the dealer told me that toyota loses $5,000 on every pirus

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.

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:

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

bjm said:

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:

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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.

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.