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

Quote from GTS:

Guess you haven't priced Lithium-Ion batteries then, that's just how much they cost.

The volt battery is only 16 kWh, the Nissan Leaf is 24 kWh so I would expect it to cost 50% more, e.g. $12k+ (I couldn't find an actual price on the net, apparently its a secret)

The cost of the battery is really the deal breaker with the current generation of cars (and why they are priced so high), they need to get the cost of Li-Ion batteries down significantly or find an alternate technology to store energy.

Here's some interesting information from the Leaf wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf):

"Warranty

The Leaf's battery warranty is for eight years or 160,000 kilometres (100,000 mi). The warranty covers defects in materials and workmanship, but does not cover gradual loss of battery capacity, nor does it cover damage or failure resulting from not following the preventive actions recommended in the Leaf Owner's Manual for the lithium-ion battery, such as exposing the car to ambient temperatures above 120 °F (49 °C) for over 24 hours, or storing the Leaf in temperatures below −13 °F (−25 °C) for over 7 days."

Here's something from the Volt wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevy_volt)

"In order to make sure the battery pack would last ten years and 150,000 miles (240,000 km) expected for the battery warranty, the Volt team decided to use only half of the 16 kW capacity to reduce the rate of capacity degradation, limiting the state of charge (SOC) up to 80% of capacity and never depleting the battery below 30%.

General Motors also was expecting the battery could withstand 5,000 full discharges without losing more than 10% of its charge capacity."


I am calling BS on GM's claim. No way a battery can do that.

"Lisa in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics" - Homer
 
Quote from BSAM:

Eight-thousand dollars??? Say what???

If this is correct, I'd say a Volt is out of the question. Talk about "highway" robbery!!

Yes, absolutely insane! By the time a person pays the car off, plus one of those battery packs plus the finance charge, they would have close to 60K in a Chevy that would book out for around $14,500 depending on the miles.:eek:

I sit here shaking my head in total disbelief that GM is this damn stupid to make a "car" like that. Then again, GM is NOW a union benefits, and healthcare organization that happens to build cars on the side, and is the epitome of moral hazard...
 
Quote from bone:

Ford Raptor

I have been smitten ever since the feature on 'Top Gear'. Thinking about ordering one from Hennessey.

20sioh0.jpg

fugly.

Silverado is a such a better truck. All around.
 
Quote from Magic8:

fugly.

Silverado is a such a better truck. All around.

Look in your magic8ball and tell me who has been the #1 selling truck maker for about 35 years. Get back with me.
 
Quote from Rehoboth:
That wasnt even related on topic. What I asked was a simple question, I figured you would know the answer since you work for a dealer. No reason to get defensive.
I don't know the exact point at which it could be determined that the battery has eroded enough to be covered under warranty. I don't work in service and don't handle the warranties. The simple answer is, nobody knows. That's life. GM has done their testing and is confident enough that they will work for an acceptable lifetime. This argument was used years ago with the Prius and they have held up fine. Again, if anybody is concerned with the battery technology, the simple answer is to not buy one. While you're at it, don't bother buying a laptop either, since that has the same type of battery as the Volt. By the way, at this point my guess is the battery pack costs more than $8k. The Volt is basically a fully loaded Cruze (same engine and chassis). That is priced at $26k while the Volt is around $43k. Although the Volt does have other things like regenerative braking and 5 years OnStar($1500 value).

It seems in the last few posts I'm basically hearing a whole lot of "well I can't understand why anybody would buy this car, so I'm going to search and find a bunch of articles and determine that it's a crap car and GM is so stupid for making it." Who do you think is buying these? Do you think it's limited to celebrities trying to go green? If you think it's die hard GM loyalists that are buying these, you are wrong. In fact every single one of my Volt customers did not own a GM product before. I get that BMW question all the time. Who cares? Go to the ghetto someday, you'll see it littered with luxury cars. But drive a Volt around town and you'll get more than a few thumbs up.

Besides reading a bunch of articles online by uninformed authors, let me ask you guys this - have any of you actually talked to anybody who has bought one or is considering one? Better yet, have any of you actually test driven one? The arguments being made here are the same ones that were made about the Prius, solar panels, computers, and iPhones. Weren't these all things that were claimed to be too expensive and would never work? Here we are later and average Joe can get any of these. The good news for you guys is that somebody else is paying the initial higher price until the price comes down and you guys finally come around to buying one. Remember, this type of vehicle can easily be adopted in full size sedans, sports cars, suv's, and pick up trucks.
 
brilliant fellas.. argue with a car salesman...

GM will always be shit in the usa, after decades of making...shit.

If you want people to respect the brand, move to china. The chinese love it over there, the buick symbol at least.
 
Quote from newguy05:
brilliant fellas.. argue with a car salesman...

GM will always be shit in the usa, after decades of making...shit.

If you want people to respect the brand, move to china. The chinese love it over there, the buick symbol at least.
Typical ET. Don't challenge any of my points, just call me a car salesman and be done with it. Anytime you want to have an intelligent conversation, just let me know. Although that seems harder and harder to find on ET.
 
Quote from Sandybestdog:

Typical ET. Don't challenge any of my points, just call me a car salesman and be done with it. Anytime you want to have an intelligent conversation, just let me know. Although that seems harder and harder to find on ET.

What on earth are you talking about? Most of this discussion is either about the battery/warranty or the cost effectiveness of this car. Yes there is the gm=shit talk, but besides that people have very good points which you cant answer; which is fine, you answer what you dont know. So what points are you saying? Because I really want this car to work, but as a representative, you are doing a terrible job.
 
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