Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

When my kids ask me what car I want next now, all I say is "you can buy me a Tesla when you graduate." They look, sound and appear to be wonderful cars to drive and for our environment.

 

You're going to make a mint shorting it.

 

i think we can all agree that we should stick with gasoline - powered cars and not to move on to any kind of advancement in car technology until it's perfect and cheap

 

Decidedly not true. Just went to the Chevy web site and tried to build a Cruze with the same options as our Volt. It came out at $26,000, and I'm pretty sure that didn't include Nav or a backup camera.

I don't think I ever hid this from you, did I? I think our final negotiated price was like $37,500, with sales tax it was $39,000 even.

The refundable tax credit was included on our tax return - $7,500 (and there's no "if he qualified for it." Everyone qualifies for it).

Have I ever been anything but blatantly open about exactly what I was spending?

I think that's a fair price to base it off of, if you're including the tax refund.

Not true.

Also not true.

The fully-charged range depends on outside temperature. In the dead of winter (Northern Virginia), a charge is about 36 miles. Right now? A charge is about 45 miles.

This part is true. So when friends say, "Man - I really like your car. We're thinking about getting one!" The first question should always be, "how long is your daily commute.

Also not true ... getting tired of me pointing out the things that you're saying aren't true?

My wife drives the Volt every single day. Her Explorer is parked - we've used it, I think, three times since we bought the Volt in October.

As I've said several times: Her round-trip commute - from home to work to baby sitter to home - is 31 miles, all suburban driving. Wouldn't have bought the Volt otherwise.



But again, Ragu, I'm happy to give you the particular numbers.

We're at about 8,500 miles. She's used about 55 gallons of gas. The cost to charge the car - it gets plugged in and charged just about every single day - has been negligible. There's been no noticeable change to our electric bill, comparing similar months from the last couple of years.

At $3.60 a gallon for premium, that's $198 in gas. Her V-8, 15 miles to the gallon Explorer would have used 566 gallons at $3.30 over the same period - a savings of $1,672 over that seven months.

Against a 35-MPG car, she's saved $603 in that same 7 months.

So ....

For a 35-MPG car, saving $86 a month times 60 months = $5,168.
For the car we replaced, saving $238 a month times 60 months = $14,331.

 

I have no problem with people wanting to own electronic cars. I think the subsidy is pretty shady and thing the taxpayer has taken a huge bath on the Volt, but if someone wants to drive one to save either money or do their part to conserve energy, what's the big deal?

Personally, I think owning one of these sounds like a pain in the ass. Too much involved and I don't have the patience. However, if you think you look at this as a way to make a difference and are willing to shoulder the inconveniences, more power to you (figuratively, of course).

Justin, sounds like you are happy with your purchase. Compared to a little high-mileage car, do you think the inconvenient things you have to go through are worth it? Would you buy another one or have only electric cars with no internal combustion engine-powered backup?

 

To be clear, the subsidy was put in place - by the previous administration, I might add, while trying not to get too political - for all electric and hybrid cars - it's not some sort of Volt special. It sunsets for a particular brand when it reaches a certain (is it sales? or total number built? I can't remember and I'm too lazy to google it).

Lots of people get to write off lots of things I don't have. I don't feel bad taking this credit.

I'm helping to drive down the price of gas, by using less of it. Consider us even

I'm not at all sure what made you think that. When I get home, You plug it in. To a wall outlet. It's not really difficult.

Sometimes - just like the car you drive now - you stop at a gas station and put gas in it.

There are literally no inconvenient things we have to do.

My wife loves it. It's a heck of a fun car to drive - power-wise, I'd compare it to most V-6s I've owned. Granted we're less than a year into it, but as of now, we're pleased as punch, and yes we'd buy another.


The thing is this, though: It takes a specific driving profile for the Volt to make sense. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with a daily round-trip commute of more than 35 miles, unless your company is going to let you plug it in at work.

For us, it made perfect sense - my wife's round trip is 31 miles most days. ... and on the days she goes farther, she just runs it on gas. It's still a high-efficient gas generator, but the premium gas is more expensive.

(Why premium? They say it's because you tend to keep a tank of gas in your car for much longer than the average driver, and the premium holds up better. ... who knows - could just be salesman bullshit)

She drives the Volt just about every day - to work, or whatever else around town. I have a 2001 Escape with 210,000 miles that I drive ruthlessly for work, hoping it holds on long enough to be my almost-15-year-old's first car. And then we have a 2006 Explorer, that we use for long trips and "we gotta bring a lot of stuff along" drives.

 

Not getting political either. I don't care who put the tax credit in place, I'm not a big fan of it because it seems to me to be a tad unfair. Why not give a tax credit for those who buy a car with an internal combustion engine that gets, say, over 40 mpg? That's my only point.

I was a little vague with what I was talking about when I said there were things that seemed to be slight inconveniences. Things like planning where to drive, the route, which car to take, making sure the car is fully charged...I am way too impatient for that. My wife and I have a mini-van and a Jeep Liberty. The school where she teaches is no more than four miles down the road so an electric car would be something that would make sense for her. However, I think we are far too impatient to have one car we could take anywhere and one that can only go 35 miles or so before we have to worry about charging it up. Lazy? Guilty as charged.

I will say I was surprised when you compared the power of your Volt to a V6 engine. I had no idea they were that powerful.

I have one more pet peeve I want to mention that is not related. I think Flex Fuel vehicles are a sham. They provide no benefit to the environment because of the fuel it takes to turn corn into Ethanol. Brazil seems to have a handle on this far more than we do, but I don't think we are going to find fields upon fields of sugarcane to utilize.

My mother recently bought a Focus...Flex Fuel. She filled it with Ethanol just to compare and could tell a significant difference, performance-wise. We should get out of the Ethanol business, but I doubt the corn farmers in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, etc. would be too enthusiastic about that.

 

It's not like you have to "worry" about charging up. If your charge runs out, it seamlessly starts burning gas.

But we all have driving patterns. The Volt happens to work well with my wife's. It would not, for instance, work well with mine.

It's a DC engine - think of the acceleration on your old electric slot car track. When you pull the trigger all the way down, you're at maximum power. An internal combustion engine has sort of an inertia it has to overcome before it's at full power.

Especially when you turn the Volt to sport mode - where it focuses less on battery consumption and more on performance - if you mash on the gas, you will get going quickly.

 

I'm just glad Justin likes the car we bought for him.

 

Hey thanks buddy!

Remember next time you're getting gas how I'm helping keep demand down because I use less!

Did you get a chance to depreciate a Tahoe in the last decade? I didn't ...

 

I'm curious.

While it's running on electric, does it use a transmission and shift gears?