After more than a decade on the market, there are now more than a million Toyota Prius hybrids on the roads today, and despite a slew of competitors, the Prius manages to make up half of all hybrid sales. The Prius gets a few tweaks for 2012. Compared with other dedicated hybrids, the Prius is hard to beat, even though the styling and driving experience remain awkward, says Cars.com Executive Editor Joe Wiesenfelder.
We already know the Toyota Prius is on top when it comes to fuel economy, but how well does it handle child-safety seats? Toyota’s midsize hybrid hatchback seats five passengers and offers a comfortable amount of space for a small family; its accessible Latch anchors were a welcome nicety.
For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back TurboBooster seat.
If you think you see the Toyota Prius everywhere, that's because it is. Sales of Toyota's most popular hybrid are continually strong, undoubtedly propelled by the lure of high fuel economy. However, more automakers have joined the hybrid movement since the Prius' introduction in 2000. Toyota has even expanded the Prius family with the Mini-Me Prius c and puffed-up Prius v.
Is the traditional Prius still on top? We took it on a road trip, and in terms of fuel economy, the answer is a resounding yes.
When it comes to Toyota’s venerable Prius, the automaker has changed little about its gas-sipping hybrid, says Cars.com Family contributor Sara Lacey. The gas-electric hybrid has surprisingly good pickup on the highway, and it can easily fit a smaller family. The Prius gets an EPA-estimated 51/48 mpg city/highway, which will help any family’s budget, too.
Seven all-new cars are off to a fast start. The Cadillac XTS hit dealerships just last month, but GM's flagship luxury car averaged just five days to sell. It tied the Hyundai Accent sedan and Subaru BRZ for June's fastest sellers. The nimble BRZ and its Scion twin, the FR-S, meanwhile, are taking just five and eight days to sell, respectively. Both cars hit dealerships in May.
We should see how many of each model sold in June when sales figures are announced later today.
Ford's redesigned 2013 Escape, Infiniti's new JX35 and two new Acuras — the ILX and redesigned RDX — also made June's Movers. The well-marketed Kia Soul, meanwhile, extended its tenure on the list to three months. Sales for the popular hatchback were up 22% through May. It's the most affordable car on the list, with a starting price (including destination) under $15,000.
The Toyota Prius may have left the Top 10 Best-Sellers last month, but shoppers still snapped up the latest additions to the Prius family: the Prius Plug-in and subcompact Prius c. Both have been among the fastest-selling cars since they hit Toyota dealerships earlier this spring.
Speaking of spring, the hottest one on record played well for Mercedes-Benz. The first full redesign in a decade for the iconic SL-Class roadster needed just eight days per car, on average, to sell. That car starts at $106,405 including destination.
Another droptop, the updated Ford Mustang convertible, sold fast, too, but its crosstown rival, the Chevrolet Camaro convertible, sat at Chevy dealers an average of 119 days. It joins a Losers list that remains mostly unchanged, with a scattering of posh — but slow-selling — nameplates.
The Toyota Prius is now the third best-selling car across the globe, according to Bloomberg News. The growth comes from strong sales in both Japan and the United States, Bloomberg News reports. With 247,230 models sold in the first quarter of 2012, the Prius trails only the Ford Focus (277,000) and the Toyota Corolla (300,800); the Corolla remains the best-selling car of all time. Prius sales have nearly doubled over last year on the backs of recent extensions to the Prius-brand lineup like the Prius v, Prius Plug-in and recently launched Prius c (known as the Aqua in Japan). The Toyota Prius remains Japan's top-selling version, with the Toyota Aqua in a close second place. The Prius brand was the fifth best-selling model in the U.S. for April.
In other news:
The Toyota Prius c kicked off sales in mid-March at a blistering pace, selling 1,201 cars in just three days. By contrast, it took Toyota all month to sell as many Scion iQ minicars. April marked the Prius c's first full month of sales, and we expected big results.
It turns out Toyota delivered a modest 4,006 units of the sub-$19,000 hatchback. The Prius v added another 3,847 sales to the nameplate in April, while the Prius Plug-in found 1,654 shoppers.
The Prius Plug-in outsold the Chevy Volt despite a veritable pittance of hype about its release compared with the blitz surrounding the Volt. The similarly hyped Nissan Leaf managed sales of just 370 units.
So if a plug-in version of the Prius can leapfrog its competition — albeit a small field — can the Prius c compete against traditional economy cars?
Eight of March's 10 best-sellers returned to the table in April, but one of the newbies may surprise you. In March, an incentive-heavy Nissan Altima fell just 1,517 cars short of the redesigned Toyota Camry, clinching the No. 2 best-selling car position. Incentives remain high, but Altima sales dropped drastically enough to knock it off the top 10 list. Instead, shoppers drifted toward the Honda Accord and Toyota Prius.
The Accord, one of April's two newcomers, gained 25.6% last month, snapping three months' sales malaise to fall just 1,435 cars short of the hard-charging, recently redesigned Camry. The shift surprised us, given the Accord is in its final year before a redesign while incentives are about the same as a year ago.
There's little surprise that the Prius' sales catapulted 101.7% despite gas prices leveling off this month. Three new Prius variants — a subcompact Prius c, larger Prius v and rechargeable Prius Plug-in — accounted for 76% of that rise. Strip those away, however, and even the original Prius handily outpaced its year-ago sales.
The Hyundai Elantra and Toyota Prius were in high demand in March, with just-released 2013 Elantra sedans staying at dealerships just three days before shoppers take them home — proof that if a car is executed right, it can sell fast even in its third year.
There are still nearly twice as many 2012 Elantras versus 2013s in Cars.com's national new-car inventory, and the 2012s moved briskly, too. They averaged just 10 days on dealer lots in March. That's well below the month's 41-day average, which was a tick slower than February's 39-day average but it's faster than March 2011, when new cars took 48 days to sell.
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