Prius Sales Beginning To Tank: What Does Toyota Need To Do To Recharge The Iconic Hybrid?

Maybe they could make it more ugly? Seems that strikes a chord with the hybrid fans.

Personally, I've been put off by the large price increase of the Prius over the last 2 years. I've been looking at cars and I'm considering the C-Max, the Jetta Sportswagen TDI and the Mazda5 instead. The C-Max and the VW's TDI cars can deliver about 85% of the Prius fuel economy, at a slight discount in terms of price, and drives better.

I would like to see sales slow, so dealer inventories grow, so dealers get back too dealing. Maybe with the strong yen, Toyota will offer extra incentives to bring down the price further. Though with the next gen rumors touting up to 90mpg it makes waiting tempting.

you'll see the dealing start to happen, as it did in 2007 following the first initial Prius surge. I got a great lease on mine that Spring. They'll continue to aggressively push them until the next model debuts, andthe cycle will begin anew. (but don't look for 90 mpg, that is on the overly ambitious Euro or Japanese scales. Look for between 55 and 60 mpg)

Overpriced, it needs a stripped down sub $20,000 model

Totally agree with the last comment.

Overpriced. Needs to be offered in the $17,000 range.

sure, because there are so many mid-szied technology laden vehicles for 17K.

What Toyota (among the others) needs to do is take plugins seriously. Haha! Funny, eh? If they wonder where their hybrid customers are going, they should look into that.

Prius has proven that the plug in market is weak. A lot of Prius customers live in cities, where access to easy charging is scarce. Toyota has known this all along, hence the limited forays here.