Toyota Rolls Out Major Camry, Corolla and Prius Price Cuts

Following the slow sales reported in December last year, the Japanese automaker announced a major price cut for several of its models aimed at both customers and dealerships. The popular Prius is one of the models included in this special offer, despite the fact that this particular vehicle was excluded from Toyota's incentive program in the fourth quarter of 2008, as Autonews wrote today. Obviously, all these special prices are supposed to help the company revamp its sales which have adopted a descending evolution since October 2008. Toyota announced in December that 2008 may bring its first ever operating loss.

"We're going to keep our dealers competitive in the marketplace. Down payment and negative equity is more important for consumers, so they want more cash rebates,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source at the 2009 North American International Show.

Even though Toyota is offering $2,000 dealer cash of the 2009 Tundra pickup and $4,000 customer price cut on the 2008 Tundra, most dealerships praised Toyota's special offers for 2009 Camry, Corolla and Prius.

"Whenever they put something on Camry, that's great. The $750 on Prius is a great help. Corolla, Camry and Prius are the big ones. The others are much less a percent of the business,” Brad Paul, owner of Ardmore Toyota in Ardmore, Pa., told Autonews. "I'm sending e-mails to anybody who has been in the dealership the past 90 days to tell them about the rebates. The ad associations also are getting the message out.”

All Camry versions received a $1,000 customer price cut and $500 dealer cash while the Corolla base model price has been reduced with $1,500. The LE trim and the other versions received $1,250 customer cash.