Urban Champ: New Toyota Prius C offers outstanding value
It’s official. C hybrid should dominate city cost effectiveness
So, you need a new car, and you live in a city like Los Angeles, but you want to be as fiscally smart as possible. It’s all about the most bang for your buck. Of course, aside from automatic windows, locks and an automatic transmission, you insist on BlueTooth and USB connectivity as well – I mean, let’s be real.
Then the Toyota Prius C is the car for you. This new small and cheap hybrid car simply blows away the competition. Read more…
Categories: Buying Hybrids, Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius C Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius C
Bad news for Toyota Prius C buyers — limited supplies
Japanese demand for the new, smaller Prius backed up 6 months+ already
Next month was supposed to be one of the most exciting launches in the US hybrid segment ever. Finally an impressive hybrid offering for under $19,000.
Unfortunately, in the first month of Japanese Prius C sales, Toyota sold almost an entire year’s worth of intended supplies. Read more…
Categories: Buying Hybrids Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius C
Forget Camry sales: Could the Prius be Toyota’s next Corolla?
Forget just US sales, let’s think worldwide
Before the end of this decade, Toyota believes the Prius family will outsell the Camry. Whatever. Why not shoot for the moon?
Within this decade, could a car like the Prius C help the family outsell the Corolla, and I mean in terms of total worldwide sales? Read more…
Categories: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C
The “un-Prius-like” Toyota Prius C is sporty and fun to drive
At least according to some early Prius C reviews
After more than 10 years on the market, hybrid cars have sadly achieved very little in terms of real world impact. At less than 3 percent marketshare of total US auto sales, hybrids are still just scratching the surface of change. Ultimately, prices have to come down.
That makes the sub-$19,000 smaller Toyota Prius C interesting, but now comes word that the Prius C isn’t even very Prius-like, except in terms of fuel economy. Instead, the new Prius C is “taut, sporty and, yes, even fun.”
Did someone just say Prius and fun? Read more…
Categories: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C
100,000 Toyota Prius C hybrid car orders already in Japan
Tax incentives and cheaper hybrid costs working in the land of the rising sun
As the American press continues to sell the decline of hybrid sales in 2011, apparently unable to deduce that a massive earthquake and tsunami almost wiped out hybrid supplies coming out of Japan — the bulk of all hybrids made in the world — hybrid sales are exploding in places like Japan and Malaysia.
And already the new Toyota Prius C, or Aqua in Japan, is having a major imprint on the hybrid sale’s story. Read more…
Categories: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius C Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius C
2012 Hybrid cars: Has hybrid interest really declined?
Or was it all just about the Japanese supply disruption?
If you followed the hybrid headlines in 2011, you might believe the end must be near for hybrid cars, despite recent headlines — even from a major oil company — regarding the alleged massive upside potential of hybrids heading into the future.
Still, was hybrid interest really down in 2011? Or was the 2011 hybrid story one of shoddy journalism? More important, what story will 2012 hybrid cars sales tell? Read more…
Categories: Buying Hybrids, Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C, Toyota Prius V Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C, Toyota Prius V
$19,000 Toyota Prius C: Why buy a Corolla or other compact?
An interesting litmus test for Toyota hybrid cars
Do you really need battery technologies to achieve automotive success through the next decade? According to companies like Hyundai, the answer is no, although even Hyundai will admit that hybrids are still required even if just to maintain image and perception. And most automakers seem to agree, at least judging by the plethora of quality, non-hybrid compact offerings hitting the streets these days.
But the 53 mpg — city NOT highway — Prius C might make automakers rethink the value proposition of compact hybrids. Read more…
Categories: Buying plug-ins, Fuel Economy, Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius C Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius C
Small car revolution? Toyota Prius C versus the Toyota Corolla
A little smaller, a little more fuel efficient, but how much cheaper?
OK. We all know that most Americans are interested in buying hybrid cars. However, until prices decline and hybrid premium payback is recovered in just a couple of years or less, most Americans just aren’t going to pull the sale’s trigger.
But could the Toyota Prius C be the first car to start shooting down the hybrid premium compared to conventional comparisons? Read more…
Categories: Buying Hybrids, Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius C Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius C
Hybrid sales primed to “take off” claims hybrid king
Starting as early as November
When Japan was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami this Spring, Toyota stopped building the Prius hybrid for almost 90 days. So the fact that Prius and overall hybrid sales are down this year compared to last year is a sort of a ‘no duh’ to Toyota’s Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s U.S. sales unit. In fact, Lentz believes that demand for hybrid cars is just as robust as ever — at least for Toyota hybrids.
And beginning in November and into next year Lentz is predicting a hybrid sale’s surge. Read more…
Categories: Buying Hybrids, Buying plug-ins, Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C, Toyota Prius V, Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C, Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid, Toyota Prius V
Sales push? Toyota Camry hybrid and Prius expansion buzz
Can Toyota take its hybrids to the next level?
The 2011 hybrid story will mostly end up being about lost sales. Sure a significant chunk of the sale’s decline was caused by the Japanese earthquake/tsunami earlier this year, but even in recent months, the bleeding is still ongoing although tempered.
But a few new Toyota hybrid cars could turn that around next year. Read more…
Categories: Buying Hybrids, Hybrid Cars, Toyota Camry hybrid, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C Tags: Hybrid Cars, Toyota Camry hybrid, Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius C










