Anyone being rude to you on or off the road because of your Volt?

[sinnombre]

I live in the Detroit area. Many folks here lost all their money when Obama rescued GM, fed it to the UAW, and totally screwed all GM bond holders, (the stockholders also lost all, but that happens in every bankruptcy). I have had several people get really mad at me, more because I bought a GM car that the fact that it is a Volt. One older lady read me out for 5 solid minutes. She was anti Gm, anti electric cars, and anti green initiatives at a government level. The problem here is that all green initiatives, including our lovely Volts, are draining lots of money from the US government as incentives. No green initiatives, including our cars would survive under the current economics if the subsidies were cancelled. Would you have bought your Volt if it were an additional $7,500? So, I do feel their pain. We also love our Volt.

Yeah , she has a point about the $7,500 tax credit . The government shouldn't chose favorites . Oddly I leased my two Volts and because the bank lowered the residual to a ridiculous 43% before adding the tax credit , I didn't really get it , the bank did .

[Ladogaboy]

I can say with certainty that I wouldn't have bought the Volt without the tax credit, though I'm likely to only get $7,000 of it. It is a major consideration. Sans tax credit, I probably would have ended up in a used 2nd Gen Prius or a 1st Gen Insight (if I could find one). The truth is, even without the tax credit (as many Volt owners have discovered) the Volt would STILL save you money over most other cars. But just try explaining that to someone who can't figure out the math.

But in my opinion, that $7,500 tax credit is important for more than what most average Americans seem to know. It has a big bull's eye on it, but people are quick to forget that these incentives are a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of dollars this country feeds into oil. Many of our military conflicts have been waged in order to stabilize regions where we get oil, and these petroleum companies receive massive kick backs and subsidies. I forget the exact numbers, but oil still receives the lion's share of government subsidies. If oil weren't subsidized, we'd be paying much closer to Canadian and European prices at the pump ($6 a gallon or more).

So every time someone asks me how I'm enjoying their tax dollars, I'll ask them the same thing back. Thanks to my tax dollars, they aren't spending their entire paycheck to fill that SUV (I won't know the manufacturer or brand because that will be covered with Rush bumper stickers).

[maynard]

I just read an article that says GM is still losing $10,000 on every Volt they sell. GM agrees, but says that number is going down as more Volts are built and sold. I also agree that we must stop buying oil from those who hate us. On a poliotical note, Mit is far more capable of getting this whole mess straightened out that the current president. I hope he gets a chance to prove that to us.

[bonaire]

maynard, the stories out lately were losing $50,000 on Volts (when factoring in the initial billion dollar R&D efforts). That's not losing - that's spreading the R&D out over time.

Anyway - this is the same as the horseless carridge transition 100 years ago. It'll pass. Don't feed the trolls. They'll get weeded out just fine.

[mhoepfin]

I live in the Detroit area. Many folks here lost all their money when Obama rescued GM, fed it to the UAW, and totally screwed all GM bond holders, (the stockholders also lost all, but that happens in every bankruptcy). I have had several people get really mad at me, more because I bought a GM car that the fact that it is a Volt. One older lady read me out for 5 solid minutes. She was anti Gm, anti electric cars, and anti green initiatives at a government level. The problem here is that all green initiatives, including our lovely Volts, are draining lots of money from the US government as incentives. No green initiatives, including our cars would survive under the current economics if the subsidies were cancelled. Would you have bought your Volt if it were an additional $7,500? So, I do feel their pain. We also love our Volt.

I use and brag about the incentive as one more reason to mock the Obama administration when people are angry about it. Kind of like poking them with a stick, thanking them for paying for part of my car. Haha, especially when their face starts turning red...

[bonaire]

It's always good to bring up:
- mortgage interest deductions (thanks for helping me buy my house)
- child credits (thanks for paying for my kids)
- federal and state school subsidies (thanks for educating my kids)
- 15% carry interest taxes (thanks for helping me make money)

[sipNgas]

The government shouldn't chose favorites.

Any new technology get's help from the feds or it won't fly. They were incentivizing the crap out of NatGas for years. Without it the fueling infrastructure would not be in place and people (and municipalities) would not have purchased all the NatGas vehicles (buses, cars, etc.) EV is no different so I don't think there is any favoritism with the Volt!

[sinnombre]

Any new technology get's help from the feds or it won't fly. They were incentivizing the crap out of NatGas for years. Without it the fueling infrastructure would not be in place and people (and municipalities) would not have purchased all the NatGas vehicles (buses, cars, etc.) EV is no different so I don't think there is any favoritism with the Volt!

Not really . Very few technologies need to be subsidized by government . This does however give people a reason to complain , because they think nobody would buy an EV if the government didn't run the subsidies . I would like to see them lower it to a $5500 tax credit that everyone could benefit from instead of just people with larger tax obligations .

[Ladogaboy]

Not really . Very few technologies need to be subsidized by government . This does however give people a reason to complain , because they think nobody would buy an EV if the government didn't run the subsidies . I would like to see them lower it to a $5500 tax credit that everyone could benefit from instead of just people with larger tax obligations .

Well, I see it as being one in the same. I'd almost rather see the government subsidize these vehicles (maybe according to CAFE-standards compliance?) by $2,000 each if they were going to reduce the tax credit to $5,500 (thus, keeping the car more affordable). As it is, I think the Volt (if assessed fairly) is right at that happy point. I don't make nearly as much money as the average person on these boards, but I still qualify for almost the entire tax credit (within a few hundred dollars). Now granted, as a hobo, I elected to get the base model (I'm fairly spartan and actually prefer the cloth seats over leather), so I saved another $4,000 or so more than the higher-end Volt purchaser.

Either way, I think the base Volt is very affordable for middle-class Americans (they don't even have to make as much as Romney's middle-class), even if they don't qualify for the full $7,500. And while I know that that tax credit has been characterized as pandering to the rich, I think the larger incentives actually do need to be provided to those who can actually afford to reinvest in the domestic economy (and the Volt certainly is an investment in America).