Just Another Fat Bloated Company Shaking Down the Little Guy (A Volt Story)

Consumers Reject Chevy Volt
Consumers Reject Chevy Volt | National Legal and Policy Center

It was just about bailing out a sleezy company through a Marxist perversion of the capitalist system: privatize profit, socialize risk. Disgusting.
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A Prius with an aftermarket PHEV system is a marvelous thing. And, it's economical. The Volt would have been much better if it were as efficient with both electricity and gasoline as is the Prius.

 

Seriously, is it anything BUT political? It was all about bailing out a company too large to fail. A bloated company with lackluster engineering.

Do you all remember GM's new "Spring Hill" attempt with the Saturn? Saturn was the way GM was going break from the stale management of the past, reinvent itself, and move into the 90s.. Where is Saturn now? Where are we as a nation now?

It's enough that we pussy foot around and support GM when they don't deserve it by buying cars and trucks that simply aren't worthy. It's worse, when then have their hands in your pockets "socializing" risk with taxpayer monies. It's crony capitalism at its worst. The rich, stealing from the poor. It has no part in our society and economic system. Rich stealing from the poor is the lowest human behavior there is, other than stealing candy from babies, maybe. Compete or die. It's what we deal with daily. It's what the rich should deal with too, not withstanding John Rockefeller's infamous missive that "competition is a sin."

Toyota has done a marvelous job AND great social good with their hybrid technology. Backyard mechanics and tinkerers have made it even better with the help of the Chinese (Enginer, specifically).

GM could have looked at all this, gleaned every bit of know-how the Japanese put into the Prius and made it better. Is this what they did?

No, the freaking morons didn't even consider that HEAT costs fuel or energy. A 25 mile winter car for $45k. It's unbelievable. How many of you have burned more that by getting lost or missing the exit on a turnpike? Idiot engineers.

Get a damned golf cart if you want to wear a heavy jacket and gloves. They're cheaper.

 

I've been running a modified Prius PHEV for the past year. I really considered the Volt as I wanted an engineered solution and not a backyard mechanic's solution. I was excited. It's a disappointment to find out that I did better than GM all for about $16K. It's just another broken promise from a mediocre company. I've had it with them. And they should reciprocate by staying the hell away from tax payer monies, whether through illegitimately gotten tax subsidies or outright bailouts.

And, to the joker at the former GM facility in Fremont, CA who hung a dangling coke bottle with a note saying "suckers" behind the dashboard. Memories are long.

 

Just picture the mindset of the shyster who thought this was a good idea. Oh, he knew he had something so valuable that he could take almost all of the federal tax subsidy for his own greedy self.

I'm a die hard capitalist. They can ask what they want BUT they should suffer when the marketplace smacks them down. Enough of this socializing risk, BS.

 

You need to keep the spittle off your screen, calm down and formulate a more articulate bashing. (I don't even get where you are going with the Leaf comment.)

I wish the world were as compartmentalized as you'd like it to be where there's only one consideration for any circumstance. It's not.

Had GM not completely lied about the Volt's specifications (200+ mile range on battery, etc.,), had the range performance not been such a letdown *(25 mile winter car when fully charged AND on a brand spanking new battery pack), had the engineers better engineered the Volt by taking into account simple things like heat, for example, had GM done this on their own without socializing the risk trough taxpayer/Chinese funded subsidies and bailouts, had GM not a 50 year track record of contempt for consumers, had the unions not been so outrageous, had they not been an arm of the democratic reelection machine, the Volt may have been palatable, nay, even desirable.

And, this article IS news on the Volt. The Volt is a pure political animal. Nothing more than that.

 

I call it the way see it. Regarding the Leaf, other than that damnable polar bear commercial, I really don't harbor much feeling about it at all. But, I think it makes my point. If Nissan fails with it due to either overstating range effectiveness or with power system engineering that just doesn't meet the market's expectations, well kudos to Nissan for trying and hopefully they'll learn something and improve upon it.

GM is a totally different issue. If the Volt doesn't meet the market's expectations, well, GM has their hands in our pockets. And I feel every bit as strongly about the crony capitalism of bailing out AIG or Bear Sterns, or which ever "competition is a sin" bankster wants to rob the American taxpayer blind. Plus, when it's your own family, so to speak, your expectations of high integrity and high performance are part of the equation.

GM has been a let down for as long as I can remember starting back when I was a kid and they tried a diesel Cadillac through the Saturn years to the original GM so-called hybrid and EV1 years.

Enough with this company and their bloviating. As I said, they should just extract their hands from our pockets and either turn themselves around or die.

 

And thus we continue down the time worn path of central planning, de facto government ownership over the means of production, legendary Soviet inefficiencies and non competitiveness.

I'm a capitalist, not a Marxist. Somebody else is just waiting for the state sanctioned behemoth to get out of the way and make room for something better. Competition is good. Ford is a better company than GM because of it. It's right there... the elephant. See?

 

Trying a simulation? You are really obtuse. Further, do you actually have a grasp of the meaning of "hyperbole?" I have not overstated anything. Anyway...

1. The Volt should not be entitled to the subsidy as it is a plug in hybrid vehicle not an all electric vehicle. This is completely fraudulent. Chevy Volt: The Car From Atlas Shrugged Motors - Forbes.com

Lies WERE told to get the money. It's not an EV it's a plug in hybrid. The Leaf is an EV, however. Further, the Leaf did not receive the bailout monies described in (2). Those are the facts. Be honest; your poor grasp of the facts notwithstanding.

2. This isn't the only subsidy the Volt received. From the article, it got some portion of the $50 billion bailout, $240 MM DOE grants, $150MM to the battery manf and "some significant portion of the $14 billion retooling loan in 2008.

As you said, Obama didn't kill the Volt. He changed the CEO. He could have killed the Volt. He didn't. Nobody did.

Crony capitalism producing the performance of a Soviet economy; The Volt is the one summary statement which wraps it all up into a concise point.