DALLAS – Eight months ago, Mary Williams of Dallas ordered a Toyota Prius, expecting one of the hot new hybrids to be residing in her garage by now.

But Williams, a retiree who wanted the 50-miles-per-gallon Prius for a long road trip next month, recently bought a more common sedan – a 2003 Toyota Camry – after her dealer told her that her Prius probably wouldn’t arrive this year.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Williams, a longtime Toyota owner who plans to remain on the list and sell the Camry when her Prius comes in.

The paucity of Priuses is likely to last well into next year, some dealers predict.

Toyota, which acknowledges that demand has been much higher than anticipated, will increase Prius production dramatically in 2005 – from 10,000 a month to 15,000. It also will raised the price $580 to $20,875 .

With many back-ordered cars, buyers start to lose interest after six months or so. But Toyota dealers say their customers seem to want a Prius or nothing at all – and that could complicate the job of meeting demand.

“Our expectations are it will take as long as a year to deliver the car in some markets,” said Ernest Bastion, vice president for vehicle operations at Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.

“Every region in the country has been able to sell at a rate that eliminates 100 percent of the monthly inventory. It’s highly unusual in our industry, but the Prius is a highly unusual car.”

When the new Prius was launched last October, Toyota expected annual sales of 36,000 vehicles. That was increased 31 percent in December to 47,000.

The most recent plan to increase production by 5,000 vehicles a month will supply Prius markets worldwide. But Toyota’s U.S. division has asked for all of those cars – and is awaiting an answer from company officials in Japan.

Bruce Belzowski of the University of Michigan said the Prius is so costly to build that Toyota was wise to be conservative in its production estimates – which also can serve marketing purposes.

“This approach is not as efficient as it could be,” said Belzowski, an assistant research scientist at the university’s Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation. “But sometimes, manufacturers underproduce to build demand, to get some buzz going.”

And the Prius definitely has buzz.

The modernistic car – the industry’s best-selling hybrid – is powered by a four-cylinder gas engine coupled with an electric motor. At low speeds, the electric motor moves the Prius, with the gas engine taking over as the car gathers speed.

Besides logging superior gas mileage, the car emits 90 percent less pollution than a conventional vehicle and is certified as a “super-ultra-low emission vehicle.”

Buyers are lining up across the country, but Dallas-area customers may wait longer because the Prius’ popularity here is relatively new. Allocations of the car are based partly on sales of the first-generation Prius, a smaller car that had limited appeal in Texas.

“Texas dealers are selling about 5 percent of our Priuses (in the United States),” Toyota’s Bastion said. “Based on other vehicle sales, they should be selling 10 percent.”

Toyota of Richardson, Texas, for instance, has 25 to 30 Prius orders pending and gets three or four cars a month. The dealership recently bought two used Priuses and put them on its used-car lot for $28,000 each, way over the original sticker price.

“We could take a lot more orders for the car if we had more inventory,” said Steve Grogean, vice president and general manager of the dealership.

“It’s frustrating because customers are getting mad, and they blame us,” added Rene Isip, managing partner of Rene Isip Toyota of Lewisville, Texas. “We’re getting one every other month, and we need two or three a month. That will bring prices down and keep everyone happy.”

Williams, who had hoped to take her Prius on a trip that included a return to Wisconsin for her 50th high school reunion, is staying on the list at John Eagle’s Sport City Toyota/Scion despite her disappointment with Toyota and the dealership.

“I’m a tree-hugger,” she said. “The fact that it’s not using as much fossil fuel is the main thing with me. It’s taken time for people to realize that we can produce a fine car that doesn’t consume much gas. And when I drove it, I just went nuts about it.”

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(c) 2004, The Dallas Morning News.

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ARCHIVE PHOTOS on KRT Direct (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): Prius

PHOTO (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): AUTO-PRIUS

AP-NY-09-10-04 1421EDT