Toyota Prius tops most wanted cars list

Ha, yeah, I like that the title of the article is "Hardest-To-Get Cars."

On a related note of the Prius being hard to get...I came across this post from David Pogue's blog over at the NYT all about his saga of buying (or trying to buy) his second Prius:

The salesman told me that because of gas prices, the car was incredibly popular; his dealership had gone from selling 3 Priuses a month to 40 of them. So it might take him a week or so to find a Prius with one of the colors and packages I was looking for. No problem, I told him.

Sure enough, the salesman called me a week later. “We’ve found your car,” he said. “It’ll be another week to get it here in the dealership.” Yay!

But then—nothing. Weeks went by, then months. I called a couple of times, got the runaround. I began to suspect that as the gas-price crisis escalated, the dealership had sold my car out from under me, to someone else, at a much higher price.

So today I stopped in and asked to speak to the manager....

But then came the punch line. “You’re not the only customer accusing us of selling your car out from under you,” the manager told me. “But you know what? I think Toyota’s selling our cars out from under us! They’re manufacturing the same number of cars, but we’re just not seeing ‘em. So I figure they’re selling them in Europe, where they can get much more money for them.”

[To read the whole post, head over to Pogue's Posts]

People are so silly.

Just because the Prius is the most fuel efficient vehicle available doesn't mean you will save money by buying one. Total cost of ownership for a Prius is higher than cars like the Chevy Aveo, this is because the Aveo is much cheaper than the Prius.

Of course if you truly want to save money you wouldn't be buying a new car in the first place.

Does anyone even do the math anymore?

I couldn't agree more with your Dana. There is so much Prius hate out there.

Regardless of whether the Prius is actually a better vehicle (I'd buy one!) you have to give it credit for raising awareness of hybrids. I think to most of the population it was the first mainstream hybrid vehicle. A lot of people take the piss out of the Prius because of it's shape, but everyone knows what it is when they see it, and knows that it is a hybrid.

I heard that the next generation ones are going to get 100 MPG - any idea if this is true? People who buy the 50 MPG one aren't going to be too happy about that. I wonder if Toyota will do an Apple and refund the money? ;)

Okay first of all I don't hate Priuses (Priui?), I think they are cool.

Second, edmunds has released an another recent study showing that there's not one hybrid vehicle among the top ten the cheapest cars in total cost of ownership.

Yes there are other reasons to buy a hybrid, like if you care about the environment, I'm only talking about cost. Do you think the demand for the Prius is due more to people caring about the environment, or because gas is f'ing expensive and they think they will save money?

Yes the study I linked is comparing all cars against each other and ignoring size (midsize vs compact), however neither of these studies take buying a used vehicle into account. That's where you really save the most money.

Interesting I dunno. Maybe honda's hyrid motor/engine is less complicated than Toyota's and thus easier to fix?

Maybe I picked the wrong model of Civic to compare but this says it's cheaper than the Prius. Also the Civic has higher crash test ratings in everything except side impact front. So that may be where the cheaper insurance comes from?

Really? WTF I started out in the site by looking at only hybrids FUBAR

but yeah the difference is minimal between most of the top cars. IMO you're still better off getting a used car with low mileage, as far as cost is concerned.

Indeed, there are many non-financial reasons to be purchasing a hybrid vehicle.

I believe the market for used hybrids is also fairly strong.

I wonder what the total environmental impact of a plug in is though? More coal plants won't help anyone....

I wonder if the plug in will still have the kinetic technology (Isn't that how the current Prius works? It uses breaking power right?) in it to go even further between plugging it in?

2010 could be a good year for hybrids!

Well you just sold me on plug ins...

I'd been under the assumption that they'd be burning a lot of coal.

Demand for the Prius has increased, but the "limited supply of Prius in the pipeline is due to a product plan based on our overall production limitations at the Prius factory. It has great fetures like high performance engine, amazing car headlights, and many more that would greatly help in a safety driving.
 

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auto manufacturers are still missing the boat. we do not need these battery operated vehicles which will need their batteries replaced after 10 years at a cost of $8000 . No one will buy these cars on the used market once this problem really comes to light, then they will be junked and the batteries burried so they will wind up being worse for the environment than clean burning gasoline cars.

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The ranking takes into account the total cost of ownership over five years, weighing fuel costs, maintenance and repairs, insurance costs, depreciation, financing rates and taxes against the purchase price of the vehicle.

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