41K* for the Volt

[Bignate603]

You guys are all making practical arguments for a car that is clearly a PR proof of concept. The volt won't make practical sense for 99% of the customers who buy it until generation 2 or 3 at best. This car is meant to show it can be done and start moving the technology forward while giving GM some "green credentials" the way the Prius has for Toyota. This is not meant to replace the economy car from a practical standpoint.

This. They know this car is pricier than is practical, but it will still probably sell out. As the technology gets improved and the infrastructure to make the more expensive components gets built up the price will drop. First adopters to new technology always pay more.

Take a look at how much LCD monitors or flat panel TVs used to cost compared to CRTs. When they first came out they cost significantly more. As more manufacturers started making them and they figured out cheaper ways to make the things the prices dropped off considerably. Now it's next to impossible to find a CRT.

 

[marvdmartian]

Yep, they pretty much priced themselves out of every market but the "liberal yuppie who wants to show how much they care about global warming" market.

If their gas tank is 7 gallons, and you get 340 miles out of it (300 miles on gasoline, after 40 miles on battery), and you discount the cost of the electricity, it's still not that great, compared to a lot of other vehicles at HALF that price.

My Hyundai Sonata is rated at ~34mpg highway, so would take about 10 gallons of gas to go 340 miles. At current prices, that means I'm only spending ~$7.50 more per fill up. At that rate, I would have to fill up 1666 times, in order to save enough money to come out even with what I paid for my car (which, not surprisingly, is a larger, more comfortable car that seats 5, versus the Volt's 4).

In other words, I would have to drive over a half a million miles in this car, in order to break even. Thanks, but no thanks, GM!! D:

 

[Zargon]

Well funny thing is, that motor as takes premium grade gasoline. I'm sure it'll probably run on 87 octane but I think it's just as goofy as the price that it needs premium fuel.

as long as it gets great mileage doing that who cares?

I'd put premium in my jeep if would get 20% better gas mileage by doing it

where did you guys find that info on it? I can't find jack but their stupid worthless no tech information press release from today

 

[cbrsurfr]

Yep, they pretty much priced themselves out of every market but the "liberal yuppie who wants to show how much they care about global warming" market.

If their gas tank is 7 gallons, and you get 340 miles out of it (300 miles on gasoline, after 40 miles on battery), and you discount the cost of the electricity, it's still not that great, compared to a lot of other vehicles at HALF that price.

My Hyundai Sonata is rated at ~34mpg highway, so would take about 10 gallons of gas to go 340 miles. At current prices, that means I'm only spending ~$7.50 more per fill up. At that rate, I would have to fill up 1666 times, in order to save enough money to come out even with what I paid for my car (which, not surprisingly, is a larger, more comfortable car that seats 5, versus the Volt's 4).

In other words, I would have to drive over a half a million miles in this car, in order to break even. Thanks, but no thanks, GM!! D:

I think you're assuming that you would only plug the car in once per tank. Most people will be able to charge the battery several times over the course of 1 tank. My daily commute is 42 miles, so theoretically I'd only have to drive on gasoline for 2 miles per day assuming I could fully charge the battery overnight.

 

[StageLeft]

Well funny thing is, that motor as takes premium grade gasoline. I'm sure it'll probably run on 87 octane but I think it's just as goofy as the price that it needs premium fuel.

Are you sure? That's fvcking retarded. The Prius goes on 87, btw

 

[boomerang]

Another obvious is that GM engineers should have realized the gas engine is simply a generator and shouldn't have stuck in a car engine with car engine crap on it.

How many years did it take for them to build this again?!?

Oh, I've just got to know. What's car engine crap?

 

[zerocool84]

Yep, they pretty much priced themselves out of every market but the "liberal yuppie who wants to show how much they care about global warming" market.

If their gas tank is 7 gallons, and you get 340 miles out of it (300 miles on gasoline, after 40 miles on battery), and you discount the cost of the electricity, it's still not that great, compared to a lot of other vehicles at HALF that price.

My Hyundai Sonata is rated at ~34mpg highway, so would take about 10 gallons of gas to go 340 miles. At current prices, that means I'm only spending ~$7.50 more per fill up. At that rate, I would have to fill up 1666 times, in order to save enough money to come out even with what I paid for my car (which, not surprisingly, is a larger, more comfortable car that seats 5, versus the Volt's 4).

In other words, I would have to drive over a half a million miles in this car, in order to break even. Thanks, but no thanks, GM!! D:

Umm duh of course the yuppies are the only ones that are going to buy this. They are the only ones that buy a Prius. You won't recoup the costs of a Prius either. They are status symbol cars.

 

[Silex]

It has been known this would cost ~$33k after tax breaks for the latter part of 2 years now. It's great for the engineering feat it is.

