Posted on 08/09/2010 11:03:07 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
Have you driven a Chevy Volt
The headline is a play an early ‘80s Ford car ad campaign. Have you driven a Ford. . .lately? was the tag line and it's instructive when considering Chevrolet's new Volt, the car that'll make GM a "leader" in green vehicle technology and create green blue collar jobs. The answer to Have you driven a Chevy Volt . . .lately? is most likely to be no.
I really love cars, and it pains me to criticize a vehicle, since my premise is all cars are good, some are better than others. Plus I know people at GM who love cars and worked diligently on this car, even if they thought it an answer to a question no one asked. While the Volt looks like smart product planning and business management to the Obama regime - people who don't know or care about cars - unfortunately, it fails on several levels.
Start with a $41,000 list price and with the $7500 Federal tax credit it drops to $33,500. I would even speculate that California, with a $20 billion deficit, could even be willing to spend money it doesn't have by kicking in a state hybrid vehicle credit to shave the price slightly. Regardless, tax credits mean more of what we don't need: government spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
40 miles per charge then a gasoline engine kicks in?
To do a true electric it has to be really light and aero ergo the EV1. Cost and marketing prohibitive. With the Li-Ion power densities they can now do it with a normal car, yet not with super range. My guess is if the Volt used the lead acid batteries we are all used too (1st gen EV1) you would be lucky to get 20 miles out of it. So they do a plug in for that 40 mile average that mom uses to get groceries. The Gasoline engine has a generator that then sends the power to a motor. Ergo the Volt has no traditional Transmission. This is way different than any other Hybrid which has esentially 2 drivetrains, electric and gas. This is an all electric drivetrain with a pony motor if you will. It is a leap beyond the Prius. If an Ultra-capacitor can come along or a battery leap, maybe they can go full series electric with the pony motors electrical energy going straight to the battery pack./ultra-capacitor. It is clever what they have done, no matter how you slice it.
Drool, That would be bout right. The only thing Green about that baby is the envy on all the Dolt Drivers faces.
Does the Dolt have pedals like a bike insinde? You could help it uphill when the battery is low.
As to the technical merits, I don't really know if its a golf cart or the latest greatest in automotive engineering, for me it doesn't really matter at this point in time.
The thing is, even a Prius is way cheaper than a Volt. They start at $22.8K The top of the line loaded Prius V is $28K.
The Prius also gets better fuel economy than the Volt does when it’s running on it’s engine.
A Prius is a much more mature design, too. We know that a Prius works pretty well, even if it also doesn’t make economic sense.
There are currently plug in kits for them and Toyota will soon release plug in versions of the car.
So even a greenie should choose a Prius over a Volt.
The Dolt will become the symobol of the regime. Useless piece of garbage that doesn’t go anywhere and wastes time and $$.
Pray for America
Criticism of the GM engineers/management is unfair.
Criticism of the Volt is entirely fair, because we all have a vested interest in it. And if the Volt is the way in which GM is supposed to pay us back then we’re not going to get our money back. We’ll probably lose even more money.
Good analysis, for me if the price was in the teens GM would have a sale.
Is anyone familiar with the environmental impact of the production and disposal of the batteries for these cars? I imagine it must be traumatic.
There is no situation in which I would buy a Volt or any other GM car, whether new or used and made after they accepted my tax dollars in the Bailout. GM and Chrysler are dead to me. Forever. Judging by the numbers on Ford, GM, and Chrysler, where Ford sales have risen since that criminal abuse of our tax dollars and the others have dropped, many real Americans agree with me.
It will be the Obama Edsel.
Just repeating what I have understood. I don’t really care if I’m right, or if you’re right, or neither of us are right. I won’t be buying one, and neither is anyone else I know.
Government Motors.
‘Nuff said.
In a word, NO!
Leni
Laws written and passed by Democrats are why we are faced with the Volt, especially laws they passed in California.
Engineers have nothing to do with it. Had Democrats decided 3% of new vehicles had to run on moonbeams, engineers would have created some unpopular, money losing, taxpayer subsidized contraption to to that. Call it Obama's Voltswagen, call it the Democrat Party's People Car...the only reason the Volt exists today is because of Democrats and their politicians.
It would be great, if the free market were allowed to work its magic. Everyone should be free to buy one, or not. I'm certainly not trying to sell a Volt to anyone.
I admit that I'm a technophile, a gadget freak — if I had enough mad money; I might buy a Volt (or Leaf, or Tesla) just to have an electric car to play with.
As far as I can tell, the Volt has the most advanced technology of all the electrics and hybrids. However, now that GM is Government Motors (and 38% union owned); I'm not about to go to the mat defending them.
I wonder how many of these vehicles I will end up seeing on the road.
At this point, I wouldn’t even take one for free, because it is a politicized car. No way I am driving a democrat, global hoax mobile. I would absolutely rather walk uphill, in the snow, at night, both ways, on my hands.
Yep. I have a Blazer (ugh) and just had to replace the 4WD controller. Last year it was the wiper controller. Not to mention the issues from Dex-Cool (Wrecks-Cool), the AC compressor going out at 70k miles, the alternator, idler pulley arm, radiator, windshield washer pumps, etc. The only item replaced that I don't begrudge was the water pump. It went almost 90k miles.
No more GM for me, unless it was made in 1972 or earlier.
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