Consumer Reports Knocks the Volt
**Written by Doug Powers
The New York Times had a turn last summer, calling the Volt “GMs electric lemon,” and now Consumer Reports offers a review:
Consumer Reports offered a harsh initial review of the Chevrolet Volt, questioning whether General Motors Co.’s flagship vehicle makes economic “sense.”The extended-range plug-in electric vehicle is on the cover of the April issue — the influential magazine’s annual survey of vehicles — but the GM vehicle comes in for criticism.
“When you are looking at purely dollars and cents, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense. The Volt isn’t particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and it’s not particularly good as a gas vehicle either in terms of fuel economy,” said David Champion, the senior director of Consumer Reports auto testing center at a meeting with reporters here. “This is going to be a tough sell to the average consumer.”
Let’s see… taxpayer money is being dumped into a car that the public can’t afford and/or doesn’t want. Demand for the expensive product is to be created by high gas prices combined with goading the public into buying one by scaring them with a mythical crisis pushed by an enviro-hypocrite who goes around in a private jet telling everybody the oceans are going to rise and flood the same coastlines where he recently invested millions in a seaside mansion. In a nutshell, the theme park impresarios who proposed “Six Flags Over Chernobyl” had a more solid business plan.
The Volt is in part the brainchild of politicians who expect everyone to believe that we need to spend money to keep from going bankrupt, so was the “economic sense” of the thing ever really in question?
They say it’s called the “Volt” because “Massively Expensive Union Bailout” wouldn’t fit on the hood. If the batteries continue to perform poorly in cold weather, don’t look for the Volt to be scrapped, but rather for several billion taxpayer dollars to be spent on a “Winning the Future” extension cord program.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Categories: Automakers,Barack Obama,global warming
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HI TRIPLE-D–#61. Good list of POS cars. But don’t forget to add the Pontiac Fierro to your list.
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My son bought one–a 2 year old 1984. Fun to drive–but always broken. Constant brake pad failures, radiator problems, oil leaks, gas leaks, etc. And at 25,000 miles–engine blowup with hole in piston, cracked cylinder head, etc. I was the driveway mechanic on the car from Hell.
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I saw more of the guts of that car than any other–except for a 1955 Chevvy full rebuild I did long ago to get a great car cheap.
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And I used to have a recurring nightmare. I had died and gone to Hell–and the Devil had a Fierro. And he made me the mechanic!
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Buy Honda or Toyota if you want cars that run great and give loooooong life. and good economy.
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John Bibb
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HI SIDEWINDER–#76. I think your Camry engine sludge problem must have been caused by a poor choice of motor oil. Or possibly by a poor oil filter choice.
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Our 1989 Camry went over 260,000 miles without major problems. In my experience the best oils are the full synthetic ones–no sludge problems. And buy high quality oil filters.
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I use the Castrol FS 5W-30 oil and Bosch filters. They cost a little more than the cheap stuff–but the oil change interval can be extended to 8000 miles.
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Like the old commercial said, “Pay me now–or pay me (bigtime) later!”.
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John Bibb
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This will prove to be another failure of Government running a buisness. Until SuperCaps are perfected, long range electric cars are a pipe dream.
On March 01, 2011 at 11:22 am, BrianPat said:
Good point – you mean selling cars to themselves.
Sales increases are window dressing based on abysmal volume. If I make $3 today up from $2 yesterday I’ll sell stock saying we’ve seen “50% growth overnight!” Means nothing.
It doesn’t surprise me that he said that. Of course, the UCC didn’t even exist back in the 18th century.
Swede, you mean the gubmint and the MSM lie with numbers! I am shocked I tell you, Shocked! I saw the CBS poll that 60% of americans approve of collective bargaining for the public sector unions. If that’s even remotely close to accurate, it is time for all taxpayers to give up their citizenship and move to the Northern Marianas.
Thank you. That would put it maybe over a mile from the ocean.
Sorry, I hate to be so cranky about this, but we don’t need to be Dan Rathers when it comes to facts. There’s plenty to beat up Al over…
I know. Me too.
If the oceans RISE as The Goracle claims they will, he’ll be sitting on Oceanfront Property.
Ah, but it’s a strategic move. When the ice cap melts he has ocean front property.
Pure genius I tell ya.
Winner by a nose.
#102 Toyota told us that too but that was to cover their butts. The camry (’96) was well taken care of. Castrol all the way. My mechanic son made sure we used the best. After doing research we found out that 1997-2001 had recalls for the same reasons. It wasn’t our fault but we paid for it. So now I don’t believe Toyota when they say it is driver’s error when the car pedal sticks.
Please GM….can we rename the Volt, the Obama?
They both share so many similarities:
A lot of hype.
Promised one thing, but gave us another.
Advertised as good for America.
Cost an arm and a leg to produce, and will continue to do so until replaced.
Can’t sell it without an exaggerated sales pitch.
The Chevy Obama!
They have to do two things to ensure people know which Obama it’s named after:
only produce them in pink or similar colors;
Make sure they don’t come with an oversized trunk.
