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Chevy Volt: What Do You Think?

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What do you think of the Volt?

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Here's a completely different idea:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/opinion/27friedman.html?ref=opinion
Agassi, age 40, is an Israeli software whiz kid who rose to the senior ranks of the German software giant SAP. He gave it all up in 2007 to help make Israel a model of how an entire country can get off gasoline and onto electric cars. He figured no country has a bigger interest in diminishing the value of Middle Eastern oil than Israel. On a visit to Israel in May, I took a spin in a parking lot on the Tel Aviv beachfront in Agassi's prototype electric car, while his sister watched out for the cops because it is not yet licensed for Israeli roads.

Agassi's plan, backed by Israel's government, is to create a complete electric car "system" that will work much like a mobile-phone service "system," only customers sign up for so many monthly miles, instead of minutes. Every subscriber will get a car, a battery and access to a national network of recharging outlets all across Israel -- as well as garages that will swap your dead battery for a fresh one whenever needed.

His company, Better Place, and its impressive team would run the smart grid that charges the cars and is also contracting for enough new solar energy from Israeli companies -- 2 gigawatts over 10 years -- to power the whole fleet. "Israel will have the world's first virtual oilfield in the Negev Desert," said Agassi. His first 500 electric cars, built by Renault, will hit Israel's roads next year.

Agassi is a passionate salesman for his vision. He could sell camels to Saudi Arabia. "Today in Europe, you pay $600 a month for gasoline," he explained to me. "We have an electric car that will cost you $600 a month" -- with all the electric fuel you need and when you don?t want the car any longer, just give it back. No extra charges and no CO2 emissions.

His goal, said Agassi, is to make his electric car "so cheap, so trivial, that you won't even think of buying a gasoline car." Once that happens, he added, your oil addiction will be over forever. You'll be "off heroin," he says, and "addicted to milk."
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Thread resurrection commence!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmichaels/2012/03/08/maybe-it-should-be-called-the-chevrolet-vote/

Maybe It Should Be Called the Chevrolet 'Vote'
The Chevrolet Volt is everything that is wrong with Washington on four wheels, and investors (that?s you and me) should be furious.
Wrong #1: The Volt should be re-named the Vote. Who can forget that Super Bowl ad, with the pseudo-assembly line of Volts rolling through Hamtramck, Michigan, and the voice overlay that ?this isn?t the car we wanted to build; it?s the car America had to build?from the heart of Detroit to the help [sic] of the country.? How true?corporate welfare on wheels, buying votes in a state vital to the President?s re-election. There is simply no way that GM can kill it.
Wrong #2: Paying workers for not working. Several days before Christmas, production was phased out for the holidays, which in the case of the Volt plant, lasted until February 6. Last Friday, GM announced another shutdown, from March 19 through April 13, or five weeks. That?s right: the Hamtramck plant will produce ?the car America had to build? for less than seven out of 18 weeks. When it?s open the plant only runs one ten-hour shift for four days a week. When the plant is shuttered, the 1,300 workers still get paid. Not counting obligations to retirement, the average hourly wage and benefits cost to GM union employees is about $55 per hour. Shareholders ponied up a little more than $30 million in wage costs alone for these 11 weeks of leisure. Nice job if you can get it! Of course, institutional overhead probably tacks on another $15 million or so. All while not one car is produced.
How many unsold Volts are out there? GM says there were 3,600 at the end of February, and Autoweek and The Wall Street Journal say 6,300 (which would be in the ball park of the total non-fleet sales of Volts for all of 2011). Cars.com lists a bit over 4,300. Even using conservative figures, the average Volt sits on the average dealer?s lot for 60 days.
Wrong #3: Subsidizing well-off taxpayers. The Administration is doing everything it can to goose sales. The President?s new budget raises the subsidy paid to Volt buyers another 33%, to $10,000 per car in a direct tax credit. The median price of all the Volts on cars.com is $43,200. The average household income of Volt purchasers is in excess of $170,000, around the 93rd percentile. At the 28% tax bracket (married, filing jointly), this is equivalent to $36,000 of tax-free income. The car which is traded most for the Volt is none other than the Toyota Prius, which, according to most analyses, will not have been owned long enough to save in gas money the total premium paid for the car, compared to a comparable conventional vehicle.
Wrong #4: Corporate cronyism and coercion. Last month, General Electric, whose CEO Jeffrey Immelt chairs the President?s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, announced that all 2012 sedans ordered by employees for corporate use will be Volts. That?s Competitive! Beginning next January 1, GE will not reimburse employees for any corporate travel unless it is done in a Volt. If GE purchases the 12,000 Volts it is committed to buying, it will get a $120 million subsidy.
Mark Modica, of the National Center for Policy Analysis, has uncovered another whopper. Dealers that sell Volts to nonprofits, such as municipalities, can claim the subsidy. The Obama Administration is simply determined to give away money to move this car that so few want.
The political calculus on the Volt may in fact be wrong. Yes, it may deliver Michigan. But people in other battleground states aren?t happy about subsidizing a car with their children?s (and grandchildren?s) future wages.
When testifying to Congress about the (overhyped) Volt battery fires last January, GM CEO Dan Ackerson lamented ?We did not develop the Chevy Volt to be a political punching bag?, but rather ?We engineered the Volt to be a technological wonder?.
In fact, it is an impressive piece of technology. It is also an expensive one for which the shareholders (us) are paying workers not to work, buying the vote in Michigan, subsidizing the wealthy and paying one of the richest corporations in the world to be subsidized to buy something that just cannot roll on its own four wheels.
How could the more-aptly named Chevrolet Vote not become a political punching bag?
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Good car. Bad company. The "new" GM rolls on!
When gasoline hits $5+ a gallon people will fight over them.
They are the future.
Used old,ugly Honda Insight electric cars are worth more now than when new!
 
