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Toyota Hybrid is a Hot Car, Even In Oil Patch August 2004CALGARY -- Donna and Ron Tyler moved to Calgary a year ago from rural Alberta and quickly realized that spending $100 a week to fill up their Nissan Pathfinder just to get to and from work was getting ridiculous."You don't have to be a genius to figure out you can't afford to drive it," Ms. Tyler said. So the Tylers, who both teach at elementary schools about 80 kilometres north of the city, put a "for sale" sign on their 10-year-old SUV and a few days ago picked up their new Toyota Prius, a fuel-efficient electric-gasoline hybrid. Oil prices approached $50 (U.S.) a barrel this month, and the Tylers figure they've made a good investment. "Whether they rise or not, we figure we'd get value out of the car," Ms. Tyler said. "That's what really drew us to it -- it's good on gas." The car's fuel economy is listed at four litres per 100 kilometres in the city and 4.2 L/100 km on the highway. Toyota Motor Corp. was the first auto maker to forge into the world of hybrid technology. It introduced the Prius in 1997 and has since tinkered with the design, made the vehicle roomier, and kept the price at around $30,000 (Canadian). It's also enjoyed the celebrity endorsements of Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and Harrison Ford. In Canada, production can't keep up with sales. In the first seven months of this year, 1,119 new, 2004-model Priuses were purchased, according Toyota Canada Inc. To put that number in perspective, Toyota sold 937 older model Priuses from July, 2000, to July, 2004. Waiting lists in both Canada and the United States have been long -- some up to six months -- but that has been whittled down to six weeks or less in Canada, the auto maker said. That period should be further shortened when production is scheduled to ramp up in the first half of next year to 15,000 vehicles a month from the current 10,000. This month, an affiliate of J.D. Power & Associates reported that for the 10th successive month, Prius is the vehicle that moved fastest from dealer lots in the United States, with a six-day turnover time. Compare that with the turnover time for SUVs, which recently averaged 73 days, up from 60 days a year earlier, the same group reported in a separate study. Bypassing the test drive is a peculiar way to buy a car, but Charles Blackburn has gotten used to it. The Prius is so hot at Charlesglen Toyota, where he's a product adviser, that the Calgary dealership (like others in Canada) can't even get one in the showroom. "It's hard to believe people would buy a vehicle without driving it, but they buy it sight unseen," Mr. Blackburn said. Calgary may be the heart of the oil patch in a province flush with energy royalties, but it hasn't stopped drivers like retirees Patricia and Gary Down from flocking to the Prius in search of fuel efficiency, lower emissions and the latest technology. "We ordered it without seeing it," Ms. Down said of their month-old car, which has become a bit of a novelty. "It attracts attention." That's something it may get more of in the months to come. The general rule of thumb is that a rise of $1 (U.S.) a barrel in the price of oil means 1 cent (Canadian) will be added to the price at the pumps. Yet there has been a steady increase in crude prices for several weeks, but not a corresponding jump in gasoline prices, said Michael Ervin of MJ Ervin & Associates Inc. in Calgary. He said that's partly the result of healthy inventories of gasoline. The average price for a litre of regular gasoline across the country was 83.9 cents (Canadian) on Tuesday, as measured by his firm. When crude prices jumped past $42 (U.S.) a barrel on June 1, gas hit a record high of 90.6 cents (Canadian) a litre. While rising pump prices cause people to grumble, they don't seem to be driving people away from trucks and sport utility vehicles. That would take a massive increase over a long period, Mr. Ervin said. "We've seen 10 years of a variety of pump price increases, yet there's absolutely no change in demand [for larger vehicles]," Mr. Ervin said. SOURCE: Globe and Mail | ||
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