Prius: Reaching for the Milestone

By now, you may have seen news items reporting that Toyota has sold a million gas-electric Prius sedans since Gen 1 of the Prius went on sale in Japan in December of 1997.

For what it’s worth, it took 10 years and five months to pass that 1-million milestone. It happened officially last month, by which time roughly 1,028,000 First and Second Generation Priuses had found homes with happy drivers in about 40 countries.

We’re pleased that since Prius went on sale here in the U.S. in 2000, it’s been nicely successful, and that it’s spawned a number of other Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles. That’s a great payoff for what Alex Taylor III, writing in Fortune last week, called, "the brave leap into hybrid gas-electric technology Toyota made 15 years ago…having all but single-handedly popularized the first new powertrain technology in a century."

What Should They Drive? And On Whose Nickel?

A couple of interesting stories relating to the vehicles leased by members of the House of Representatives made the rounds recently. One of them, in the Los Angeles Times (LAT), pointed out that an amendment to the energy bill passed by Congress in December requires that House members who lease using funds from their office budgets soon will be required to lease vehicles with low greenhouse-gas emissions.

A second story, this one in the New York Times (NYT), points out use of a car — paid for out of the member’s office budget — is one of the perks of being a member of the House of Representatives. It outlines the cast of characters and asks what you’d drive if someone else was paying. Members of the Senate, it must be noted, are on their own when it comes to paying for their vehicles – no subsidy for them.

Fast Forward: Why an 8-Speed Transmission?

Notice how some numbers keep getting bigger? Gas prices, food prices, the number of channels available on televisions – all those numbers are bigger than they used to be.

The same number creep is going on with automobile transmissions. We’ve gone from 3-speed transmissions to 4-speeds, and from there to 5-speeds, to 6-speeds, and now, finally, on some Lexus models, to 8-speeds.

And you’re maybe wondering why, when three speeds used to be fine, we now offer eight forward speeds on some models?

Notes on Quality, Initial and Otherwise

Perhaps you’ve seen recent claims from Ford touting the initial quality of its new vehicles.

Those claims are based on a survey, commissioned by Ford through a specialist company, which concludes that "Ford Motor Co. is in a dead heat with Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in terms of initial vehicle quality...."

The fine print at the bottom of the advertisement flashes by in seconds, but the key word here is "initial," as in the first three months of ownership.

These results are not surprising. Almost all auto manufacturers have raised the levels of their initial-quality game. For many years, various surveys have shown that differences among most brands in the first 90 days have been shrinking into statistical insignificance. Very few cars have major problems on delivery these days. This is great news for car makers and car buyers.