Posted on 04/23/2012 7:25:12 PM PDT by Hojczyk
The Chevy Volt — manufactured by bailout recipient General Motors, championed by President Barack Obama and touted as a solution to global warming.
No wonder it’s become an election-year punching bag for conservatives.
From Rush Limbaugh to Mitt Romney, critics on the right have tried to turn the electric-gasoline plug-in hybrid car into a synonym for Big Government overreach. Fox News business anchor Neil Cavuto recently called it a “Fred Flintstone car” and the “dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s going to lead to a lot of divorces,” Cavuto said, theorizing that spouses will fight over who forgot to charge their Volt overnight.
But the Volt also has passionate supporters who want the right to embrace it — starting with former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who famously called global warming a “crock of sh—.”
“We’ll probably see the Volt as a political football through November, and then it’ll go away,” Lutz told POLITICO.
Lutz, a Republican, has been making the rounds in Washington and New York over the past several weeks to defend the car during visits with conservative think tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute and influential columnists like Charles Krauthammer.
He said people need to separate the Volt from their feelings about Obama, climate science and Al Gore.
“The problem with conservatives is getting them to accept that an electric vehicle is not necessarily a left-wing environmental plot,” Lutz said. “They see it as a product of the Obama administration and a product of the green movement, and this is the result of government mandates. It’s taken on a symbolic role in the right-wing media as everything that’s wrong with Big Government, and yet, the vehicle was conceived by private industry.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dyn.politico.com ...
Dolt...not Volt. DOLT!
Just do it without the $7,500 Taxpayer funded down payment.
What a kLutz.
Exactly!
“The problem with conservatives is getting them to accept that an electric vehicle is not necessarily a left-wing environmental plot,” Lutz said.
It is a plot when it’s my taxpayer money that kept GM afloat, and prevented the onerous union contracts from being tossed out during bankruptcy. Since a healthy restructuring was not allowed to happen, GM still has problems. I will never buy a GM car, whether a Volt or otherwise. I love the way the left about the GM bailout being a success. They never count the tax breaks as part of the bailouts. Of course, who is able to take advantage of the tax breaks? The super rich who are the only ones who can afford the car, even with the tax break! It shows Obama can embrace the top 1% if they will buy the crappy Volt!
If the Dolt was even half the car the Prius is, no government subsidies or mandates would be necessary. They would fly off the dealer show rooms. If it was truly conceived, developed and produced “solely” by private industry, it would have been scraped immediately (sort of a hybrid Edsel). They take a mediocre to poor vehicle and load it up with intangible environmentalism, guilt, ignorance, me-ism, etc. and try to pawn it off as being exceptional.
It’s a piece of junk.
Damn right it’s a plot...to coerce someone into buying a $20k dollar 500 lb 1 gallon gas tank....
Damn right it’s a plot...to coerce someone into buying a $20k dollar 500 lb 1 gallon gas tank....
The real story should be the rise in traffic fatalities, a first in 61 years!
Cause, lighter and greener vehicles.
Back in February / March, GM advertised a 3 Year, 36,000 Mile Lease for $369 a Month on a 2012 Volt. It was a Zero Down Payment Lease, which would be impossible with any car with a $40,000 MSRP.
The only way it could work was the $7,500 Tax Credit being pocketed by the Dealer. The numbers do not work any other way, even with the cheap Interest Rates we have today.
They should call it the Chevy Scam, not the Chevy Volt.
Oops, make that a $7,500 Tax Credit. Shift key, shift key..
“We’ll probably see the Volt as a political football through November, and then it’ll go away,”Is he predicting that Obama won't get reelected and that the Volt will go away? One can certainly hope that's the case. :=)
The Prius costs half what a Volt costs, runs on Regular Gas, seats five instead of the Volt's four and gets 50 MPG.
The numbers tell me everything I need to know.
I may be wrong. But pre-bailout I believe GM had decided to scrap the volt.
it was post bailout that it was dug out of the scrap heap, given a new coat of paint and pushed in to production.
Exactly. I am 100% behind their right to choose a Volt. However, I demand a similar right to choose a diesel powered 4x4 F350 crew cab. I don't believe the government (ie. us taxpayers) should subsidize nor penalize either purchase. That's freedom.
What a joke. I can match, and often beat that in my standard car that seats 5, running on regular. Sure, Volt owners get a few miles on battery first while I'm burning fuel. But they had to pay for that electricity too. Then they start burning more expensive fuel. It is too late and I'm too tire to run the numbers, but I'll bet you overall my cost per mile is lower than theirs. Oh, and I'm not hauling around the excess weight (think wear and tear on tires, brakes, and better handling) of a big, dangerous battery either.
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