Quote:
Originally Posted by DGthe3
The 2nd, and ultimately more achievable, was to kick Toyota in the teeth. And regardless of the sales numbers, just about everyone in the industry will tell you that the Volt is a far more impressive car than the Prius.
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I have to respectfully disagree with that. Yeah, the basic idea of the Volt is a good one, but the execution of it has been piss poor in multiple levels, and as a result, the current generation Volt has been a total marketplace failure.
Prius sales are at a completely different order of magnitude to Volt sales. The plug-in version of the Prius also undercuts the Volt on price by about $8000....and it's still profitable for Toyota, while GM is losing money on the Volt. If the point was to "kick Toyota in the teeth," one could argue that they not only missed, but ended up kicking themselves in the face in the process.
I also disagree with the idea of the Volt as a halo car. The Corvette is a halo car. To some extent, the Camaro is a halo car. The Volt, not so much. I personally don't know anyone who has gone to a Chevy showroom just to get a closer look at the Volt, although I do know a few who have been repelled over it.
And even if it does attract a few in who end up leaving with a Cruze instead...that math still ignores how many more Cruzes they could have sold had they spent the money they used (and lost) developing a "halo" car to just make the Cruze a better car.