"The Volt" May BE SCRAPPED!- NEVER BUILT!!

[tjts1]

The Volt is a 4000 lb CUBR subcompact. Who in their right mind is going to want to own one?

[gone-ot]

...pardon the "pun" but "...who put the LEAD in the LEAD-acid batteries?"

[Frank Lee]

there is actually a fairly simple explanation from a design perspective for a car to have expanding girth as you get farther from the front wheels...

Space at the front of the car is usually not what the client considers useful, whereas wider rear seats, cabin or trunk space are most assuredly considered a a premium by most drivers. So if your clientele doesn't care at all how much room is availalble under the hood(and they don't) why would you spend a dime providing room? Given it is easier to have a straight line for the frame but the increased mass for longer supports to reach the mounting points for all the under bonnet components would add a substantial amount of weight as well as increase the cost. Its conveneint for the frame to be right at the edges of the motor and trans so that anything that needs to be mounted needs only to have some bolt holes instead of a strut to reach it.

But... not many passengers would be terribly comfortable or happy with the interior spaced provided with that width(my Del sol is about 3-4 inches wider at the door jam where my butt is) than where my front tires are.

So to maximize interior space and ease of manufacture under the hood the body almost automatically assumes some form of expanding shape...

...and that is how Tempo/Topaz came to be. Ford wanted something one step up from the Escort.

From the front to the firewall it has a lot in common with the smaller Escort, then it widens out for a bigger back seat.

tjts: The Volt is a 4000 lb CUBR subcompact. Who in their right mind is going to want to own one?

I think it's at least a compact. Haven't found the official classification yet though.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by theunchosen

So if your clientele doesn't care at all how much room is availalble under the hood(and they don't) why would you spend a dime providing room?

First off, from a purely stylistic perspective, so you don't build an ugly fat-butted car?

I don't think most of the technical reasons really hold that much water, either. Take that Mitusbishi picture a couple of posts back. Doesn't look like the fat butt provides much more usable space at all, does it? Same with most such designs - on top of the fact that most of them have trunks, a design which yields much less useful space than a hatchback.

Beyond that, the most extreme FB designs seem to be "performance" cars, where the back seat is usually an afterthough. Now maybe if the car is rear-engined, there's a point, but OTOH Porsche manages to build rear engined cars with fairly skinny butts.

[Frank Lee]

I think Trailblazers have a most unattractive "pear shape" from the rear view. *bleah*

And those Nissan mini-vans- not fat butted but with that goofy window line I always think they look like pregnant guppies. Ish. They must have some other redeeming values... of some sort...

[cfg83]

Hello -

Even though the Triumph TR7 was a failure(?), I always remembered it's ad campaign, "The Shape of Things to Come" :



In a way I think the ad campaign was true. As theunchosen said, going big in the rear creates useful trunk space. You can make the argument that the Honda CRX was a prime example of that, a 2-seater with gobs of trunk space.

I noticed it so much over the years that the exception to the rule impressed me at the time, the Infiniti J30. They went with a downward sloped 1940's style trunk that sacrificed volume for style. I admired that because it went against the grain (and probably hurt sales) :



Ha ha, I was right :

Nissan Leopard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of the numerous reasons the Y32 Leopard failed was that its most distinguishing feature was a lack of interior room. It had the distinction of being a mid-size car with the space of a subcompact (less than a Sentra) due to its sloping roofline and rounded down trunk. The styling of the vehicle was more favorably regarded in Japan than it was in the USA. Total production of this vehicle was around 7,000 units internationally.

7000 units?!?!?!? Now I want one! (whew! only comes in automatic, don't want one anymore)

The Eclipse I showed earlier was not about "practical" interior volume. It was the *bumper* being wider and taller in proportion to the rest of the car. I was identifying what I thought was an aesthetic choice. 1990's Toyota Supras also have enlarged bumpers.

I would argue as others have said, that the Volt has Prius/Insight II/CRX DNA in it's design.

CarloSW2

[Jammer]

Interesting comments. I'm actually learning something here! Oh no!

Ah, for the record I read on one of the Car Sites that the Volt is a COMPACT size car, that was a question some of us have been asking I believe. I can find a quote and the link if it really matters as if it is a Sub-Compact, or a Compact. I know this, I have had my car right beside a Prius and the Prius seems to have more volume inside due to it's height, so it's a bigger car than a Cobalt (imho).

I also read that the Prius Plug-In model might come out in 2011, but the rumored stats do not sound as impressive as the Volt- so far. (for example, one site claimed the rumor was the plug-in Prius could go TEN miles on complete Electricity.... The Volt is said to go 40) . It's really hard to ignore the Prius when I read they are on target so far of reaching their goal of producing 400,000 - 2010 model cars! Next word has it Ford is due to have a plug-in Hybrid in the near future as well.

Oh, about a Trunk vrs a Hatchback: I don't know about other cars, but my car works as a trunk, and by folding down the back seats it works as a two seat hatch back- And it really can store a lot more stuff than I ever would of believed. I even won a bet about all of the stuff I managed to put in the car for a short vacation recently- 2 people and the entire back end from behind the front seats all the way to the rear deck was filled up 1/2 way up to the top. And I still had room to see out my rear view mirror and got the best gas mileage of any previous car I have drove the same trip under such conditions. I think about the previous sub-compacts I have owned, like an 87 Escort GT, and two mid 80's Pontiac Fieros and I can not but think how much more space the newer small cars have for storage. *sigh* I rather drive a hybrid but they are still too expensive for me.

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I think it's at least a compact. Haven't found the official classification yet though.

I hope you're right. Most compacts fit 5 people. The Volt is strictly a 4
seater.

Originally Posted by Jammer

I also read that the Prius Plug-In model might come out in 2011, but the rumored stats do not sound as impressive as the Volt- so far. (for example, one site claimed the rumor was the plug-in Prius could go TEN miles on complete Electricity.... The Volt is said to go 40) . It's really hard to ignore the Prius when I read they are on target so far of reaching their goal of producing 400,000 - 2010 model cars! Next word has it Ford is due to have a plug-in Hybrid in the near future as well.

There is a solid 1000 lb and $20,000 separating the Prius and Volt as it stands right now. I don't know how much weight and expense the plug in Prius will add but I suspect it will still undercut the Volt by a wide margin. The Prius by the way is classified by the EPA as midsize car on par with the Camry and Accord.

The Volt interior looks tiny, especially the back seat head room.

[Frank Lee]

like an 87 Escort GT, and two mid 80's Pontiac Fieros

...and somehow you lived to tell about it.

[Frank Lee]

I saw that Volt is a 4 seater; I also saw that it has a 6" longer wheelbase than my COMPACT Tempo. The classifications in the U.S. are categorized by interior volume and so far all I've seen is a value for cargo volume.