Toyota Prius Becomes World's Third Best-Selling Model
Expanded family lineup, heavy Japanese incentives boost quarterly sales.
When talking about the sales success of the Toyota Prius, the car's gas-electric powertrain has always been a qualifier -- in other words: "It's a top seller for a hybrid."Well, no more. Automotive News is reporting that thanks to the proliferation of Prius models -- Prius c, Prius V, etc. -- into a four-model family of vehicles, which more than doubled global sales in the past year, the once-niche Prius is now the third-most-popular vehicle model worldwide behind the Toyota Corolla and Ford Focus. Toyota sold 247,230 Prius vehicles in the first quarter of 2012, slightly trailing the Focus, at 277,000, and its Corolla stablemate, which saw 300,800 units move off dealer lots. (When you add in the Camry, Toyota claims three of the top 10 models by sales in the U.S.)
The global sales jump for the Prius should also be partially attributed to heavy incentives in its home market of Japan, whose government established a 300 billion yen fund to help push sales of fuel-efficient vehicles. Currently, the Prius is available with rebates of up to 100,000 yen, or about $1,258. An additional 100,000 yen or so can be recouped in tax savings.
Since Toyota began selling the Prius in 1997 in Japan, the company has sold 1.5 million in the U.S. and 4 million hybrid-electric units worldwide.
[Source: Automotive News.]
This article is factually wrong. Toyota DOES NOT have three models in the Top 10 in the U.S., not in May and not so far for the first 5 months of calendar year 2012.
All you need to know about this article is "heavy Japanese incentives boost quarterly sales". You can sell a lot of anything when you're just about giving it away. How do you think Toyota sells so many Camrys? By undercutting the competition's price with rebates. That's what you have to do when your vehicle isn't as good as your competitors' are.
My family and Girlfriends Toyota's are doing great, all 7 cars. My Ford has had more problems than all 7 Toyota's combined! The 2006 Camry has been a great car, smooth ride , great mileage, the 4 cyl runs smooth and has plenty of power for the need. OH YEA, NOT ONE THING HAS BROKE ON THE CAMRY, NOT EVEN A LIGHT BULB, ZERO, NOTHING NO PROBLEMS!!!
On top of that, no one has had less recalls since last November than Toyota and Honda, Nissan,GM, Ford and Chrysler are firmly on top in that category. Looks like Toyota has bounced back from it's brief quality issues and is once again a world leader.
In Socialist Japan, because of unfair regulations intended to stifle foreign competition, we cannot build and sell our cars and trucks. Yet we let them build factories on our soil.
The Japanese also do not care about American patents or copyrights. And to think WE are the ones who wrote their constitution after the war that also states that we cannot own ANYTHING over 49% in Japan, but they can own as much as they want over here...
They´re not dupes like we are to let them sell 3 to 4 million cars a year here and drain billions from our suffering economy and take these billions back to Japan.
And they wouldn´t be dumb enough to buy that jobs pitch like we do: Oh, they build their cars here, give us jobs.
I know I won't change anyone's opinion, but you won't change mine either.
frostyross..............I too am in the auto industry and live in an area with extreme travel conditions. That being said, we choose to purchase from American company`s as these vehicles perform at or above world standards.
Your statement " I work at a place where the average education level is a Master's Degree (so they aren't ignorant obviously) " is about the most arrogant comment I`ve ever heard. You may think that the " little people " may not have the ability to make wise and competent decisions when purchasing vehicles, but the truth lies in their driveways with American vehicles that deliver everyday, year after year.
Take some advice from Dr macdaddy, usher the lab rats with the Masters degree`s where you work outside for some freah air before it`s to late my delustianal friend.
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