I had a ’69 Buick Riviera. It was saddle color with a cream vinyl top.
430 cu. in., 4 bbl carb. Flip-over headlights. A real beauty.
Hwy mileage: 10 mpg.
City Mileage: 10 mpg.
Downhill: 10 mpg.
Uphill: 10mpg.
I’ll say again – Dodge Caravan – poor design causing mechanical failure (transmission).
So the lightbulb idea just branded “The Michelle Obama” model?
Always market a car for both sexes.
The first car my husband and I bought was a ’64 Buick Riviera. Ooh I loved that car.
In our uber liberal city Smart cars have become the rage and now EV charging stations are being installed for all the electric cars they are expecting will be bought. We don’t have leaders with vision only followers of fads. I don’t have a doubt that in the future they will outlaw anything that is bigger than a matchbox car.
How does one do the “box’ thing when quoting another?
Those monster 8′s came with 4bbl Holley’s from the factory. Still remember that sound when you floored it and the secondary’s opened up – WAAAAAAAAAAA. Sweet music. If you kept your foot in it you could see the gas guage moving.
Happy days.
I had a Dodge Caravan and the transmission failed.
Yes indeed there it was in the Consumer Reprots which I unfortunately read after the fact. Had I researched that I would never have purchased it.
Either press the quote button, enter the quoted text, then hit the /quote button again, or, enter the text, highlight the part you want quoted, and press the quote button, or type a lesser-than sign, “blockquote”, greater-than sign, then the text you want quoted, then lesser-than sign, a forward slash, and “blockquote” greater-than sign.
I have to say, I am pretty damn interested in the Chrysler 200 after the Super Bowl commercial.
Any opinions? I don’t know anything about cars. Right now we have a ’09 Honda Accord…
Valueless Other Leftist Toy
What Hiraghm said and to select the text you want to quote, highlight and copy it (Control/C) and paste it in the text box (Control/V).
I believe the Chevy Dolt battery warranty is 8 years/100,000 miles, which in and of itself is good; however, if you’re one of those people who decide to hang onto the car and then need a new battery after the warranty is up, you’re going to be in for a treat I would imagine.
Wait, is that directed at me or the car?
If it’s the car, why is it bad? (I really don’t know.)
oops, disregard above comment…I thought he was talking about my question about the Chrysler 200.
I get it now. (Where is the forehead-slapping emoticon?)
The funny aspect of this story, that CONSUMER’S REPORT is the more liberal of the two noteworthy consumer mags… If a vehicle receives a good review from C/R, I would check with CONSUMER’S DIGEST to get the real skinny on the vehicle… You gotta really have a “BUMMER” not to receive a “BEST BUY” from CR…
ILMC has it copyrighted
Thanks #124 & #127 I have a lot of practicing to do.
#123 My point proven regarding CR. My Dodge Caravan was a jewel and I drove a lot of miles. 60+ miles a day 6 days a week and I never had a problem. Had to sell it after a couple of years for financial reasons but would have kept it if possible. My kids hated the used station wagon we replaced it with.
You know, I am pretty excited to see these battery cars get all these bad reviews. I dont care about the oil companies, or gas, or any of that. What I do care about is the fact that it would take my whole vacation driving to get anywhere. That and the fact that I pull a trailer often, so you could cut the power time in half.
Chryslers are now being produced under the auspices of Gubmint Motors. I have two Chryslers sitting in my driveway right now, a PT Cruiser and a Pacifica, and have owned a number of them over the years. Never again.
Starve the Beast!
Who Is Barry Soetero?
The big questions re: reliability, maintenance cost and resale value are unknown. Actually Car and Driver and Motor Trend would probably have more detailed and accurate info than Consumer Reports – and they flushed this techno turd long ago.
*GM claimed Volt was revolutionary in that only the electric motor motivated the drive wheels – with the gas motor only used to charge the batteries.
Reality – The gas and electric motors both drive the wheels. In other words, just another hybrid – but costs more.
* GM claimed it would get 245 MPG.
Reality – 35 MPG downhill with a tail wind.
In 1974 I had a Datsun econobox that reliably got 35 MPG. My how we have advanced. Sheesh.
My first car was a 1963 Buick Skylark Special. A baby-blue tank, she was!
Oh, and I got my driver’s license in 1975, so she had already stood the test of time before I got behind the wheel.
My first car was the poor man’s Mustang a 1966 Falcon with a 289 hypo.It came with those new kinda tires,wide ovals.
My folks had a ’69 Buick LeSabre, with a 4bbl.
Somewhere around 300-350 horses?
The neck would gently snap (thankfully, only a bit) when the 2nd two barrels kicked in….
That information was not available when CR made it ‘whatever’ of the year in 1996. All they had was praise for it except the note to ‘not buy with the smaller engine (3.0)’.
Guess who didn’t look and boght the wrong engine.
This I gotta see.
For a minute I thought he was talking about Pintos, then I remembered that was the optional exploding gas tank, not an external combustion engine.
