Toyota Announces New Prius Pricing

From the mouth of the super fun happy time true American glorious horse-

The fuel-efficient 2008 Prius is a better value this year with an expanded lineup to include a lower-priced, new standard model. The base MSRP for Prius ranges from $20,950 for the newly introduced standard model to $23,220 for the Touring model. The total Prius average MSRP increases $150 or 0.7 percent.

Last I checked, they sold almost 18,000 of these things last month with the supply chains opened up versus previous years. With this price drop, how long before we see 25,000 per month, and 300,000 per year? Toyota must be laughing all the way to the bank as they've now matured their technology and are well on their way to mass market acceptance with the Prius- what was once a fringe car with a loud following mostly due to pricing and supply constraints can now be bought by just about anyone out there. Meanwhile the competition is either licensing their stuff from Toyota (hi Nissan!), proceeding VERY slowly (hi Ford!), doing nothing (hey there Chrysler, Hyundai, et al!), bowing out of the market altogether (we can see you Honda!) or just now releasing a relevant competitor in higher priced vehicles while touting future technology that is still at a minimum 2 years away (hey there GM!).

And no one has even mentioned the real elephant in the room for everyone else- Prius, The Brand.