If there's anyone left who still thinks hybrid cars are just a fad, you need to rethink: the Prius was one of America's best-selling vehicles in 2007. That's vehicles, not just hybrids. Toyota sold 181,221 of the gas-electric hatchbacks. That's more than the entire Acura or Mercury lineups, and the model was nipping on all of Buick's heels. The Prius also outsold the Chevrolet Tahoe, the Toyota Tacoma, the Honda Odyssey, every Jeep, every Chrysler, every Dodge (except Ram) and every Ford but the F-series. No wonder Maximum Bob is trying to jump onto the hybrid bandwagon so fast, after pooh-poohing hybrids for so long. Only problem is that train left the station a long time ago, GM and Co. will have to run mighty fast to catch it.
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Frank—do you have any figures as to the avg. incentives associated with the Prius in ‘07 ?
I think the “fad” comments reflect a combination of wishful thinking as well as a sour grapes attitude.
It is no wonder why GM is heading one way and Toyota another. GM denounced the hybrid as a fad while Toyota has publicly stated they plan on having hybrids available across their entire line
GM once again wrong and stubbornly refusing to admit they were wrong and then having to play catch up because of their own arrogant ways.
umterp85
Frank—do you have any figures as to the avg. incentives associated with the Prius in ‘07 ?
The only national incentive I found on Prius in ‘07 was 0-5.9% APR financing for a couple of weeks in March. There may have been some regional programs I didn’t have information on.
Good piece of information here. I must admit I had pretty much considered it a nitch vehicle.
I had no idea that they’d sold that many. I always think of it answering a niche market… but 181,221 is a hell of a niche!
Has there been any recent mention of the Prius truly becoming its own brand of unique, hybrid cars in many body styles with avantgarde styling? As long as they were sold in existing Toyota dealerships, like Scion, I think it would be good.
Has the Civic hybrid kept up with the Prius?
At 32,575 units? I’d say that’s a negative, good buddy.
I think the “fad” comments reflect a combination of wishful thinking as well as a sour grapes attitude.
It is no wonder why GM is heading one way and Toyota another. GM denounced the hybrid as a fad while Toyota has publicly stated they plan on having hybrids available across their entire line
GM once again wrong and stubbornly refusing to admit they were wrong and then having to play catch up because of their own arrogant ways.
Right on! and it’s another reason why much of what Bobus Maximus says should be taken with a grain of salt. Regarding the fact that GM is going one way and Toyota another, it’s more like Toyota is staying on course according to plan after carefully testing the market while GM goes every direction at once making many U-turns and runs up dead ends like a chicken minus it’s head. What a way to run a car company.
Is it an inconvenient truth that the Prius sold better than the entire rest of the hybrid segment….combined? The other 12 (count ‘em) vehicles in the segment couldn’t all together match Prius sales. Kudos to Toyota for building the hybrid that America wanted to buy, but one vehicle does not a segment make…
The only national campaign was the APR program and some lease deals. However, Toyota was giving dealer cash to move Priuses during the year. They don’t disclose how much that is – but dealer discounts around here were often $2+k or so depending on the model towards the end of the year, so I’d guess $1k in cash depending on region? I read somewhere a while back that transaction price had dropped like $1,300 per vehicle early in the year and almost $2,000 per vehicle as the tax incentives disappeared.
Probably half of that growth (40kish) is sales to some fleets and tied to incentives. That still leaves half of their growth just based on availability and marketing – which is good growth to have.
I hate the Prius. I believe it is a fad. It does not get that much better gas mileage than some of the gas examples from Honda and it will not get near the gas mileage of VW’s new 2.0 diesel. Then, once you factor the “inconvenient” battery issue (replacement/disposal), they really aren’t a “green” car at all. They are a car for snobby, arrogant, people who think they are better than everyone because they have an almighty hybrid.
I’ll stick with my FUN, V8, RWD sedan thank you.
P71_CrownVic, ditto. (Except I’ll stick with my fun, lightweight sport compact instead.) I wonder why we haven’t heard much about Prius disposal so far? It’s been out for quite a while …
Even if it had incentives… the rest of the market had even more.
I am not a green eco person. I am right wing and a Republican, yet the Prius speaks to me because I have cheap streak a mile wide in me. It speaks to the inner cheapskate in me.
Different types of cars and trucks appeal to different people. Just because you may hate the Prius does not mean others share your taste.
