I never see them in Buffalo but I can tell you I see tons of them in Seattle, Portland, and Cali. Lots of people(not sure if I would call any people here normal) drive them. Almost all of the men have outdoorsy burly beards too. Seeing super burly dude brah in a flannel rocking a Prius is priceless.
Got your eyes peeled for an ecofriendly husbear, eh?
Because GM isn’t doing the same. Toyota released the first Prius at $19999. Add in tax incentives and it was a hot seller. GM is releasing the Volt at 40k, twice as much as the original Prius, and well outside the budget of people looking to save money on gas.
But that’s fine because the Volt has proven there is interest in the idea, just not at that cost. Some other company will step in without GM’s union pension overhead and sell one for 25-30k and make a mint off it while GM continues it’s downward spiral.
Absolutely true.
Toyota sold their Prius under cost (and half the cost of the Volt), but it also didn’t save people the amount of money it promised either. The difference between the 2007 fuel economy ratings and the 2008 are incredible. Not many people were able to squeek out the mileage the window sticker promised. Not that it justifies the higher cost of the Volt, but it WILL be a better car. GM is making sure of that.
GM will sell everyone they make for the first year (10,000 units)
sort of like if they sold the ZR1 at 150k
I like the idea of them making the mark-up rather than the dealer. If they would have taken a bigger hit and priced it at 30k the dealers would have marked it up another 5k for demand.
Then they might look at dropping the price after demand slows.
In regards to the prius dealer mark up still
http://www.hybridcarblog.com/2008/05/300000-prius-markup-screw-customer.html
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2008/06/toyota-prius-ho.html
This is also interesting:
Sales of Toyota Motor Corp’s Prius hybrid in the January-May period for the past five years:
2003 8,796
2004 17,564 99.7 percent
2005 43,686 148.7 percent
2006 38,460 -11.9 percent
2007 76,747 99.6 percent
2008 79,675 3.8 percent
Looks like demand is slowing or they are at max capacity, I am guessing the later.
WTF happened in 2006?
Up 148%, down 12%, then back up 100%?
They added more production
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2006-11-05-prius-usat_x.htm
The shortage is being eased by a second shift that recently began at Toyota’s assembly plant in Tsutsumi, Japan.
EPA considering a new way to test plug in hybrids
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080927/AUTO01/809270368
The financial bailout legislation included a consumer tax credit of between $2,500 and $7,500 for plug-in vehicles.
Bump
One of the big questions about the Volt gets an answer and it looks good.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/autos/1001/gallery.chevrolet_volt_review/index.html
Still thinking 40k is way too much for this to be a success for GM though, at least while gas is < $5/gal.
I still think the Caddy version (which is rumored to have been given the green light) at $50k - $60k would be an easier sell
Possible mod potential?
“Off the-the-line acceleration was dialed back a bit, GM told me, to protect the test car from a jolting, tire-screeching start. Production cars could be a little quicker to jump out.”
Maybe a “burnout” button could eliminate any power-limiting off the line :tup:
… WTF am I talking about; it’s a $40k front wheel drive car, lol.
It was on Jay Leno’s garage a couple weeks ago
When is the world going to realize we base our entire being off the notion of blowing things up to produce energy? I think a “hybrid” is just an excuse to not fully develop a new technology to replace fossil fuels.
When are idiots going to realize since we base our being off the notion of fossil fuels we aren’t simply going to fully develop a new technology to replace them overnight. Hybrids are a stepping stone.
New technology is here already. The infrastructure, cost / benefit and market forces to grow the prominence of the technology are not.
ORLY? Examples?
Every hydrogen vehicle for starters. The tech works great and there are hundreds on the road right now. Same with plug-in electric cars (Tesla, etc.)
Tesla is actually doing really well. That just proves that this new technology is for people with deep pockets though.
Honda is still piloting that hydrogen fuel-cell car in So Cal right?
There are 4 manufacturers that have a real shot at making real world fuel cells cars. Honda is one of them. GM, Toyota, and MB are others. Nissan and Ford made a try for a while, but I think fell back on their spending a bit.
If someone would just pony up the 1 Trillion dollars to get the US infrastructure to support hydrogen, you’d see more of these vehicles on the road.