 

[TraumaRN]

Are you sure? That's fvcking retarded. The Prius goes on 87, btw

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/chevy-volt-40-miles-without-a-drop-of-premium-gasoline/

Yup I'm sure, just click the link

 

[StageLeft]

I don't like that at all. It's not the end of the world but slightly disappointing. People will be spending very little on gas on it anyway, though.

 

[ultimatebob]

Or $33,500 after the tax credit. GM you are nucking futs. No way this thing will sell at that price point. I mean maybe it will but no wonder they are forecasting so low on sales. For me as a middle class kinda guy 10K too expensive.

http://wot.motortrend.com/6669316/a...41000-dealers-now-accepting-orders/index.html

No way... I'm sure that they'll easily find 10,000 trendy eco-hippies who want to be seen driving this car. I wouldn't be surprised if they already have enough pre-orders to sell the first production run.

Is it practical, though? Hell no! At the current price of gas, you would need to drive this car about 200,000 miles before you saved enough in fuel costs to break even compared to a brand new $12,000 35 MPG Chevy Aveo.

 

[Pariah]

All I have to say is it sucks to be you people bitching so much about this car. Not that you all would have been lining up to buy this car if it was $20k anyway. Not everyone commutes 100 miles a day to and from work. My roundtrip commute to work is something like 12 miles. I can't remember the last time I drove more than 40 miles, probably not in the last year, which means I could have gone an entire year without putting gas in my car.

Inside Line ran their Electric Mini for ~8k miles. Their total electricity cost came out to $25.50.

Coincidently, this is roughly how much I drive a year, maybe a bit less, closer to 7500 miles. Comparing my annual gas bill now of about $1550, if I could cut that down to $25 a year, I'd be saving $1525 a year in gas or about $7625 over the course of 5 years. Just because your driving patterns are not ideal for a car like this, doesn't mean that there aren't people out there who couldn't find real world financial benefits from a car like this.

As has already been mentioned, this is basically a proof of concept vehicle that is being put on sale to make the gov't happy. The first generation is never going to be the cheapest. Prices will come down as the technology matures. The average price of a car sold today is around $35k, so it isn't really that expensive to begin with. The average person buying a car today could afford this and isn't broke like everyone on this board.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Inside Line ran their Electric Mini for ~8k miles. Their total electricity cost came out to $25.50.

http://www.insideline.com/mini/cooper/2009/long-term-test-2009-mini-e.html

uhhh... .0033 cents per mile?

did they ever run on the gas engine?

 

[Pariah]

At the current price of gas, you would need to drive this car about 200,000 miles before you saved enough in fuel costs to break even compared to a brand new $12,000 35 MPG Chevy Aveo.

Why take your girl to a steak house and pay $50 a plate when you can go to McDonalds get just as full for $5? I got stuck with an Aveo for a rental vehicle once, and you honestly couldn't pay me drive that piece of crap around as a daily driver. After driving that, I had absolutely no problem understanding why the Big 3 were getting their ass kicked by the imports in the small car market.

 

[TraumaRN]

uhhh... .0033 cents per mile?

did they ever run on the gas engine?

It's a full electric mini. No gas motor. Range of about 80-100 miles.

 

[alphatarget1]

Can you mod it and put a nuclear fission thing in there for electricity? LOL

 

[Pariah]

The Chevy plaque up front isn't that attractive; they should have made it a Caddy.

They will.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

All I have to say is it sucks to be you people bitching so much about this car. Not that you all would have been lining up to buy this car if it was $20k anyway. Not everyone commutes 100 miles a day to and from work. My roundtrip commute to work is something like 12 miles. I can't remember the last time I drove more than 40 miles, probably not in the last year, which means I could have gone an entire year without putting gas in my car.

so you never leave town?

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

It's a full electric mini. No gas motor. Range of about 80-100 miles.

oh, skipped right over that part.
still... .0033 cents per mile? really?

 

[Pariah]

so you never leave town?

If you've ever been to Raleigh, you'd know there is nothing outside of town. RDU airport is barely 10 miles from my house.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

If you've ever been to Raleigh, you'd know there is nothing outside of town. RDU airport is barely 10 miles from my house.

road trips? myrtle beach?

 

[Pariah]

road trips? myrtle beach?

That's what friends are for. I drive a coupe which I removed the back seats from and it has no trunk space, so I never have to drive.

 

[BoberFett]

so you never leave town?

The point of this vehicle is that it costs you almost nothing to run around town, but can take you out of town on the gas engine if you need it.

The first generation electric only plug-ins can't take you out of town either and will cost just as much if not more.

The Volt is a great stepping stone, and if and when we see gas prices double, suddenly the value proposition increases in the Volt's favor.

 

[thomsbrain]

Could be $28K-$29K in California thanks to state rebates stacked on top of federal credits. The Leaf will cost us barely over $20K. Both are pretty good deals at that price.

 

[LTC8K6]

Yep, the public gets to pay $12,500 for each Volt in Cali...