Chevy Volt Hits the Road in Pre-production Form

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nekatreven

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What strikes me when looking at this is that almost all of the background vehicles are GM cars.

At around 0:43 there is an old red f150 in the background.
At around 1:01 there is a silver/gray chrysler minivan (behind the little blue sign)
A few cars behind the minivan there is a late model mustang.

There were probably 20 to 30 cars seen in the clips of this road test. Even if I missed a few non GM cars, I don't think the ratio is true to average "aimless driving". I wonder if they intentionally chose clips that were high in wholesome GM content. :)

If you watch the thing its just one after another...firebird, vette, rendezvous, several astro vans, etc.
 

nekatreven

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Adding to my comment...it looks like they were close to some GM facilities...so it probably wouldn't be hard to pick clips they wanted. I think it was on purpose...
 

fulle

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@neka
If they were close to GM facilities, cruising around (very likely), people who work at or are otherwise associated with the GM facilities would feel more comfortable driving a GM vehicle.

Its like, if you were a sales guy for SAN Switches, and you were trying to sell to IBM.... Wouldn't you want to walk into the room with a Lenovo laptop for your presentation? People around there probably just bought more GM vehicles... rather than this being intentionally edited that way.
 

doomtomb

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The Volt looks pretty cool but I don't know why he is so excited about being ahead of schedule. We should have had electric cars like a decade ago.
 

Luscious

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I'm not surprised GM got to where they are today if they're still trying to figure out how the blinkers sound - ROFL. How many years ago was the car invented? Right. GM has made no progress at all since the days of the EV-1 - same redneck vehicles for redneck America, oblivious to new technology and stubborn to change.

It's a shame we are still an F150 nation, but while hauling 2-tons down the road won't get you 40MPG, it's backward thinking to not develop that kind of efficiency for passenger vehicles used in the big city. Big oil is losing nothing whatsoever from the development of EV's, especially since they hold the lucrative patents for the battery technology.
 

bk420

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After billion$ of taxpayer$ dollar$....finally a car that has already lost much ground to the Prius. Too bad the middle class family will not be able to afford these as Obamanation planned or better yet buy a cheaper much more sofisticated Prius.

What a horrible investment.
 

slaptacular

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@ bk420
I understand your frustration with GM taking bailouts. But if I could get a huge sum of money from Obama for my company, I would take it too and not give back the bonus I gave myself.... Maybe. Don't let the dishonesty from the execs fool you. Old Prius's have failing transmissions and very expensive batteries that fail, both of which often cost more than half the value of the car to replace (a "total-loss"). If you look at the numbers, GM's sales have not dropped much more than the Japanese car makers, and I see as many '09 GM rides on the road as I ever have new models. All the car makers are suffering. When the Volt is faster, cheaper to own, and gets better MPG than a Prius, will you eat your words?
[citation][nom]nekatreven[/nom]What strikes me when looking at this is that almost all of the background vehicles are GM cars.At around 0:43 there is an old red f150 in the background.At around 1:01 there is a silver/gray chrysler minivan (behind the little blue sign)A few cars behind the minivan there is a late model mustang. EDITED ...firebird, vette, rendezvous, several astro vans, etc.[/citation]
F150 - Ford, not GM.
"chrysler minivan" - Chrysler is not GM, nor Ford.
"late model mustang" - Ford, not GM.
"firebird, vette, rendezvous, several astro vans, etc." - Yes, Pontiac, Buick, and Chevrolet are GM.


 

zodiacfml

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i don't think the volt will ever be better than the prius but i do think, the volt is one cool car similar to those expensive sports cars.
 

foldsomething

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...the Chevy Volt takes it a step further by offering plug-in for electrical recharge.
Seriously??? That's all you're going to say about the specs on a Volt? While it is a hybrid, like the Prius, it's a totally different concept. The Prius uses an electric motor at low speeds (under 20 mph or so) and then uses a low power 4 cylinder gasoline combustion engine to cruise at higher speeds.

The drive train of the Volt is totally electric. It has a Lithium-ion battery instead of a Ni-MH like factory Prius's, and the battery can take you 40 miles when fully charged... yes you can plug it in to charge it. What happens when you need to drive more than 40 miles? It has a gasoline powered generator that makes electricity only - it does not add hp to the electric motor like a Prius. In theory if you commute less than 40 miles a day and always plugin at home, you never need gasoline for this car... VERY different from hybrids from toyota, honda, nissan, ford, etc.

Maybe everyone who reads Toms Guide already knew all that... but I'm surprised at the sloppy writing on this article.
 

TwoDigital

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Electric car is an interesting idea... so long as you generate the electricity with solar, wind, or (especially) nuclear power you'll actually be coming out AHEAD.

Over 50% of the U.S. electricity comes from burning coal... about 50 pounds of coal to replace 1 gallon of gasoline. What a HECK of a trade-off, eh? Good thing the battery in this car only lasts for about 100 miles so we're only burning 200 pounds of coal to replace those 4 gallons of gasoline. 200 pounds is also about what the car weights. :) I'd hate to be in one of THOSE when it has a head-on or side-impact collision... VERY high mortality rate in those deathtraps.
 

doomtomb

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[citation][nom]stufmenatooba[/nom]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EV1GM is WAY behind everyone else... right?[/citation]
Oh ya, I remember seeing that on the road once. At least the Volt looks like something that the average consumer would want.
 
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