Attended the Santa Monica Expo yesterday and saw the Volt. Took 32 photos and really enjoyed talking with the GM staff and onlookers. If the Volt comes to your area, have a look. The up close, in person, view does it good.
Sorry, the photos won’t post with this comment. I get a “spam message”.

no plug =D~ no sale

Upon perusal of the 1997 GM Precept, I’d still have to say that the Prius is extremely groundbreaking – due to three factors: A) The Prius, at great financial risk, was actually commercially marketed-and hugely successfully at that. B) The Precept concept was a very forward-thinking science project which never saw much more than a photo studio or a GM test track. C) My main point regarding the significance and even superior market penetration versus the Volt ( and the Precept concept) is utility. The Precept clearly is chock-full of drive gear and, even with it’s huge rear overhang, doesn’t represent the clever cab-over, short hood, short f/r overhang packaging the Prius does.

After owning a Prius now for one year, it still often surprises me the people and stuff I can carry in it, that it’s extremely close to the inside measurements of an ICE Camry, and with it’s hatchback and folding seats-even more useful.

The upcoming Honda Insight hybrid four door, while not a “full hybrid” is indicative of the Prius design success—it’s nearly a dead-ringer for the Toyota!

Again I’ll say—Volt vs. Prius. The Volt is a proof-of-concept machine that seats four, with limited utility. Yes, it’s incredible if an actual 40 miles can be obtained sans foreign oil. Still, it falls short of the potential market success of a Prius due to it’s intrinsic shortcomings in practicality.

It’s not hard. Many have owned a Prius for 5 years now, including me… Your guesses were way off.

Oil changes every 3,000 miles is just plain nonsense. No one with a hybrid does it that often. Heck, the automaker suggested interval is 5,000 and many owners wait until 7,500 since oil is used so lightly.

You quoted 30K service from dealer at $400. It was actually just $247.77 for me.

You quoted 60K service from dealer at $1000. It was actually just $114.08 for me.

There’s a standard 90K service too, but that was only $159.97 for me.

Also, you never provided any gas or electricity numbers for Volt… which is clearly going to be a difficult sell for the mainstream. And obviously, Volt will require some standard maintenance by 60K. That “none” is quite unrealistic. Use these opportunities as practice. First round didn’t go so well…

That is a good breakdown, but 2 problems with it. Where can you buy a prius for $22,500. Please don’t give me the starting at stuff either. Because if we are talking about the base line prius, then the extra $133 maybe worth the technology/amenity features alone.

Also you haven’t (which is hard to do) factored in the reduced maintenance cost over a 5 year period. But anyway i’ll try with some simple maintenance items.

Oil change: assuming 15k miles
Volt 1 per year @ 30.00 bucks = 30.00
Prius 5 per year @ 30.00 bucks = 150.00 Savings of $600 or $10/month

Full tune up @30K (plugs/wires/coolant/air filter/)
Volt None
Prius 1 @ (hard to gauge but) $400 Savings of $400 or $7 a month

Full tune up @60 (plugs/wires/coolant/air filter/ timing belt/battery/trans fluid/)
Volt None
Prius 1 @ (hard to gauge but) $1000.00 Savings of $1000.00 or $17 a month

Do you see where i’m going here………. And that’s without a failure of all the prius’s additional moving parts.
Nobody is saying a Volt would be priced cheaper sale price than a Prius (why would it be it’s twice the car). But if your mileage needs are less than 40 a day, or 80 with work charge, then you calculate in the added maintenance savings it’s close to say the least, alot closer than your numbers show, for alot more car.

Plus for me its more realistic if i extropolate it out over 10 years since if i’m paying 32K i’ll be driving it that long. Which only compounds my point because now your talking about a Prius with a 150K miles.

$40,000 vehicle price plus 7 percent tax is $42,800. A 5-year loan at 6 percent interest calculates to a $49,646 total, which is a montly payment of $827.

$22,500 vehicle price plus 7 percent tax is $24,075. A 5-year loan at 6 percent interest calculates to a $27,926 total, which is a montly payment of $465.

The cost of driving 15,000 miles per year with the current 48 MPG real-world average at $4 per gallon comes to $1,205, which is a per-month amount of $104.

The $465 plus $104 is $569, which leaves a difference from $827 of $258.

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How are you going to convince the typical consumer to pay an extra $258 per month, plus whatever gas & electricity Volt uses.

Heck, even if the owner qualifies for a full tax-credit (no AMT penalty), that would only drop the expense by $125 per month to $133 more than Prius. Of course, the Prius available will deliver an efficiency improvement, maybe 4 MPG real-world average. That’s a monthly improvement of $8, bringing the Volt disadvantage to $141, plus gas & electricity.

Maybe other hybrid vehicles would work for you too. If you have a boat or a camper or a construction trailer to haul around, a Tahoe Hybrid or Durango Hybrid are your choices.

If you’re dirt poor (like me!) buying an 800 dollar car and spending a lot on gas may be the most financially effective way to get around.

Regardless, over the next 20 to 30 years, there will be a lot of electric and semi electric cars that fill a whole bunch of needs but making an informed choice will be more difficult. The buyer will have to weigh the added expense vs. battery capacity, miles driven per day, etc. Even things like higher taxes on conventional vehicles (Its coming believe me), and whether you live in an old apartment building and have no place to plug a car in.

Murphy will play a big role. A person will carefully caluclate their distance from work, chose an apartment with a metered electric outlet at their assigned parking place and buy the most appropriate vehicle for their needs. Then and only then the company they work for will be bought out and their new office will be another 50 miles away! (Happened to me 3 times.)

And if you are a young man, you will chose the car most likely to get you chicks, regardless of the cost and to hell with the environment!
I have faith in human nature!

Thank you for the support!

I remember this site use to be a lot more positive, now we are overran by anti-gm guys of every stripe. GM sucks, GM’s gonna go bankrupt, GM is crap compared to Toyota, GM is only making the Volt to get a bailout……..

When this site started we just wanted to get the Volt into production! We accomplished that, we proved people were interested. Alot of the same guys that helped us get there, are now the same guys that spend days arguing/complaining about the silliest shit.

Maybe its me but it seems like in the beginning we were a bunch of guys that just wanted an electric car, we all had our reasons why, but we all wanted it. Most of us would of taken a bathtub with 4 wheels (exaggeration) we were so desperate for any car with an electric drive.

Maybe it’s the lack of new information, but in all honesty i’m not so sure. We just got the first official look at the production volt and by the next day were back to attacking each other over what looked better the production or concept as if it even mattered. As if the concept was anything other than a brainstorm with no thought of practicality.

I tried to take a stand against one of them anti-gm er’s early on, but i got blown out by him and 3-4 of his buddies pretty quickly. Now the board is filled with a dozen of them.

I’m #3798 on the wait list, and i’ve been following this site everyday since then, i was at voltnation, and i’ve probably talked the Volt to death with my friends, family, and co-workers. The forums use to be informative, now there a breeding ground for guys here for all the wrong reasons.

I just don’t understand why guys that don’t support GM or the Volt would come here routinely? As if telling us over and over how great the prius/toyota is, or how much longer till GM goes chapter 11 there adding to the community.

First of all it’s not a E Flex Drive System period. The chevrolet Volt will be in production period. There in talk with the battery manufacture, they have not sign a contract with them. Gm will most likely will get the contract
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1. What does this mean?
2 What are you on?
3. Can I get some?