When we bought our Prius two years ago from Toyota of Berkeley, our sales representative, George, was proud to report that the Berkeley dealership, on Shattuck Avenue, sold more Priuses than any other single dealership in the country.
While I haven’t been able to verify that claim — funnily enough the Toyota switchboard seems a little busy right now — I don’t doubt its veracity. If your kids are playing the “count the car models” game while driving through Berkeley there’s a pretty good chance the child who chose Prius will win.
Last year Toyota sold nearly 140,000 Priuses in north America, which is its biggest market worldwide for the hybrid model. Yesterday it announced a voluntary recall of 133,000 of them. If you’re an owner of a post-May 2009 Prius, you can expect a letter in the mail soon explaining how a software tweak should eradicate a braking hiccup on your car — and how and where you can get it done.
So expect to see fewer shiny new “Decidedly Different” Priuses on your travels in the next few weeks — not to mention certain Corollas, Camrys, Highlanders and Tundras with their potential accelerator problems. But let’s not go there.