Chevy Volt: On Video

Dude, I have news for you... I have an excellent public transportation system right here in NYC. I guess GM hasn't gotten to it yet, right? Tin-foil hat on tight enough?

 

He must not realize that the WHOLE U.S. lives with johnycat, in N.Y. :eyebrows: . . . and for the other 12 people in the U.S. that don't live with him in N.Y.? Who cares, right? Those 12 can ride the little Trolly on San Francisco. So you see? The WHOLE U.S. CAN ride public transport. Talk about tin foil hats.

With johnycat logic, as long as there is an exception to a generalization, it's ok to dismiss the point. A favorite johnycat generalization/dismissal goes like this: "Oh, Suburbans and Tahoes are gas hogs? Well, so are Toyota pickups". See, that means you're Toyota praise is invalid, until the entire world is perfectly without exceptions, and only then can one complain about anything. Taken to an equal point of absurdity, one can say: "Oh, your neighbor is a child molester? I suppose you think you're perfect?" If that kind of deflection works, carry on.

 

I agree that this is an interesting exchange. I also agree that some anger is a healthy thing.

For example, we have been brainwashed to believe that private industry is more efficient in the area of health care. But when we examine that efficiency more closely, what we see, it is not that health care is delivered more economically, what we see is that less is spent because more health care is DENIED.

When the measure is the "bottom line" we loose track of the real purpose of the service. In this case the service is affordable, convenient transportation for people who need it without destroying the places where we live and work. They teach us to want what they sell, not what we need. Then we pay.

We really need to examine the motives of the people who are claiming to serve our needs with our wealth. To voice skepticism for those who have so damaged us in the past is a good thing - and well deserved.

It is those who are too trusting of the charlatans whose power of judgement is exposed.


Go Daniel!

 

Actually, I'm just using Daniel-Logic. Because I still have public transportation in NYC means GM hasn't done anything to it, because as Japan has excellent public transportation, Toyota must never have tried to hinder it's progress.

 

Your local GM/suburban sales guy is NOT the big hit in Japan, as he is out on the plains of Texas, or the Corn fields on Indiana, etc ... and thus, that, and other dynamics may be why the Japan/public transit logic would be deemed more deflection. Public transportation IS poor in the majority of the U.S. ... and just because GM's past buyouts of EV transportation don't apply to N.Y. doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Not that you didn't already get it.

 

Just as the threat of the Supercar spurred Toyota to design, build & sell the Prius the Volt will spur Toyota to design, build & sell "something better" than the Prius. So, GM, thank you for motivating Toyota to build & sell a car I'm happy with.

Yea GM!

:target::whoo::cheer2:

 

Oh, you mean like a large portion of the US not having enough of a population or having the infrastructure to support/afford a large scale public transportation system?

I can buy that.

It's still GM's fault tho!

 

GM Bought and Dismantled Streetcar Lines Nationwide
GM began by funding a company called National City Lines (NCL), which by 1946 controlled streetcar operations in 80 American cities.
“Despite public opinion polls that showed 88 percent of the public favoring expansion of the rail lines after World War II, NCL systematically closed its streetcars down until, by 1955, only a few remained,†writes author Jim Motavalli in his 2001 book, Forward Drive. Buses Were First Step to Ending Streetcar System
GM first replaced trolleys with free-roaming buses, eliminating the need for tracks embedded in the street and clearing the way for cars. As dramatized in a 1996 PBS docudrama, Taken for a Ride, Alfred P. Sloan, GM’s president at the time, said, “We’ve got 90 percent of the market out there that we can…turn into automobile users. If we can eliminate the rail alternatives, we will create a new market for our cars.†And they did just that, with the help of GM subsidiaries Yellow Coach and Greyhound Bus. Sloan predicted that the jolting rides of buses would soon lead people to not want them and to buy GM’s cars instead.

Public Transportation - The Great American Streetcar Scandal

Maybe not the best source but maybe Jonnycat26 can find a better site to say it never happened.

 

Only 20 million people in Australia which is about the size of the USA and we have a public transport system of sorts.

As a coincidental side issue, in 1958 all but 1 route of an extensive tram network was ripped up here in Adelaide and replaced by buses, just 5 years after General Motors Holden released the first Australian manufactured car made right here in Adelaide!!

