A poll on GM

You are missing one option on your poll:

I like GM, but I think the Volt is not all it was purported to be...

I have owned GM vehicles and they are good cars/trucks. The Volt, however, is way over priced and I don't think it's going to live up to the hype...

 

I can't vote since your choices are too restrictive. I am very disappointed in GMs assortment of cars, but I don't hate GM. I grew up in a family that always bought GM vehicles and owned some myself with very good experiences. For the last 30 years I have been driving the superior Japanese cars.

The Volt is a poorly thought out vehicle and is likely to be a complete failure in the market. It does not compare favorably with my 2004 Prius as a primary family vehicle and pales in comparison to the Nissan Leaf as a short trip vehicle (second car market).

 

Hmmm answer 4 is such a low bar you can also hold answers 5 and 6 whiles still believing 4

I guess I think 3 I like the direction GM is going - bankruptcy.

I suspect I am biased by driving GM products before.

 

#5 for me.

Obomo should've let GM fail. They took all that money and made a Prius.

 

i'm ok with gm.. and i think the volt is a joke. as it's been said, the prius kills it on long distance (as does many other cars) and the volt kills it in city (from what i've read, it's more efficient.) plus... many people in this area could use a leaf... most can't afford a volt.. so they buy a prius.

honestly... a LOT of people i know can't even afford a prius.

the volt should have been a cadillac. the refinement of the low end power is on par to that badge, so is the price.

 

they failed at making a prius. the gearset is backwards.. there are clutches.. it only seats 5.. and it gets low 30's mpg long distance... i could stay around 90mph in my prius and get higher mpg...

btw.. i picked 5 too. (since i didn't state earlier)

 

It is too soon to say whether or not GM has changed. Lutz is gone as of May 2010 and as his minions wander off or get a clue, we'll see. He and his enablers had a decade to drive GM into the ditch.

High efficiency cars are still a new and emerging market, less than 3% of all vehicles sold. This next year we'll see a wider market with more approaches than today. The question is will it expand to 5% or more of the car market. It is too soon to say 'this one works' or 'that one is a dog.' We do know the GM BAS(tard) hybrids have left the market although other vendors may try the same nonsense. We'll see.

So I'm approaching the Volt future with an open mind but not a fist full of cash. Let the GM pioneers go forward with the Volt. They have carried the water for a long time, a little longer is no big deal.

Bob Wilson

 

Can't vote, none of the options resemble my opinion.

 

Sadly, someone (you) picked very limited choices, most of which imply GM will actually mass produce a Volt. Those of us who see it as a bait and switch advertising campaign with very limited production will have views that are not included in the poll. So we do not get two sets of choices R or D, we get one set, adamace1.

Not having any viable choices to vote on, I was pointing out how limited I found them. I was not aware you bought the site from Danny and now set the rules.

I have no idea if NC allows only R and D, but I am used to having a third party in almost every election. (In addition, Nevada, where I moved from, allows a 'None of These Canidates' vote.

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/None_of_These_Candidates[/ame]

 

I don't like GM much and don't have much confidence in them.

Howie Long's commercials ran for months - 'may the best car (GM?) win'

Immediately, I saw they were claiming the Equinox gets 32 MPG highway. How is that possible? The Rav4 and CR-V 4 cyl claim no more than about 28 MPG. Common sense dictates the Equinox highway MPG is inflated and many have claimed they don't get it either.

Read edmunds.com user reviews on the 'Nox. You will find maybe 10% are having mechanical problems on their new 'Nox's (2010's).

GM seems off base. Stuck in the past also. Their idea of a hatchback is an HHR, patterned after a 1940's Suburban. Wow.

So, don't like them much, but I must say that new Camaro is hot.

 

i've had 3 or 4 gm's over the years. they're okay, they're good cars. but they don't stand out. once we tried a camry, we never looked back. if you want to support union mediocrity in detroit, at your own expense, more power to you. p.s., i voted.

 

I really like that GM/Ford/Chrysler CEOs make 1,000 times as much as their union workers. But seriously, I want to buy American, but I'll settle for reliable American made Hondas and Toyotas until there is REAL change at one of the Big 3. As for my Prius? I couldn't resist 50mpg. We pay trillions for conflicts in the middle east, so I guess that's my excuse (that and saving $1,000/yr in gas!).

 

You don't do the free market any favors by buying a car that you want less simply because of where it was manufactured. That is unless the workers are being severely maltreated. Note your CEO item is really misleading unless you are talking about foreign plants. The Toyota CEO makes 1000 times more than many of his workers if those are included.

GM has a better balance sheet post bankruptcy which will allow it to unfairly compete against some of its other rivals. The problem is it doesn't appear to have the management to take advantage of this.

Toyota is in the process of moving production from a UAW plant in california to lower paying lower benefits plants in texas and Mississippi. These are still good jobs, but the black lining is toyota is moving some prius production to much lower wage Thailand instead of that Mississippi. These are all huge multinationals and they all play the same game.

 

The Volt is an interesting vehicle, but more complex that it would
appear necessary, and more expensive than its purported market can
afford.

Despite the Volt's mechanical/electrical architecture looking very
similar to that of the Prius and Ford Fusion Hybrid, GM says it is a
special kind of EV, one whose range is extended with an onboard
ICE/generator.

The idea of not being strictly limited to the EV range every day is
attractive. Who knows what the EV range really is as it is strongly
affected by air temps, geography, top speed, heating and A/C use, etc.
Any particular buyer/driver's typical range can't be determined until
they actually drive the car. This concern about EV range is widespread,
and understandable. (I am looking at this from the perspective as a
potential buyer not in the Pacific rim states where public recharge
stations will be implemented in the near term. Here on the Atlantic rim,
wide distribution of public recharging stations appears to be a long,
long ways off.)

Virtually the same EV range, and better ICE FE can be achieved with a
used Gen II Prius, ~$14K, and the Hymotion battery pack -- the most
expensive but apparently most robust and trouble free such unit --
~$11k, for ~$25K.

It appears that the Volt will go for ~$41K with a $7,500 federal tax
incentive (if you qualify for all of it) and perhaps some state incentives,
maybe up to $2K. Rounding off, at best the Volt will cost ~ $31K.

The $6K difference will buy a lot of gas/eletricity.

IMHO, initially, the Volt concept was a good idea. Unfortunately, the
real-world implementation leaves much to be desired.

I wish GM the best of luck, but I think they blew a very good
opportunity to be a true leader in innovation in the US domestic
market. Fortunately for them, profits from their Asian sales may
sustain them into an uncertain future, and maybe get the VOLT right
as a re-engineered Gen II...

A reVOLT, as it were.

 

Hi All,

There is a problem with the poll. The second selection implies the Volt technology is the direction that GM is taking the company. Which is not true at all. Toyota on the other hand is working to the eventuality, which most of its cars are available as traditional and HSD. GM just does not have this vision, and its half the reason the Volt has been costed as a one-car-and-done developement project, rather than a new vehicle line technology.