Chevy Volt a lemon for GM. Current administration makes sour lemonade.

Let's take everything GM said at face value. What does it say about them? Their most imnportant new vehicle launch in decades probably, and they are not able to produce enough cars in the first six months of production to sell more than a handful of units. Nissan is eating their lunch. GM's response is to...take the plant off line?????????????????

Call me crazy but I would be producing flatout around the clock if there were really any demand for this vehicle. Consumers are fickle. Next year something else may be the flavor of the month. Who knows what Toyota or Honda come up with? There are suggestions that the problems are with the battery manufacturer. Do you really think Toyota or honda would stage a huge rollout of a vehicle when they had supply chain constraints?

I really hope this thing succeeds beyond anyone's dreams. Another bailout for GM would be a disaster for all involved. It has the stink of failure on it already however. That can become a vicious circle, as no one wants to get stuck with a loser car that makes them the laughingstock of the neighborhood.

The car may be fine, I have no idea, but their marketing strategy is beyond idiotic.
 
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

Let's take everything GM said at face value. What does it say about them? Their most imnportant new vehicle launch in decades probably, and they are not able to produce enough cars in the first six months of production to sell more than a handful of units. Nissan is eating their lunch. GM's response is to...take the plant off line?????????????????

Call me crazy but I would be producing flatout around the clock if there were really any demand for this vehicle. Consumers are fickle. Next year something else may be the flavor of the month. Who knows what Toyota or Honda come up with? There are suggestions that the problems are with the battery manufacturer. Do you really think Toyota or honda would stage a huge rollout of a vehicle when they had supply chain constraints?

I really hope this thing succeeds beyond anyone's dreams. Another bailout for GM would be a disaster for all involved. It has the stink of failure on it already however. That can become a vicious circle, as no one wants to get stuck with a loser car that makes them the laughingstock of the neighborhood.

The car may be fine, I have no idea, but their marketing strategy is beyond idiotic.
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Congratulations. You actually found some accurate articles to post. Probably because it was done by the AP instead of some Keyboard Cammando blogger. Yes July Volt sales will be low because production for 2012 models will not start until later this month. That means those units will be sold in August. It is common across all lines to close a plant for a few weeks in between model years to retool and update it. Again, I know this may be a difficult concept to grasp.

I don't understand the whole comparing sales figures. The Leaf sold 1700, the Volt 500. Volt sales were down in June. Blah blah. Those are anemic sales figures. Comparing sales figures when they are only a few months in production is pointless.
 
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

Let's take everything GM said at face value. What does it say about them? Their most imnportant new vehicle launch in decades probably, and they are not able to produce enough cars in the first six months of production to sell more than a handful of units. Nissan is eating their lunch. GM's response is to...take the plant off line?????????????????
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With all due respect you really don't know anything about the auto industry. It's not just GM but Ford, Toyota and everyone else does changeover in tooling between model years since new models (2012) are not the same as old models (2011). Trust me -- I know as I built scheduling systems for the US Big 3. Every summer there were shutdowns of the plants.

http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/201...t-for-retooling-allowing-expanded-production/
 
Y'all try not to get too upset with ol' dog. He's just doing what he's been trained to do. He's defending his business/product.

However, the real question is this: Why in the world would anyone buy a G(overnment) M(otors) vehicle when such fine products as Ford, Honda, and Toyota exist?

I test drove the new 2012 Honda Civic today. Wowzakapowza!!!

(Scratching head)...Aw shucks...Maybe I'm just stooopid and don't know no better cause I ain't never had no car...hehehe.
 
Ford has most definitely upped their game - big time. The family and the Company put everything on the line a few years ago to secure the required financing (did it themselves, the way it's supposed to be done in a free enterprise system) to completely revamp their manufacturing efforts. The industry reviews, the sales, and the buzz surrounding their vehicles has been impressive. Yes, I own one Honda and two Nissans. And I would not hesitate to buy Ford these days. GM, I would give pause. Chrysler, I love the muscle cars of times past, but have had issues with vehicles I ordered new in the nineties and early 2000's. The Jeep Rubicon was OK mechanically but the build quality and paint sucked. The Dodge was just garbage. And I use full synthetics for the fluids and follow the 'severe duty' maintenance schedule. I have not had one single problem with two brand new Ford Mustangs - one a GT and the other a 500. Not one.
 
Quote from DHOHHI:

With all due respect you really don't know anything about the auto industry. It's not just GM but Ford, Toyota and everyone else does changeover in tooling between model years since new models (2012) are not the same as old models (2011). Trust me -- I know as I built scheduling systems for the US Big 3. Every summer there were shutdowns of the plants.

http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/201...t-for-retooling-allowing-expanded-production/
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It's not that hard a concept to grasp, seriously.

The bigger point is that GM is saying simultaneously that the Volt is in big demand but the sales figures are atrocious. They try to reconcile that by saying they don't have enough cars to sell. I couldn't find anything about how many Volts they had actually produced thus far versus their planned production of 16,000 units in '11.

All I'm really saying is they seriously messed up the rollout of this car. This is not some juiced up special edition muscle car. It is what they envision as the company saver. Yet somehow, in the crucial intro year, they want us to believe they only sold a few hundred of them because they somehow didn't or couldn't make enough of them.

Maybe it's all true, which is an even scarier thought if you're a GM stockholder.
 
The problem with the volt is I do not see the value proposition. First the Government subsidizes the cost of a volt to the tune of 7500 dollars. I have an issue with that to begin with. If it is such a great value proposition, the market will price appropriately and demand will grow along with it.

The volt is priced in the premium luxury car range, For 15.9K MSRP you can get a Corolla that gets 28/35 MPG.

So someone who is trying to save on gas cost due to budget constraints is not going to pony up 40-50K for a volt. And some dealers are pocketing the 7500 bucks by selling the Volts as used, in addition to selling above MSRP.

Your cost per mile will be much cheaper with a Toyota Corolla than one of these exotic volts.

Once the geeks,select movie stars and politicians buy the Chevy Volt I just do not see a big market for this Vehicle.
 
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

It's not that hard a concept to grasp, seriously.

The bigger point is that GM is saying simultaneously that the Volt is in big demand but the sales figures are atrocious. They try to reconcile that by saying they don't have enough cars to sell. I couldn't find anything about how many Volts they had actually produced thus far versus their planned production of 16,000 units in '11.

All I'm really saying is they seriously messed up the rollout of this car. This is not some juiced up special edition muscle car. It is what they envision as the company saver. Yet somehow, in the crucial intro year, they want us to believe they only sold a few hundred of them because they somehow didn't or couldn't make enough of them.

Maybe it's all true, which is an even scarier thought if you're a GM stockholder.
More...

Ahhh...You're acting like GM would lie.:eek: :p :eek:
 
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