 

Before I was born (1948) Los Angeles had enough of a population to support a public transportation system and had an excellent one. GM dismantled it. They did the same to many other cities. You are fortunate that it did not happen to New York, maybe because NY's population is so dense that if everyone had a car, the cars would be stacked one on top of the other.

As Jayman points out, no corporation cares about anything but money. However, some corporations will stoop lower than others, and GM has a history of stooping very low indeed.

 

prepare for deflection/exception & invalidation

 

That would be a good bumper sticker.

 

Nice pipe dream GM. I will believe it when I see it. Isn't GM going to be out of business in 2010 anyway????

 

Nice pipe dream GM. I will believe it when I see it. Isn't GM going to be out of business in 2010 anyway???? Today 10:08 AM

No we can not let GM go out of business! We can not let an American Icon die...

Instead, how about Toyota Motor Corp taking over GM business and save the Icon ? Will be fantastic for America's business and save jobs...

 

Unfortunately, this would not work. The problem with GM is not the people who assemble the cars or the engineers who design the products. The problem is the management and culture of the company and the focus on short term goals instead of long term goals.

Toyota goal = satisfy the customer and constantly improve the product.

GM goal = keep the stock price high to keep stockholders happy. Try to maintain dwindling market share.

 

Then Toyota can change all that, Change the short time goals to longer view.

Toyota takes over GM business and satisfies the existing GM's customers.

Transform GM's all time low junk bond status stocks to a la par as Toyota's stellar world stock value.

Spruce up production,Come up with new ideas, Re-educate Bob Lutz and its clonies,
keep line workers with_out_lay offs..
Listen to Line-workers ideas as to how to "improve" a la _Kaizen_
and give line-workers the power to "stop the assembly lines when something is not right. _Without beeing fired.

Simplicity, it is way of life for _new Toyota-GM corporation.

 

Look at the video at approximately the 2:40 spot. In the reflection of the panel you will see a guy with a really big video camera. Clearly GM wanted this leaked, but so what.

Everybody mocks GM's SUV production. Just remember that SUV's is where the big markup's are. I would love to the the balance sheet of how much profit GM gets from each model of car. I bet approx. 90% of thier profits come from SUV's and trucks. Why do you think Toyota keeps building bigger and bigger trucks and SUV's? That is where the big profits are. While I agree that most of GM's cars suck, stating that GM is blowing it by makine SUV's is an ignorant comment. It is much more complicated than that.

Lutz has finally focused a bit more on design of both the interior and exterior of the cars. That is a good thing.

I hope GM can pull off the Volt. However, I really doubt they can figure out the Lithium battery thing. If they do, I bet it will be a Valence battery.

 

Here's what those of us on the Volt email/spam list got, which tells me it wasn't no 'spy-camera' that put it out ... rather GM, trying to keep interest from fading.



Editor, GM-Volt.com" <[email protected]> to me
show details
2:44 am (11 hours ago)
Dear Chevy Volt Enthusiast:
I have just returned from an information-packed trip to GM's technical center where the Chevy Volt is being developed.
A leading question people ask is "When will the Volt's final design be released?"
You can hear GM's answer and see some spy footage of the final design here, feel free to weigh in with your opinion:

http://gm-volt.com/2008/04/06/production-volt-exterior-design-and-appearance-when-will-we-see-it-all/
Also don't miss out on the chance to get your own GM VOLT bumper magnet or sticker and tell the world your plans to go electric in 2010:
http://gm-volt.com/bumper-sticker-and-magnet/
Keep posted to the site, in the next couple of weeks there will be lots of new information.
Yours truly,
Lyle Dennis, M.D.
Founder, GM-Volt.com
Please reply UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line if you do not wish to receive these emails.


The bragging GM does about batteries being 1/3 the size of EV1 batteries, that get the same "power" . . . I'm not so certain that translates into the same "range" though. After all, wouldn't it mean (if it ever gets of the drawing board) that it'd have the same 100+ mile range as the EV1 ??

 

You are a very optimistic person.

 

That's precisely why his idea would work! Toyota takes over, keeps the workers, fires and replaces the entire management structure, and we have a Toyota subsidiary with American workers and Toyota values.

Problem is, Toyota probably does not have enough money to buy GM. Too bad.