Why should I pick the Gen 4 over a Chevy Volt?

My point exactly. Anyone who has worked on their cars over the years has to have seen the difference that Toyota puts into their cars. Plastic Pulleys for a car? Really? Valve cover gasket leaks? (yes, the 2010 had leaks, but guess what......Toyota owned it, told people to take it in for the fix and moved on). I owned a Toyota Scion for 9 years and ONLY had to replace the water pump! Went through 3 water pumps during the same time on other manufacturers cars. Here's proof in the pudding. Google "used trucks" and see how may Ford Trucks pop up for sale versus Toyota. And the Ford trucks will often have less mileage on them than the Toyota trucks.

 

In 2015 Ford sold 780,354 F-series compared to 118,880 Tundras. That might say something and also be a reason for why you see more used F-series.

 

Oh.. CR trashed the Tesla. They rated it pretty low. Owners reported lots of problems in those falcon wing doors on the model X.

 

I understand. Question remains is why are they selling them?

 

To get the new one maybe? last I saw Ford had something like a 15% increase in truck sales this year compared to last.

 

"Japan’s failure to dominate (China) the world’s largest auto market, literally in its own backyard, is a blunder of historic proportions, and the nation’s right-wing politicians deserve full blame. The Senkaku debacle marked the moment of Japan’s worst defeat since 1945, but it was decades in the making. By failing to do what they did so successfully with the U.S.—heal the wounds of war, gain trade access, and win consumer hearts and minds—Japan’s government has badly damaged the future prospects of its most important industry.

So they blew it in China. But haven’t Japan’s leaders managed to stoutly defend the home market?

Earlier this year when CEO Mark Fields signed off on the notice that Ford Motor Company was pulling out of Japan because its market is “closed,” you can bet the Czar of Dearborn had a wry smile on his face. As former CEO of Mazda, Fields knows Japan’s market numbers better than anyone in Detroit."


"If all that isn’t enough, Japan’s government “helps” the home teams by mandating an artificial segment that foreigners won’t enter—for good reason.

“Kei-cars,” mini-vehicles limited to 0.7-liter engines, are unique to Japan: pop cans on wheels that wouldn’t pass the crash test in most countries."

How Japan is Killing the Auto Industry, Especially on Their own Turf

 

People are taught to desire a truck preferably a 1 ton dual ly crewcab 4wd that seats 6 to commute to their desk job 200 miles away in Florida that never goes off a blacktop road,
occasionally a sack of groceries might be in the cab with them but never another human.

They may pull a 500lb trailer once every 2 years and thus need a truck.

That is the only reason people own a truck, except for the .001% that actually use a truck to carry payload all the time, but they are rare.

Unless people are taught to think differently they would need to be forced to do differently, sadly we live in a society where common sense is uncommon.

Kei cars are japans best idea. They should be mandated in us cities as well.

The miev and smart car both meet the definition of kei car and fully pass us crash tests.
That and I would reject any safety requirement so long as motorcycles are on the road.

I own a pair of kei cars, one is electric and the other is a little 60mpg + Subaru 360.

Both are fun efficient, simple and easy to repair

 

I love kei trucks. Once the move to Montana is complete I will have a tough debating a picking new daily driver, a kei truck or a side by side

 

Saw a couple of these that were purchased by a public institution for use on a local campus. They didn't last too long in that mode but would be great for lighter, personal use.

 

I steer clear away if its doesn't meet Toyota's indestructible reliably.

 

1. Much more cheaper
2. When you run out of battery it's still a Prius. Volt's MPG will fall to 4x.

EDIT: Sorry my bad, please ignore 2. I thought you were talking about Prime

 

no worries, it's always confusing when someone is looking at a hybrid and a phev. makes no sense, really.

 

Seems like there's an easy solution to your problem: Buy a Prius Prime! They're ~$6k cheaper than a Volt with the same fuel economy of the Prius with an added 25+ miles of all electric available.

More seriously - As others have pointed out - test drive each car and see which one you like best. I'd ignore the GM haters; yeah, they've made some dud cars, but the Volt isn't one of them and has proven itself for reliability.

I don't know your motivations for buying a hybrid/electric car, but if it's to reduce your carbon footprint, take a look at this:
Shades of Green: Electric Cars’ Carbon Emissions Around the Globe – shrinkthatfootprint.com

In the US, an electric car as efficient as a Nissan Leaf produces the same amount of CO2 emissions per mile (from the fossil fuels used to generate electricity) as a car that gets 40mpg (per above link- This of course varies by state, where it makes more sense to get an electric car in states with more renewable energy sources). Therefore for most drivers, driving a 45+ mpg hybrid will reduce CO2 emissions more than driving an electric car in the US. Electric cars are the future and will take over as renewable energy does, but for now, the hybrid is king.

