I was at a Volt Rally recently. About 40 owners were there. All of us agreed that we bought the car for either economic or ecological reasons, but we fell in love with the awesome drive, not one mile down the road. Now, we just love to drive the car! It is a blast! And, oh yes, it is the most ecological car out there. Witness the Ampera winning the Monte Carlo Alternative Fuel Rally. Beat out all EV’s and hybrids.

So, now we get to have a blast and be green. JD Powers just named the Volt “Most Loved Compact Car”. In the UK, Diesel Car publication named the Volt “Best Eco Car”. Plus, it’s American ingenuity at it’s best.

Being able to run a car on domestic energy sources helps with securing energy security.

In Australia, we just had another announcement that another oil refinery is going to be closed down which means we will rely on more imported gasoline and diesel. This is a threat to Australia, but as soon as more people more to Electric Cars, more people can insulate themselves from any oil supply threats.

Enough said right there.

How come you keep twisting the logic? You blame the PIP sales on “short length offering” since only April, but you keep bring up a 12 year old model against a 2 year model. I would sure hope a cheaper model with longer history would sell more.

PIP doesn’t sell well b/c its price point. Higher priced cars sell less. (especially when it is basically the same car without any real advantages beside HOV stickers). That is a simple logic that you have been evading for a long time. Volt is a more expensive car at a higher price point. If the Prius offer 30 miles range, then it would have cost more than Volt. At that price point, I seriously doubt it will sell any better.

BTW, how come you didn’t respond to the lower crash rating of the PIP? Cherry picking topics, haven’t you?

Take one aspect? He said this, “Fact is I am a GM retiree, love our Volt, have never owned a foreign produced car, never will, and in todays world question anyone who derides an American Product. If a person doesn’t want it fine, don’t buy it, take your money and send it overseas, a true sign of a Patriot in my book.”

–So please read the WHOLE paragraph before parsing out only the pieces you want to nit pick. I don’t have a problem with him loving the Volt. The fact that he never owned a foreign car, never will and questions anyone that derides an American product speaks volumes as to why I discredit his opinion. He has a huge bias and won’t even think about any car, but a GM (or other American) car. You can’t debate with someone like that.

And yes, anyone who throws down the patirot card as the end all be all to an argument generally means they have nothing else intelligent to bring to the table. It’s a weak arguement at best and xenophobic at its worst.

I never said the Volt wasn’t a car for some people. I said it was a car for only people that have access to an outlet. This particular issue is with the outlet. It leaves out whole swaths of the U.S. population that don’t have access to an outlet. Please re-read a previous post because I don’t want to copy it here.

I don’t care if you’re a GM employee or not. But to bring it up in a conversation like this, you have to realize that people are going to think you’re biased towards the company you work for and it’s products. It’s just natural for you to be biased. But it’s like watching the business channel and listening to a financial analyst tell you that his views on stock “X” are very bullish this year, only to find out that he is holding a nice chunk of stock “X” in his portfolio. You want to hear that info. from a non-holding independent analyst not someone that is heavliy invested in “X”.

I do not work for Toyota or any company that does business with them or any other automaker. So I personally believe that the Prius is a better overall value.

Great technique. Take one aspect of a person and totally discredit them. Let’s give credit where credit’s due. He didn’t hide the fact he worked for GM!

Oh, you also said “Anyone that throws down the patriotism card to defend their argument has no argument.”

So you criticize someone else who makes a statement based on one issue, then make a statement based on one issue (his being a GM retiree).

Hmmm….

Obviously this is an extremely important issue for you, but why does it have to be “one size fits all?” Can’t a Volt be better value for some people, and the Prius for others? Isn’t America about freedom of choice?

By the way, I CURRENTLY work for GM, so I’m sure I have NO credibity with you. But being more consistent might help your credibility.

Actually I think you’re missing the point on how come the PIP isn’t doing as well as it should. It’s not because the Volt is so dominating because again it’s not. It’s because the PIP doesn’t hold a large enough edge over the Prius liftback for it to be a real consideration for most people. If it had 30+ miles in EV mode you would see Volt sales take a deep dive. Even with the difference in the PIP vs. Volt, the Volt has only outsold the PIP 2:1 and that’s including the fact that the PIP has only been on sale since April and it has outsold the Leaf. Now the regular non-PIP line has sold 122,416 in the first 6 months. Dominating indeed.

You’re a GM retiree. Enough said right there. So I’ll move on to the next point. How many condo’s, apartment buildings, businesses, houses either in the downtown areas or surrounding areas in the U.S. where cars have to park in the street or parking lot have access to an electrical outlet regardless of what Voltage it is? Very few is the answer. The Volt is regulated to suburbs where houses have driveways or garages that have an outlet for it. The Prius can be bought by anyone because it doesn’t have that restriction. Yes, you can get the PIP if you want, but why would you if you have no access to an outlet?

A true sign of a patriot is someone who buys only American products? Anyone that throws down the patriotism card to defend their argument has no argument. I served in the U.S. military for 8 years (1992-2000), so if you feel that I lack a sense of patriotism to this country just take a look at the veterans plates on my Prius. They’ll remind you that while people talk about being patriotic I was out there willing to defend it if the time came.

Maybe if GM wasn’t throwing quality and fuel economy to the wind when I was in the car buying scene I would have gone with GM. However, as a previous owner of two Grand Prix’s and two Cavaliers I can tell you that quality was not GM’s #1 priority. Short term profit with trucks/SUV’s was their #1 concern. So I went with a reliable, high mileage vehicle like the Prius and I’ve been happy ever since. It’ll take a lot and I mean A LOT of work at GM to bring me back to their showroom floor.

Here is another fact, Prius Plugin is almost the direct competitor of the Volt b/c of the higher price point and plug in capabilities. But Volt just about dominated the Plugin in sales and performance. And the latest government crash just rated the Plugin Prius (PiP) a four star instead of Volt’s 5 star rating…

Also, you keep missing the fact about “PRICING POINT”. Prius Plugins are selling FAR LOWER in quantity than the Gen III Prius b/c it is $5k to $10k more expensive than the regular Prius (before $2,500 fed tax credits and $1,500 CA cash back).

Volt is even higher priced than Prius Plugin but it still did better in sales (ytd or averaged per month in the same few months that Pip has been on sale).