Belzebutt

... because of too much demand! Must be nice to have those kinds of problems.

http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/...e_20041122.htm

AUTO INDUSTRY REPORT: Lexus hybrid SUV is set to go on sale April 15

November 22, 2004







The gasoline-electric Lexus RX400h sport-utility vehicle will go on sale April 15 as a 2006 model, about four months later than planned.


A hybrid version of the similar Toyota Highlander is scheduled to follow by early July.


Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. says the introductions were delayed to increase production and reduce the wait for buyers.


Consumers have waited more than six months for the Toyota Prius hybrid because of demand. Spokesman John Hanson said even with the delayed introduction, "we are absolutely sure we have a shortfall with both the 400h and the Highlander."


Lexus has nearly 10,000 orders for the 400h, though the vehicle hasn't been priced.


The Toyota division does not track early orders, but Hanson said more than 75,000 have requested information on the Highlander Hybrid through www.toyota.com.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

On tax day...nice...

Junkster

This thing has been delayed as much as GT4...

Junkster, who thinks the Veyron is never hitting production

eidji

I'm curious to see how many of these "orders" translate into sales.

Belzebutt

Bah, this is already more than most GM cars sell in a year.

Stevens24

I still think the extra cost doesn't overcome the added mileage gain. 2k-3k buys a lot of gas. Now if gas gets to 5$ a gallon ???

jcg878

Does this not make sense to anyone else?? They are going to delay production so people don't have to wait as long? I'm not buying it.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Veyron's toast for the near future. It's just sucking down money at this point and eventually, the bosses at VW Group AG are gonna say "fuck it" and scrap the whole thing and build a more reasonable first car for Bugatti before dumping more money on the Veyron.

dzuy

speakin of GT4, now it's coming out next year? stupid tease.

heyitsme

Probably the longer they delay production, the more equipment they can get setup, supplies stocked, etc. to actually produce the cars. Like starting production now they could build maybe five a week, but a month from now with more manufacturing capability they could build 50 a week etc.

phile

But how much more do they possibly need? It's not like it's a model from the ground up...it's the regular RX, which they seem to have no problem producing, with the hybrid components.

Godwhacker

Not that there is concrete evidence yet, but one has to think that is has to do with quality control on the hybrid engine components....everything else is pretty much same as regular RX, at least from what I have read, so what else could it be???

Definately NOT a car I would think of buying in first year of production!

I was thinking maybe they needed more time to breed bigger rats to run the wheels that make the hybrid work!

heyitsme

The prius already seems to have their hybrid manufacturing stretched to the max and now they need to add the highlander and rx.