I guess if GM loses half of their market share again and Toyota doubles it then there will still be people claiming its all a fad.
If you run a car company you will succeed if you give the people what they want and you will fail if you only give them what you want.
At 32,575 units? I’d say that’s a negative, good buddy.
Reinforces my view that people don’t want a hybrid, they want a Prius.
CarShark: Yes, Toyota has plans for three Prius vehicles: the sedan, a wagon, and a smaller “city” car. It’s going to become a sub-brand like Scion.
B.C.: Disposal is not an issue: there is a recycling program for the batteries. And even after ten years, very few have yet to be replaced.
P_71 CrownVic: In numerous tests in Europe, the Prius and VW Golf diesel had near-identical mileage. But: with higher diesel fuel prices in the US, the Prius clearly wins on fuel costs.
I am right wing and a Republican, yet the Prius speaks to me because I have cheap streak a mile wide in me.
And there’s an older fellow sitting near me that listens to Limbaugh at lunch. He commutes in from the suburbs and drives to meetings all over, so he loves the high mpg of his Prius.
P71_CrownVic:
The Prius bests out the MT models of the Yaris, non-hybrid Civic and Fit ~16 MPG margin (46 mpg vs ~30) under the EPA’s new testing.
You can argue the Prius is much more expensive than those cars but so are VW diesels. The VW diesel engine nets similar MPG as the Prius but diesel fuel is not always easy to find and currently commands a premium over gasoline. The VW will also eat through far more brake pads compared to the Prius (or any hybrid with regenerative braking capability).
A car that gets great gas mileage, has nice features (HID, Nav, keyless operation, etc) and doesn’t require the owner to go out of his or her way to operate, appeals to quite a few people, regardless of the image the car projects.
As for me, I’m not interested in Prius ownership yet. I want to enjoy my loud sexual-identity-affirming sports car before I get too old. I don’t see the Prius as a threat to my way of life. If anything, it’s other people picking up my slack.
Purchasing a Prius here in Ontario there are a lot of Incentives from both Federal and Ontario Governments, 2K from Ottawa and I think the same from Ontario so it brings the cost down, its good to purchase this vehicle in the USA as Canadian prices on this and other Toyota products are a rip off but then you dont get the incentives either/
I think anyone here bashing the Prius should really go test drive one to see what the appeal is all about. Once you make peace with the feeling that you’re driving a Nintendo Wii, it isn’t that awful.
Jane Average doesn’t give a toss about performance (look how well the Corolla, Camry, and other milquetoast marvels sell year in and year out.)
The Prius is comfortable, quiet, fast enough, and can hold a remarkable amount of stuff for its size. And it gets 45+ mpg in the real world. That’s why it sells.
Other hybrids sold today simply don’t have this winning combination of attributes. If only Honda would bring back the wonderful boxy-wagon style Civic in hybrid form…
I’d be more impressed with the Prius and hybrids overall if it weren’t for the fact that Camry hybrid sales (along with most other hybrid sales) have pretty much tanked.
I can’t help but feel that the Prius’ success has more to do with how it looks (Looky, I’m a hybrid, I’m a hybird) than any real demand for hybrids.
P71_CrownVic: “It does not get that much better gas mileage than some of the gas examples from Honda…”
The Prius has a “city” rating that’s far (65%?) better than the Honda Civic or Fit and a “highway” rating that’s significantly better.
The hybrid might be a fad (although energy recapture is a really good idea and a 400-mile range, 5-minute charge battery seems to be nowhwere on teh horizon) but one can still make a lot of money off of a fad.
Also, if the future involves electric powertrains, Toyota is getting a lot of field experience with electric powertrain components.
I guess real people telling you why they like the Prius repeatedly as well as ever increasing sales isn’t enough. The Prius outsells every Ford product but the 150. Shouldn’t that convince the naysayers.
I guess it will literally take GM and Ford actually going out of business and almost everything that runs on gas being a hybrid for some of you to believe that hybrids are not a fad and it goes far far beyond any environmental green thing. Oh well stick around.
Its interesting that the Prius did so well compared to the other hybrids on the market. I think Toyota really nailed it when they realized that it was important for a hybrid to look different as well as drive different.
The other hybrids share their outward appearance with their non-hybrid cousins. Only the Prius capitalizes on the need of many in its target market to show off their supposedly “green” credentials. To those folks, the Prius is the anti-status symbol status symbol.
