As promised there was a follow-up from the stash of 2007 Priuses still kept in brand new condition by Miami-Dade County.
The explanation from the county basically came down the vehicles were ordered right before a program was implemented to reduce the size and expand the usable time the Miami-Dade’s fleet. The result was as many as 1,200 vehicles stored in the garage at one time, including 203 new 2007 Toyota Priuses.
The number of the Toyota hybrids have been slowly dwindling down. According to report by former county manager George Burgess 151 Prius hybrids were left in storage in 2008. The number went down to 149 in 2009 and 131 in 2010. By the time Burgess gave his report in June 2010, almost half of the Priusus were in service with 103 remaining in storage.
These numbers were part of an official report that county commissioners specifically requested two years ago about the new cars that were stored and unused. It is unclear how much Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez already knew about these cars when he promised a full investigation into this matter last week, but he was a county commissioner when Burgess gave his report to the counsel in 2010.
According to the investigation, the final tally today is 157 vehicles in storage. Of those, 57 are used to transport children for summer recreational programs, and 66 belong to the police. The number of unused Priuses is finally down to a handful. The latest report says that possibly as little as four or five are still waiting to see their first glimpse of the Miami sunshine.
Source: El Nuevo Hearld
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