Consumer Reports says GM Volt falls short on range

Reuters ^ | February 28, 2011 | John Crawley

[Upstate NY Guy]

...and they accordingly would be expected to go out of their way to lavish praise on Obama’s Government Motors “green” car.

Exactly. And you can see CR was really rooting for the Volt. "We would have really liked to have loved it..."

It would be great if this fiasco would speed up GM's demise but I'm afraid they will just go back to the taxpayers for more dough.

[Nervous Tick]

>> General Motors Co’s mostly electric Chevy Volt

If it’s only *mostly* electric, wouldn’t truth in advertising require renaming it the Chevy Vot? Or Chevy Olt, or Chevy Vo, or Chevy Ot, or ...

[Izzy Dunne]

My old Plymouth used to go about a quarter mile on the starter, does that make it a hybrid?

LOL!

You should be working on a research grant!

[Mr. Peabody]

Anybody familiar with how Tesla gets those 200 mile ranges?

[bray]

Wonder how long gummit motors knew they were lying about this boondoggle.

Pray for America

[Upstate NY Guy]

I agree. Until they can sell off enough assets to pay the taxpayer back with interest I will not spend a dime on their products.

[The Great RJ]

The Chevy Volt and especially the all electric Nisson Leaf, will never be more than curiosities for the hard core greenies. Imagine spending $40,000 for a vehicle where you may not be able to use the air conditioner, heater, defroster, wipers or even the stereo system without worrying about whether or not there will be enough battery power to get you to your destination let alone home again. If you do run your battery down, a “fill up” will take hours provided you can find an appropriate electrical hook-up. If the temperature is near or below freezing you better have cab fare.

[FrankR]

[upchuck]

Gee, I wonder if this means nobama will have to scrape that bumper sticker off the back windshield of his pimpmobile?

[Oldexpat]

Email the CR Volt Report to one of your liberal friends who has been talking to you about the success of the green economy.
It is amazing that this product would make it to the market. It is only suitable for some uses in warm states(not too warm) and any engineer knows that the batter isn’t worth squat below 40F. Only idiot non-technical liberals believe this crap.

[The Antiyuppie]

Liberals generally have no respect for law, even if it a natural law of thermodynamics.

You’ve got to love the $5000 markup over list mentioned in the article. So, basically, most of the “tax credit” you get is actually going to the dealer as a subsidy, and you will be paying for this tax credit of money the government doesn’t have for a long time, given the deficit.

Really - haven’t we been ***-***** enough? Can they give it a rest, maybe a little time to heal?

[Felis_irritable]

A drive home with no heat or air conditioning from San Diego to Idaho yielded 33 MPG.

Good grief, my gas non-turbo Forester (full disclosure: manual shift & I'm talented with it) will do that sometimes. It will do 28 - 30 all day.

I don't hate hybrids/electrics/etc. like some here do, but the technology is, to put it charitably, not completely developed yet. And without nuclear power, you're not really helping that much with the electrics.

[Oceander]

This is like watching some ancient greek tragedy, where you already know from the get-go that the protagonist is going to fail, and fail epically, the only question is exactly how he’s going to fail.

[The Antiyuppie]

Speaking of all those nasty, little used, unnecessary accessories like wipers, heaters, lighting, air conditioning, and so on, I wonder how those 20-something greenies will react to the discovery that their 1000-watt stereos will put a serious dent in their range - and in most states, headphones are (with good reason) illegal to use while driving. Furthermore, I suspect that the alternator and electrical systems in these cars have been “right-sized” with little extra capacity for such things.

[wetgundog]

“General Motors Co’s mostly electric Chevy Volt turned in a lackluster performance for efficiency in its first series of road tests...”

UNEXPECTED !!!

[I still care]

But when you look at the finances, for us it doesn’t make any sense

Well, that’s easily fixed. Give a government subsidy to everyone who buys a volt. Better yet, tax everyone that DOESNT buy a Volt.

I’m so smart. I think just like the people that read Newsweek.

[BobSimons]

the same type of people that buy Apple/Macs will buy it, twice the price for something that does the same thing just to feel superior and for fart sniffing points.

[Perdogg]

I bought a new Honda CRV. So new it was still wrapped and had only 38 miles on it.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"Smooth, man. Smooth"

[Intolerant in NJ]

"It was fun to drive and the ride quality was pretty good. But when you look at the finances, for us it doesn't make any sense,"...especially when you've got to replace the $10,000.00 battery in about three years....