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Chevy Volt: Remember this piece of crap car all over the media?

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Throckmorton said:
I thought the Volt had a series drivetrain, with no capability for direct gas power
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For the most part, yes the car uses a series drive train where no torque from the motor is used to drive the wheels of the car. For most situations the wheels of the car are driven solely by the electric motors in the car. However under certain conditions after the battery is depleted GM found they could get better efficiency if some of the power produced by the gas engine was applied to the wheels in addition to the power coming from the electric motor. Even in this condition the gas motor is still producing some electricity that is being used to run the electric motor, only part of the gas motor's power is being used to drive the wheels.

It's actually a pretty slick idea and the car will switch between all-electric, series hybrid, and the electric motor working in conjunction with the gas motor seamlessly. Which mode it picks depends on how much power you have in the batteries, your speed, and how much power you're asking the car to give you. The system itself is quite impressive, but what's more impressive is the fact that the driver doesn't need to worry about which mode is better for their condition, they just drive the car normally.
 
Meghan54 said:
Guess you didn't actually either look at what's being listed or contact a single dealer and ask if it's for sale.

Some "secret" info.....just for you.....almost every one is either already spoken for and the dealer is just putting it up to draw customers to their dealership or website, or the vehicle is a demo/test drive vehicle only, not for sale.

But you wouldn't know that would you since all you did was look at a number and stop and jump to conclusions.....and only see what you wanted to see.
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Those Volts at cars.com have come up in discussion here before. Your info is not new to me.
 
vi edit said:
I'm intetested to see how the Prius V is priced and sells. It's considerably larger than the current Prius. Larger + plugin = new class killer? Early reports say it's even slower than a prius and gets worse milage. So that's not great. But it will be interesting to see how well it moves in the family market.
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0-60 is 11.5 or 1.5 slower than Prius and 40 mpg vs 50 mpg Prius.
GM intends to build 45,000 Volts in 2012.
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I can't imagine for a second they'll be able to sell 4k/month unless gas goes above $4 and stays there. Even then it's still a silly waste of money. Fleet cars don't count since they serve some marketing purpose. A buyer pays through the nose to get that 30 mile EV range and thereafter the car gets worse mileage, and requires premium, than a first gen Prius. If its battery falls in capacity like the Leaf, Nissan says 80% battery capacity after 5 years and that's charging the leaf battery to only 80%. It will be interesting to find what real EV range Volt owners have after five years of regularly charging the battery to full.
 
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Leaf is a different case, its battery is borderline range in the first place, and they cheaped out on cooling the thing. 80% of such a poor range makes it useless in 5 years.

volt has decent active cooling for the battery, so it should last longer.
 
0roo0roo said:
Leaf is a different case, its battery is borderline range in the first place, and they cheaped out on cooling the thing. 80% of such a poor range makes it useless in 5 years.

volt has decent active cooling for the battery, so it should last longer.
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But the volt will see more cycles, too. If 30 miles is one full discharge/recharge cycle on the Volt it's only half of one or less on the Leaf. Among other things batteries are cycle limited.
 
Bignate603 said:
For the most part, yes the car uses a series drive train where no torque from the motor is used to drive the wheels of the car. For most situations the wheels of the car are driven solely by the electric motors in the car. However under certain conditions after the battery is depleted GM found they could get better efficiency if some of the power produced by the gas engine was applied to the wheels in addition to the power coming from the electric motor. Even in this condition the gas motor is still producing some electricity that is being used to run the electric motor, only part of the gas motor's power is being used to drive the wheels.

It's actually a pretty slick idea and the car will switch between all-electric, series hybrid, and the electric motor working in conjunction with the gas motor seamlessly. Which mode it picks depends on how much power you have in the batteries, your speed, and how much power you're asking the car to give you. The system itself is quite impressive, but what's more impressive is the fact that the driver doesn't need to worry about which mode is better for their condition, they just drive the car normally.
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Yeah the engineers realized that under certain conditions (over 70mph) its actually more efficient to operate the car by directly driving the wheel rather than operate in series. People heard this and freaked and bashed GM saying that its not a series hybrid. The car operates in whatever mode is most efficient. That being said the fuel millage after the batteries are dead is still surprisingly bad. I would have thought the millage in series mode would blow away a conventional car in city driving.

From a buyers standpoint there is a catch 22 here. The volt only saves money if your commute is less than 40 miles round trip, but if you only drive 40 miles a day the savings will never justify the price of the car.
 
the DRIZZLE said:
From a buyers standpoint there is a catch 22 here. The volt only saves money if your commute is less than 40 miles round trip, but if you only drive 40 miles a day the savings will never justify the price of the car.
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We should call it Toyota Prius Syndrome at this point. Chevy website says it's 150HP? And it look like a midsize car, so basically it's running against the Chevy Malibu. Chevy's site says the Volt starts at 32k, but I can't build and price. Chevy Malibu LTZ (the top of the line model) is $25,000 according to the website. It would take many a year to recover that extra $7,000.
 
The only place the Chevy Volt makes sense to me is if you live 5 miles from work and all your local shops and stores are also within a 5 mile drive. If your total driving in a day is < 30 miles then it might be better in the long run.
 
Tsavo said:
No one has mention that this thing has lapped the 'Ring in 7:18.
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That's because it hasn't. It couldn't have. Not when the 2010 Camaro SS did it in 8:20. Unless you meant a ring other than Nurburgring.

The base 300 horsepower 2010 Chevrolet Camaro goes from 0-60 in 6.1 seconds while the 400+ horsepower Camaro SS does it in 4.6 seconds. But for those of you who no longer judge performance by 0-60 times or quarter mile runs and look Nurburgring lap times as the new standard for performance - we’ve got some Camaro Nurburgring news for you.

According Doug Houlihan, GM’s chief engineer for global rear-wheel-drive vehicles, the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS lapped the Nurburgring in 8:20. Not bad for the Camaro who is definitely not looking to show up the Nissan GT-R or the upcoming Acura NSX.
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The main problem is that the Volt is an ugly car, IMO. GM should fire their entire design department and hire some people with an eye for what looks good. The Cruze is ugly as well.

*edit* The corvette is a nice car - perhaps they should get those people to work on their other vehicles.

If the Volt were a sexy beast with electric guts, I would consider buying one. Why would I though, when I can get a way nicer Lexus for less money?
 
SickBeast said:
The main problem is that the Volt is an ugly car, IMO. GM should fire their entire design department and hire some people with an eye for what looks good. The Cruze is ugly as well.

*edit* The corvette is a nice car - perhaps they should get those people to work on their other vehicles.

If the Volt were a sexy beast with electric guts, I would consider buying one. Why would I though, when I can get a way nicer Lexus for less money?
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They killed one good looking version, the Caddy Converj, and they sell another good looking version, the Opel Ampera, overseas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cadillac_Converj_1_--_2010_DC.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Opel_Ampera.JPG
 
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