[FrankR]

They are trying every sales trick in the book, but I don't know anyone who wants a car good for only 35 miles on and 8 hour charge.

Many people's round-trip drive to work is more than 35 miles. And with traffic like Atlanta, in a rainstorm and cold outside, you're going to be sitting for a long time, buring up battery juice with headlights (required in rain in Georgia), heater (so you don't freeze, it will be an electric heater you know, you no longer have a water-cooled engine.) electric windshield wipers for the rain, and the radio, (to keep up with the traffic reports)...you will not make it home.

You 30 miles to visit the in-laws, or your grown kids...and they don't have a special 220v plug for you to rejuvenate your new toy, you're screwed.

But let's say you find workarounds for all those problems, you know, as convenient as say stopping into your local gas station and filling up...let's just say...

10 years down the road that battery finally dies...a new one is, say, $7000 dollars...are you really going to put that much money in a 10 year old car? I wouldn't.

I think gub'mint motors should just put golf bag racks on them and sell them to the nearest golf course...after all, it's just a fancy golf cart.

[Zarro]

I guess I’ll just have to state it here, as many of you don’t understand how the Volt works. It’s an “Extended Range Electric Vehicle” (EREV) and yes, its *electric only* range is around 40 miles, but it has a gas engine to run a generator when it needs it. Here is the total range figure:

total range (electricity and gasoline) is 379 miles

Repeat: you are not “stuck” after 40 miles and the batteries are run down. I get that there’s lots of bashing of the Volt here at FR, but let’s at least be honest about the product, even if we don’t like it.

[Publius6961]

10 years down the road that battery finally dies...a new one is, say, $7000 dollars...

I call your $7000 and raise you $20000.

If you're gonna pull numbers out of dark places, why not think big?