the chevy dolt

[Azazello1313]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/opinion/...meyer.html?_r=2

 

GENERAL MOTORS introduced America to the Chevrolet Volt at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show as a low-slung concept car that would someday be the future of motorized transportation. It would go 40 miles on battery power alone, promised G.M., after which it would create its own electricity with a gas engine. Three and a half years — and one government-assisted bankruptcy later — G.M. is bringing a Volt to market that makes good on those two promises. The problem is, well, everything else.

 

For starters, G.M.’s vision turned into a car that costs $41,000 before relevant tax breaks ... but after billions of dollars of government loans and grants for the Volt’s development and production. And instead of the sleek coupe of 2007, it looks suspiciously similar to a Toyota Prius. It also requires premium gasoline, seats only four people (the battery runs down the center of the car, preventing a rear bench) and has less head and leg room than the $17,000 Chevrolet Cruze, which is more or less the non-electric version of the Volt.

 

In short, the Volt appears to be exactly the kind of green-at-all-costs car that some opponents of the bailout feared the government might order G.M. to build. Unfortunately for this theory, G.M. was already committed to the Volt when it entered bankruptcy. And though President Obama’s task force reported in 2009 that the Volt “will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term,” it didn’t cancel the project.

....

So the future of General Motors (and the $50 billion taxpayer investment in it) now depends on a vehicle that costs $41,000 but offers the performance and interior space of a $15,000 economy car.

 

so, sounds like it pretty much sucks. but hey, as a taxpayer, you've already "bought" it!

 

Quantifying just how much taxpayer money will have been wasted on the hastily developed Volt is no easy feat. Start with the $50 billion bailout (without which none of this would have been necessary), add $240 million in Energy Department grants doled out to G.M. last summer, $150 million in federal money to the Volt’s Korean battery supplier, up to $1.5 billion in tax breaks for purchasers and other consumer incentives, and some significant portion of the $14 billion loan G.M. got in 2008 for “retooling” its plants, and you’ve got some idea of how much taxpayer cash is built into every Volt.

Edited July 30, 2010 by Azazello1313

[Perchoutofwater]

This is why politicians should get out of the way of the free market. Just stupid! I'm so glad our tax dollars are going towards crap like this.

[dmarc117]

i just dont get this........

 

the car looks pretty cool, but people dont care about the environment rite now. they just need to get around, as cheaply as they can.

[matt770]

Just wait 'til the economy turns around, demand for oil goes back up and gasoline is $7 a gallon. They will sell the stupid things like hotcakes.

 

Yeah, 2025 will be a good year.

[TimC]

Spend an extra $10k and get Da Vette. You make Prius drivers cry when you pull up next to them.

[buddahj]

Just wait 'til the economy turns around, demand for oil goes back up and gasoline is $7 a gallon. They will sell the stupid things like hotcakes.

 

Yeah, 2025 will be a good year.

Let me know how it all works out. I'll be living on the moon by then.

[NastyAssMayonnaise]

Needs more interior space? People don't care about the environment?

 

That must be why the Prius failed and Hummer sales are through the roof. You guys should go back in time 5 years and run GM.

[Savage Beatings]

Needs more interior space? People don't care about the environment?

 

That must be why the Prius failed and Hummer sales are through the roof. You guys should go back in time 5 years and run GM.

 

Welcome back NAM!

[redrumjuice]

This is how to create jobs and curb immigration.

 

U.S. automobile giant General Motors Co. said Tuesday it plans to invest close to $500 million in its Ramos Arizpe plant in northern Mexico to produce a new line of engines as well as a new vehicle...

 

"We estimate that these technologies allow for a 9% improvement in fuel efficiency from current engines," Lieblein said, adding that the investment will directly create 390 jobs in Coahuila state, where Ramos Arizpe is located.

 

Another $215 million will go toward upgrading the factory's production lines to build a new vehicle for the domestic and international markets, she said, noting that the investment will be key to maintaining 400 jobs.