2008 Toyota Prius gets cheaper or even more expensive?

Toyota just released pricing for most of its 2008 lineup, and along with a brief summary of model changes was information about a new, lower-cost Prius. That's right, a cheaper Prius. We had talked about the fact that consumer clamor for hybrids was waning, but we never expected to see the Prius price reduced. Reading the fine print shows what's really happening is that Toyota has introduced a new "standard" model with slightly less content to get to a lower price point. The base MSRP for the new Standard Prius starts at $20,950, while the Limited goes up about $150 to $23,220.

The recent JD Power finding that hybrid popularity is giving way to more interest in diesel powertrains seemed to have some merit as Toyota had said it would be trimming the entry price of its 2008 Camry Hybrid by about $1,000, as well. Although the Camry isn't included in this release, the cheaper Prius seems to bear out that fact. The cheaper '08 Standard Prius should be in dealerships in August. New pricing for the other '08 Toyota models was also announced, and not surprisingly, all went up, even if just a bit.