Having nothing else to do, I recently went by the local Toyota dealer.Wanted to find out what all the fuss was about.
Of course, several Priuses were prominently displayed. They kind of looked a bit like flimsy tin cans with too small wheels.
Then I checked the sticker and went into shock . . $30,000!!!!!!!!!!
You gotta be kidding, Mr. Toyota dealer.
Nope. He wasn't.
The car base price was close to $25,000, then he'd added a tiny stripe and "clear paint protection." Cost, $2,500. (The dealer clearly thinks I'm stupid if I'm paying that for rub-on stripe.)
Plus a mark-up for "market conditions," another $2,500. (Translation, we don't have enough cars so we'll just gouge you.)
The way I see it most cars get discounted about 10%, so that should have taken $2,500 off the price, meaning, if I was the sucker buying this car compared to a "regular car" I just would have paid $7,500 too much for this $22,000 hybrid.
Of course, Prius mileage is great at about 45 mpg compared to around 20 for most regular cars.
But how long would it take to earn back those $7,500 lost in paying a crazy price?
I estimate I'd have to drive the car for about five years, before I even break even. By that time it might be time for a trade-in, hence I would have saved no money for the pleasure of driving this thing.
Still, I see more and more neighbors with their new Priuses in their garages. A sucker is born every second, and right now they're all buying Toyota Priuses at inflated prices, saving nothing.
5 comments:
Car company in "Trying to make profit" shocker! OMG!!!
Timing is everything.
Those who bought Priuses last year before March is laughing all the way to the bank. They paid $21,000 MSRP for the Prius AND got $3200 back from the IRS for buying the car.
Of course one would be a sucker to buy one now, but I bet a lot of your neighbors with Priuses probably bought theirs when the getting was good.
Wait to purchase a BMW 5-series diesel. The Times (UK) did a comparative drive/mileage test of London to Geneva and found that the BMW did better. I'm leery of what the replacement/recycling/environmental cost of the Prius battery system will be. With the newer low-sulfur fuels, improved emission technology and increased fuel mileage, the Prius is just "a" choice, not "the" choice. I'm still peeved that Mercedes will not import the A series diesel into the U.S. though.
Anon #3, what happened with your "american" know-how? It looks it is nowhere to be seen. You need Toyota, Volvo, Mercedes, and other "real" car makers to bail you out. When one looks back at car biz in USA one can't help but wonder how they could manage to build such pathetic cars? Just go to Europe for vacation and you'd be shocked at the site of wonderful & economical small cars, everywhere. It is the US cars that are mainly responsible for the energy crisis we are in. God forbid the gas price drops back to what was year or so ago. All in US would go back to buying their SUVs and trucks to use them to buy milk at the corner store or go to the mall for hairdo.
A caroon in local paper shows a huge SUV with the driver in it, with two kids standing beside it. One kid is saying:"IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT SOMETHING THAT BIG CAN BE COTROLLED BY SUCH A TINY LITTLE BRAIN.."
That was ten years ago and still so true.
Hmm... Your argument is stuck in a economic kind of thinking that even though it may be valid in a lot of ways doesn't explain all human behavior. I'm sure you're right when it comes to money, but you're missing out on the economy that deals with environmental resources. If you have a phone that's broken and it would cost you more $$ to fix it than to buy a new one I'm sure YOU would buy a new one, right? But the resources that you'll use by buying a new one is far more toxic to the environment than it would be to repair the old phone. Repairing the phone could, if you broaden your perspective, be a more economical way to handle the situation. I don't know about the Prius. Good milage is just one part of the equation and as mentioned above "I'm leery what the replacement/recycling/environmental cost of the Prius battery system will be." among other things.
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