Toyota Cuts Prius Prices
April 03, 2007

Toyota announced to its dealers Tuesday significantly lower prices for select equipment on Prius hybrid models, Edmunds.com's AutoObserver has learned. The price reductions, which went into effect immediately, range from $600 to $2,000, in equipment packages, some of which have been slashed by half.

The price reductions come on the heels of the Prius posting its all-time, best-ever monthly sales record in March, breaking the previous record set in February. Prius sales in March totaled 19,156, an increase of 133.2 percent over March 2006.

Toyota had some incentives on Prius models in March this year for the first time. Earlier, buyers were put on waiting lists for months before they received theirs. The new price reductions apparently are to replace the incentives but, instead of incentives, which have an expiration date, are permanent.

In addition, the federal tax rebate on the Prius of $1,575 dropped to $788 on April 1.

Even before the latest price reductions, the price consumers were paying for the Prius was dropping. Edmunds.com’s analysis calculated the Prius’ True Market Value at $21,296 in March, down from $3,284 in December.

Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:05 PM under Analysis , News , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine