Quote:
Originally Posted by Eisenhower
EKK! That's ugly... Looks like something Saturn vomited. Concept looks better.
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It was proven by wind tunnel test that the concept Volt was about as aerodynamic as a brick. So they couldn't keep to the concept. I know the current Volt isn't as beautiful as the concept but it still looks far better than the Prius. I just hope GM puts the E-Flex into a larger vehicle soon, because the Volt will only have as much interior room as a present day Cobalt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyman 08
That makes alot of sense, but for $40K I can buy an awul lot of gas, say $5.00 a gallon. and 30 MPG $40,000 divided by 5= 8,000 gallons Multiply that by 30 MPG equals 240,000 miles... Even if you had to buy another new car that averaged 30MPG for $20K it would take you 120,000 miles to make up the difference. (and if you count the money you still had to pay for gas and electricity in the Volt it would take even more miles to equal out.)
Is it worth it to me? no not really.
I made the same argument back in 1981 when a guy was bragging about his 40 MPG volkswagen Rabbit Diesel he paid 8K for. I compared it to my $3500 81 Chevette that got 35 MPG. I showed him how many miles he would have to drive in that slow stinking noisy car just to get his money back.
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The same can be said about the Prius, granted it cost less than a Volt by a considerable amount. However, if you remove the hybrid system from that car you would have a $15k vehicle, which is basically a Toyota Corolla. As we know this vehicle gets in the upper 30's MPG which isn't too far off from the Prius. I think the last time I checked a base Prius cost $22k-$24k, so that $7k-$9k would buy you years worth of gas also.
Still though tons of people are buying the Prius, so I think enough people will buy the Volt. Then you have the government rebates which will bring the price down to the low $30k's, so at that point the Volt will probably only cost a bit more than a fully loaded Prius which comes to around $30k. I would expect at this price for the Volt to come with the same options the Prius has, but standard.
In time the price of the Volt will come down, especially since they will sell a Opel version of the Volt in Europe where people don't mind spending this kind of money on a small, fuel efficient car.
JMHO, I am no expert, but thats how I see it.