I had a 2006 Prius. I sold it because Toyota could not fix the stalling problem as well as their arrogance at the sevice desk everytime I brought it in for problems. I will never buy another Toyota brand as long as I live.

Posted by: Dave Sutton | December 04, 2007 at 9:44 AM

We've had our Prius since January 2004 and just love the car. At this point we would find replacing this car with a non-hybrid to be a step backward. The software update seems to have solved the stalling problem because not only did we never experience it before the fix, we haven't ever experienced it. Our Toyota dealer has been fabulous in both sales and service. General "mixed driving" tanks return 45-48 mpg. Set the cruise to 65mph and a highway tank returns 52 mpg. This in a car with almost as much interior room as a Camry. What other car of this size can match that? No complaints at all here.

Posted by: David Pool | December 04, 2007 at 4:07 PM

This is a bit misleading, I think with the exception of Mitsubishi (who has been in trouble) every other brand is a niche/luxury brand. Its not hard to imagine a $20k car outselling companies that selling $40k cars.

Posted by: priusguy | December 04, 2007 at 8:50 PM

priusguy,
I don't see how you can say that Mercury, or Saturn, or Isuzu, not to mention others on this list, are luxury brands. I sure don't feel luxurious in them.

Posted by: toyotagirl | December 05, 2007 at 8:17 AM

Luxury & Niche brands? Like Buick, Isuzu, Mercury, Mini, Mitsubishi, Saturn, Scion, Subaru, Volkswagen... The niche brands I see in the list are: Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Saab and Volvo. Prius almost outsold those brands COMBINED... We have not even looked at the sales of other hybrid vehicles (Camry, Highlander, RX, GS, LS, Escape, Nissan, etc)

Let's face it, the Toyota Prius is a great car and great concept (Hybrid). The sooner people accept this, the better off they are... The hybrid is here to stay. It has been around 10 years. If it is not a good idea, why are Ford and Nissan using technology licensed from Toyota? Times they are a changin.....

Posted by: guymcd | December 05, 2007 at 11:30 AM

F150, Corolla, Camry, Accord are other vehicles that outsold "entire brands". The difference is that not one Prius is manufactured in North America and all of the others are.

Posted by: Mongo | December 05, 2007 at 7:53 PM

Mongo, the other difference is that there aren't armies of lying FUDders like you out there claiming that the F150 or Corolla are "niche vehicles".

Posted by: M1EK | December 06, 2007 at 9:03 AM

Whatever the other points Michelle's observation is spot on.
This is a big selling mainstream vehicle that has acceptance with a wide range of the public.
It is far from being a "niche" player.
Come to think of it, I think it's retail sales are close to the Impalas, and no one calls that a "niche car". "Fleet queen", for sure, not "niche"

Posted by: Dennis | December 06, 2007 at 9:31 AM

Big mainstream vehicle my tail. You want mainstream, check the number of ford F-150s sold or Chevy Silverados. The GMT900 platform sells 1.2 MILLION units per year.

Great car, ya sure whatever ... I ran some numbers on the payback for all it's greenness. I comparaby equiped corolla compared to the prius came back with a break even point of 15 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another case of people voting for status rather than sound decision making.

Posted by: Ryan | December 06, 2007 at 12:16 PM

Buying a hybrid and being green isn't just about the "break even point". It's about, for instance, the environment as well. Say what you want about status, cost-effectiveness, whatever. The car is selling, and it's selling for a reason.

Posted by: Eddie | December 06, 2007 at 11:00 PM

Ryan, I think you need to check which car to compare with.
Hybrid dissers like to use the Corolla and the exterior size is similar. But people ride on the inside and the Prius is solidly in the midsize group there. On the narrow side (G6 is narrower) but with good rear seat leg (way better than the Imp) and head room. Good on luggage too. Apples and oranges buddy.

Let's face this also, hybrids are the ONLY group of cars critics ask to justify financially. Someone decides to "put a Hemi in it" no one asks for economic justification. The owner placed the money where THEY found value (and I'm cool with that). Same with a hybrid (BTW, I don't own one).
Value pay off starts day one.

Posted by: Dennis | December 07, 2007 at 9:42 AM

BTW Ryan, No one said there aren't bigger selling platforms. But what is your minimum cut off? Prius has been selling in the top twenty this year without massive fleet sales.
Are the G6, Malibu, Fusion, Trailblazer etc. not mainstream then?

Prius=mainstream. Get over it.

Posted by: Dennis | December 07, 2007 at 9:49 AM

VIVA!!!! GO PRIUS GO!!!!

Posted by: Horacio | December 07, 2007 at 5:48 PM

And I have to say, it is selling this well despite a FUD campaign that has been second to none. You'd think the thing was specially created by communists to undermine the American way of life and carry your daughter off into white slavery, the way its detractors have wailed on it.

Posted by: Jon | December 09, 2007 at 9:38 PM

Ryan - per your "analysis", no one should be buying BMWs or F150s either. They do. Apparently the dollar value of gasoline is not why people are buying Priuses. I suggest that Prius owners pay their premium for the emotional satisfaction of burning less gasoline (ethical consumer status), much as BMW owners pay for styling (upper class-status), and pickup drivers pay for perceived machismo and Fredrick Jackson Turner-esque self-sufficiency (working class status). The argument that American purchasing behavior corresponds to a cash NPV is specious.
Mongo - who cares where Priuses are manufactured? This is your Reagan free market capitalism starting to work. Drive your (subsidized) American car to Wal-Mart using (subsidized) gasoline and buy some more (unsubsidized) Chinese products.

Posted by: Eric | February 02, 2008 at 5:33 AM

I have the 2004 and have been getting the check engine light, hybrid warning light and master warning light since 6500 mi, but now I've gotten the stalling 2x since Nov and the warning lights 3x. Unless the lights are on, the dealer says there is nothing for them to diagnose. the 1-800 # has a reprogramming fix(?) that allows you enough time to pull over before you stall. I informed them that there is not always a shoulder to pullover to.....duh

This is getting dangerous now. Before it was a joke or annoying at most, but I've stalled in a bad neighborhood at night and the interstate overpass merge lane w/o a shoulder at night.

Posted by: C Hargroder | February 26, 2008 at 7:29 PM