Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

You are all over the place, Az.

Tesla is not marketing the Model S to the handful of people who can afford to buy a Ferrari. They need to sell way more cars than that to actually succeed. If they did try to make that comparison, they'd get laughed at. It doesn't offer that kind of performance, and anything near the features (or prestige), no matter what is powering the car.

But let's say you really believe that it is a niche car meant to be bought by a few hundred people who can afford to burn money for shits and giggles. Do you PERSONALLY have any problem with your Federal government handing $465 million (when we are running trillion dollar plus deficits and have accumulated debt of $16.5 trillion) to a random company with no track record, which you are now contending has a plan of making impractical cars being marketed to a niche luxury market that is comparable to the market for Ferraris and Lamborghinis?

You don't find that outrageous?

 

Not at all. I will be the first to tell you that demand is largely a function of marginal utility and price. In fact, when I state things like that on here, I always feel as if I have a gazillion people arguing with me about that inarguable fact.

You made a post that compared the Model S to the Lamborghini or Ferrari. Those are vehicles that appeal to a very niche market -- and a super luxury market. They are not cars for the masses.

They really aren't comparable vehicles, and in fact, Tesla isn't marketing to that kind of audience -- it is trying to sell to people who would buy a luxury sedan along the lines of an Audi or Jaguar. But when I talk about it in those terms, and point out that the thing is way more expensive and has limitations those cars don't have, you have turned the conversation to Lamborghinis and Ferraris.

So I will go with it, if that is the circle you want to take this around. If that is what we are talking about with the Model S, I will reiterate my question. Do you PERSONALLY have a problem with the fact that your Federal government -- at a time that it is running annual trillion + dollar deficits, and has created an accumulated debt problem that is hurting our economy -- gave nearly half a billion dollars to a company to produce impractical cars that you are now telling me will appeal to a extremely small niche group similar to the type of people who buy Lamborghinis and Ferraris? Don't you PERSONALLY find that outrageous?

 

Yes, 93. Nobody else lives the blinder-free, real life that you live.

How many EVs do you own -- because you are the everyman, they are practical for? And why have so few other people been buying them, given how typical and real you are?

Every time you post, it gets more nonsensical. The closest thing to an argument for the Chevy Volt on this thread was someone who DOES drive 12,000 miles or less a year.

If you own a Chevy Volt and you are pushing the thing to more than 35 miles a day, you are running the thing on premium gasoline (the car requires premium, which is more expensive) for part of the time you drive, and that proposal Justin has made about how he is going to make back his investment during the life of the car (which still doesn't add up, unless the price of gas rises substantially), turns into you having to drive the thing for decades before you break even.

If you are buying a Tesla Model S because you drive more than 12,000 miles a year, then you have a severe problem with your long road trips. ... The thing isn't operational without frequent stops to plug it in for a few hours.

And for the privilege of driving those cars? You are paying way more than you would for comparable gas models.

But that isn't reason talking. It's my blinders and inability to see the world as clearly as you do.