Comments on: Prius Continues Its March of World Domination

By: thomatt12

thomatt12 — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:01:06 +0000

The Japanese automaker, Toyota, is on top once again. Good job to them!

By: kurtdaniel

kurtdaniel — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:11:21 +0000

yeah,,the best of luck to my fave car model!!!

By: Mitchell Piper

Mitchell Piper — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:04:34 +0000

Wow. I love the way you have a complaint with a local dealer and label it, “Toyota”. Toyota–meaning the car manufacturer, has nothing at all to do with the price upcharge asked for by your local dealer. In fact, Toyota is not legally allowed to tell a dealer how much they can or can’t charge for its product. That would be price fixing. Your local dealer is probably responding to market conditions in your area. It is likely that other Toyota dealers in your surrounding area also have asked for more than the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price, because the supply and demand situation with this car allows them to get what they are asking right now. (Toyota is allowed to “suggest” a fair market price–which is the number on the window sticker.) By shopping around, you should be able to find Toyota dealers who will charge significantly less upcharges or none at all. Just don’t blame Toyota. Blame it on “Market”. BTW: How is it any different that the dealer asks more for a hard to get product in high demand than it is for a consumer to walk onto a lot and demand steep discounts for a product that isn’t selling?

By: Bryce

Bryce — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:06:56 +0000

well, it is part that appeals to people’s pocket books, which is what most people base their decisions upon.

By: Dave-C

Dave-C — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:18:04 +0000

Diesel? Umm.. Clean diesel is not clean. It is only cleaner than diesel used to be… which is really dirty. Fuel economy is only part of the reason for switching to new technology.

By: Bryce

Bryce — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:05:31 +0000

I am happy to see that we found the most positive fellow here in you Mr. JoeA.

By: JoeA

JoeA — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:10:02 +0000

Har Har. The Honda insight will be 19K-20K, but I’ll bet you’ll never find one for that. Kind of like trying to find a Honda FIT at MSRP. Yeah, right – think again. The only ones you’ll be able to get are the ones that are all pimped out with options and marked up above MSRP. And you’ll wait 6 months for the privelege.

The Chevy Volt is all marketting hype and vaporware. They’ll never get it out when they say they will. It’s an all new technology for a company that’s got no maturity, engineering or mass manufacturing experience with that type of car. They will have many engineering problems, delays and oh yeah, it’ll be priced out of range of the average Joe. Much as I’d like to see them succeed, I don’t think they will in the near term. They should be ready somewhere about the time my new Prius is ready to be replaced, but I won’t bet on it.

By: Bryce

Bryce — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:58:37 +0000

I was wrong, I was checking back on the sales list and Toyota's market share last year wasn't 70% but about 80% total, most of that from Prius. Prius is now at about 50% whereas Cam hybrid is about 10%-15% I believe.

Anyways, my argument was not that Toyota is competing with themselves, but that you asserted that GM, Ford, Honda, and Nissan really had no market share while Honda's market share has nearly doubled and GM's has gone up six fold from this time last year. So either Toyota is doing it to itself, or indeed, as the numbers show, its competitors are gaining market share and fast. That is what I was trying to say.....which you clearly missed.

By: steved28

steved28 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:33:14 +0000

Bryce, Toyota is not competing against itself, the Camry and Prius are two different cars. One is not losing market share to another, the Prius is just being produced in limited quantities now. When I was shopping for a hybrid I never considered the Prius, but I did consider the Camry.

You mention the fusion hybrid, yet by your logic Ford would be competing against itself in the hybrid market if they introduced this car. Since they already have a hybrid.

By: Samie

Samie — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:15:39 +0000

Thanks Dom and Bryce, Sometimes you get lost in what GM and Toyota are doing and don't really know what some of the others guys are up to.

Ive been somewhat skeptical about some of the diesel options in the luxury cars and those that get average MPG, but I'm glad to see the new Jetta, As for the Ford F150 I'm sad to hear that the diesel option is delayed. In my fantasy world I would love to see all light trucks have the option of diesel and all V8 trucks be replaced with diesel engines.