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

[rgathright]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

...

Of course the $800 06 Rebel at 70 MPG is hard to beat on nice days.

regards
Mech

All good points but unfortunately, a lot of us have full time careers that require lengthy commutes to the corporate hive. I need a car in good working order and also want to reduce green house emissions. All those considerations are why I visit EcoModder.com.

I would like to continue the discussion about the prospects of Chevy Volt delivery though by saying the following...

I, rgathright, admit that I am paying to much for an American made electric/hybrid car and am willing to admit that in the eyes of most people that I am paying to much for it.

[Big Dave]

Really, guys. How many $41,000 economy cars do you suppose you could sell?

Honda lost money on every first-generation Insight they sold.

What will turn GM around is people starting to buy $45,000 pickups again.

With GM's legacy costs, if they can't sell it for over $35,000, they're just trading dollars.

What annoys me is that they dropped the 4.5 diesel and never built their multi-mode hybrid into a dual-clutch semi-manual transmission. With those two things, they would be selling 35 MPG half-ton pickups and getting the $35,000-$45,000 price they need.

[user removed]

My first hand experience with GM began in April 1969 when I went to work in the auto repair industry at age 18, 41 years ago.

Perforated rust holes in 6 month old cars. Panel alignment that was atrocious. We had to fix the mistakes in assembly and quality control was unknown.

I worked at a Chevy dealership when they first came out with the Vega. 40 engine replacements per month. GM corporate statement was it was due to owners changing their antifreeze to a blend that caused the cylinder walls to sink in the engine block.

In a 2 month old car.

Then there was the Chevette with the collapsible front end with the front wheel camber changing from day to day.

I could go on and on for pages of first hand experience of a corporate attitude that left the customer holding the bag for repairs and in some cases no repair solution regardless of the effort.

Now the new GM, which was raised from the dead by a govt that felt like corporate bondholders were peons who should not be paid their interest, and even should not recover their principle.

I guess by now you can conclude I have very serious reservations about anything GM builds. Had they adopted a customer friendly attitude they could have done much to compete with the Japanese import flood in the 70s. Had they looked at the competition they might have stood a chance.

Had the unions looked into the future and worked with management, instead of a relationship based on mutual hatred, or at least extreme animosity. They might have survived.

Instead, like today's political situation they were hard headed and uncompromising, and the results were predictable.

Very predictable, repeated through history by the shortsightedness of men.

Today their legacy costs have been reduced. They can compete with the Japanese importers, who have evolved into something resembling the American corporate giants of the post WW2 era. The king Toyota recently suffered a very GM like downfall with issues related to demanding suppliers build cheap at any cost.

Now here comes the Koreans, whose vehicles were almost a joke when they first arrived on our shores. They are coming on strong, but will soon be followed by the Indians and Chinese, and many other countries that have much lower average costs of living.

It will be interesting to say the least to actually see what happens in the next decade.

The Volt was GMs life preserver to convince govt they were worth saving. We will never know what would have happened if they had not been bailed out of their own stupidity and arrogance.

$41,000 buys about 16000 gallons of fuel, give or take. In a new Prius that should get you say 7000 gallons of fuel and a new Prius, good for 350,000 miles of driving, before the Volt owner has bought a drop of gas.

If you want to make a statement about eliminating the consumption of foreign, or domestic, oil then you should consider everything you consume that requires oil as a raw material.

Never owned a SUV or a car that was not fairly fuel efficient, with maybe 3 exceptions in 40 years. Got 32 MPG when I was 17 when Lyndon Johnson was president. Of course the car would be considered an absolute death trap today.

It really is a shame to see us, the citizens of the US allowing our gluttony for energy, to destroy our country, that my family has invested their blood in for close to 3 centuries.
It is especially disturbing to see, the same attitudes and arrogance, so clearly demonstrated by GM 50 years ago, prevalent today in the way they withhold information that would allow people to make rational decisions about the viability of their "savior" vehicle.

I have seen the hype for to long to be deluded into blind faith in their ability to adopt a consumer oriented business philosophy.

First hand.

"Deluded people gave in".

All that requires is deluded people, and there seems to be a plethora of volunteers.

As for me, I can wait a couple of years to see how this all unfolds, and in the meantime pursue my personal agenda which is to change the way power is transferred from the fuel tank to the wheels, and how it is recovered.

regards
Mech

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

What annoys me is that they dropped the 4.5 diesel and never built their multi-mode hybrid into a dual-clutch semi-manual transmission. With those two things, they would be selling 35 MPG half-ton pickups and getting the $35,000-$45,000 price they need.

I doubt they would hit 35mpg w/ those. Probably someplace between 25mpg and 30mpg. A hybrid diesel is cost prohibitive. A normal diesel would have been the best production vehicle.

[SoobieOut]

Government Motors up to the same old tricks. I wonder if they lost the plans for the EV-1? Why reinvent the wheel here. Seems like they had a good starting point with the EV-1 with the very low cd.

I read the Volt stats and was not impressed. There is a good review of four EV's in this months wired magazine.
Here's the link:

Road Test: Four EVs You Can Drive This Year | Magazine

Also a cool article on stock VW going 1500 miles on a single tank!

Diesel VW Goes 1,531 Miles On One Tank | Autopia | Wired.com

[rgathright]

Originally Posted by MorphDaCivic

Government Motors up to the same old tricks. I wonder if they lost the plans for the EV-1? Why reinvent the wheel here. Seems like they had a good starting point with the EV-1 with the very low cd.
...

How about EV-2 with Lithium Ion batteries?

[user removed]

2005 TOYOTA PRIUS WITH 132000 MILES $6800.00

Here is another one with 132k miles for $6800.

regards
Mech

[rmay635703]

Looking back these type of threads seem rather funny and others

About Hypercars

rather sad.

[Xist]

Well, they made the Volt, and I see some on the road. I saw one cutting off cars today.

If the EV-1 earned an "A," what would you give the Volt?

[cbaber]

The Volt has become similar to the Prius. Their drivers have been known to be very smug. Most owners drive it as a status symbol to say, "Hey look how environmentally conscious I am, I am much more advanced than you!"

It isn't the cars fault. Well okay, the Volt was doomed to be a smug car because of the huge price tag...

I have a lot more respect for people that take used cars and modify them and their driving to achieve better fuel economy. There is just something about buying a newly manufactured car for $40,000 that seems a bit uneconomical.