My battery has never let me down.Quote from AAAintheBeltway:
OK, you had a minor point before spoiling it with the real estate example.
The cost apparently does include R & D costs. So how much they are losing depends on how you define costs. If it is only marginal costs or variable costs, clearly they are not losing that much per unit. They're probably still losing, just not that much. You can't run a car line for the volumes they are doing and not lose.
But the costs are there. somebody has to pay for them.. oh wait, the taxpayers got to do that, didn't they. So the $40 billion or so Obama pissed away to pay off his union paymasters just doesn't count.
You could make an argument that at least some of the R&D would make its way into later vehicles, but the Volt has been such a total and complete disaster, GM may be out of business before they can recoup any of it.
The biggest problem with the Volt is they start out with a piece of crap, then put a battery and electric motor in it. A battery that may not get you downtown and back. You'd have to be a total moron to buy one of these instead of a Prius.
Um actually, our fleet department has sold only a handful of Volt's. The governments aren't buying them. Company's aren't buying them either. I have sold 20 Volt's in the past 9 weeks. Every one of them was to a regular person.Quote from AAAintheBeltway:
Bingo. Busted. He claims to be moving Volts like free beer. Maybe he is, provided he has the Defense Department contract. No one else is buying them.
Quote from Sandybestdog:
He's buying it cause he wants to stick it to the oil man.
Why is defending something with a reasonable argument shilling but relentlessly bashing it to pander to a political base freely accepted and in fact encouraged?Quote from pspr:
And, still, Sandydog doesn't want to talk about his/her shilling activities. But does admit to stalking Chevy volt threads. Do tell us about your motives, employers and activities with this regard.
And, name calling will just get you questioned even more.
Your needs/desires in a car purchase may be different than another person's. It doesn't make it right or wrong. You do what works for you, and somebody else can do what works for them.Quote from nutmeg:
That is an interesting comment I've heard now and then. Personally, I don't care to stick it to the "oil man". I just like to make money so I don't care what gas costs, or how many mpg I get, or have to drive something fuel efficient. What's the point of that? and why do I have to be efficient or conserve? Boomers will be dropping like flies soon (aging out) this will more than makeup for the loss of efficiency I and a few others might waste driving around in a suv.
Quote from Sandybestdog:
My battery has never let me down.
Your political opinions are clearly clouding your ability to make a sensible argument. The Volt cost a whopping $1.2billion to develop. Are you arguing that $1.2billion is going to put GM out of business? The Volt will be implemented into other designs. This is just the begininng.
The biggest problem with you is that you are so closed minded in your thinking that you would rather see a good thing fail to score political points than admitting that they may be on to something, or to at least even let it run it's course and see what happens. Only one person that I know who has test driven a Volt has ever said they didn't love it. She bought a Cruze instead.
By the way, I can't tell you how many current owners of Prius's are now looking at Volt's. Nearly all Volt purchasers are currently non GM owners.