The Right Flames the Volt

[RGR]

How many liberals on this forum own a VOLT?

Good question. But what does a political leaning have to do with using good old fashioned and cheap, American produced fuel (electricity) to power a modern, well designed American car?

And for the record, there is at least one registered independent (the wife hates it, she would prefer to have influence on 2 votes in the primary elections) on this forum who owns one.

 

[Papageorgio]

How many liberals on this forum own a VOLT?

Good question. But what does a political leaning have to do with using good old fashioned and cheap, American produced fuel (electricity) to power a modern, well designed American car?

And for the record, there is at least one registered independent (the wife hates it, she would prefer to have influence on 2 votes in the primary elections) on this forum who owns one.

I'm not sure, you might want to ask the person that started the thread. It is curious how you want the answer from me and not the person who brought politics into the discussion in the first place.

It seems the left is upset with the right for lack of support of the vehicle. Only 10,000 have sold, so it seems lack of support is from everyone.

From the sounds of it, you'd drive one, so congrats, I won't buy one, it does not work for my needs.

 

[RGR]

The stupid Volt. It has replaced the Prius as a vagina on wheels.

Hey, if you like paying for fuels funding the budgets of foreign governments, by all means drive a monster truck. I'm quite happy buying made in the USA fuels for my made in the USA car which doesn't need gasoline for my commuting, which means cheap-cheap-cheap.

 

[RGR]

It is curious how you want the answer from me and not the person who brought politics into the discussion in the first place.

A bit curious that politics were brought into car buying choices, don't you think?

It seems the left is upset with the right for lack of support of the vehicle. Only 10,000 have sold, so it seems lack of support is from everyone.

From such small beginnings...etc etc.

From the sounds of it, you'd drive one, so congrats, I won't buy one, it does not work for my needs.

Oh, it certainly has its limitations. But I use mine for what it is perfect for, commuting within the range of its EV capabilities. I also own scooters, a motorcycle, a fuel efficient ICE powered econobox, a sportscar and an SUV capable of towing any two of all the other vehicles. I am a big fan of the right tool for the job.

 

[Papageorgio]

It is curious how you want the answer from me and not the person who brought politics into the discussion in the first place.

A bit curious that politics were brought into car buying choices, don't you think?

It seems the left is upset with the right for lack of support of the vehicle. Only 10,000 have sold, so it seems lack of support is from everyone.

From such small beginnings...etc etc.

From the sounds of it, you'd drive one, so congrats, I won't buy one, it does not work for my needs.

Oh, it certainly has its limitations. But I use mine for what it is perfect for, commuting within the range of its EV capabilities. I also own scooters, a motorcycle, a fuel efficient ICE powered econobox, a sportscar and an SUV capable of towing any two of all the other vehicles. I am a big fan of the right tool for the job.

Not curious at all, the left wants everyone but themselves to drive the way they think they should.
I travel many miles, I used to commute 2 hours a day, had have a household of eight, so I have no use for one, nor do I have use for a scooter, a motorcycle. I have the right tools for my job.

 

[RGR]

Not curious at all, the left wants everyone but themselves to drive the way they think they should.

Some of them maybe. Certainly my mom is "left", and generally not insistent that other people drive what she thinks they should. Has no one from the "right" ever been caught in a traffic jam and wanted everyone else to drive something else, something smaller, like a scooter, so the roads would be clear and they could zip on through the evening commute to get home earlier? I'll bet they have, in which case they are no better or worse than the "left" in this regard.

I travel many miles, I used to commute 2 hours a day, had have a household of eight, so I have no use for one, nor do I have use for a scooter, a motorcycle. I have the right tools for my job.

Cool. Fortunately, this is still America and no one is requiring you to have (A) a longer commute than more than 75% of all Americans and (B) a Volt.

If I had a 2 hour commute, I think I would lean more VW diesel or small Prius type hybrid. And then I would move to get a shorter commute and presto! I would be back in Volt range!

 

[Papageorgio]

Not curious at all, the left wants everyone but themselves to drive the way they think they should.

Some of them maybe. Certainly my mom is "left", and generally not insistent that other people drive what she thinks they should. Has no one from the "right" ever been caught in a traffic jam and wanted everyone else to drive something else, something smaller, like a scooter, so the roads would be clear and they could zip on through the evening commute to get home earlier? I'll bet they have, in which case they are no better or worse than the "left" in this regard.

I travel many miles, I used to commute 2 hours a day, had have a household of eight, so I have no use for one, nor do I have use for a scooter, a motorcycle. I have the right tools for my job.

Cool. Fortunately, this is still America and no one is requiring you to have (A) a longer commute than more than 75% of all Americans and (B) a Volt.

If I had a 2 hour commute, I think I would lean more VW diesel or small Prius type hybrid. And then I would move to get a shorter commute and presto! I would be back in Volt range!

Well if I had my choices, I'd rather commute two hours than be unemployed.

