Is The Love Affair With Hybrids Over? 600k Units Sit UNSOLD At AutoNation Alone!

It was more a fad than anything. Its not as trendy to drive a hybrid now as it was a few years ago.

Believe me!...you give more than enough praise so the rest of us don't have to!

Good comment, wrong example.

And as for the topic, I think the this has more to do with auto sales as whole in this economy fading, not JUST hybrid models. Just my opinion.

Except the LS600hl is far from being what it is said to be...
You should have taken another Lexus as an example...

Do I want to keep my house or do i want a new car?

Bingo!

haha this site is run by a bunch of oil humping neocon morons.

#1 the love affair with hybrids has not even begun yet. just wait a couple years till the economy rebounds and oil rises again, and then wait till 2015 till the world hits peak oil.

#2 last I checked if you can't get a loan then you can't get a loan. don't matter if you want the loan to buy a hybrid or a hummer. no loan= no car.

Hybrids have never been the answer anyway. The technology has to be pushed further than where it is to be really meaningful. In terms of emissions there have been PZEV vehicles around for years and no one takes notice of them -- it is not about the environment, rather about dollars & cents. Honestly who is going to pay a premium these days for a 'more efficient' vehicle? Come on Hybrid will eventually simply be a model line extension that should be as cost effective as the regular petrol variants (we would hope). Regardless, the market is not buying any vehicles right now and with the HUGE discounts being offered on any number of vehicles from virtually every manufacturer you can easily save or apply the Hybrid premium to a completely different type of vehicle purchase...that premium in cash can go a long way to trading up, or fueling a larger than hybrid vehicle.

are hybrids for saving oil or for saving the enviroment? do we cut off our nose to spite our face with the fuel savings but then we have toxic batteries to dispose of? Is this accurate or am I just repeating misinformation? Havent we had the technolgy to get better fuel economy for years without going hybrid? didnt Honda have cars 12 years ago that got 45-50 miles per gallon(crx and civic zx) also didnt they cost 12-15k back then?

repeating misinformation

Ferrari has joined the hybrid race and could have a petrol-electric car on sale by 2015.

Joining the likes of Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BMW in developing fuel-saving petrol-electric hybrid vehicles, the Italian brand that’s known for its high-powered two-door sports cars is currently testing a prototype hybrid powertrain in the body of the sleek 599 coupe.

Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa says improving the brand’s environmental performance is the single most important issue for the company, accounting for “more than 50 per cent” of the research and development budget.

“We are running a 599 prototype [with hybrid technology],” says Felisa. “We have to understand how you can benefit from hybrid technology.”

Ferrari says the Ferrari hybrid development is in its infancy with testing to date confined to the laboratory.

But Ferrari is planning to run hybrid prototypes on its Italian test track as it works to introducing a hybrid car to showrooms as early as 2015.

“You can use hybrid to reduce [fuel] consumption or to enhance the performance,” says Felisa, saying Ferrari will consider both options.

However, Felisa says Ferrari is not looking at electric vehicles, which many see as the most logical solution to lessening the automobile’s dependence on fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse-gas-causing carbon dioxide emissions.

“I don’t think that electric is something that is suitable for Ferrari,” says Felisa, emphasising that the scream of a high revving engine accounts for much of the Ferrari DNA.

In line with new regulations for Formula One, Ferrari has a form of mild hybrid technology in this year’s race cars.

“It’s a costly but good experience with F1 and we’re looking at how we can transfer that [to road cars],” says Felisa.

Porsche was the first established sports car maker to announce it would build a hybrid car, with petrol-electric versions of its Cayenne off-roader and upcoming Panamera four-door in the wings.

Toyota remains the leader in hybrid technology, having sold more than a million of its Prius hatchbacks. Almost every mainstream brand is developing hybrid technology.


http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/Ar...eID=61301&vf=7

Pardon, but what the hell are you talking about?

I hope not my post.

lol Did you guys get the memo yet?
We are on the verge of a second great depression. Love affair with anything including cars, houses and later even food will be over soon.

yes, a great depression now that obama's in office...better get ready

Americans drive cars they want not need. And agree with monkeyshine that the US is in economic hard times and very little is moving, especially over priced little hybrids. The best way to make an American drive hybrid outlaw all other forms of automobiles.

