New Full Production VOLT Studio Pictures Leaked!

From the pictures it looks like a 2 door? If you could get the models out of the way and had a side shot, I suspect it's going to be along the lines of a Prius with a different slope to the hood. The hood looks OK but they need the Jeff Gordon paint scheme.

I wouldn't give them what I paid for my Pri unless it had an ICE with the CVT, I [the wife] puts on anywhere from 200 to 300 miles a day 5 days a week some times for her job, so a straight plug and go won't work for us. And they sucked my @ss.

We had a new Venture van in 2003, had the bumber to bumber warranty, it was a dog compared to my 98 Caravan with about the same displacement but got mid 20's compared to 18mpg. It was loaded and was junk from day one. First winter the aircomprssor for the suspension went out, when they replaced it, cut the wiring harness in the back and when I brought it to their attention they had the balls to say we hooked it on something. Yet there weren't any scratches on the bumber any where and backup collision device quite working. Then it had a whistling noise in the drivers side wind sheild only when you did 75 and had about a 45deg side wind of 10 mph or more. Come to find out the damn windshield didn't seal from the factory. Then the windows and doors electronics started to act up, the DVD player went out and they told my wife it wasn't covered. I called and told the sales manager the salesman specifically told me all electronics where covered under the extended warranty and ripped his @ss. Then right before the 100,000 mile warranty was to expire the traction control took a sh!t. That was the end of that deal. Went to trade on a Vue and they tried to stife the wife by telling her they would do a deal to pay off balance owed and drove the Vue home only to find that the front of rear door would catch on the back of the front door when opened. So they took it to the shop and brought it out to my house and I looked at the door and the spacing was diffent from drivers side to passenger side, if you looked at the lip along the body on the bottom it was uniform on the drivers side and disappeared at the front dor and reappeared at the end of the back door. Took it back the next day and the damn engine light came on (less than 500 miles). Let me tell you. Told me it was just one of those factory things. F*cked with the salesmanager for most of the day and finally told him to bring my f@cken van back I was leaving and he couldn't find it. SOOOOO I ripped his @ss and told him what to do with his vehicles and went and bought a new 2007 Caravan @ 0% after ahole tried to jack me on the interset rates too.

All this after hearing the KEY SENTENCE, the wife had to have Onstar.

F*cken sales manager, as soon as he picked up on that he was of to the bank, so he thought.

Soooo, GM had better do some serious retooling and think about it's next line.

 

With the gray strip around the bottom and the front glass it reminds me of our 1994 Accord. I doubt that front bumper will make it into production--it looks too shallow to me and the diagonal rise where it mates to the fender will result in it being driven into the fender in any frontal collision (rather than horizontal shear away.) Ditto for the rear. Front bumper/fender seam might affect aero slightly.

Anyone else notice that the hatch lift is odd? Looks like the glass lifts and the whole width of the tail goes with it. This creates a seam that is unnecessarily transverse to the airflow (though small.)

Assuming that it nets 100 mpg effective (including electricity cost) and is driven about 15,000 miles per year, it will take roughly 8 years to recoup the difference in price with a Prius. (Using 12% gas inflation and $40k versus $25k price.) If they can hit that they at least won't get their clocks completely cleaned once the initial buzz settles.

I agree with an early post that says it looks heavy. Also notice that it has a wider track than necessary, so aero will be lost (greater cross section) and weight added without a gain in passenger space. Hood looks a little long (probably in keeping with concept car.) The groove in the hood will cost a little aero due to the lateral ridge near the window. Probably another nod to the concept styling.

No wipers, no antenna shown so that will come later. With these included and issues above I'm guessing 0.28 for Cd, maybe 0.27, but perhaps it will do better. (Wonder what they plan on doing for aero panels underneath?)

 

Boy I hope my refills get here soon!

Top picture looks like something out of batman. looks like a drawing.

Agree with the bumper. Does look kind of wide, I wonder if it would have an effect on drive ability and wind effects?

The bottom pic is starting to have the look though except the hood. Haven't seen shots from the back, will have to check into it.

Hey E, do you ever sleep.

 

I'm not on duty. Wish I were, give me some thing to do.

Had a 220lb kid fall on me at a job and messed me up, didn't realize how bad until I came off the oxycontin. Waiting to have a blood draw and spun, re injected because I used my arms to do some serious lifting when I worked, 40K - 60K pieces, the (many) steroid injections (tennis elbow inside out both arms - golf elbow) haven't worked. A week after this they want to move my ulna never to the side of my arm under the muscles and wait for a heal them do the rotator, just on the left arm for now. That's what I get for being ambidexterious.

Sooooooo, the drugs I am on now get me to sleep for that first rem and then here I am.

 

That looks pretty big for something that has already been getting 5 miles per kWh in testing!

