As GM (Volt) Goes... so goes the nation

Eight? that's it? Who'll buy the other 99,992 ?
That's another Hummer sized surplus. Meanwhile, the wait list for the Leaf is backed up until next year, when the new U.S. manufacturing plant opens up. 100% U.S. made Leafs. Wish GM could do that.

 

Hahahaha, 8? wow.

 

The sold orders are over 12,000 in the states which Volt is not available. Again, dumb move by GM.

 

Poor Volt sales are a wakeup call for GM. Our citizens are in a big economic hard time, & need to make transportation dollars go as far as they can. A $42k 37mpg 4 seater hybrid won't cut the mustard, any more than SUV's do.

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Buy the Cruze eco, $20,000 and 42 mpg highway! Pretty hard to beat in just raw value. Selling the Cruze as fast as they come in.

 

Jalopnik - Drive Free or Die

 

2011 Prius Two for $22,788 ad'd at Toyota Sunnyvale, 20 something at that price. 50 MPG combined

btw, your Cruze eco gets 28 city, ~ low 30's combined, it it's even available for sale. Cruze, no smart key, no push button start, no hatchback, cramped back seat, but hey, go buy one and enjoy another conventional car.

 

as for the volt, wouldn't it still qualify for credit since it is a plug-in?

IIRC, EPA classifies Volt as a series plug-in hybrid.

Volt 35 city/40 highway 6 / 10 EPA emissions score. $41,000 starting price
Prius 51 city/48 highway 9/ 10 EPA emissions score. $22,800 starting price. Too bad for GM.

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/Detailsresult.do?vehicle_ID=128309

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/Detailsresult.do?vehicle_ID=133905

 

Not sure about the thread heading ....

I very much dislike the thought that GM is somehow (anyhow) indicitive of the nations future.

Then I considered: poorly managed .... that is consistent; lying .... sounds familiar; organized "fat cats" in charge .... sound like congress (except the only organization evident is opposition).

Maybe there is some basis to the comparison.

 

How about it's made in Lordstown Ohio, so the $'s stay in the US., has no extra battery disposal problem in the future.

 

US standard of living followed GM(and ford, and chrysler, and caterpillar etc) up and is now following it down. Make products in the US or we are all doomed economically. Its the simplest of economics.

 

On this, we agree Malorn:
Andy Grove: How America Can Create Jobs | Stanford Knowledgebase
Andy Grove, of Intel fame (former CEO) just corroborated the folly of continual outsoursing. Good thing Toyota, Nissan, etc are throwing us bones by manufacturing here, or we'd really be taking it in the shorts worse, from (corporately domiciled) U.S. auto manufacturers.

No malorn, that teeny cracker box's ICE starts with a battery which has disposal problems too ... as does the Volt's bigger battery. You can't have it both ways.

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In somewhat "defense" of I ask is it fair to criticize it on this basis?

So the Volt really isn't a pure electric car after all.

The Volt was never advanced or projected as a pure electric car. Most of what I always heard about The Volt was that it was designed to operate as an electric car, for short mileage trips...mostly the average that consumers use for daily back and forth to work. But it has always been touted as a "Hybrid" from the sense that it allows road trip like mileage...because it does have a gas engine.

I think there might be a LOT of reasons to criticize The Volt. But because it's not a Pure Electric Vehicle really shouldn't be one of them.

A lot of the original article is "hearsay" that the author "heard" or was told by "some" GM engineer at an auto show. Now the author is disappointed because a lot of what he was told evidently is not true?

Well 3 minutes on Youtube would of told him The Volt isn't a pure electric and explained pretty thoroughly how the system is intended to work.

 

Its simple Hill, we either produce value in this country(design, engineer, and manufacturer) or we are doomed economically.

Once you exit the class room in economics 101 the idea of "free trade" quickly turns into a theory only.

You must be assuming because the Cruze gets good mileage it is tiny, the same passenger volume as the Prius. It is about the same size as a malibu.

 

No ... go read the spec's ... the Cruze mpg is WAY below the Prius ... and ... both malibu AND cruze are smaller than the Prius ... even the Gen II prius is larger.
As for the Cruze being U.S.A. made (presuming you're suggesting 100%) ... NOPE ... sorry ... wish it were true, but it's not ... it wasn't even DESIGNED in the U.S.:
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Cruze]Chevrolet Cruze - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
So again, you can't have it both ways. Lower mpg's ... AND a product of huge outsourcing. GM needs to clean its own house before it points fingers every where else.

But try to stay on topic malorn. You're deflecting the issues again. This thread is about Volt disapointments ... not Cruze disapointments.

 

Hill you always point out the midgets and giants in every argument. If you were to guess, what do you think the automotive trade deficit(yes just autos and associated parts) the US has run with Japan over the last 30 years?

A. the US has run a surplus
B. $100 billion
C. $500 billion
D. $1 trillion
E. more than $1 trillion
F. more than $2 trillion

Also according to EPA malibu has more passenger room than Prius and Cruze is equal.

 

Did you even bother to read my last post? deflection deflection deflection. The thread is "Volt". The solution to its disapointment is NOT to buy its dissapointing non-U.S. 100% components & tepid mpg's & high price, nor is the solution to buy the Cruze's tepid mpg's & partial US made components. No ... the solution is to build the BEST ... and the data unfortunately reveals GM's offerings are neither.
Don't mean to throw it in your face ... but that's the toppic.

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Who cares? there are 0 car companies in the UK, but we have design houses here which nissan and toyota etc use for planning european products.

Crying "it's not fair! you can't let these FOREIGN cars in here!" is just stupid. if the american made products were better (or even as good as) the japanese products, people would buy them. they're not, so they don't.

 

Prius sold over 13,000 units in Feb. '11 in US alone

Volt sold about 200 or so in Feb. '11

After all these years, is there a legitimate reason GM could not have found a way to second source, or largely copy the Prius?

Or are they too proud to follow a successful formula? They've spent a good deal of time saying how the Volt 'doesn't run like a hybrid' (really, that other hybrid, the Prius). Or, GM's CEO says he 'wouldn't be caught dead in a Prius'.

My wager is that GM gets their a$$ handed to them on the Volt, unfortunately.

 

It's not just 'make products' that counts, one has to make a great product that is valuable and desirable to customers on a large scale.

Can you honestly say the Volt has large scale value and appeal? Because it's selling in the 2 to 300 units per month?

At $33,500 base price with tax break, 37 MPG, needs a $500 charger, seats 4, listed as small car by EPA ... that's a terrible start. We don't need experiments like 'gee, look at what we can build'. What is needed is a good car that can compete or beat conventional cars on price, efficiency, space, etc....

10 years ago today, the 2001 Prius in US started at $20,000 before any tax break, got the equivalent of about 43 MPG in today's number, roughly the same interior size as Volt, no need to plug it in. This was a good start.

As it stands now, people are very interested in the Prius obviously, some are just holding back because it looks so unusual, is maybe not as tasteful as similarly priced conventional cars, it's small for some, and they don't fully understand the Prius. Prius v will offset the too small concern and likely bring many more owners to Prius.