Chevy Volt

[datachicane]

Forget the show cars, I'd have been happy with a Puma...

Man, I wanted one of those. Another one to fall to the 'Americans don't like small cars' dogma. Meanwhile, check out the resale value on the Mini. :shakehead

[cameraman]

Just to be clear - they will (finally) be bringing the Fiesta back to the states. Evidently it's just the diesel that won't make it. MINI is in the same boat in the class right now. Unfortunately low volume power trains are really hard to justify given the costs of certifying each powertrain.

What do they have to do to certify a powertrain that costs so bloody much?

[oddlycalm]

Forget the show cars, I'd have been happy with a Puma...
Yup, it strikes me as a modern version of my old Ford Cortina. :thumbup:
I'm certain Ford would reel off 30 reasons why it wouldn't sell here...:irked:

oc

[nrc]

What do they have to do to certify a powertrain that costs so bloody much?

From what I've read, 100,000 mile durability testing is the expensive part. I can't find any figures on cost per drivetrain, but the EPA has a new, "streamlined" process that it says will save manufacturers $55 million per year. :eek:

[dando]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/11/autos/volt_official_reveal/index.htm?cnn=yes


Based on photos released last week - inadvertently, GM says - many people posting comments on car blogs have expressed disappointment that the production car does not look as angular and aggressive as the original concept vehicle.

"The majority of [the comments] are negative," Lyle Dennis, a New Jersey neurologist who runs the blog GM-Volt.com, said last week. "A lot of people are saying they're very disappointed and 'take me off the [waiting] list.' "

GM (GM, Fortune 500) regularly uses the Volt concept car, introduced at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, in its advertising, identifying it as "future product."

That concept car's angular face wasn't aerodynamically efficient enough to make it to the final version as GM engineers and designers tried to extract every extra foot of "all electric" range from the car, GM designers have said.

-Kevin

[Insomniac]

Looks like the actual car looks better than the stuff leaked out last week.

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2008/09/volt-reveal-1280-20.jpg

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/09/16/officially-official-2011-chevrolet-volt-finally-revealed/

[Sean Malone]

I don't think it looks bad but until it goes 400 miles on a charge, I'll pass.

For GM's 100 year anniversary they released a top 10 list of the most important cars they've produced. This one wasn't on it.

[oddlycalm]

Looks like the actual car looks better than the stuff leaked out last week.
Yeah, people seem to be forgetting who the big competition is.... :gomer: :yuck:

oc

http://image.automotive.com/f/miscellaneous/2007-toyota-prius-touring-edition/1000547+w700+cr1+re0+ar1/2007-toyota-prius-touring-edition-rear-right.jpg

[Insomniac]

Yeah, people seem to be forgetting who the big competition is.... :gomer: :yuck:

oc

http://image.automotive.com/f/miscellaneous/2007-toyota-prius-touring-edition/1000547+w700+cr1+re0+ar1/2007-toyota-prius-touring-edition-rear-right.jpg

Hehe, a new Prius is coming out next year, right? I read this yesterday, which is funny:


Now that General Motors' Chevrolet Volt is roughly two years away from American showrooms, the Senate Energy and National Resources committee is cooking up a new round of tax credits that would be beneficial to the Volt (and others of its ilk). The committee has plans to offer a $3,000 tax credit for light-duty plug-in electric vehicles that feature a 6 kWh or larger battery for propulsion.

The Chevrolet Volt, which has a 16 kWh battery pack composed of 220 lithium-ion cells, would qualify for a $7,500 tax credit.

...

Toyota feels that the 6 kWh requirement puts GM at an advantage and that such a technological feat is out of reach for other auto manufacturers -- including Toyota.

"We believe consumer incentives should encourage all plug-in designs and allow the consumer market to select winners, not legislation," added Wimmer who is Toyota Motor North America's National Manager of Energy and Environmental Research.

"Toyota believes this approach is counterproductive," Wimmer continued. "It will discourage manufacturers from developing and consumers from purchasing 'blended' plug-ins that are affordable to the greatest number of consumers."

http://www.dailytech.com/Toyota+Unhappy+About+Proposed+7500+Tax+Credit+for+ Chevy+Volt/article12980.htm

Poor Toyota, already crying. :D

[Audi_A4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt#Price

What do you guys think? GM should drop everything and try and get this on the market before any competitors. I don't know if it will happen.

It's a chevy it will last 4 years and break down all the time and handle like garbage.

[datachicane]

Their usual modus operandi is to introduce it buggy, underengineered and half-baked, grudgingly improve it at a glacial rate until, after five years or so, it really is a pretty nice ride. Then they'll kill it.

[Sean Malone]

Their usual modus operandi is to introduce it buggy, underengineered and half-baked, grudgingly improve it at a glacial rate until, after five years or so, it really is a pretty nice ride. Then they'll kill it.

Yep. :thumbup:

[chop456]

Just to be clear - they will (finally) be bringing the Fiesta back to the states. Evidently it's just the diesel that won't make it. MINI is in the same boat in the class right now. Unfortunately low volume power trains are really hard to justify given the costs of certifying each powertrain.

NO0hCILrgNA

I'd buy one in a second if I could get the 1.6L diesel. Better yet, a 2.0L.

[datachicane]

That's an extraordinarily fine (and thorough) review.
:eek:

[cameraman]

I'd buy one in a second if I could get the 1.6L diesel. Better yet, a 2.0L.

That is the stunningly stupid thing about the US car makers.
We would buy the diesel in an instant if we could get one.

We can't:shakehead

It is just idiotic that they are in this position (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm)

[chop456]

Yup, it strikes me as a modern version of my old Ford Cortina. :thumbup:
I can't read that word without thinking of Ian Dury.

Had a love affair with Nina
In the back o' my Cortina
A seasoned up hyena
Could not've been more obscener

[Methanolandbrats]

NO0hCILrgNA

I'd buy one in a second if I could get the 1.6L diesel. Better yet, a 2.0L.
Rabbit Diesel will be here soon :thumbup:

[Insomniac]

That is the stunningly stupid thing about the US car makers.
We would buy the diesel in an instant if we could get one.

We can't:shakehead

It is just idiotic that they are in this position (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm)

For some reason, I thought I had read recently that the UAW contract blocks importing of their own cars or something, but couldn't find the article. I did find this (from September) though:


The game has changed. The foreign companies against whom the Big Three compete are selling more and more cars that are not made at their factories in the United States, making labor costs here less important. They are importing again — in fact, quietly importing almost as many cars as they did in the 1980’s when Japanese vehicles flooded the market, provoking an outcry, and also import quotas.

...

The foreign auto companies are already well ahead on that score. Imported vehicles — coming now especially from Japan, Germany and South Korea — accounted for 23.4 percent of the vehicles sold in the United States this year through August, according to a compilation of government data by Moody’s Economy.com.

That has risen gradually from 11 percent in 1996. The numbers don’t include imports from Mexico and Canada, considered part of the domestic North American market. Even so, the import share is approaching the high of 27 percent in 1987. But this time, in sharp contrast to the Japan bashing of the Reagan years, there is silence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/weekinreview/30uchitelle.html

[Cam]

I can't read that word without thinking of Ian Dury.

Sometimes you scare the **** outta me. :eek: