Living with a Chevrolet Volt

[Jarlaxle]

You can't lease a BMW, Mercedes, or Porsche for $200 down and $199/month though. Whether verifiable or not, the writer was making the point that a large percentage of Volt sales were lease vehicles and were heavily subsidized by the government. If so, that should be part of the discussion.

That's about the going rate to lease a Focus, a Honda Fit, or a Chevy Cruze...cars that sticker for about HALF what a Volt costs.

 

[Underhill]

I was watching the Volt development for years before it came out. And from an engineers perspective it's a nice idea. I still think it has potential to be a great platform. I just don't think battery technology is quite there yet for hybrids.

What worries me is the complexity. I don't lease cars, I put too many miles on them. And I tend to drive them till they die. I haven't gotten rid of a car with less than 150k ever.

I'm not sure I would dare to try that with a Volt.

If you are, I wish you well. It's a cool car if nothing else. And I still think the design will be the future, or near it. We just need better/cheaper batteries.

 

[Foxfyre]

For giggles and grins, here's an article from this past June that talks about leasing trends.....

Autoremarketing | Analysis: Luxury Lease Penetration Back at Pre-Recession Levels

Some highlights......

• BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus continue to have high lease penetration
• Infiniti has had a spike in leases and actually leads the industry with 60% of vehicle sales going through leases
• Shows the percentage of transactions that are leases for specific financial institutions. Mercedes Benz financing arm is on top with about 76% of their contracts being leases. BMW is second

Another article I read recently pointed out the increase in leasing for Detroit automakers cars. up until now GM, Ford and Chrysler leases were mostly trucks and SUVs, because they always had great resale and residual values. Now that cars and crossovers are considered to be more on par with foreign cars and crossovers, resale values and residuals are higher and lease deals are much more attractive.

Bottom line.....nothing wrong with leasing. If there is, then BMW, Mercedes, and Infiniti must suck. Leasing is just another buying option. It allows buyers to get more vehicle for less money. The flip side is at the end of the deal, you have to do something else and that can be (and usually is) entering into another lease for the next vehicle. In other words, the never ending car payment. The positive is you don't have to go through the process of selling or trading the vehicle you're coming out of. You just give it back.

Well I do wish you well with you Volt. I have no quarrel with folks driving GM cars though I am well on the record that I won't touch a GM automobile due to my resentment of taxpayer money used to bail out GM, decimate its stock value, and then turning it over to its own union who will have little incentive to protect anything other than their own jobs and pensions.

Meanwhile, the criticsm of the Volt finances continue even though the car itself gets pretty good reviews:

Out in the trenches, even the cheap leases haven't always been effective.

A Chevrolet dealership that is part of an auto dealer group in Toms River, New Jersey, has sold only one Volt in the last year, said its president Adam Kraushaar. The dealership sells 90 to 100 Chevrolets a month.

The weak sales are forcing GM to idle the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant that makes the Chevrolet Volt for four weeks from September 17, according to plant suppliers and union sources. It is the second time GM has had to call a Volt production halt this year.

GM acknowledges the Volt continues to lose money, and suggests it might not reach break even until the next-generation model is launched in about three years.

"It's true, we're not making money yet" on the Volt, said Doug Parks, GM's vice president of global product programs and the former Volt development chief, in an interview. The car "eventually will make money. As the volume comes up and we get into the Gen 2 car, we're going to turn (the losses) around," Parks said.

"I don't see how General Motors will ever get its money back on that vehicle," countered Sandy Munro, president of Michigan-based Munro & Associates, which performs detailed tear-down analyses of vehicles and components for global manufacturers and the U.S. government.

It currently costs GM "at least" $75,000 to build the Volt, including development costs, Munro said. That's nearly twice the base price of the Volt before a $7,500 federal tax credit provided as part of President Barack Obama's green energy policy.

Other estimates range from $76,000 to $88,000, according to four industry consultants contacted by Reuters. The consultants' companies all have performed work for GM and are familiar with the Volt's development and production. They requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their auto industry ties.

Parks declined to comment on specific costs related to the Volt.
Insight: GM's Volt: The ugly math of low sales, high costs | Reuters

 

[Charles_Main]

Again, for those who buy a Chevy Volt and love it, good on you. But again, given the affluence of those who can afford one, I wonder how many would admit the car did not live up to its press if it didn't? But I have no problem admitting that a lot of Volt owners are saying that they love their cars.

But there remains an expensive (for you and me) downside to the story of the Volt. And that needs to be admitted too.

In a recent issue of Forbes Magazine:

After Reuters’ claim that GM was losing $49,000 per vehicle on the Chevy Volt, former GM CEO (and Volt developer) Bob Lutz came to its spirited defense at Forbes.com with an article titled “The Real Story on GM’s Volt Costs”. One of the things he didn’t specifically address was sales.

Not to put too fine a point on it, for the umpteenth time concerning the Volt, GM is playing fast and lose with the facts.

GM is giving away rent-a-Volts. While the claim of 2800+ sales in August is certainly enough to still the Volt’s critics, at least until Election Day (which is all that really matters to the current management), that number is an automotive Potemkin Village, concealing enough rot to make any czar, car or otherwise, proud.

With additional subsidies from GM (that would be you and me), Chevrolet dealers in August were offering two-year Volt leases for as little as $250 down and $199/month. Fully 2/3s of the “sales” were leases, leaving around 925 cars that were truly sold. Prior to the giveaway leases, GM says that 40% of 2012 sales were also leases. The number remains the same—an average of about 925 cars really sold each month for this year.

Automotive News recently reported that the feds have purchased 182 Volts so far in 2012. Now we’re down to 900 real sales per month.. Corporate (fleet) sales are conservatively estimated at 5% of the total, putting the consumer number closer to 850.

Don’t forget that the Department of Defense has committed to buying 1,500 of these wallet-hogs. These aren’t combat vehicles and will no doubt largely wind up in some Colonel’s driveway.

There are enough scams here to satisfy a Chicago politician. The giveaway lease cars are initially bought by dealerships at cost, which Bob Lutz says is $37,000. Then they pocket an additional $7,500—the Volt subsidy that Obama proposes raising to $10,000—paid by you and me.

Two years later they get the car back. . . .

. . . .Here’s the sorry bottom line. Volt sales to individuals are really running around 10,000 per year. Given a smaller number of leases and fleet sales last year, this is pretty much what GM should have gotten if there weren’t supply problems in the first half of 2011.

The fact is that no one wants this car and the government is goosing sales by giving them away as short-term leases and purchasing them for officers to tool around in. Meanwhile, the dealers make a killing—largely on the taxpayer’s dime.

Notwithstanding GM's Protests, No One Wants The Chevy Volt - Forbes

The biggest joke is even with a massive government subsidy on every sale, GM still loses money on every sale.

 

[Foxfyre]

Even priced well below their production cost, their sales are improving but still way below their target numbers. So I don't know. The Edsel never could quite get off the ground either, and the Saturn. though gorgeous and an exceptional automobile, never became a ccommo choice either. The Volt is still really pricey for a sub compact car.

 

[Charles_Main]

Even priced well below their production cost, their sales are improving but still way below their target numbers. So I don't know. The Edsel never could quite get off the ground either, and the Saturn. though gorgeous and an exceptional automobile, never became a ccommo choice either. The Volt is still really pricey for a sub compact car.

I wish I still had my Saturn SL1. Best damn car I ever owned. Never had a single problem with it in 176,000 miles. And the damn thing got 40MPG on the highway, and even better around 32 in the city. It truly was amazing. I used to laugh at Hybrid commercials bragging about 30 something MPG, my 1997 Saturn blew them out of the fucking water.

 

[Foxfyre]

Even priced well below their production cost, their sales are improving but still way below their target numbers. So I don't know. The Edsel never could quite get off the ground either, and the Saturn. though gorgeous and an exceptional automobile, never became a ccommo choice either. The Volt is still really pricey for a sub compact car.

I wish I still had my Saturn SL1. Best damn car I ever owned. Never had a single problem with it in 176,000 miles. And the damn thing got 40MPG on the highway, and even better around 32 in the city. It truly was amazing. I used to laugh at Hybrid commercials bragging about 30 something MPG, my 1997 Saturn blew them out of the fucking water.

We never had one but I did like them. I feel the same way about my Subaru that will turn 18 yrs old this year. Other than routine maintenance it has required almost nothing but a new battery, tires, hoses and belts over the years. And it still gets over 30 mpg in town plus as been paid for for 15 years now. That's pretty cheap transportation.

 

[Papageorgio]

Keep the VOLT, I'll take my Terrain and Suburban and pay the cost. If I'm in an accident, I stand a better chance of walking away than some guy in a VOLT.

I'll take safety anyway over gas mileage.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Personally I dont care what other people drive.
But for me my vehicle provides me a way to get out in the woods,down the beach and other way out places.
I guess if I played tennis and bocce ball for fun I wouldnt mind an electric car.

And now you're seeing the gov bringing in new taxs to recoup the loss of tax revenue from reduced gas sales. So where's the savings now?
I believe the latest attempt was taxing by the mile.

If you find away to save money that cost the gov....they'll find a way to get it back.

 

[Synthaholic]

Personally I dont care what other people drive.
But for me my vehicle provides me a way to get out in the woods,down the beach and other way out places.
I guess if I played tennis and bocce ball for fun I wouldnt mind an electric car.

And now you're seeing the gov bringing in new taxs to recoup the loss of tax revenue from reduced gas sales. So where's the savings now?
I believe the latest attempt was taxing by the mile.

If you find away to save money that cost the gov....they'll find a way to get it back.

Link, please.

 

[Foxfyre]

Personally I dont care what other people drive.
But for me my vehicle provides me a way to get out in the woods,down the beach and other way out places.
I guess if I played tennis and bocce ball for fun I wouldnt mind an electric car.

And now you're seeing the gov bringing in new taxs to recoup the loss of tax revenue from reduced gas sales. So where's the savings now?
I believe the latest attempt was taxing by the mile.

If you find away to save money that cost the gov....they'll find a way to get it back.

I don't know what taxes you refer to here, but I do agree that I don't care what anybody else drives. I applaud those who buy Volts and like them. And in truth I would manage just fine with a Volt for just running to the grocery store or over to Lowe's or the office supply, all within five miles of here. Would use no gasoline at all, but I still haven't seen anything other than rather obscure sources for what the electricity costs might be.

For me it doesn't matter though because I couldn't afford a Volt and wouldn't buy one if I could.

But usually when I take my little Subaru out, it is only me or maybe one other person who is in the car with me. If I need to transport more folks than that, I take the bigger Subaru that has more rear seat legroom. And if I still had kids at home when I was transporting softball teams or going to retreat with a bunch of ladies, etc. I would want a mini van or larger vehicle that we could cram several into.

What I don't want is for the government to limit how large or what sort of vehicle I must drive. If I want to drive a Hummer one mile to work, I am depleting the world's resources less than the guy driving the hybrid 30 miles to work. And if I can afford a Hummer and it makes my heart sing, I want the right to buy a Hummer.

And so it goes. . . .

 

[1Templar]

It takes pioneers, like you and your wife, to cross the threshold of innovation. I don't know why the right hates GM, and loves everything Japanese, and German, but GM, Chrysler, and Ford are on a roll. Probably the right has a beef with our automakers because they are our automakers, and they wanted the destruction of the Big 3 so ;the automakers in the South would dominate auto production nationally.
Just like with hurricane Sandy, the opposition of aid to the victims came from South. People in the North better wake up before its too late.
Kudos to you and your wife, for really being... Great Americans.

 

[Papageorgio]

It takes pioneers, like you and your wife, to cross the threshold of innovation. I don't know why the right hates GM, and loves everything Japanese, and German, but GM, Chrysler, and Ford are on a roll. Probably the right has a beef with our automakers because they are our automakers, and they wanted the destruction of the Big 3 so ;the automakers in the South would dominate auto production nationally.
Just like with hurricane Sandy, the opposition of aid to the victims came from South. People in the North better wake up before its too late.
Kudos to you and your wife, for really being... Great Americans.

Pioneers for buying a car? Great Americans for buying a car? LMAO! You all there?

I own four GM products, I wouldn't buy a VOLT because it is not what I want, and government shouldn't subsidize a car. When I buy a car, I don't brag about it, like I a hero or a saint for buying it.

You north and south conspiracy theory crap is very funny and bizarre.

The last Chrysler, one of the big three was made up north, in Canada. Idiot!

So all your theories about the right is all BS, please don't smoke meth before posting.

What car do you drive and why do so many liberals buy Lexus, BMW and other foreign cars?

 

[Foxfyre]

We have no aversion to American made cars though it's pretty hard to find one that is manufactured solely within the USA borders these days. Subaru has a manufacturing plant in Indiana and GM manufactures almost as many automobiles in China as it does here. Both Ford and Chrysler use components and parts manufactured in several other countries in almost all of their automobiles, if not all.

My quarrel with GM is that I disapprove of the way it was bailed out and its continued cost to taxpayers. I oppose the American government owning 33% of GM, which it does, and the American government and UAW owning the controlling stock in the company. But all that is better discussed in a political or economics thread than here.

I like the concept of the Volt, but do not like restricting the options for people who don't want a Volt or can't afford a Volt. But I would certainly buy a Ford if I needed a new car and they could offer me one with the safety, all weather features, and dependability of the Subaru at an attractive price.

I would like a business climate in America where American auto companies could fully compete in quality, dependability, and price with foreign car makers. We have already lost a huge portion of our manufacturing base because the government and unions refused to create such a climate. I keep hoping sooner or later they will wake up.

 

[viking331]

I dont like the bailout either because the creditors should have gotten the stock not the union. But since they have it , they have to deliver .theres nothing like an employee or union owned company to make sure they balance wages with profits and expenses. As for the VOLT . What a mess . The Prius outsells them on price and perfomance . This is why they have such a big Government subsidy. BTW Is this the right forum to holler FIRE in a crowded VOLT? Freedom of speech allows everyone driving one to reserve this right . Viking331