Hybrid Sales Dwindling!!!!

bmw046series

bmw046series

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Oh so an overpriced sticker for a cheap-ass economy car won't sell huh?

Here is the Death of the Hybrid Quotedable Quotes Montague.

"Honda Motor Co. may cut production of the Honda Accord hybrid because sales have been slow"

"Nissan Motor Co. chief executive Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday that hybrid sales appear to be slowing down"

"Colliver wouldn't give exact sales for the Accord hybrid, which went on sale in December 2004, but said they make up a tiny percentage of Honda's overall sales"

"We've had to re-evaluate our position," Colliver said. "We're having a hard time in the market."

"Colliver was the second executive in as many days to question the direction of hybrid sales"

"Honda Motor Co. may cut production of the Honda Accord hybrid because sales have been so slow"

"President of competing Nissan predicts sales of hybrids will slow in coming year."

"I think that also might have been working with the "You Don't Have To Plug It In." campaign. People wondered if you had to plug in, and they took it to mean they didn't want to. Clearly, the easiest path to improved 'hybrid' fuel economy is to move quickly to PHEVs."

"Ford's discount offer comes as Toyota is scaling back shipments of its Toyota Highlander hybrid SUV."

"Nissan Motor Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said North American consumers generally aren't ready to embrace hybrid technology, pointing out that higher sticker prices often aren't outweighed by lower fuel costs."

The point to all this, well it means that the technology or lack there of, is merely a pipe-dream and doesn't fix the oil issue it merely makes it worse by not migrating to permanent technology like Hydrogen thus extending or delaying the problem. Hydrogen may be a BMW Pie-In-The-Sky, but at least it actually is a real solution, Capitalism makes its mark again by choosing not to buy into BS.
 
Tom

Tom

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A friend of mine recently purchased her Prius at $300 below MSRP. Thats a big difference considering people were paying $5k over MSRP a year ago.
 
bmw046series

bmw046series

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I had a guy tell me onetime that Hybrid batteries last up to 100,000 miles, and I said that isn't very good (I think that was on this board too), he said well most cars only last until 100,000 miles, well truth be told in order for a car to sell well it needs to succeed in the second hand market (be affordable to run, and still be in one piece) and even if it sells like hotcakes off the presses just wait a few years and see if it lasts that will determine the viability of the car, which explains the success of the 3er so much---well 5 years running there isn't a big second hand-hybrid market, I don't think there will be one.

Hybrids will be the DEATH of Toyota, and I'm COUNTING on it.
 
T

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I'll first say that I love my car. I love it's predictable engine sound. I love that I can fuel up every mile on any road in a major city. I love that it's based on a tried and true technology that's been in place for over a century.

However, if hybrid sales are down, then it's a sad thing. This is a technology that permits a car to use the same gas (without plugging in) to be more efficient. And this technology doesn't necessarily mean that the car/SUV must be less powerful ( Honda Accord Hybrid is their most powerful of their different trim levels). It's the first significant improvement in overall drivetrain in the last century.

Someday, the drivetrain we rely on will have to change drastically. It may not happen in the next decade but I'm betting it'll need to happen before we reach the next century.

It sucks that hybrids are still a large unknown, that they do not last as long as your typical car (assuming you take car of your typical car), that they cost more than you'd save in gas, that you can't fix it yourself (I saw a Prius by the side of the freeway once with it's hood up and thought "what in the hell do they think they can do?").

But I'm glad that we have a head start on that technology. I wish they made sportier hybrids. Even then I would hesitate to buy one but admire the guy with balls enough to spearhead a leading edge form of locomotion.

Ok, getting off the soapbox now.
 
bmw046series

bmw046series

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Well truth be told, the technology must not be that "good" if number one, they don't sell that well; number two, they don't last that long. These "cars" are a very over-hyped item and are not as good as they want you to think they are or for what the manufacture assumes.

Now that all of Hollywood has one the Japanese have no one else to sell too. Personally the technology is no "great" achievement because if we look back at history we will find the first cars in the world ran on batteries, but suddenly abandoned, why you can't use batteries; it doesn't work batteries don’t have the storage capacity they never will.

This whole concept is just a pipe-dream thought up by someone who didn't think that hard about the issue. These are not a segway by any means to alternative fuels or the alternative fuel Hydrogen, they are in the way of better technology and we could all be thankful if the sales plummet off the planet and save the auto industry lots and lots and lots of time and consumers lots of money, $30,000 for a car that will save you $500 a year, someone isn’t thinking?
 
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