 

Has there been a estimated price cut? Last I heard from Lutz was $47k (with a hoped for $7k tax credit ... not guaranteed yet). Now, everyone is throwing around the $40k amount.

 

It's still a hybrid. AFAIK GM's hybrid credit is available now and most likely will still be available when & if the Volt goes on sale.

 

Kind of like expecting the passengers on the Titanic to look happy after they struck the iceberg don't you think? GM is going down fast and odds are they will go belly up before the Volt ever hits the streets (good riddance to them as well as Ford and Chrysler. It's a crap shoot which one will run out of money first). :lol:

Even if they were still around and produced this car would you want to buy a GM product with all this new technology on it? I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole as I would be willing to bet it will spend more time at the Chevy dealer than in your garage.

 

Wow, I knew they'd have to change it from the concept somewhat (they never keep the huge tires, for one thing, also GM said a couple times that the aerodynamics was giving them problems), but I didn't expect this much of a change. It looks okay, but not distinctive, which I thought was the whole reason the Prius sells like it does. Other than getting the best mileage in the U.S. market, the high-tech gizmos, the hatchback practicality and the interior space of a midsize car of course.

I'm guessing the Cd will be more like .28-.30 with that hood crease (kinda like the Prius Gen 1) and the sedan shape but smooth grill area.

I think the back hatch must have a vertical break hidden behind the manager, for a kind of narrow entrance to the trunk space. If the hatch does come down to the side of the spoiler (instead of thru it), it has to take a dogleg over to the inside of the lights (so the top part is wider) or you just won't be able to make things fit into place when it opens and closes.

 

I don't care what it looks like. I care what it does. And I care about build quality and reliability. Of course, since it doesn't exist yet, it doesn't do anything. Wake me when it's on dealer lots. Until then, I assume it's a scam.

 

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Sooo many unknowns here. 40 mile all electric range. O.K. What will be the performance, acceleration and top speed during that all electric range? How about the payload capacity?

Will it be a good car, an affordable car, will Consumer Reports rate it highly after their tests?

Looks mean a little to me. Some say the Prius looks wanky. Are they nuts? A car that's gets over 50 mpg? My 2003 Yamaha FZ1 1000cc motorcycle, 2 seater, get blown around in the wind bike cannot beat 45 mpg on the highway alone.

I'll take my Prius thank you very much.

 

Latest info says it is a 4 seater, not 5 because of the battery position. (Found it interesting that they say, "That means the batteries don't take up cargo space as they do in some hybrid cars." No, instead they lose a seat position--guess grandma or Malcolm will just have to walk. Also gleaned that it gets 30 mpg on gasoline (12 cents a mile at $3.60/gal gasoline.) Chevy Volt, inside and out - Sep. 16, 2008

This will be a poor car for trips due to the limited electric range and poor efficiency in the gasoline generator mode. Overall range looks to be 40 electric + 300 gas = 340 miles. The effective MPG for such a trip (excluding plug in cost) works out to 34 mpg.

Of course for around town the cost of gas operation should be nominal (although I bet it will have very short range in cold winter climates.)

 

Another Volt link with information:

Green Car Congress: GM Formally Unveils the Production Version of the Volt

 

they upped the petrol engine to 1.4l to be more economical...

 

My take on the Volt is that it looks good from the outside, great on the inside. If the next Prius isn't something truly special, the Volt interior will make it look like an antique.

I don't really worry about Chevrolet reliability, I do worry about Chevrolet service. The one Chevrolet I owned, a Camaro V6, was a decent car that was completely undone by anyone I turned it over to for service. The Firestone I dealt with for tires claimed that a idler arm needed replacing, which was supposedly fixed when I bought the car. A request at the dealer to check the fluid levels resulted in the transmission fluid being drained. That was hardly all. It needed a lot of work when I traded it in, and if they hadn't messed with it, it would not have needed repairs, and I would not have traded it.

Indeed, I don't worry about Chrysler, never mind GM reliability. The difference right now between my Prius and my 1990 Ford Escort LX in terms of reliability is one light bulb. That's it. And I am glad to see this most modern product of American minds and hands.

It does seem that GM can't win for losing. The price of oil freaks out of sight, costing them many sales of trucks and SUVs. Then, the production Volt is announced to the sound of $90 dollar a barrel oil.

 

should have came out with the EV2. So what if it's a 2-seater. You want a 4-door, buy a Prius. And 40 miles on a charge??? They couldn't get 50?? Big whoop... And drop the price to around 25K and maybe you'd sell a bunch, but at 40K, no way.
Dodge is supposed to come out with an EV sometime within the next few years I hear. And I really hope Prius does NOT have solar cells on a future version. It will NOT do well in Oklahoma/Texas hail storms! Focus on a plug-in...