Thinking of Buying a Hybrid Car (Toyota Prius)

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Hammer
hybrid depreciate much faster than normal vehicles. don't know why, but they do.

I might have thought so, but my dealer said they got a reasonable price for my 3 year old 2001. And I still had over a year left on the lease, and Toyota didn't charge me a dime for turning it in early. If the car depreciated faster, I would have expected them to at least charge me a penalty for ending the lease early, no?

And by the way, when I got the 2001 it was already used. (It was a demo, but only with about 5500 km on it.)

 

[327]

I work at a local Toyota dealership here in service, and I think they are great cars. We have almost not problems with them at all. The main things are like stupid tire problems just like with any other car. The only disadvantage is the amount of techs trained on them is low. Out of a dealership that writes 3000 cars a month, and has about 30 technicians, we have 2 people who are trained to work on the Prius.

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: Eug

Originally posted by: Hammer
hybrid depreciate much faster than normal vehicles. don't know why, but they do.

I might have thought so, but my dealer said they got a reasonable price for my 3 year old 2001. And I still had over a year left on the lease, and Toyota didn't charge me a dime for turning it in early. If the car depreciated faster, I would have expected them to at least charge me a penalty for ending the lease early, no?

That's right. When you end a lease early by trading it in to a dealer, the dealer essentially makes all of the remaining lease payments AND buys the car at residual value. Because a lease payment involves not only depreciation, but the rental charge and money-factor as well (the money-factor on a lease is akin to interest on a loan), it's generally not a good deal for the dealership to do this, unless the customer is willing roll a substantial amount of negative equity into the next lease or loan, or come up with cash out of pocket. So, in order for the customer to get out of a lease early without being charged extra, the dealer must expect to easily be able sell the car for what they paid to end your lease, plus a reasonable profit. That simply doesn't happen on cars with poor resale value.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: 327
I work at a local Toyota dealership here in service, and I think they are great cars. We have almost not problems with them at all. The main things are like stupid tire problems just like with any other car. The only disadvantage is the amount of techs trained on them is low. Out of a dealership that writes 3000 cars a month, and has about 30 technicians, we have 2 people who are trained to work on the Prius.

Well, there was a steering recall on my 2001. Something about the electronics of the power assist to the steering. Replaced for free of course though. What happened was the power assist could cut out. Steering would still work but of course would require some arm effort.

For my 2001 there was also a "voluntary replacement" of the tires, because people were complaining that they were wearing too fast. Annoyingly, my tires were slashed AFTER the replacement, so I had to get a pair replaced again after just a few hundred miles. :frown:

On my 2004 there hasn't been anything so far with mine except that they installed a cargo net for free after the fact. I'm not sure why but I think some early literature suggested that it was included so people complained when they didn't get the cargo net. Only applied to Canada. The Americans don't get the free cargo net.

BTW, that issue about Prius-trained technicians is potentially significant. I live 2 blocks away from a Toyota dealership and for the longest time I couldn't even get a tuneup there because their Prius guy defected to another dealership. However, I think they have another Prius guy there now. In the meantime I had to drive 10 minutes to another dealer. Also, it's annoying when I got a car wash or a place with valet parking. They don't have a clue how to start my car or shift into drive. For this reason, Toyota actually included a valet instruction card in the glove box.

 

[327]

there's going to be those little voluntary recalls on almost any vehicle though

 

[Eug]

Toyota's hybrid car Prius ranks as 10th best-selling model in Japan in May

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - Toyota's hybrid car Prius ranked the 10th best-selling car in Japan last month for the first time, according to figures from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA). The data also showed that Toyota Motor Corp made six of the 10 top-selling cars in Japan last month, with Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Honda Motor Co Ltd making the rest of the 10 top-selling cars, the second straight month that the three automakers took up all the slots

Toyota Corolla kept the top spot for the fourth straight month, with sales of 14,275 vehicles in May, JADA figures showed

Rank Model Maker Sales
1 Corolla Toyota 14,275
2 Fit Honda 9,642
3 Wish Toyota 9,032
4 Crown Toyota 8,897
5 Cube Nissan 8,444
6 March Nissan 6,919
7 ist Toyota 6,702
8 Alphard Toyota 6,062
9 Odyssey Honda 5,944
10 Prius Toyota 5,806

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: wayliff
Does anyone own a this hybrid car?

If you do.

Please tell us how you like it.

Planning on buying one.

Good for you. Looks like you will have a long wait to get one. Waiting list to get Hybrids is getting longer and longer. I know some folks here now that are on at least 6 month long list and someone that paid an extra $5,000 to get "bumped" up the list to get one.

 

[Eug]

This is a pretty good Prius review:

http://www.corolland.com/prius/toyota-prius-review.html