I wish they payed me though……would make tuition payments easier. : )

But Honda would have to pay me too, cuz I am usually singing their praises as well. I rather enjoy their vehicles currently. Edmunds finds the best mid size sedans to be Accord, Malibu, and THEN Camry. Personally, I think it is the lame dashboard attached to that Camry……it is the same one on my moms ’99 Suburban. : )

Not very impressive in 2008

LINK: http://gm-volt.com/2008/08/14/breaking-gm-releases-new-production-volt-photos/

** Re-read a lot of the comments – it’s not that the world at large doubts that GM can do it – they doubt that they will.

A lot of my frustration and lack of trust comes due to GM itself. What happened to the EV-1? Why aren’t they cranking them out now? The VOLT was originally billed as an all electric vehicle then for a brief moment as a fuel cell vehicle and now it is a gas electric hybrid….. It was going to get hundreds of miles per gallon – but now its revised downwards. So I am going to remain skeptical until it happens!

So yes it is vaporware until they actually produce a showroom full of them!

Bryce is our leading GM apologist – I generally poke fun at him for being a GM employee paid to surf these sites.

I found this site when looking for a Hybrid – specifically the ford SUV hybrids…. ended up with a CAMRY Hybrid because I could not ever find an American made hybrid (as of today still waiting for calls from the local ford dealers telling me to come test drive the hybrid SUV).

So yes – a lot of folks on this site are skeptical…. and I really don’t blame them. GM Had the opportunity to be well ahead of this curve and a leader in the American market…. instead they crushed their EV-1 and mass produced over-sized under-performing SUV’s and trucks.

Call us all a bunch of doubting thomases but until I can walk into the local Des Moines GM dealer and test drive a volt I will not believe in it!

As for GM surviving on overseas sales, take a look at their current financials. It’s been estimated in several trade journals and sites that GM has about 2 years of cash left at their current rate of ‘decline’. That includes overseas sales. So you can do the math and see that the Volt is their car to show inventors and customers that they can compete in a high-efficiency world.

Lastly, the biggest hurdle of making this car is probably already past. Both the two major battery builders have delivered working batteries to specs. If you follow Lyle’s site you can see that in the tone and content of the interviews he has had. They’re nit fluff answers but the kinds of things you hear from scientists and engineers, not marketeers.

SO the only real issue I see is what will the price be? At $40,000 you’ll get richer folks looking for more exotic and technologically impressive cars. At $30,000 they’ll see more of these than Priis. That’s why any financial tax credit from Uncle Sam may be so crucial. AT the same time, getting 100Ks of these things on the road is what the country really needs NOW.

O an waltz, I wasn’t trying to be critical at all, just saying that such a rebate has already been talked about, and given all the hype energy agendas are getting from both sides of the aisle, it seems likely that we will get some sort of substantial assisstance in the department of electrical propulsion. If not, the private sector seems to already be on it. Lockheed-Martin is investing in EEstor and has been for some time. The same programs that brought us microwaves, cell phones, and the internet will bring us the next leap forward in automotive transportation. : ) Sounds fitting to me.

For those who think GM is dead if this car doesn’t come out, think again. Don’t go that far. GM has a strong overseas market share and they are working with global partners to engineer new products for North America. Don’t believe all the hype.