No doubt that Toyota has a leg up on everyone else with the Prius. Goes to show what being early to market can do. And there’s also no question that the American makes took far too long to see the importance of having the technology to produce fuel efficient vehicles.

But I think the Volt is a very realistic competitor to the Prius. Given a choice between the two, I would pick the Volt for both aesthetics and efficiency. Of course price needs to be a consideration and that isn’t known as far as I know.

And autobob brought up a good point about making hybrids that are too expensive. My opinion is that while GM started out with an expensive hybrid drive train on their SUVs which proved to be an exceptionally ill-timed investment, it will eventually pan out into something that will right-size over time. Chrysler’s version of the two-mode hybrid cost $8,000 less and still didn’t sell in an otherwise comparable vehicle. So what is the right price? I still see new gasoline only-powered Escalades rolling off the lot that cost far more then either the Tahoe/Yukon hybrids or the Durango/Aspen hybrids that use the GM/BMW/Chrysler system. There’s something more than just price going on there.

What I think all manufacturers should do is implement hybrids as an option on all of their passenger vehicles. I’m being Captain Obvious here, but what isn’t obvious is why they aren’t. I mean, here’s a fairly proven new technology that can offer significant reductions in oil consumption and output of carbon emissions. You’ve got a couple of American car companies here that are pretty much going back to the drawing board on their entire line-ups. Isn’t now the time to make the switch?

I think your logic is sound. It’s just that hybrid and SUV is an oxymoron, hehe…

But seriously, GM is choosing to play second fiddle here by not aggressively developing top notch, efficient, and affordable model to challenging Toyota Prius (Volt is priced out of the park for average people). Instead of concentrate/redoubling their efforts, they have chosen to take the leftover market and develop more suv hybrids. This is not a sign of a company striving for #1. This is a sign of a company happy in its complacency and surviving another day!

If I drive 12,000 miles a year driving an average sub/compact 4 cyl. that gets 30 mpg combined, I am consuming 400 gals. of gasoline a year. If I replace this vehicle with one that get 50 mpg, that goes down to 240 gals. A savings of 160 gals./year. Very respectable.

Now, lets say I drive a large V8 sport ute that gets 12 mpg. And I buy a hybrid SUV that gets 20 mpg. Now I’m going from 1000 gals./year to 600 gals./year. A savings of 400 gals./year. Again, respectable in my opinion.

Now overall, the 8 mpg increase that the SUV gets is actually saving more gasoline and reducing more emissions than the 20 mpg increase on the smaller car. Now clearly, convincing the SUV driver that they don’t need such a beast and getting them to buy the smaller car would be even better, but I’m of the opinion that such an effort is nigh impossible. I mean look around. People are still buying SUVs. Forget why – they are. I say good for GM. Let’s just hope they can bring it to market at a price that doesn’t shock people into skipping it entirely and just going with the plain ol’ gas guzzlin’ SUV they’re going to buy otherwise.

I don’t expect Penske to get a hold of any of this considering that their agreement is for all the stuff currently in production for two years. After that Penske will have to source vehicles from other auto manufacturers. (rumor has it that Renault-Samsung’s compact car is in the running…google it!)

Not sure everyone that has a full sized truck actually needs it. I don’t understand why everyone needs a V8 including on a Tundra or Tacoma model. Half of what you say is just pure egos at work nothing more w/c all the major auto manufactures play into. Example is why can’t at least one company produce a small sized diesel engine for a full sized truck? Or why is there rumors of Ford boasting Truck production to capitalize on the Cash for Clunkers Program? Old habits are hard to break & you are right about SUV & Truck sales but spikes in oil prices create problems for folks like GM who are not diverse enough in their product line. But being diverse in their product line also means they would have to focus on simplified branding for marketing & better r&d/ production.

Can someone tell me a clear difference in Buick & Cadillac or Chevy trucks/GMAC trucks if you can why would we not talk about a Buick Volt or say pricing of Toyota’s luxury brand Lexis starts around 30k while many Buick’s are in the same price level but Cadillac is suppose to be GM’s luxury brand. Also a history lesson was when GM tried to hip up Cadillac to a younger crowd a few years ago only to almost destroy the brand but they are trying the same strategy w/ Buick. Old management locked into a inter circle of folks who are telling them bad advise in some weird Detroit bubble time for the board to walk up & start demanding a new strategy b/c I doubt GM will hold onto 1/5 of the US market for much longer. Sad if you really think about it where innovation became complacency including lobbying attempts to reverse/ create more loopholes in the new CAFE regulations.