 

[RGR]

Well if I had my choices, I'd rather commute two hours than be unemployed.

Quite reasonable. Myself, I once commuted from Louisiana to Edmonton Alberta to work on drilling rigs, a couple weeks there, then back to the Gulf. Rather than be unemployed, I found a job closer to home. Didn't hate the commute, it allowed me to see wild swathes of the country on someone else's dime, but it did get old after a couple of years. So I got a job 2 blocks from home and then could walk to work.

The lesson learned ever after being, living closer to work is better than living farther away, in order to maximize time for other things.

 

[koshergrl]

Volts do not have convenient charging stations, neither did early autos have a convenient source of fuel.
Buy a horse they just need grass and water.

Same logic.

Not really.

Early autos were a definite improvement over what was in existence, and there wasn't anything else comparable. That's a fairly strong motivation. They were an improvement over horse and buggy, if you could get them fueled up.

The stupid Volt isn't. It isn't fast, it isn't powerful...the cars we have that run on gasoline are a hundred times more effective.

Why trade down? Especially if you have to make further sacrifices? It's idiotic, when we've got something better available..and we do.

 

[koshergrl]

The stupid Volt. It has replaced the Prius as a vagina on wheels.

Hey, if you like paying for fuels funding the budgets of foreign governments, by all means drive a monster truck. I'm quite happy buying made in the USA fuels for my made in the USA car which doesn't need gasoline for my commuting, which means cheap-cheap-cheap.

Sorry, I have 4 kids, a grandkid, dogs, and I live in a rural area.

I don't want a stupid Volt. I prefer my Ford Explorer..and wish I had an expedition.

 

[Skull Pilot]

More People Are Buying Hybrid Cars. So Why Won't They Stick With Them? - Forbes

65% of hybrid owners won't buy another one.

A study by a Michigan-based research firm Polk found that only 35 percent of hybrid-owners choose to purchase another hybrid. Even worse, if you remove the Toyota Prius, the most popular hybrid from the mix, commitment to hybrids drops to 25 percent. This means that a whopping 75 percent of non-Prius hybrid customers chose to ditch the hybrid – and this is for the greenest of green consumers, mind you.

So hybrids obviously ain't as great as you people think

 

[ScienceRocks]

Heres is some stuff I want the next generation of the volt to do.
1# Have a range of 300 miles per gallon-Total range of 500+ miles.
2# All electric mode 100 miles-no fuel with full battery. Yes, a lot of short trips, no need for gas!
3# 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds!
4# A battery that can be charged in under a hour
5# A battery that cost less than a few thousand dollars
6# For under 30,000 dollars!

Hear this GM? The amount of cars sold in mass production alone will make up for the cheaper price!

 

[RGR]

The stupid Volt isn't. It isn't fast, it isn't powerful...the cars we have that run on gasoline are a hundred times more effective.

Oh, you really need to drive one. The torque from the electric motor on the Volt means that drag racing out of stop lights is quite entertaining, and more than effective against anything except full on sports cars.

 

[RGR]

The stupid Volt. It has replaced the Prius as a vagina on wheels.

Hey, if you like paying for fuels funding the budgets of foreign governments, by all means drive a monster truck. I'm quite happy buying made in the USA fuels for my made in the USA car which doesn't need gasoline for my commuting, which means cheap-cheap-cheap.

Sorry, I have 4 kids, a grandkid, dogs, and I live in a rural area.

Certainly the Volt isn't for everyone. But most Americans don't live in rural areas. Some Americans who aren't rural also don't have garages, another situation where the Volt might not be the best choice. But those issues aren't a problem with the CAR.

Certainly SUVs fill a niche for many people, and the convenience of owning one can be substantial. And with that convenience comes higher fuel costs.

I don't want a stupid Volt. I prefer my Ford Explorer..and wish I had an expedition.

Myself, I was once partial to the Excursion. But in suburbia, with my two kids and a dog, the Volt is excellent at what it was designed for. Which is to not put $$ in the hands of foreign governments because of exorbitant fuel prices, and it is cheap to run. Not s much fun as a scooter perhaps, but it is quite an excellent automobile.

 

[RGR]

65% of hybrid owners won't buy another one.

So hybrids obviously ain't as great as you people think

On a cost/benefit basis, I can certainly understand why some people would not return to them. My Ford Fiesta returns the same highway mileage as my old Camry hybrid, and slightly worse around town, and cost half of what the Camry did.

But I've owned two hybrids prior to the Volt, so obviously am a returning customer (the other was a Ford AWD Escape), but the Volt is a different animal than a standard Prius/Toyota Synenergy type hybrid. And quite a bit better, me admittedly being influenced in that opinion by the torque of the electric motor. Normal hybrids have a always felt pretty gutless, whereas the instant power of a big electric motor is quite a thrill.

 

[Skull Pilot]

An electric car will never meet my needs.