I think the Prius sells so well partly because nothing else comes close, in terms of high gas mileage, and space. If high gas mileage is your first priority, and you want a family-sized car, the Prius is the obvious choice. If you identify as an environmentalist, and you want to wear your identity on the road, it’s also the only game in town. Finally, the car is so damn bombproof, what with taxis going 300,000 miles reliably.
If there were five true competitors, and collectively they were only selling 181k a year, that would not be particularly impressive.
In this light, the environmentalist in me wishes the car would have higher sales. But I’m not about to buy one. The car nut in me loves taking my internal combustion straight up.
The other hybrids share their outward appearance with their non-hybrid cousins. Only the Prius capitalizes on the need of many in its target market to show off their supposedly “green” credentials. To those folks, the Prius is the anti-status symbol status symbol.
This is true, but it only became true after the Prius became a cultural phenomenon.
Remember that the first-gen Prius sold in the US was far from being a hit. It was too small, felt like a tin can, etc. It was too impractical even for people who really wanted to be green.
With the second generation, Toyota accepted the market’s feedback (imagine that!) that people wanted great mileage PLUS the amenities and space of a normal compact car. The gen-2 Prius requires no real sacrifice from its owners.
The other hybrids being sold today all miss the mark in one way or another:
* The Camry and Accord hybrids emphasized higher HP/performance, which has gone over like a fart in church. 30mpg from a hybrid in a car with the interior room of the Prius is not appealing to either greens or skinflints.
* The Civic is/was much less practical than the Prius due to the lack of a hatch, and the battery pack prevents the rear seats from folding (at least it did a couple of years ago, i’m not sure if they newer ones have that issue.)
* GM’s experiments with “mild” hybrids add almost nothing except complexity and expense. Also, sticking their hybrid powerplants into 6,000lb-behemoth trucks instead of combating the weight problem that causes the miserable mileage in the first place seems like the wrong tack.
* Ford the same way — we know they can put together a decent hybrid, the Escape isn’t too bad. Why not try to build a hybrid with a smaller powerplant & stuff it into a C-Max? Import it to the US. Price it at Prius-levels. Maybe they’d actually make money on a small car for once…
I think rollingwreck has it right.
The Prius hit the sweet spot. And rather than saying “looky its a hybrid”, I think the distinctive appearance just helps make the owner feel special everytime the car is driven. Its a personal fulfillment thing, not a show off thing. I commute in a 1969 Mercedes, and I could care less what other people think of it – but I love sitting down in it, looking at the old school dash and old school fender lines. It makes me feel special and theres nothing Camcord about it. I could see how a Prius could invoke a similar sensation.
Frank: Thanks for the incentives info. I recall at one point that Toyota had put a little more on the hood for the Prius when some of the tax break stuff had hit the max. Kind of a moot point becuase this car has been such a huge success.
Your piece provokes a good question regarding Toyota in the US.
How much has the Prius helped Toyota’s overall accleration in the US market ?
I think the answer is well beyond the absolute volume it delivers….the PR has been huge.
Said another way—while Toyota would still be a big success—I think it would be much less so especially given the fact that other carmakers have met and in some cases surpassed the Corolla and Camry.
I think the Prius’s looks are part of its success, but for another reason: the looks are the signs of a car designed with efficiency as the first priority. The shape is almost ideal to cheat the wind. The smallish wheels reduce rotational inertia. If it weren’t a hybrid, it’d still get fantastic gas mileage. Other hybrids don’t get mileage nearly as good (and thusly don’t sell as well) simply because they’re just normal cars with hybrid systems in them.
David Holzman-”I think the Prius sells so well partly because nothing else comes close, in terms of high gas mileage, and space. If high gas mileage is your first priority, and you want a family-sized car, the Prius is the obvious choice. If you identify as an environmentalist, and you want to wear your identity on the road, it’s also the only game in town. Finally, the car is so damn bombproof, what with taxis going 300,000 miles reliably.”
rollingwreck-”The other hybrids being sold today all miss the mark in one way or another:”
Precisely!
Naysayers like to try to pretend the Prius is a compact based on outside dimensions. Sit down sometime and compare interior specs with the rest of the midsizers, it’s a little narrow (so are the G6 and New ‘Bu) but it pretty midpack overall.
Gee…a midsize car, priced like a midsize car, drives like an ordinary car (this is a GOOD thing, we enthusiasts should learn to face that we are, demographically and possibly in other ways, freaks), has great reliability and adds 20 MPG over it’s segment in the bargain.
