compromise on color and/or package just to get one.

 

Although I think the Prius is the best car in the universe, I think it should be pointed out that "days on dealer lot" is not strictly a measure of popularity. It is a measre of the ratio of supply to demand. Any car with a devoted following will show impressive numbers on this measure if there are too few of them available to meet the demand. Conversely, if Toyota made enough Prius to fill the demand, they would be found sitting on the lot.

 

i would like to know where these "6 days on the lot" cars are located.

and i bet the estimated 20,000 people on the waiting list would like to know too.

anyone notice that the waiting list is still about the same size as it was 4 months ago?

 

The Sienna is the next 'hottest'...anyone else find that kinda funny? It even beat the currently very trendy Chrystler 300. A van beating out a very trendy car is always funny to me. :mrgreen:

 

This was discussed long ago somewhere. Speculation is that "days on dealer lot" are counted from when the car is allocated to the dealer, until the car is picked up by the buyer. Thus it is not physically on the lot for much of this time, and they are counting days when it's been sold but is being prepped.

Dianne could probably clear this up.

If they counted from the time the car actually reaches the dealer, to the time it's been spoken for, I bet they'd end up with a negative average figure.

The reason for the odd way of calculating may be that computers hold info on allocation date and pick-up date, but not on actual arrival date.

 

ok so the time spent "on the dealer lot" also includes the time from the minute the car hits US territorial waters.

 

More precisely, from the time the computer system recognizes that the car "belongs" to the dealer. That may happen after it leaves port on the way to the dealer.

 

hmmm i wonder if being an import artificially inflates the "time on the lot" as compared to domestically made cars?

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that domestic cars might be "on the lot" once they are on a truck and on their way to the dealer, probably not much different than foreign cars, if they show up once they've left the port.

Nearly 16 years ago, when I was shopping for my previous car (the Civic) I was told by the local Toyota dealer that all his Toyotas were sold before they reached the lot. The system was basically the same as it is now with the Prius, except for the length of the wait: You put down a deposit, get on a list, and when your name gets to the top you have the right of first refusal on each car that comes in until you decide to settle for one. They would "try to get the configuration you want" but no promises. His attitude sent me to Honda, where the attitude was to bend over backward to get exactly what I wanted. I'd have stayed with Honda, if the Prius had not been so far ahead of anything else available or on the horizon.

I've never regretted my choice for an instant. But I'm sorry it was not Honda that came up with the Prius.

 

No. My daughter's skating coach said just this week that they had to wait 3 months to get their Sienna, late last fall or early winter I think.

 

On Car Talk today they had a lady who was waiting 4 months for the Mini Cooper. So wait lists seem to be more and more common, at least for popular models.