I'll take my F350 over a Dolt any day.

I can brew my own biodiesel and mix it in a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio with standard diesel fuel in the warmer months. In the winter I run straight diesel as home brew biodiesel tends to gel a bit in the cold.

The only reason I don't run straight biodiesel is that I've seen too many gummed up filters and injectors.

Personally I think we'd be better off if instead of electric cars with the myriad of problems and the lack of infrastructure to support them we'd ramp up the refining of quality biodiesel and start producing small cars like a TDI Jetta.

We would need no ultra expensive infrastructure to deliver it as any standard gas station can already do it. We wouldn't have to wait for some technological breakthrough in batteries and fuel cells and then wait for the price to come down so we could afford them.

And most importantly our tax dollars wouldn't have to subsidize the purchase of hybrids any more and we'd still be using less fossil fuels and would reduce emissions more than we would if we keep trying to convince people to buy hybrids because a diesel engine is already understood by the public and is quite frankly cheaper to produce maintain and repair.

 

[koshergrl]

The stupid Volt isn't. It isn't fast, it isn't powerful...the cars we have that run on gasoline are a hundred times more effective.

Oh, you really need to drive one. The torque from the electric motor on the Volt means that drag racing out of stop lights is quite entertaining, and more than effective against anything except full on sports cars.

I don't see one in my future.

 

[koshergrl]

Biodiesel is a nightmare. Besides poisoning groundwater, it just isn't a sound method for saving energy, and it takes food out of the food chain that is necessary to maintain lower food costs.

 

[RGR]

An electric car will never meet my needs.

And it won't meet the needs of many Americans. But it would easily meet the needs of 75% of Americans who commute less than 40 miles a day, and wish to (A) reduce their fuel costs and (B) substitute fuel 100% made in the US of A.

I'll take my F350 over a Dolt any day.

Enjoy. However, my commute to and from work doesn't require a monster truck, and for carrying a single commuter back and forth to work (assuming you don't need your horse trailer and horse to do it) an F350 is a bit like patrolling the Mississippi with the USS Missouri. It can probably be done, but is it really necessary?

I can brew my own biodiesel and mix it in a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio with standard diesel fuel in the warmer months. In the winter I run straight diesel as home brew biodiesel tends to gel a bit in the cold.

Sounds complicated. I plug the Volt into the wall socket in the evening, and am tanked up and ready to road warrior my way to work in the morning. Plus I am soon to get FREE fuel at the office, and free is even better than cheap!

Personally I think we'd be better off if instead of electric cars with the myriad of problems and the lack of infrastructure to support them we'd ramp up the refining of quality biodiesel and start producing small cars like a TDI Jetta.

Except for reliability issues, the VW TDI line is a great car when compared to gassers. The problems with them, besides overall reliability (which can be fixed I presume) is that they aren't any better than even the older style hybrids. My Camry was a 40mpg+ car, you paid quite a bit less for the fuel (diesel selling for sometimes a 20% premium over gasoline), and the maintenance was nil. But in either case, you are still using a fuel which funds foreign governments rather than providing jobs and benefits to Americans.

We would need no ultra expensive infrastructure to deliver it as any standard gas station can already do it. We wouldn't have to wait for some technological breakthrough in batteries and fuel cells and then wait for the price to come down so we could afford them.

The Volt doesn't cost any more than the median car price in America, I can assure you that electrical infrastructure is quite common in America and better yet is at our homes so we don't have to go to ANY gas station if we choose not to (who wants to go to a gas station anyway?), and you can go get one tomorrow.

And most importantly our tax dollars wouldn't have to subsidize the purchase of hybrids any more and we'd still be using less fossil fuels and would reduce emissions more than we would if we keep trying to convince people to buy hybrids because a diesel engine is already understood by the public and is quite frankly cheaper to produce maintain and repair.

Well, certainly the Volt is subsidized by the government. But it makes it extremely difficult to say "everyone should go get a VW TDI" if only because they STILL run on fuels coming from somewhere else. During the day, my fuel is captured, refined, and pumped right into my "tank" by the panels on the roof of the parking structure. While a diesel might use less foreign fuels, it sure can't beat that advantage that capturing (drilling), refining (air pollution) and transportation (trucking and hauling and pipelines) takes place with nary an air pollution molecule in site. not just less, but NONE.

 

[RGR]

The stupid Volt isn't. It isn't fast, it isn't powerful...the cars we have that run on gasoline are a hundred times more effective.

Oh, you really need to drive one. The torque from the electric motor on the Volt means that drag racing out of stop lights is quite entertaining, and more than effective against anything except full on sports cars.

I don't see one in my future.

Perhaps not. And while I am admittedly more sensitive to the use of foreign fuels to power American commuting than most, until you do drive one you may not realize what an excellent automobile it is as well. The fact that American based fuels to fuel it is cheap to boot is just icing on the cake.