 

Wouldn't the best way to reduce your carbon footprint be to continue to drive your old clunker, regardless of how bad of mpg you got? I think very few carbon footprint minded people should be even considering purchase a different car than what they have and even fewer should be considering a new car. I like my Prius but it's hard to argue that it is better for the environment than my 11 year old Jeep once you factor in shipping, manufacture, and mining costs.

 

Per this, "studies have shown that the manufacturing of a car accounts for about 30% of its carbon footprint over its lifespan."

You make a valid point, but obviously there are limits. For the OP, I'd encourage him to maintain and continue to drive his Corolla as it is a very fuel efficient car. If you were driving a 9mpg Hummer H2, it wouldn't take many miles for it to be worth it to drive a Prius if you just scrapped the H2 immediately. In the case of your Jeep, ~70% of its emissions will come from fuel you put in it. Considering the Prius gets about twice the mpg, doing the math, you'd need to drive the Prius for a number of miles equal to ~86% of the Jeep's life (e.g. if the Jeep life was 100k, you'd drive the Prius 86k) to come even, if you scrapped the Jeep today and instead drove the Prius. So yep, I agree that it's good to keep driving your Jeep and to try to maintain it.

Interesting to think that those guys that buy, fix, and resell cars are environmental heroes hahaha!

In your case however, the emissions from manufacturing on both the Prius and Jeep are already done and in the air. So if you have a choice between using the Jeep or the Prius, obviously driving the Prius will emit less CO2.

 

The electric motor in the volt is actually Tesla's, it just has different microcode. From what I've seen people seem to like the volt while it's running on the battery, and not so much when it switches to petrol. I was in a similar bat as you, but I have a round trip commute to school of over 100 highway miles and the battery will most likely last only around 30. So I think the Prius is a better bang for the buck considering it's much cheaper as well. If you get the base Prius (24,685) vs base Volt (33,220) that's 8,515 of a difference in price I don't think you will ever get back vs a Prius even driving on pure battery.

 

Not to be a fanboy for the volt, but I think that it's important to note that there's a Fed, and in some cases a State kickback for the Volt and the Prime.
I like MSRP-MSRP comparisons because (like the EPA numbers) while they might not represent life in the real world, it is more of an Apples-to-apples compare.
Since State tax kickbacks vary, we'll stick to the Feds:
Base Volt MSRP would be 33220 minus 7500 (IIRC) for a 25720 base.
Base G4 is 24685.
Prime is 27100 minus 4500 for a 22600 base.

So.....those are hard numbers, according to the Googles.
Me?
The Prime seems to be a slam-dunk, no-brainer, choice since.....all things being equal it has a 2.6K advantage over the Volt, while only sacrificing about half of the EV range....AND.....if you want to leave the world of hard data and hard facts behind, the Prime doesn't look as much like the G4 as the G4 does. (BIG bonus for me!! ) The Prime gets almost as good mileage as a G4 when the battery is depleted (estimated) and it will be cheaper than the G4 after taxes.
Like I said.
No Brainer.
However (comma!) If you're going to leave the world of hard data behind?
You have to leave it all the way behind.

I can put a Volt in my drive way, right now (tonight) for arrround 31K before the tax kickback, (23500ish after)
I haven't even seen a Prime....and won't until next year.

Fortunately?
I have time to wait for all of the early adopters to road test both the Prime and the Volt and see what's what when it's time for me to put something new in the driveway.
Then we'll have "real" data on both sides of the glass doors at the dealership and the EPA testing facility.

Most of it will even be FACTUAL real data

 

Oh very true I forgot about the federal rebate, It seems like a lot of states are starting to kill off the rebate, at least in IL they done away with it. I do agree with the prime though, it seems like the beast way to go.

 

In Colorado they took their $5k tax credit and are instead throwing it on the purchase price. let's say I have trouble negotiating so I can only get them down to the truecar value of $32k, $27 after the state kicks in their $5k. I believe I saw an ad saying you can finance a volt at 0% for 60 months. One thing that annoyed me about the tax credit was that sure you'd get a $7,500 tax credit, but you'd still be financing the full price of the car so you still have a higher monthly payment. I think CO made a good choice putting it on the hood of the car instead and if the feds would do the same thing it would really help ignite sales on these vehicles.