xcel
03-16-2009, 01:50 PM
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg Gas-electric vehicles pile up on dealers' lots as angst over gasoline prices evaporates. Nevertheless, more hybrid models are on the way. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-biz-hybrid-sales-march16,0,5173041.story?page=1)
2009 Toyota Prius – Base for close to $20,000 while still offering the best FE.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Prius-III_with_Solar_Panels.jpgKen Bensinger – LA Times (latimes.com) – Mar. 16, 2009
Hybrid sales are down less than the overall market but still down. If you are going to buy, now may be the time to do so. -- Ed.
The Ford and Honda hybrids due out this month are among dozens planned for the coming years as automakers try to meet new fuel-efficiency standards and please politicians overseeing the industry's multibillion-dollar bailout.
Unfortunately for the automakers, hybrids are a tough sell these days.
Americans have cut back on buying vehicles of all types as the economy continues its slide. But the slowdown has been particularly brutal for hybrids, which use electricity as well as gasoline as power sources. They were the industry's darling just last summer, but hybrid sales have collapsed as consumers refuse to pay a premium for a fuel-efficient vehicle now that gasoline has slipped below $2 a gallon.
Last month, only 15,144 hybrids sold nationwide, down almost two-thirds from last April, when the segment's sales peaked and gas averaged $3.57 a gallon. That's far larger than the drop in industry sales for the period and scarcely a better showing than January, when hybrid sales were at their lowest since early 2005.
In July, U.S. Toyota dealers didn't have enough Prius models in stock to last two days, and many were charging thousands of dollars above sticker price for the few they had. Today there are 80 days' worth on hand, and dealers are working much harder -- even with the help of $500 factory rebates -- to move the egg-shaped gas-savers off lots from Santa Monica to Miami.
This month, Honda is offering $2,000 in cash, financing and leasing incentives to buyers of the formerly sold-out Civic hybrid, while a dealer in northern Michigan is dangling $6,000 cash back to those willing to purchase a hulking Chevy Tahoe hybrid.
Yet automakers feel they have little choice but to make more hybrids. Though car buyers are losing interest, politicians are pushing them as key to reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and limiting the global-warming gases that cars emit into the atmosphere...
At the end of June, AutoNation, the country's largest chain of new car dealerships, had only a two-day supply of Honda Civic hybrids and a 14-day supply of the non-hybrid Civic. By year's end, the picture had flipped, with AutoNation holding 107 days worth of regular Civics, compared with 148 days' stock of the hybrid version...
Still, some consumers see the depressed hybrid market as a buying opportunity.
Chad Gallagher, a lawyer in Berkeley, took advantage of a President's Day promotion, plus a healthy measure of dealer desperation, to purchase a fully loaded Prius last month for $5,000 under sticker price. … http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-biz-hybrid-sales-march16,0,5173041.story?page=1
2009 Toyota Prius – Base for close to $20,000 while still offering the best FE.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Prius-III_with_Solar_Panels.jpgKen Bensinger – LA Times (latimes.com) – Mar. 16, 2009
Hybrid sales are down less than the overall market but still down. If you are going to buy, now may be the time to do so. -- Ed.
The Ford and Honda hybrids due out this month are among dozens planned for the coming years as automakers try to meet new fuel-efficiency standards and please politicians overseeing the industry's multibillion-dollar bailout.
Unfortunately for the automakers, hybrids are a tough sell these days.
Americans have cut back on buying vehicles of all types as the economy continues its slide. But the slowdown has been particularly brutal for hybrids, which use electricity as well as gasoline as power sources. They were the industry's darling just last summer, but hybrid sales have collapsed as consumers refuse to pay a premium for a fuel-efficient vehicle now that gasoline has slipped below $2 a gallon.
Last month, only 15,144 hybrids sold nationwide, down almost two-thirds from last April, when the segment's sales peaked and gas averaged $3.57 a gallon. That's far larger than the drop in industry sales for the period and scarcely a better showing than January, when hybrid sales were at their lowest since early 2005.
In July, U.S. Toyota dealers didn't have enough Prius models in stock to last two days, and many were charging thousands of dollars above sticker price for the few they had. Today there are 80 days' worth on hand, and dealers are working much harder -- even with the help of $500 factory rebates -- to move the egg-shaped gas-savers off lots from Santa Monica to Miami.
This month, Honda is offering $2,000 in cash, financing and leasing incentives to buyers of the formerly sold-out Civic hybrid, while a dealer in northern Michigan is dangling $6,000 cash back to those willing to purchase a hulking Chevy Tahoe hybrid.
Yet automakers feel they have little choice but to make more hybrids. Though car buyers are losing interest, politicians are pushing them as key to reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and limiting the global-warming gases that cars emit into the atmosphere...
At the end of June, AutoNation, the country's largest chain of new car dealerships, had only a two-day supply of Honda Civic hybrids and a 14-day supply of the non-hybrid Civic. By year's end, the picture had flipped, with AutoNation holding 107 days worth of regular Civics, compared with 148 days' stock of the hybrid version...
Still, some consumers see the depressed hybrid market as a buying opportunity.
Chad Gallagher, a lawyer in Berkeley, took advantage of a President's Day promotion, plus a healthy measure of dealer desperation, to purchase a fully loaded Prius last month for $5,000 under sticker price. … http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-biz-hybrid-sales-march16,0,5173041.story?page=1