I wonder why it sells?
I doubt most people care about the Image Thing.
This is an excellent car that fills it’s mission better than most vehicles do theirs, of course it sells.
BTW- the midyear stats showed fleet sales to be insignificant, if you take away the Impalas 55% fleet the Prius may outsell it.
Kudos to Toyota for a job well done.
I also think rollingwreck has it right.
Geez, I’m getting closer and closer to having to replace, and even you naysayers are pushing me into a Prius. I don’t drive in the city, but I need a car for my long weekend drives. So I’ve been thinking – Why squeeze into a Yaris or Fit if I can get the same highway mileage in a Corolla or better highway mileage in a Prius or Civic?
A Camry Hybrid is a hard sell sitting next to the Prius in the same dealership. You only need to open the trunk and see why. It is too small. The next issue is the gas mileage savings does not over come the extra cost over a regular 4cyl. Camry.
The Camry Hybrid is also only available in loaded and “top of the line”. It is a $30,000 car!
Now if Toyota had the good sense to make a Camry Hybrid Wagon……………
whatdoiknow1: “Now if Toyota had the good sense to make a Camry Hybrid Wagon…”
Or just change the powertrain in the Highlander hybrid to use their modified 2.4L I4, instead of a V6. It wouldn’t get super highway mileage but it would probably do quite well around town.
Very few bashers this time, so I agree with a lot that was previously said. Anytime I see people denigrate prius buyers as showboating greenies I really wonder what their problem is.
The Prius outsells everything hybrid for a simple reason, it is the most efficient car on the road. Think about that. A practical everyday usable midsize hatchback that delivers the best fuel economy burning plain old regular gas. No fuss, no muss.
And for the people going on about VW diesels getting better mileage. Where could you buy them in 2007? I think they had a few leftover ones that don’t have particle filters. Yes they got good mileage, but they still don’t beat the Prius (you want real world look at Edmunds long term tests, the prius easily beat a VW diesel over a year of being beat up by Edmunds drivers), diesel fuel is less available and more smelly and around here is more expensive. I stick with better mileage from cleaner, cheaper, more available, regular gas.
The only thing I don’t like about the Prius, is I really like to shift my own gears. If it had a 5-speed it might be my next car. I really hope that new Honda CR-Z gets prius like mileage and lets you shift your own.
Between the Prius, Yaris and Corolla, you have three highly popular vehicles that offer customers a seemingly pain-free, long term economical proposition. That’s obvious.
What’s not so obvious is that these frugal and conservative folks are as much a guiding force to Toyota’s success as the product itself. In fact they’re the enduring legacy for used car buyers that will eventually buy new.
I believe that in the last 20+ years, Toyota has increasingly focused on the ‘conservative and frugal’ driver. This has a lot of benefits that go far beyond the actual cars themselves. For example, you typically have lower insurance costs due in part to these conservative drivers, less stress on the vehicles (on average), better ‘real world’ mileage (on average), more visits to Toyota dealerships that use OEM parts (thereby making them run better as they age), more diligent maintenance regiments due to these dealer visits, and less wear and tear.
We have a saying in my neck of the woods when it comes to looking at used cars, “It’s not the car that’s important. It’s the driver.” The untold legacy of Toyota’s vehicles is that they primarily appeal to those customers that would abuse them the least. A page taken right out of the classic Volvo playbook. When folks today ogle over the possibility of buying a used Toyota, it’s not so much the car that is making the difference these days…. it’s the drivers.
for everyone saying “its successful because of how it looks”..would you buy a Ferrari if it looked like an 2nd Gen xB but still performed like a F430? its all about the look.
would you buy a Ferrari if it looked like an 2nd Gen xB but still performed like a F430?
If it was priced like the xB, yes yes yes.
I think I am going to try and take a ride in a Prius this weekend. I have been toying with the idea of replacing the POS Caddy with one(in your face GM). The milage is great but it’s mostly because they last such a long time with minimal maintenance, and the build quality is supposed to be superb. Lets see if I crash into a pole because it puts me to sleep. I don’t know if I could get past the fact I can’t shift my own gears, that would make it at least a little more fun.
Real-world driving, the Prius is not so hot. I have driven Crown Vics and have gotten 30 MPG on the highway…but the EPA says I should have only gotten 23 MPG.
