Likely Japanese car shortage brings cost hike

DETROIT - The disaster in Japan could slow shipments of cars such as Toyota's Prius to auto lots in the United States, and some dealers are already taking advantage of expected shortages to raise prices.

Buyers will now typically have to pay sticker prices, instead of enjoying discounts that had been the norm for small cars and hybrids imported from Japan. Besides the Prius, models that suddenly cost more include Honda's Insight, Fit, and CR-V; Toyota's Yaris; and several Acuras and Infinitis.

Small cars such as the Yaris, with a $12,955 sticker price for a base model, and the Honda Insight, priced at $18,200, are losing their typical discounts of 5 percent to 10 percent.

The price increases "will last weeks, if not months," said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insights for TrueCar.com, a website that tracks what cars sell for at dealerships.

Dealers are acting on the possibility that disruptions in car deliveries from Japan will cause a shortage of higher-demand vehicles so that demand would exceed supply.

So they won't cut deals on those cars, Toprak said.

Car buyers rarely pay sticker price, also known as the MSRP, or manufacturer's suggested retail price. Companies typically offer discounts of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars off the MSRP. Many also provide low-rate financing.

Toyota, for example, had been offering a $500 rebate on the Prius, plus zero-percent financing. And it offered a $1,000 rebate on the Yaris.

Many smaller cars and hybrids are built in Japan, where car manufacturing has mostly stopped in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis.

Toyota said it had shut down production until Tuesday. Honda remains closed and hasn't said when its plants will restart. A shipment of more than 1,000 Nissan and Infiniti cars that was headed to the United States was destroyed in the tsunami. At least one hybrid battery maker is shut down, threatening supplies of hybrid cars.

Even before the disaster, dealers were reporting a shortage of hybrids such as the Prius, which had been in demand because of high gas prices. The Prius uses a combination of electric and gasoline power and gets 51 m.p.g.

Meanwhile, General Motors Co. on Thursday said it would suspend production at its Shreveport, La., assembly plant because of a parts shortage resulting from the crisis in Japan.