Pruis Plug-in vs Volt Motortrend Review

Really, Toyota hasn't received any assistance from Japanes govt

 

Having followed gm-volt for years I can say that people buy Volt because
- They don't like the fact that we are sending billions of dollars to countries that are seen as hostile to US
- Some of them care about environment as well
- Ofcourse, they like new technology

 

Batteries do not work well under severe cold/hot temps.

 

Having been in the military for over 30-years now, I can fully appreciate the fact that (some) oil imports are funding people in places that aren't fully friendly towards us. Deficit spending is too by the way...
The Volt and the PHV aren't going to change that right away, but I'm glad that some manufacturers are devoting R/D bucks towards making a car or truck that will be a real game-changer some day.
Right now, Insights, Leafs, Volts, and Plug-inable Priuses seem to be more toy than transportation.
It's a great way to fill up forum pages with banter, but until some company out there markets a for-real economic alternative to the 120 year old, Mark-1 Mod-0 car---or unless some outside force changes the math dramatically, Americans will continue to pay countries for oil and debt.
Take a look at Europe. Gas is well over $5 a gallon, population densities and government subsidies make mass transit fairly workable, and the aforementioned governments are more 'progressive' (their word, not mine) towards (some) ecologic policies.

And yet.....their roads are still grid-locked with ICE powered cars, albeit ones that get better mileage than those here in the new world. Ever try to find a parking spot in Paris? London? Rome?

Pruis Plug-in vs Volt Motortrend Review?
Yeah, it's interesting reading. Just like comparing a Lamborghini Murcielago with a Bentley Continental GTC...just different kind of 'toys'.

 

Where did all the trunk (boot) space go ??
Aren't the Chevy Volt (Vauxhall Ampera here in the UK) batteries situated in a fake transmission tunnel and under the rear seat in a "T" configuration ?

 

I am not surprised at biased review, this reminds me the Honda Insight review. Market will choose the right one. I hope Insight and Volt are as good as Prius, but they are simply not at this time. I can understand why some reviews are biased, Prius needs competitions.

 

Toyota has taken billions just from US taxpayers. Toyota was the number 1 car company at taking cash for clunkers money. The similar program in japan gave toyota a large share of the cash, but rules excluded foreign made cars from getting more than a couple of yen. The mississippi toyota plant recieved over $300 M, even though toyota "changed their minds" about building the prius their and is simply going to move corola production from higher cost california. The texas tundra plant over $200 M, so that it can create 4000 jobs in texas and indiana. Ofcourse the competeing trucks are also made in the USA. Get the facts right, gm is sucking our money, but so is toyota. The hybrid incentive gave toyota almost $200, and they will get anouther tranche of subisdies for ev and phev vehicles. After all both toyota and gm wrote the rules for that in the tax code. Ford and nissan will get some too but they were not in the negotiations. Both toyota and gm have the politicians to funnel dollars to them and remove competition. I doubt any of these subsidies created 1 real job in the US. They just moved the jobs from one state to another.

How are you going to stop GM or Toyota from taking my money? If gm sells cars, we may at least get some of that money back.

 

Saying that the Volt will save the US from the big evil Japanese, is like saying that the new ZR1 Corvette will save us from those evil German sports car makers.

The Volt costs like, 41K. Corvettes start at 48K. GM had a banner year for Corvettes...they sold 13,900 units.
To put this in perspective, there were 350,000 some odd Camarys registered in the US last year.

I own 2 GMs...and i like where 'our' company is headed...but Priuses with or without the plug-in feature aren't GM's problem---and neither are (were) Camarys....just like 'Cash fer Clunkers' isn't the reason why the government is as broke as the Ten Commandments.

Now...if GM fulfills it's promise to build a $20,000 budget Volt-like product, and they beat Toyota's aim to build a budget (Yaris based?) HSD equipped vehicle---THEN you'll begin to see a decent return on the 50 gigabucks that we 'lent' them...

 

Wow. Did you read what I read at all? I was countering a completely false argument that Toyota took no government money, with some easy to find facts. If I thought Japanese were evil, I would not host any in my home, which I did last weekend. And yes I do like porsches. Anything else you would like to make up that was not in my post?

It is obvious that you are arguing something but I'm not sure what? I don't follow corvette sales, but volt production is pegged at 10-15K this year and around 60k next year. I expect gm to lose money on every one of them. They may make money on the line in 2013.

I'm again don't understand your point. corporate welfare is just one reason the deficit is so high. Pretending that billions of dollars to rich corporations like gm and toyota don't hurt the common american is white wash. Cash for clunkers simply shifted sales from one year to anouther. Full disclosure, the infusion of cash into gm helped suppliers that I have money invested in as well as other auto companies like toyota and ford.

I expect a negative return. The stock has ipo'ed and debt and some of the equity has been paid back. The profitability of gm right now has nothing to do with the volt, but the valuation of the stock does have something to do with expectations. The money given to toyota and gm in cash for clunkers and all the auto plant incentives were just pissed down the toilet. Either lost or used to pay for lobbiests to get more.

 

IMHO...better to split my comments to the sentence...

Nope, the consumer/market need clear visions and rightful technology assessments! We surely do not need more wrong perceptions.

Yes, Prius needs competitors.