The Prius sells because there a lot of “sheeple” out there that think that Toyota is a gift by God himself and that they are SOOOOOOOO much better than anything else out there. If it sold because it was simply a hybrid, then sales of the Civic, Accord, Escape, etc, should have been higher. Toyota has created this convenient mis-conception that their cars are better…and they simply are not…just look at the Tundra.
Its interesting that the Prius did so well compared to the other hybrids on the market. I think Toyota really nailed it when they realized that it was important for a hybrid to look different as well as drive different.
If looks was all it took, why didn’t the Insight sell this well?
Toyota, moving forward and leaving everyone behind!
The people I feel for is Honda. Honda do have very good green credentials and a damn good hybrid car. I just wonder if they marketed it right?
But to all the people who talk about diesels check this out.
A VW Golf plus 1.9 SE TDI DSG emits 159gm of CO2/km and does 36.7mpg in urban conditions and 55.4mpg in highway conditions.
A Toyota Auris 1.6 VVT-i T-Spirit MMT petrol engine emits 161gm of CO2/km and 33.2mpg in urband conditions and 47.9mpg in highway conditions.
There’s not really much in it and bear in mind that the VW is £2735 more expensive. Diesels still have a way to go. Now if someone brought out a diesel hybrid, that would be fun!
The Prius sells because there a lot of “sheeple” out there that think that Toyota is a gift by God himself and that they are SOOOOOOOO much better than anything else out there.
I don’t know if it is a divine intervention or not, but my daily driver just won’t die. Toyota Corolla, 4wd wagon, 17 years old, 200k, 30mpg and starts reliably every morning even when it is more than 40below.
Updated version of that car would be perfect choice for me, didn’t I hear rumors about a Prius wagon on the way?
My only concern would be about how well the Prius does in extreme cold.
Does anybody know how well it handles -40 for weeks at the time?
Real-world driving, the Prius is not so hot.
This is 100% untrue. I’ve had the opportunity to drive two different Priuses (Prii?) , one for about 1500 miles, the other for 500 miles (rental).
Over mixed conditions (ie, part city, part PCH, part suburbia, part mountains around big sur), the first car returned 45MPG mixed, the second one 44. This is with two adults, A/C going, and a trunk full of luggage for a 2-week trip.
I cannot think of another midsized car that comes anywhere close to the efficiency of the Prius in real-world conditions.
That the car is popular is no big surprise, and it’s not because of some sort of ‘green conspiracy’… it just works better for ‘normal’ folk who don’t care about cornering or 1/4 miles.
Kudos to Toyota for nailing it. As a stockholder I’m happy to hear that sales number. It doesn’t surprise me because I swear I’ve seen 50k of the 181k of them myself. They are like mushrooms around here… popping up everywhere. The Big 2.5 will be the Dead 0.0 soon due to their complete inability to move to market stuff people want. The number of trucks they produce boggles my mind. Perhaps they’ll just become this century’s International Harvester… niche truck makers, while the rest of us just buy cars from the Japanese, the Koreans, and the Germans.
Wait a minute, that has already happened!
Oh well, I’m not a hybrid driver. I climbed onto the Diesel (power)train back in the 1980s and have never climbed off. I can’t wait for the day when I have options in the Diesel power market. I imagine that day is soon, and I also imagine that gasoline-hybrid options will also continue to grow.
So long as the hare-brained E85 lunacy dies the death it deserves, but I digress.
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
The Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive has a SILENT START — most other hybrids on the market do not. Customers want that silent start – they love pressing the POWER button, hearing nothing, pressing down the accelerator and having the car move.
The gasoline engine then kicks in quietly around 35mph.
Other hybrids have the gas engine initiating at start-up, and that’s just not as magical to people. Honda discovered that to their pain.
In market studies, this silent start has been decisive.
As to incentives for Prius. Why? There are months long waiting lists for them. (5-6 months in certain European countries.)
Ok, so I’m weird.I use linux as a desktop OS & I don’t see value in the prius except for possibly moving people out of SUV’s.
I am also not interested in the prius due to their being no manual option. I also love to drive and have test driven a prius and it was horrible. The suspension was horrible. The car was eerily quiet. It was just too weird. Last I checked the prius’s around here were in the mid 20k’s which is not exactly cheap compared to other options.
