Toyota Prius tops most wanted cars list

The Toyota Prius is the most wanted car in America.  Also on the list are the Honda Fit, Civic, Toyota Corolla, Yaris, and Mini Cooper.  Lots of fuel efficient cars in high demand!

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]

Weirdness.  At least the supply of Priuses will increase once the 2009 version comes out, but that's not until January!

My uncle in Seattle was saying the same thing - there's a huge long waiting list to get a Prius there, and like a $5000 deposit to get on it.  Somehow he got lucky and got one though.

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?

Ohhhhhhhh no you didn't.

a) I'm a Prius owner

b) I'm a math geek

For starters, some people consider factors other than finances when making purchases.  You know, like the environment!  The Prius is the greenest mass produced car available at the moment.

On top of that, you're comparing apples and oranges.  The Prius is a mid-sized car.  The Aveo is what?  Compact?  Sub-compact?

As it turns out, a recent study showed that the Prius makes up the extra initial cost over a comparable non-hybrid in just 2.6 years, and that was based on $3.70 gas.

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? ;)

Nope.  The 2009 Prius will be considered the next generation version I believe, but it will only get slightly better mileage than the current second generation versions (although it will also be a bit more powerful).

It's the plug-in Prius that will get 100 mpg, depending on distance.  Heck, if you drive it less than ~40 miles before recharging it, the plug-in version won't use any gas (infinite mpg), just like the Volt.  And just like the Volt, it's due out in 2010.

It's interesting because the Prius is in such high demand now, and the 2009 version will be a bit of an improvement, but in 2010 there will be a huge improvement.  So how many people will buy the 2009 version, and how many will wait one more year for the plug-in?

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.

Sure, if you only care about saving money, then don't buy a Prius.  Get some small used car with decent mileage, and hope the repair costs don't get too expensive.  But if you're going to buy a new car and want something bigger than a compact, the Prius is the best choice.

I'm rather skeptical of that Edmunds study though.  It's got the Civic hybrid as significantly cheaper than the Prius, but the Prius has a lower initial cost and gets better gas mileage.  How the hell does that work?

*update* Upon doing further research, it seems Edmunds attributes the additional $1500 for Prius total cost over Civic hybrid mainly to higher maintenance and insurance costs.  I don't know why that would be true.

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?

Yeah you picked the regular Civic instead of the hybrid.

I don't know how they figure out insurance premiums, so I can't comment about that.  It's a mystery to me.  I don't think there's much difference between the Toyota and Honda hybrid system.  Both should be equally low maintenance, and the Prius has been around longer, so it seems like it should need less if anything.

I think it just goes to show there's not much difference between the total cost to own of all these new cars.  They cite the difference between the Prius and Civic hybrid as 3 cents per mile, which is also the difference between the Civic hybrid and #4 cheapest on their chart (Toyota Yaris).  So within the margin of error, there's just not a lot of difference in total costs.

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.

Fair enough.  However, one other benefit of buying a hybrid is that you're increasing the demand for alternative fuel technology, which pushes the automakers to build even more efficient cars like plug-in hybrids and fully electric cars.

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

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

Yeah you could say that.  A 2004 Prius is going for almost as much as a new 2008 Prius.  Which I think also contradicts the Edmunds depreciation estimates.

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!

To the first question, lower than gas cars and regular hybrids, even when most of the power grid is coal, as discussed in the Electric Vehicles Wiki.

To the second question, yes I'm sure plug-ins will still use regenerative braking.

To the third statement, Ecogeek agrees.