There is no 2011 Chevy Volt that is all electric. I once drove my Insight to a Chevy dealer that offered me $5 just to show up, a year ago. I asked them if they had any cars that got 68 MPG, and they told me the Volt was going to do that. Now I read about 32 MPG highway once the battery runs down. My Altima beats that.
Maybe I will start looking for a salvage Nissan Leaf
. I bought three totals over the last 30 years that had less than 400 miles on the odometer. One Mazda Miata had never been titled and the salesman who wrecked it left his hooch and pipe in the car.
People who pay 75k for a FSP Escalade, have 75k to throw away.
I prefer to buy my cars from people who already threw the money away, motorcycles as well.
Like a 2006 Rebel with 1887 miles for $800. Something like $3100 new. The previous owner paid $113 in Va state license tax when he bought the bike new.
Or a 2001 Eldorado for my 89 year old Pop for $6000 with 60k miles on the odometer.
He gets right at 30 MPG in that Caddy on the highway, but he only drives 4k miles a year so any new car (and he can afford one) will kill him in depreciation.
Look at the used car prices (real prices not some inflated book value but actual selling prices) of the average Chevrolet at 5 years age. For the depreciation a new Volt buyer will suffer you could buy a new Corolla and drive it 100+ thousand miles.
I like to recycle cars that died in accidents long before their useful lives had come to an end. Latest one was less than 12K to build. The new car window sticker was close to 30K 20,000 miles ago. After running the 3/4 tank of year old gas out of it, I am averaging 35MPG.
At 7 cents a mile for fuel how long will it take for me to spend the 25K plus in depreciation of a new Volt.
Also add the much higher property taxes, probably much higher insurance costs.
Even the Leaf operational costs are calculated at 6 cents a mile. The Volts value will be practically nothing when the battery warranty is gone. That same value will drop significantly before the warranty is gone.
Of course the $800 06 Rebel at 70 MPG is hard to beat on nice days.
regards
Mech