Your high-dollar chintzmobile
General Motors has announced pricing on the Chevrolet Volt — $41,000 base, before applicable tax credits — and at least some of the analysts find this off-putting. For example:
“I’m not sure the Volt is going to be a volume vehicle,” said George Magliano, director of automotive industry forecasting for North America at IHS Global Insight. “The technology still isn’t there to make them cheap. At the end of the day, the consumer pays a hefty premium to make a statement.”
And when they say “premium”, by gum, they mean premium:
[I]f you check out GM’s just-released standard equipment sheet … you’ll find that the Volt’s gasoline range extender requires premium fuel.
Generally, you’re not going to use that much of it — inside the Volt’s 40-mile (or so) range, you’re supposedly not going to use any of it — but one particular subgroup of green-machine buyers (the technical term is cheapskates) is going to find this teetering on the very edge of acceptable, just on general principle.
Mel »
28 July 2010 · 10:44 pm
Or, if I wanted to stay in the Chevy family, I could buy a Malibu.
Spend around $23,000 and get probably a realistic 20 mpg city (sticker says 22).
And the $18,000 difference? Oh, that would pay for 15,000 miles of city driving at 20 mpg and $3 per gallon every year for the next 8 years …. which happens to be the guarantee time frame GM is offering on the Volt’s battery pack.
As long as gas stays under $3 a gallon and/or I do more highway driving than city, my deal gets better.
There will be those that buy with their emotions and those that do the math, because, as we all know, I don’t have to stay in the GM family.
* The day I spend $41K on a Chevy is the day I’ve won the lottery and am finally getting that ‘Vette … and a used one at that.
Tam »
29 July 2010 · 7:34 am
The whole Volt project reminds me of Carrol Shelby’s comments on the Porsche 959 back in the ’80s, which were something along the line of
“What does that car prove? You think GM or Toyota doesn’t have the engineering staff to build something like that? Porsche lost a ton of money on every single one they sold.“
sheri »
29 July 2010 · 7:51 am
The “Volt”?
As in, “Hello, valet parking? Yes, this is Gilmour in Room 422. Can you bring my car around? It’s the baby blue Volt.”