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BuckeyeMac;2123241; said:
Interesting article. Chrysler is a POS. Jeep is keeping them afloat
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I don't know why that is, it seems as though the bottom has fallen out on the SUV market. I wish they'd start producing the diesel Liberty again. It was the only Jeep product to catch my attention since the 97 TJs were introduced. I'd like to see some figures on which vehicles are selling that keeps them afloat. I'm wagering that they're mostly Cummins diesel pickups.
 
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I agree. It's an interesting situation with SUV sales and Jeep sales. Gov't regulations on Diesels won't let Jeep put that engine in the US Wrangler :( They have them over in Europe.

The JK's sell very well, in fact I'm pretty sure their sales have risen every year with the JK (2dr & 4dr)

IMO, the problem between international vehicles (such as honda or toyota) and a GM product is the quality of products/parts. For some reason, hondas and toyotas last a lot longer than GM products/parts
 
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Taosman;2123215; said:
Good car. Bad company. The "new" GM rolls on!
When gasoline hits $5+ a gallon people will fight over them.
They are the future.
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When [strike]Joe Taxpayer[/strike] the government subsidizes the cars and does everything it can to drive up gas prices a piece of shit like the Volt becomes the future. :roll2:

Bad car. Worse company.
 
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BuckeyeMac;2123241; said:
Interesting article. Chrysler is a POS. Jeep is keeping them afloat.
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GM and Chrysler are pieces of shit. Government "bailouts", aka subsidies, are keeping them afloat.
 
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BuckeyeMac;2123246; said:
I agree. It's an interesting situation with SUV sales and Jeep sales. Gov't regulations on Diesels won't let Jeep put that engine in the US Wrangler :( They have them over in Europe.

The JK's sell very well, in fact I'm pretty sure their sales have risen every year with the JK (2dr & 4dr)

IMO, the problem between international vehicles (such as honda or toyota) and a GM product is the quality of products/parts. For some reason, hondas and toyotas last a lot longer than GM products/parts
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It's my opinion too-I've work on lots of cars, and Honda/Toyota uses better OEM parts than Jeep or Government Motors. The quality of bolts is even noticeable. Toyota did start to slip in the early 2000s however. I'd love to know why.
 
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