Honda dealers earned my ongoing scorn due to truly egregious markups beyond sticker price for that car. I’ve never owned a Honda for that reason, and likely never will buy a new one. I don’t doubt it was a great car, but I’m not going to go for that sort of treatment. Hope they’re happy, I am. I’ve owned a variety of interesting makes over the intervening years.
Toyota made great cars up until about five years ago, then they got progressively more interested in volume. Quality and reliability have slipped with each new model introduced since, imho. Nissan seriously overbuilt their cars beginning in the late eighties, one of the best cars I’ve owned was a 90 Maxima SE. Bulletproof, solid as a bank vault, no mechanical issues in nearly 200k miles and nary a squeak or a rattle. The stupid automated mousetrack shoulder belts always irritated me, though. I know they were forced to do it, but still.
I currently own an ‘07 Subaru Legacy GT Limited wagon, great car, very very fast and practical. Tight body, no mechanical issues, love the acceleration and the symmetrical AWD. Got a Corolla SE for commutes, a Ford Ranger for hauling stuff and still have the last Maxima I bought new in 96, unfortunately inferior to the 90 in nearly every way, which is why I don’t buy Maximas anymore, lol. Well, they’ve gotten sort of flabby and ugly, too. I’ve kept it for sentimental reasons, but between my back, my left knee and having fractured the radius in my right arm near the elbow, stickshift is looking out of the question these days. I don’t “need” four cars anyway.
Fast forward to our little “Greenie” car — the Volt from Government Motors — and its potential buyers.
GovMot will have to give potential buyers hefty subsidized discounts of $11K to bring the $44K MSRP into striking range of customers. Then there are a few nagging questions.
If the Volt only gets 40 miles on a charge before it has to be plugged-in or switch to its backup gas engine, this is hardly efficient.
Where are you going to plug-in the Volt? Eco-Greenies don't want power plants and oppose them at ever turn. Since electricity doesn't come out of a wall socket — it has to be GENERATED — where are the charging stations, whether at work or at home or on the road. I suspect that Volts will get a lot more use from their backup engines than the Greenies think.
Since the car is “fuel efficient”, expect gasoline revenues to take a hit and the politicians will push for higher gas taxes to “solve” the shortfall problem.
The battery pack is hideously expensive and is also a haz-mat item when it has to be replaced. Who's picking up the haz-mat disposal fee? How much does a new battery pack cost and how long will it be expected to last (average)? Note to Eco-Greenies: Your battery life will vary greatly depending on whether you live in a very hot or very cold climate. What then?
What I see is a bunch of Eco-Greenies buying Volts so they can drive them around to show off to friends and other Eco-Greenies. After that's over, the car will go into the garage and their SUV will be back for daily driving.