Posted on 04/09/2012 11:40:13 AM PDT by jazusamo
I am going to take a wild guess and figure that it would take a few years to account for the cost of the vehicle in gas savings.
Then there’s the question of how much profit is made for each Volt sold. I am confident that electric/hybrid vehicles are going to continue getting better, but when you consider the financial status of GM, and a lot of details about the Volt, I have a hard time buying into how great it is.
Just to clear up some nnonsense that goes around here at FR, the Volt was championed two years before Obama was elected and championed by Bob Lutz a true “car guy” and well known opponent of the “global warming” libs. Not everything GM soes is evil guys.
Do you own one?
Voltswagen ping.
“... The defense of GM because they are a patriotic company producing the American-made Volt ...”
A patriotic company does not produce ill-engineered opsolete cr*p for years as did GM.
A patriotic company does not continue to screw their customers for years with engineers and management dorks who demenstrated equal to Obama stupidity as did GM.
Shove it up your smelly Obama, GM.
Then take it out and shove it up again.
And again.
Obama’s Doltswagon?
You’re correct and if people who can afford to buy the Volt buy it, more power to them but the subsidies and tax credits come out of the pockets of taxpayers. The majority of taxpayers who help support sales of this vehicle cannot in fact afford to buy one themselves.
If GM wants to compete on their own with other companies that’s fine but Obama has chosen the “green energy” thing and has specifically chosen to promote the Volt.
BO was the one that bailed GM out.
BO was the one that stole property from thousands of business owners (aka dealers).
BO is the ONLY President of the United States which has pushed this vehicle.
Government Motors, not my kind of car.
That is good information. I'll take you for your word and give you the benefit of the doubt. Since you apparently know more about the Volt history, why did it go into production?
There are always (or should be) new innovations and products being engineered and developed at manufacturing companies of all kinds. It's part of R&D. Most don't make it to market for various reasons (mostly solid business reasons).
At some point, somebody realized that the vehicle made no economic sense for the regular consumer. Before you answer, I would offer that a Corvette does not make any economic sense for the regular consumer and yet is a profitable product.
Where did they go wrong and why hasn't the production been scrapped all together? What is motivating the financial acceleration of the death spiral?
Is management so flawed at GM that they would take on this risky venture (if not certain failure)? Or is there some other mitigating factor that influenced a business decision at GM?
All that was before Zero, Government Motors and taxpayer subsidies. The Volt that was promised was revolutionary; the one that was delivered is a gubmint boondoggle that robs the taxpayer everytime a unit is sold. It needs to die.
So if a Volt and a Cruze catch on fire, which would cause more global warming?
Bob Lutz, aka “car guy” is also a GM flunkee...
Let’s force those proponents to drive those cars for at least three months or more. Then they’ll understand!
Rename it the “Strength through Joy Car”. KdF-Wagen, for short.
“Just to clear up some nnonsense that goes around here at FR, the Volt was championed two years before Obama was elected and championed by Bob Lutz a true “car guy” and well known opponent of the “global warming” libs. Not everything GM soes is evil guys.”
Lutz a true car guy?
For what? His recent accomplishments that is.
The fact is while Toyota was adding Lexus and Scion, while BMW was adding Mini, GM was killing brands. Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Hummer.
GM saw Ford doing well with their new Mustang, so they went on a crash program to resurect the Camaro they killed so recently, and that is all I have seen from GM. Period.
No snazzy retro-nomad mis-sized wagon with a turbo-six, etc.
I don’t have a long commute between home and work (@21 miles/day round trip) and only use about 10 gallons of gas per week. I was considering a $40k Mercury Mariner hybrid in 2009 - when gas was at $4.00/gallon (yep, it’s deja vu all over again) But a quick spreadsheet showed it would take a couple of decades to payoff the car on gas savings alone. Pretty weak argument when asking a buyer to take on $450-500/month payment for 6 years. Then the cost of gas went down and the pay off period got even longer. I kept my van and just decided to pay the additional cost when it came.
I think you can make reasonable environmental (air pollution reduction) and national security (eliminate dependence on hostile/unreliable foreign oil sources)arguments for shifting to the all electric and gas-electric hybrid. But you can’t make an economic argument for adoption - even when you run the theoretical fuel economy up to 100 mpg.
the Volt was championed two years before Obama was elected and championed by Bob Lutz
*********************************************
Lutz believed we’d have better batteries by now ... A car that can only go 30 miles on battery IF YOU DON’T USE THE A/C ,, or can only go 20 miles on battery IF YOU USE THE HEAT ... isn’t what we need ... the car is so inferior to the Cruze it isn’t funny ... I’ll take a Cruze ECO above this anytime.
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