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“When you are looking at purely dollars and cents, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense. The Volt isn’t particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and it’s not particularly good as a gas vehicle either in terms of fuel economy,”

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110228/AUTO01/102280401/Consumer-Reports—GM’s-Volt-‘doesn’t-really-make-a-lot-of-sense’#ixzz1FMTEr8RY

Excrement! This fellow Champion is a former Brit (living in the US) who simply hates all autos that are American. Everyone in the car industry knows about Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports is known for having a particular bias against anything American. They are a shrill for the Japanese. When you have the 10 best of everything Japanese you know they lose credibility.

The example he sites is that if you are traveling 70 miles, a Prius might be a better choice. Duh? That's not what the Volt was designed for. If you are towing a Trailer, the Volt might not also be a good choice either. You just knew Champion had to get a plug in for the Prius. The Volt doesn't get optimum performance in extremely cold weather? Duh? Why don't you try driving a Leaf in extremely cold weather and see how far you get. No vehicle performs at an optimum level in extremely cold weather. No cars will get EPA mileage in ice and snow. DUH!

The Volt was designed for the huge demographic (78%) who drive less than 40 miles per day BUT occasionally want to travel further. That's huge. It wasn't designed to be the car for everyone. If you a plumber you might want a pickup truck instead of a Volt. Wow, it's that a thought. The Volt is a bad choice if you are a plummer and need to carry around tools and such.

Champion is criticizing the Volt for not being the car it wasn't intended to be.

Now as for cost. Yes, new technology is expensive. The first Flat Panel TVs were $10,000. Were they a good buy? Duh? Nobody but the rich would buy them. But they came down in price as the Volt will as they get into quantity production. There will be plenty of earlier adapters who will want the Volt and by the time the average person sees how well they perform, the price will drop. GM has already said in in the Next year of two the price will drop $7,500. Duh, enduserindy. You need to get your information from more reliable sources than Limbaugh or Consumer Reports. And BTW Enduserindy, have you looked at gas prices lately? In six months, $4.00/gal will seem like a very good deal. In a year $5.00/gal will be the norm. Count on it. You will wish you had a Volt.