Can’t wait for warmer weather to hear how this bruiser does with air conditioning; or does it have an air conditioner? Nothing I have seen so far even mentions that but a car this expensive should not be sold without it.
My two Mazdas, ’92 Miata and ’93 929, are running great, and the former gets 27 around town and up to 34 mpg on the highway AND it is better than a shrink for clearing your head.
My first car was an orange Pinto. Every time I came to a stop I could hear the gasoline swishing around, waiting to explode and kill me.
Good times.
Didn’t go for that option?
A friend had a Mercury Bobcat, same car, different trim. Dependable, economical transport. Until you get hit from behind…
BOOM
My first car was a 1974 Plymouth Scamp (or Dodge Dart), which I inherited from a relative. It made the CR List of Used Cars to Avoid three years running, which was something I discovered after it eventually rusted out from under me.
During the time I had it, it had all kinds of interesting problems, from oil blowback, a melted-marshmallow suspension, to a 50 cent windshield wiper gasket blowout during (of course) a massive downpour.
I technically didn’t have to fork over any money to buy it initially, which just would have made me angrier what with all the money I did spend fixing it. I don’t care how much Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth tries to push its current line of products, or how good they say they are – there is no way I’d ever buy one now.
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For those wanting to see an EXTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE–just go to a railroad museum and check out a 19th century steam locomotive. Yep–combustion going on outside of the engine.
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Or check out the early 20th century Stanly Steamer–supposedly capable of 120 mph–after a 10 minute warmup to build up steam pressure.
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Or a 1930′s style camphor fueled bus. A strange boiler looking item on the rear end of the bus where wood or other fuels were heated to drive off combustible gases. Which were piped up front to the engine. Kindof a hybrid–some smoking and burning at the rear, and some smoking and burning in the up front engine.
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John Bibb
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I’ve had a lot of good luck with Edmonds.com when researching cars and I’ve found them to be every bit as good as CR’s ratings and evaluations.
I don’t get it – electricity is not quite the “clean” fuel – it’s mainly generated from burning coal, carbon fossil fuel. This is a plug-in compared to a hybrid which generates its own battery charge.
So the Chevy Volt really is a coal-burner/gasoline hybrid.
I enjoy driving my BMW Z4. I can coax 31-32 mpg highway at a constant 65mph+.
On the other side of the fun curve our Prius gets 45-50mpg. Wifey can get 54mpg in warm weather. Purely a functional car but I get satisfaction in not spending $$ for mideast oil.
Prius looks cool with a Gadsen flag over the gas tank door (magnet won’t stick to the plastic trunk cover). That usually gets some surprised looks.
Rocketman:Not on this external combustion engine.
Hi Flyoverman and NotTheMama -
I currently have a 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan, and a friend of mine used to have one.
My transmission (so far) is OK, but it has had weird electrical things go bad.
For instance: BOTH power window motors had to be replaced, as did the window motors in my friend’s van.
It’s an older van now, but this was several years ago. There were other things that I’m drawing a blank on now.
Did you have strange things like that happen?
Yeah, but electric cars (if well made and reasonably priced) would lessen our dependence on foreign oil. We’ve got lots of coal…we export more than we import.
Electricity could potentially be made my things other than coal power plants, like wind power or hydrogen. It would probably take a long time to renewable energy to be on a big enough scale to make a real impact, though, I don’t know.
I actually agree with you. Just because the Volt is poorly positioned in the market doesn’t mean that all electric cars will be.
Chevy made the Volt too expensive – partially by designing in a hybrid drive train. For now, the automakers need to design an electric car as a good option for a second car intended primarily for daily commutes.
Alternatives need to be economically viable on their own before they can be scaled up. I’m fine with giving tax breaks on profits, but I’m completely against subsidizing revenue so that they can earn a profit.
How do you feel about nuclear power?
I just don’t know enough about it to say. I’m not in the “aghgh nukes scary!!” camp. I would need to learn more.
Clean and efficient. Even France gets it.
Regulation is much of the cost of nuclear power. Regulation is expensive because every plant is different. It’s almost as if a separate set of regulations is needed for every different plant.
We need to build dozens of cookie-cutter designed plants along with dozens of smaller, cookie-cutter plants to recycle the fuel. This would efficiently power the grid for future electric cars.
Permitting is currently an excessive risk. The federal government needs to streamline this process and back the construction loans.
There. Now you know more about it. Now you can support the effort. The founder of Greenpeace already does!
Btw, I assume that you “know enough about” wind and hydrogen to say that you support it.
I’ve read a lot more about it! Especially wind power, because I live in Kansas and when Kathy Sebelius was governor, she was very involved in promoting wind power. We’ve got a lot of wind, apparently
The startup costs for both wind and hydrogen are really high, though.
Thanks for the info about nuclear power, that’s really helpful!
Actually the Volt is worse than a Yugo. The Yugo was a cheap crap car but was priced accordingly. If I recall one of their selling points was that you could get a new car for less than $4000 MSRP.
The Volt, on the other hand, is a cheap crap car with the sticker price of an entry level BMW or Mercedes.