The referenced June 6 initial article on GM-Volt about the recall says, 9K batteries, “one-third of the entire fleet.” That means GM would have had to build 27K hybrids to recall 9K batteries.

No way. Either GM hybrids do not sell at all or somebody made up some numbers. GM has been selling hybrid Auras since about last Fall. GM’s overall reported hybrid sales (the Auras, the Malibus and the big two-modes) come to a little over 1K per month, presently, with lesser amounts prior to the start of this year. That’s about 9K altogether. Where are the other 18K vehicles? Sitting on dealer lots? I don’t think so… that’s 3 or 4 per dealer.

Look at GM and Dexcool… GM dragged its feet for 15 years before agreeing to a settlement (it was in the papers just a couple months ago). Most of the original owners have already moved on to… another GM? I don’t think so. GM lost a bunch of customers that it could have kept.

GM built crap gaskets into their cars for 10 years and never did anything about that problem to ensure customer satisfaction. Maybe some day they’ll settle but I know several people that suffered problems from that and won’t care about the settlement because they unloaded their GMs and now drive Toyotas and Hondas.

Do you think they’ll be back because GM’s new Malibu looks pretty?

Do you think they’ll trust GM to get the Volt right?

Some DOHC engines use chains and some use belts. Most have gone back to chains. Toyota charged me $200 to replace the belt on my 2.0L I-4 engine two years ago, at 90K miles. That’s not a terribly outrageous expense. That’s less than a quarter of what Chevy wanted to replace the camshaft in my Iron Duke at 70K miles.

Not all twin cam engines are interference engines. I know some Hondas are, I know my two different kinds of Toyota engines are not.