prius

Ford wants (big) piece of Toyota's Prius hybrid pie

Tracy Samilton — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:52:12 +0000

Ford Motor Company set an all-time record for hybrid sales in December, selling nearly 8,000. About half were C-Max sales, and about half, the hybrid version of the Fusion.

The company also beat its previous January record for hybrid sales by more than 500%.

Granted, the total number of hybrid sales for the company isn't much compared to its higher-volume sellers. Ford sold more than 19,000 non-hybrid Fusions in January, dwarfing the hybrid Fusion sales of 3,043.

Ford's C-Max ads call out Toyota's Prius with gentle humor

Tracy Samilton — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:51:25 +0000

Ford Motor Company hopes to earn a place on the hybrid map in the U.S. with its new C-Max.

The company knows that won't be easy.

No one comes even close to the dominant sales position of the Toyota Prius line of vehicles - the original Prius, the smaller Prius C, and the larger Prius V.

Ford's new C-Max has a major bragging point: it beats the fuel economy of the Prius V by 7 miles per gallon on the highway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DCykU616W0

The Prius is beloved by its owners; it has one of the highest loyalty ratings of any car.

So Ford has chosen a gentle style of humor over an aggressive pitch to sell the C-Max.

Ford today launched a series of ads using a cartoon character, "La Linea," -- a revival of the classic 1970s character from a popular Italian animated children’s series.

The ads show the character overcoming the performance limitations of a Toyota Prius, by driving a Ford C-Max. You can see one of the ads here:

“The ads are done with just the right tonality of competitiveness versus a strong competitor. It clearly positions our product in a fun way,” says Matt VanDyke, director, U.S. Marketing Communications, Ford Motor Company .

Toyota recalls 52,000 Prius hybrids

Jennifer Guerra — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:17:15 +0000

Toyota has issued another recall, this one due to steering issues in its first generation Prius hybrids.

If the steering wheel is turned as far as it can go repeatedly and rapidly, Toyota says the nuts holding the steering shaft in place might get loose and make it harder to turn left.

The recall is for 2001-2003 Prius models and involves 52,000 hybrids nationwide.

Bill Visnic. an analyst with edmunds.com, says it’s been a rough couple years for Toyota in terms of recalls: