[bwilson4web]

Hi,

I'm a fan of the "dashboard" report from hybridcars as well as the GreenCarCongress reports. But staring at columns of numbers does not alway tell the tale as well as a graph:

Obviously the Prius is "the elephant in the room" but my eyes see four distinct groups:

1. market leader - the Prius stands alone at ~20,000/month
2. mainstream - models that sell ~2,000/month
3. present - models selling closer to ~200/month
4. luxury - if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it at ~20/month

The Malibu seems to be in transition as far as sales are concerned so it remains the 'odd man out.' Also, July 2009 may be unusual because of the introduction of the 2010 Prius, Ford Fusion and Honda Insights. New models, this may be the initial sales bump of a new model. I suspect the October and November sales numbers will be a better predictor of long term sales trends.

The Lexus RX400h is also a bit of a strange bird. If we only had the Lexus hybrids, it would by far and away exceed all other Lexus hybrids. This begs the question of how the Lexus hybrids are doing compared to all hybrids since it looks as if the GM hybrids are trying for that same $50-100,000 market. This is not an area I feel comfortable speculating about.

Bob Wilson

[FastMover]

Looks about right but for one thing. Putting the Aura in a luxury group? More like it is a "Gen-I hybrid at the end of product window" mark.

I drove and saw the Fusion up close at the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh last week. I don't think the plot is a temporary bump. It is very close to the TCH as far as performance and creature comforts. It is very quiet and performance is very similar also, with an FE that claims to be slightly better than the Camry, although I thnk I would like to see actual, acheived figures in that regard. I give the styling to Toyota, with the Fusion being just a little more "plastic" like in body appearance and trim. Power and braking are just too close to call, likewise handling. The Fusion rides better at freeway speeds and has better straight line tracking, but is a little more loose in turns and high speed corners.

RFB