[wainair]

Oh you are right Mech. A full charge uses 10kwh of battery power but it takes 12kwh's to recharge the battery to full. Plus the car will maintain the battery at it's preferred temperature range while it is plugged in so there is a phantom loss there too in heating or cooling the battery. That is one of the drawbacks of current Li-ion battery tech. To maintain the longevity of the battery it requires some thermal kids glove treatment.

Dollars and cents you will always have a better bottom line with a older paid for car and likewise if it was only about dollars and cents I would have been better off buying something like a base Mazda2 or Nissan Sentra new than the Volt. For me it is not just about the bottom line(though that is part of it). There are a whole host of factors that went into my decision to buy the Volt and not all of them were logical or financially sound! LOL

Thanks folks for the good points folks. I love the conversation!