Car most traded in for a Chevy Volt is a Toyota Prius?

The article is primarily saying GM (owned substantially by the Fed's, who don't have to make money, just spend it) is loosing a lot of money on the Volt. Since that's the case, it makes sense to buy the ride that gives the greatest (potential energy saver) bang for the buck.

 

Always check when the data was collected from. That's very old, back when Volt deliveries were limited to select states and the numbers were few.

 

Prius most traded-in car for Volt and Leaf, because of HOV stickers?

It should be noted gm has said the prius was the most traded car even before it qualified for HOV, but those in California that may have bought the prius for stickers may also be trading it for the volt to stay in the HOV lane.

As to the Reuters story, it definitely misrepresents acounting principles. It seemed to say the production costs were $20K-$32K. The dealer cost, should be around $37K for a base model. I have no idea what the advertising or marketing costs are on the volt. Some of the low prices recently are because of a factory to dealer incentive of $2500/car if they hit 300% of quota. That can motivate a dealer to sell a couple of cars at a loss to get the incentives.

 

The stickers allow you to drive without any passengers in a High Occupancy lane. These lanes are much less crowded (most of the time) than the regular lanes, allowing you a quicker drive to your destination.

 

Mandy In CA and I suspect some eastern states, a qualifying Electric ar can use the HOV lanes. (not one mile of HOV in my state) Different cars qualify for different stickers. the 'normal' Prius stickers have expired but not the Prius PHV or the Volt, so those cars can save you substantal time not stuck in traffic in CA.

It make perfect sense for Prius owners to be prospective Volt owners, they have already seen how well a Hybrid can work!

 

--The article is primarily saying GM (owned substantially by the Fed's, who don't have to make money, just spend it) is loosing a lot of money on the Volt. Since that's the case, it makes sense to buy the ride that gives the greatest (potential energy saver) bang for the buck.--

GM has to make money regardless of ownership. The comment about the Feds is inaccurate.
And, it makes sense [to me] to buy the ride that gives the best energy saving bang [along with other factors] for the buck.

 

Lots of prius owners on gm-volt.com threads talk about the Prius not even being compariable for most mainstream/masses car features and likes. I've never owned a Prius but have read many comparison. Recently got 42+ MPG at 70 MPH (speed limit) on a weekend trip. Have another thread on the proof of those screens. Not sure what the Prius get at 70 MPH. Prius's get better MPGs ... cool but diff of 40 vs 50 MPG is nothing like diff between 2 vs 30 MPG on say a 200-300 mile trip.

Here is a recent one but there have been several in the past with the same "result":
Volt vs Prius
(see "Similar Threads" at the bottom of that thread for more)

 

Irelavent statement. Toyota sells sooo many Prius on a daily basis versus the dismal daily sales of the Volt. The amount of traded in Prius for Volts don't even show up as a blip on Toyotas' radar screen.

The Prius leaves the Volt in the dust when it comes to overall sales.

THAT is relevant!

DBCassidy

 

DBC, did you at least go read the comments from Prius current/former owners? I'm guessing not.

DBC, did you see the Prius sales the first few years: Toyota Prius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Whats' you point Scott200? For all the reasons that those people traded in the Prius for the Volt, the number is so microscoptic compared to the vast numbers that purchased the Prius and are glad for it. All of the former Prius (now Volt owners) will always be overshadowed by Prius owners. Government Motors can not escape that fact.

DBCassidy

 

I own an 07 Prius, bought new, and needed to add another car this summer. I was planning to get another Prius, perhaps a plug-in, instead I ended up getting a Volt mainly because it was less expensive than the Toyota models. All my other vehicles are Toyota (and Lexus) for the last 20 years. I have been pleased with the Volt.

There is room for improvement of course, and the local GM dealership doesn't have a clue about the Volt, but the Toyota dealer didn't have a clue when the Prius came out either.

 

What I find interesting I have not seen any car rental agencies pushing the Volt. Also I have not seen any taxi cab companies running the Volt in urban settings. Cabs waiting for a passenger, could be charging their battery while waiting. Alsothis would be a great application for using the Volt in stop and go, urban environemt. Also the eposure of using the Volt in a city like New York would be opportunity to SHOW the public what the Volt can do.

I guess thats' the difference between Toyota and Government Motors - Toyota takes the initiative with the use of the Prius as a taxi cab. I seen this 1st hand in Vancouver, B.C.

I can't save the above for the Volt.

 

How quickly one forgets. Toyota has more financial depth in training their training their employees in keeping the customer happy with their Prius. Government Motors does not have this financial deep pockets. The Gen1 Prius did have growing pains and a learning curve with their people. I know Gen1 owners,if they had any problems that came up,they were corrected and takened care of. Toyota takes care of their customers. Government Motors should had have their repair personnel up to speed on fixing the Volt before arriving at the dealership.

Buying the Volt, with the dealership not having a clue about it - is taking a big risk. I made that mistake buying Government Motors products in the past. Vehicle breaks down, dealership was in the dark on fixing it. When the factory rep and I get to know each other on a first name basis, that tells me there is something wrong with this picture.

Coming from a family of GM car and truck owners, we all learned the hard way about GM. From the sixties up to 2007, we were a GM family.

Now, we are Toyota, Honda, and some Ford owners. This ex GM family have been burned too many times by GM. So we did the right thing: we ditched them and none of us have ever looked back!

DBCassidy

 

Precisely. I'm sure Nissan can say the same thing about the LEAF. If you own a Prius you do a good amount of driving or are willing to spend money to cut gas consumption or just love EV and techy goodness. Or you just pay for HOV lane use. Duh.

 

Precisely. I'm sure Nissan can say the same thing about the LEAF. If you own a Prius you do a good amount of driving or are willing to spend money to cut gas consumption or just love EV and techy goodness. Or you just pay for HOV lane use.

Duh.

 

When I commented that the dealerships didn't have a clue I should have qualified it as the sales departments didn't have a clue, neither Toyota's or Chevy's. I have had very few interactions with the service departments, but they have both been excellent with the Prius and the Volt, as well as with the Lexus.

I am from an Oldsmobile family, my mother has finally resumed speaking with me since I got the Volt, it had been a quite 20 years at holidays.

 

Interesting that US government preventing bankruptcy of GM and saving 250,000 jobs and US's only other car manufacturer during Great Recession is criticized by Prius enthusiasts in their competition with Volt enthusiasts.

As for the "loss of $49,000" an obviously bogus number which would have yielded same misleading claim applied to the Prius Plug-In at it's same stage of development and sales.

As for the article that some Volt owners traded in for non-plug in cars, its a bit misleading since the article notes no real stats exist "Unfortunately a search for solid figures on the cars most traded in to buy electric cars came up largely empty handed"

 

I guess you really don't understand the Volt. It's designed for a 40-60 mile commuter, not as a Taxi or a Rental. If you want to put it into an application it wasn't designed for and then call it a failure, maybe you should run for office.

I did notice that in the UK police departments are buying Volts and seem to be happy with them. Maybe it's the stealthy yet quick EV mode they like.