The last “long” trip I took in the US (yeah I know most people drive more than me) was about 190 miles. I did it on my “little” (600cc) sport bike, flogged it and got 40-45mpg at 75-85mph. I typically wear a small backpack (holds 2 days of clothes) + body armor. The bike NEW cost $8k and the insurance is $400/year in Chicago for full coverage with a $250 deductible. If that is too pricey, you can get a 250cc for $3500 new, get 60-80mpg and have easier parking, cheaper insurance and better mileage than the prius, assuming the danger of riding a motorcycle is acceptable to you, I guess.
For traveling:
I typically take no more than 3 weeks of vacation per year and 2 weeks is a flight to brazil to see the in-laws. I have a beater neon for the winter that has 160k on the clock and when I went to Milwaukee averaged 39mpg. Insurance is $75/month. What use is a prius to me? Someone sell me on it…..I don’t get it.
There are so many more economical options that don’t cost mid $20k’s, don’t have a battery that has to be replaced in 5-10 years, etc that I can’t imagine buying one.
Yes it gets much better mileage in the city but that is what we have trains/busses/bicycles for. All cheaper than a prius + insurance. I was under the impression priuses (prii ?) are marketed towards city folk stuck in gridlock…..no gas while using the battery right?
So someone explain this to me. The only thing I can think of is people owning only one vehicle & dragging their family everywhere. Other than that, it doesn’t make alot of sense.
It’s probably not a coincidence that the Prius is the only stand-alone hybrid model. If you’re driving, for instance, a Saturn Vue Green Line, it’s not immediately obvious that you’re trying to save the planet. I think part of why the Prius is so popular over the Civic hybrid, which gets similar mileage, is that it’s obviously a hybrid, with all its planet-saving imagery. I’m proud to own a 2006 Prius that can go 450 miles on a 9 gallon fill-up without even trying
I’m a VW TDI driver. I’ll happily champion its virtues. But if you must have an automatic transmission, I’ll admit the Prius is a better choice.
Our TDI, optioned to my wife’s taste, gets 10 mpg less than the average TDI with a manual transmission. Its 35 mpg everyday average falls short of reported Prius effiency. But if you want to shift your own gears (and I do), better go Diesel. I don’t expect to see a manual transmission in any hybrid to come. If a car is automatically shuttling power between an electric motor and an engine, it’s certainly smart (and complicated) enough to choose its own cogs. Also, hybrid engineers presumably would want to eliminate any chance for over-revving and lugging the engine(s) that might result from a poorly trained driver at the wheel.
So someone explain this to me. The only thing I can think of is people owning only one vehicle & dragging their family everywhere. Other than that, it doesn’t make alot of sense.
You aren’t the typical consumer. I agree with you, owning a $1000 beater (assuming it doesn’t blow up every 10 seconds and you have some degree of technical aptitude) is probably going to be more cost-effective than buying a new Prius. New cars in general are terrible investments.
But if you ARE going to buy new, look at it this way:
Toyota claims that at this point the price premium for their Hybrid Synergy Drive is now about $2000 to the consumer. The more of these they crank out, the smaller the premium will become (It will probably less than $1000 in 5 years at the rate Toyota is going.)
Even at $2000, with gas projected to cross $4.00 a gallon in the not-too-distant future, you make your money back after consuming 500 fewer gallons. In my observation, the Prius gets about 15 MPG better overall than its nearest, non-hybrid competitor (i have never been able to do better than 30MPG mixed with another compact car.)
Lets say a typical consumer keeps their car for 5 years at 15000 miles a year (75000 miles)
your 30MPG car will use 2500 gallons of gas; the 45MPG prius will use 1666 gallons, a savings of 2500-1666 = 834 gallons (about $3333 at $4.00/gallon gas).
If Toyota can get the price premium down to $1000, the difference will be made up in under two years. And with every additional car that rolls off the line, their marginal cost will keep going down. This is one reason why the Big 2.8’s paralysis is particularly frustrating…. if they don’t act soon, they will be at a permanent cost disadvantage.
Also remember that in the US, we have relatively CHEAP gas. When I was in Canada, I heard a report that they are expecting to pay $1.50/L at the pump in 2008. Europe is similarly nasty. I would be shocked if the majority of their fleet wasn’t hybrid gas-electric or diesel-electric within the next decade.
t-truck:
I don’t know if it is a divine intervention or not, but my daily driver just won’t die. Toyota Corolla, 4wd wagon, 17 years old, 200k, 30mpg and starts reliably every morning even when it is more than 40below.
Yep…my Crown Vic will do that…after doing 100K of severe police use.