Actually - the news anchor was correct in that the local dealers were also inflating the cost of the car with their own add-on packages that would increase the "out-the-door" price by many thousands.. The Camry Hybrid was not yet available when the broadcast I'm referring to was made.
Face it - when you just look at the size of the vehicle, seating room / capacity - the Prius, with another 3-4k added on top of the MSRP is not a great deal over something else that gets 15-25% less fuel economy for 30-40% less money than the Prius.
The manufacturers have placed a fair MSRP on these cars. It's the dealer network and the slow manufacturing and distribution channels that drive the cost up.
This inflated cost drives a negative impression of the technology.
That's why you need to look at this in a slightly different perspective than you normally would.

 

BTW - the quickly erroding tax credit will soon no longer be a factor in purchasing one of these cars.

 

I could not agree with you more.

 

This is very true and the media is just going to get worse when they don't mention this.

 

What would be an "apples to apples" comparison in the Camry line? An XLE V6 with Nav, leather and smart key has an MSRP of $30,230 while the loaded Hybrid has an MSRP of $30,430. (I added "Option Combination #B" to both.) It would seem like those are comparably equipped cars and the Hybrid is only $200 more. With the full tax credit, you could argue that the Hybrid actually costs $2400 less.

 

Having had the XLE before the TCH, I paid pretty much the same, since the XLE was discounted about $1200 and the TCH was basically MSRP: EXCEPT the XLE had the power passenger seat, moonroof, fog lights, faux wood trim, reclining rear seats, rear reading lights, auto up drivers window, and the little door on the storage cubby in the transmission tunnel.

Also, if the leather is port installed "Liquicell", the quality is in my humble opinion much lower then the factory installed: it has more wrinkles, is looser and they use the same cloth covered head rests so there is more of an aftermarket look to the head rests.

What I mean if you do an apples to apples comparison it probably should be between the 4 cylinder XLE, and a TCH with comparable options to bring it to the level of the XLE. I say 4 cylinder because it has similar performance and is closer in power to teh TCH than the more muscular V6.

In this situation, while I have not done a direct price comparison but I suspect there would be a $2000 to $3000 difference.

The tax credit is going away incrementally, so that will not be a factor in a year.

 

I figured about a $2700 Dif.

 

Unfortunately, there's only one package that can be added to the XLE V6 and Hybrid on Toyota's "build your own" page to equip both similarly with Nav. There's no Nav package available for the 4 cylinder XLE there.

Looking at the base MSRP the 4cylinder XLE is $25,045; the XLE V6 is $28,140 and the Hybrid is $26,520. The comparison is still difficult because the base level equipment differs: the Smart Key is standard on the Hybrid and an option on the XLE; the leather wrapped steering wheel and shift *** are standard on the Hybrid while the XLE gets a leather wrapped steering wheel and "wood-grain-style" shift lever. The XLE also gets things like dual illuminated visor vanity mirrors and rear reading lights standard. But then the Hybrid is the only model that gets VDIM. Any way you slice it I can't see how you can get a price difference that's more than about $1000.

So I find the article's whole premise that the TCH is "pricey" unjustifiable. And the $6600 difference quoted is just ludicrous.

 

dalerb writes:So I find the article's whole premise that the TCH is "pricey" unjustifiable. And the $6600 difference quoted is just ludicrous.
Dale, the only thing that may be true on that statement may be the XLE model may not be in such high demand and they may not be getting anywhere near MSRP for them. The first time I ever paid MSRP for any car was my TDI VW, as they were real hard to get a few years back like the TCH.

 

True, I was ignoring what kind of discount off of the MSRP one might get. But so was the author of the original article and since different people have different negotiating skills and willingness to be aggressive about getting the best deal possible, using solely the MSRP seems the only fair way to go about comparing.

One final little factoid: if Edmunds.com's "True Market Value" is to be believed, customers in my zip code are buying the 4 cylinder XLE at a whopping $3 off the MSRP and are actually paying a $19 premium to get the V6 XLE. (The TMV of the Hybrid is supposedly $2025 over MSRP.)