Have you tried to find a new Prius at a Toyota dealership lately? Well we did this past Sunday when we went car-scouting for a friend. We paid a visit to Toyota Westborough in Massachusetts and listen to this; not only is there a one month waiting period to get the compact hybrid (once you pay the $1,000 deposit) but the dealer didn’t even have a single Prius in the lot for us to see, let alone drive!

The same goes for most Toyota dealers across the U.S. as Prius inventories are limited by production capacity in Japan, which must be shared with Asia and Europe. Talking about the problem, John Hanson, a Toyota spokesman in Torrance, California, told Bloomberg, “This is a special vehicle, and as fuel prices keep rising, it gets more special. Rght now, U.S. customers can get a Prius. Next month or the month after that, it’s tough to say”.