My question is how does this 600,000 compare to non-hybrids that are sitting on lots and what the current market share is of hybrids. My guess is that the ratios should be close. Let's say that the hybrid market share is X. Then, how close to X is the ratio of hybrids-on-lots/non-hybrids-on lots?

The Current Hybrids are nothing more than a fashion statement.

Car sales are slow across the board. Why would you think hybrid are different? How many non-hybrid are sitting on the lot compare the hybrid ones? Are people just as scare to buy when they think may loose their in the future. Think a bit people!

What I'm about to type has already been mentioned above several times, but with the amount of people on this site that simply enjoy ignoring the truth, I'm still going to type it:

Car sales across the board, hybrid and non-hybrid, are DOWN.

Let me get this right. When BMW sells 40k X6's to dealerships, it's considered sold out.

But, when hybrid automakers sell 600k units to dealerships, they're considered UNSOLD?

What the heck is wrong with this picture?

Hybrids are just a stopgap until the next, real automotive revolution. And the energy to manufacture a new hybrid vehicle is far more than the energy savings I would get from swithcing to one. It is more efficient to drive what you already have. Besides, who wants to give up trunk space and folding back seats? not me.

and your simple minded, shallow comments are just a stopgap until you get a brain transplant and can actually offer INTELLINGENT comments.

Hybrids...who needs them other than posers?

more like anti-hybrid ignoramuses. who prefer driving automotive hippopatomases.

I'd like to see you haul cargo in a Hybrid? LOL!!

I saw someone hauling cargo on I-15 from LV to LA with a Prius.

"I saw someone hauling cargo on I-15 from LV to LA with a Prius"

- LOL!! Now we're almost ready to replace all of the nation's 18 wheelers with Priuses.

Gas is too cheap. Its not worth buying a Hybrid now. At current gas prices, it will take years to break even. Now if we hit $4 a gallon again, then hybrids will make a lot of sense.

The fact is that the money that the hybrids cost in R&D and production dosen't = savings or enviromental benififit.

you got it backasswards.

the monies invested in R&D were a cost to the companies. but BUYERS of hybrids get to CASH IN on all of that investment in money and intellectual man-hours. recall that toyota was initially taking losses on every hybrid, MEANING that the buyers were getting FAR MORE value than 'justified' for what they paid.

now toyota is actually making money on hybrids, and those profits can go toward FURTHER R&D for ever more advanced hybrids. witness the specs of the 2010 Prius.

conventional powertrains are cheap, because there's over 100 years' worth of development, production, and amortization behind them. hybrids have a mere fraction of ALL those factors.

while conventional (including diesel) ICEs and powertrains are near a plateau of development, hybrids are still CLIMBING the curve of development. they can only get EVEN FURTHER AHEAD of conventional powertrains as time goes by.

Some DJ folk swear by vinyl only, touting "Dude, Real DJs use vinyl!"

So how long until that homeboy DJ runs out of gigs and go homeless...

Conclusion: internal combustion engine will become obsolete, like it or not.

Isn't the major component of a Hybrid vehicle the internal combustion engine?

If the internal combustion engine will be obsolete, Then the current hybrid Technology will also be obsolete (Since it relies on an Internal combustion engine to function)

It's called oil independence in step wise fashion... we need to weaned off gradually, hybrids are the first step.

Come on Autospies do a little homework before you post this crap.
1. Where is this CNN article?
2. According to AutoNation's 2007 annual report they only sold 540,000 new and used cars with 44 days of used vehicle supply.

600,000 hybrids... obviously stated for exaggeration.

We are our own worst enemy. Gas prices go up and we all want high MPG cars. And as soon as gas prices go down, we forget and want trucks and SUV's again. We have the collective memory of a gnat.

We are our own worst enemy. Gas prices go up and we all want high MPG cars. And as soon as gas prices go down, we forget and want trucks and SUV's again. We have the collective memory of a gnat.