Everything You Need to Know About the New Chevy Volt

I feel badly for GM

They just can't seem to do anything right anymore. It's like watching your dad get old, sick and tired while trying somehow to be relevant. It makes me sad.

GM has for too long relied on labels, management empire building and stale mindsets for them to recover without major capitulation. When you drive by their tech center in Warren Michigan you can almost smell the moldy board rooms and geriatric lotions and goo's.

I used to work for GM, and I still know some of the engineers there. In fact, I ran into a "subject matter expert" last week. (more meaningless labels) They still think their market leaders!

I wish they were a nimble, quick, cool 21st century manufacturing unit the country could really sink teeth into. But I don't think they are. They are in the wilderness and may never emerge.

Look at what they did to Saturn and you'll completely understand what GM is all about. After successfully rethinking, retooling and launching the new Saturn platform they "small car'd it" making it no longer quick, nimble and relevant.

People liked the Saturn for what it was, a solid working mans car. They could have gone SL-2, SL-3, SL-4 ahd SL-H(Hybrid) to keep brand integrity cover up sell, but instead they opted for the old build a bunch of it mentality and it will sell. Well it's not. Neither will the volt.

When the subject is GM, it just doesn't matter.

How sad.

Dan of @ Sep 17, 2008 18:17:46 PM

With the US economy swirling the drain, and with people/industry spewing greenhouse gases by the megaton, it's totally amazing there are so many negative views about what GM is putting on the table with the VOLT.

Are folks so conservative and so badly need to cling to the past they are willing to: Remain enslaved by the pump(middle east); Pour billions of US $ into economies of foreign automakers; Bend over and take it from the refiners every mile?

Wake up folks! We can think outside the box and have done it - for the benefit of all by the way - many times in the past. If you still like to live in the past let's remember: The first home PCs were many thousands, the first big screen plasmas were 25k$... the list doesn't end! The folks complaining have got to be the same ones waiting for someone to TELL THEM they must get a new TV in February 2009. Or waiting for someone to tell them Drill-baby-Drill. Guess who is really getting drilled here?

Chevy knows the first people buying the VOLT are not going to be the ones bitching about the 40k$. They also know the time is right. They know once production ramps up, the technology is ripe, and prices drop, people will be flip-flopping like nobody's business.

There's only one direction gas prices are going folks. What were we paying when oil was 145$/barrel? 3.75. What are we paying today with oil 95$/barrel? 3.65 People started conserving and saw the price trend down. Wow, driving 60 does make a difference. Wow, new efficient cars made a difference. What do we get in return 1 day after IKE threatens to slow production? $0.25 price jump. When is this going to end?

Take a stand - it's pay now or pay way, way more later. Got kids? Grandkids? If not, it's not all about you anyway. It's time to THINK and LEAD. Everyone needs to look out of their small boxes, do some FACT checking, and get this country moving in the right direction. By the way, the right direction is forward, in steps, toward the future. We can't go back, and friction toward progress can only heat the planet up faster. If you can't do it, take a back seat and the rest of us will take you where you need to go.

crmisc of PA @ Sep 17, 2008 17:39:40 PM

Chevy Volt- The next big hit.

Ok, I am going to be totally outrageous and take the positive side of things. I think the Volt is going to be GM's saving grace, and it deserves to be. GM has been investing in plug-in cars long before other automakers, who invested in high-yielding short-run investments like the prius. Don't get me wrong, anything that uses less oil is great, but we need longer term solutions.

The argument that consumers will not buy the Volt is BS. The average price of a new car these days is close to 30 grand. Besides, look at all of the dumb people who are forking over 50+ grand for Lexus and Tahoe hybrids that don't even get 30mpg.

Here is my prediction: The Volt is released in 2010 and welcomed into the garages of many, many old rich liberals (believe it or not, there are lots of them). Even though it costs 40 grand, they won't care; it will make them feel better (something you can't put a price tag on). After a few years of this, just like GPS and Plasma TV's, the technology will become much cheaper, allowing GM to move this technology to other models priced more affordably. And then, just like hybrid's, GM will move the technology to nicer brands such as Cadillac.

You must remember that the Volt is not only a way to get you around town, it is also a way to protect and secure our country...so let's cut the designers some slack, I think they are doing a damn fine job.

Travis Johnson of NC @ Sep 17, 2008 17:20:48 PM

chevy volt

the styling, while bland- is not all that bad. The engine is revolutionary enough to cover that...but the price will kill

this product, unless the Company can get government help. So it will probably depend on who is elected this fall

MARK of @ Sep 17, 2008 17:16:06 PM

Chevy Volt Pricing

Agreed that the initial pricing for the Volt is designed more to defray cost than to establish market share. One reason the Japanese have become dominant marketers is that they have traditionally priced new product as though they already have market share. By using low initial price to establish presence, they drive the cost down to a point where profits are generated, and a long-term dominance assured. Our philosophy here in the States is to maximize profit from the very beginning; we engineer the world's products, and the world taketh away by smarter pricing strategy. At $40,000, the Volt is doomed to a short and possibly profitable life, though will probably never return the shareholders investment.

Fred Gross of PA @ Sep 17, 2008 17:10:36 PM

Volt Price

GM continues to disappoint. Don't they realize how many years it will take the average person to make up the difference between fuel costs and the price of the car? The U.S. consumer deserves a well-priced, economical car that isn't built in a foreign land.....

Ken of GA @ Sep 17, 2008 17:10:15 PM

Volt

Well let’s look at it this way. The volt does not have the styling of a Tesla or the battery charge of it either (200 miles/ Charge and no gas  ). The price tag of the Volt is $60,000 less than the Tesla. The Prius is $27,000 and you can spot them . I do like the styling of the Volt but GM you need to make it so the people can afford it. Make your profit on selling more on one sale.

JK of IN @ Sep 17, 2008 17:09:38 PM

Price a big deal

I was interested in the Volt when I saw the picture yesterday, but at $40,000 forget it!! I have cut my gas bill by 1/3 by just car pooling with 2 others.

sondra of CA @ Sep 17, 2008 17:06:34 PM