[bjm]

the dealer that i bought my pirus from, told me that toyota is losing more then $5,000 on every car they sell! did anyone hear this from their dealer? :roll:

 

[john1701a]

For well over a year now, Toyota has been publicly stating they are making a modest profit on Prius.

That makes a lot of sense when you think about the fact that they've been building & selling Prius since 1997 and that the third-generation design is on the way. That has provided lots of opportunity to optimize to reduce cost.

 

[bjm]

egads! how much more do you think they can charge for their

the car is so expencive compared to other small cars! I bought one, and love it! but I thought his comment was a sales pitch. so do you think it's the truth? does anyone have any proof that its true? :lol:

 

[Mac]

Re: egads! how much more do you think they can charge for th

the car is so expencive compared to other small cars! I bought one, and love it! but I thought his comment was a sales pitch. so do you think it's the truth? does anyone have any proof that its true? :lol:

Yes, as John said, Toyota WAS loosing about $5000/a car when the car was introduced in Japan in 1997. I read the Toyota's interview somewhere back then. So this was true. They were doing so to emphasize their ecological involvement. Also, it was a good advertisement that Toyota produced the world-first mass produced Hybrid car!

Since technology advances rapidly, it's not true anymore. Toyota does make profits from selling Prius now. If your dealer told you about loosing $5000, it's an old info, and your dealer needs to be up to date.

 

[jamesont]

It was still true in 2001, but they OVERSOLD their expectations by a significant amount so the price of manufacturing has gone down significantly.

Of course you realise that make about a 50% profit on the SUVs because they cost only slightly more to manufacture then cars and they sell for significantly more. So it was subsidized for the early years.