The prolonged wait for the Chevrolet Volt reminds me uncomfortably of waiting for the Chevrolet Vega to appear. For GM’s sake, the outcome had better be radically different. Because no one single vehicle did more damage to GM then the highly-hyped Vega.
Beginning in 1968, three years before the star-crossed Vega finally landed, GM cranked up a huge publicity campaign for its coming “import killer,” code named XP-887. Every month in Popular Science, I read of the miraculous XP-887, accompanied by spy sketches. This huge PR build-up was unprecedented. Previously, new cars were kept under wraps as long as possible. GM was raising the expectations of the whole nation.
The Vega became a cause of national interest: if Americans could beat the Russians to the moon, GM could damn well beat back the imports.
Kinda like the new Chevy Volt.
When I finally saw photos, I began to salivate. The Vega was as cute as a button: those sparkly bright eyes, that Ferrariesque egg-crate grille, the sleek lines on the fastback coupe and that adorable little wagon. Never mind that the Vega was essentially a baby Camaro, with a low roofline that made it cramped and impractical.
Not unlike the Volt’s squished roof.
My enthusiasm inspired a friend to become a Vega beta-tester. Since the baby Chevy’s prices were rather lofty, he settled for a base two-door sedan. When he showed up with it, I experienced my first GM cold shower; actually, it was more like being waterboarded.
At a time when the imports were only selling fully equipped models, the base Vega made a pole-dancing stripper look dressed for church. Unlike the proto-bling Vegas in the ads, his car had no exterior trim, ill-fitting taxi-cab rubber flooring and grim wall-to-wall hard plastic. There wasn’t even a door on the glove box. I had never seen anything like it before because nobody had built an interior like this before.
The Vega forced GM to confront a cruel fact that it still hasn’t solved: it doesn’t know how to manufacture small cars profitably. Originally intended to compete head-on with the imports, higher production costs forced GM to price the Vega some 10 percent higher. They intended to justify that premium with an extra-well-equipped small car. But in a last-ditch effort in the losing battle with profitability, they made the ad-friendly “custom” interior and exterior pieces optional.
Kinda like GM’s plan to sell the Volt without a battery.
We opened the Vega’s hood and started the engine. An auditory form of CIA-approved torture ensued. Not only did the strangely shaped long-stroke engine “look like it had come off a 1920’s farm tractor” (John DeLorean), it sounded and shook like one too. As fond as I am of old Farmalls, this was nothing like my high school buddy’s zippy and smooth Datsun 510 engine.
And what did GM’s moon-shot program offer in the transmission department? The two-speed Powerglide first saw the light of day in 1949. It felt like half of the engine’s 80 horsepower were somehow lost in translation to the rear wheels.
Unfortunately, the standard three-speed stick was just as much a throwback to the fifties, and had such widely-spaced ratios that Car & Driver said it “feels more like a six-speed with first, third and fifth gears missing.” The fact that the Vega handled well (on glass-smooth pavement) only made the power-train that much more frustrating.
But hope springs eternal. Right from the beginning, Chevy was talking up a performance version being developed with Cosworth. They promised a 180hp Vega was “just around the corner.” When the Cosworth Vega arrived four years later, it had all of 120hp, accelerated from zero to 60mph in nine seconds, and cost twice as much as a regular Vega. Not surprisingly, only 3500 were sold.
My friend went on to endure a number of the Vega engine’s pathological suicidal tendencies: carburetor fires, overheating, distorted blocks, oil consumption. When terminal rust set in after three years, he dumped it for peanuts and bought a Toyota.
Why was the Vega so flawed? It wasn’t actually developed by Chevrolet at all, who might (possibly) have had a (slightly) better idea of what import buyers wanted. GM gave the XP-887 job to a lofty corporate engineering group, and forced the flawed finished product on a reluctant John DeLorean, then President of Chevrolet. On his engineers’ first drive in a prototype, the whole front of the car literally fell off after eight miles.
Chevrolet had already developed a conventional small-car engine, but the GM corporate engineers knew better, and risked all on the world’s first aluminum block without steel cylinder liners.
Kinda like the Volt’s lithium-ion batteries.
But I’ve put my worries aside; companies learn from their mistakes, and lightning never strikes twice in the same place, right?
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Wow. The Vega sounds really bad. Because I am 28, I never had the opportunity to drive a Vega, so I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.
Lets fast forward 15-20 years. Would you rather drive an 1989 Civic LX with 115K or a 1999 Chevy Cavalier/Ford Focus/Dodge Neon with 60K?
I’m taking the Civic, and I’ll tell you, at 19 model years old, its still a great car. GM in the 1970’s never realized that went beyond just selling you something with 4 wheels and then moving onto the next sale.
When I look at new cars today, even though I prefer Nissan, Hyundai, and KIA because they are cheaper to buy, I always tell people to get a Honda Civic, because they absolutely CANNOT go wrong.
The Volt had better be as good as the Prius and Civic Hybrid, or else who is going to buy it?
I’m confident that GM will produce a working example of the Chevy Volt by Easter 2008 (which what Mr Lutz said will happen).
GM are bullish in saying that it WILL happen and that Toyota will look stupid for being big naysayers.
The reason why I think GM will pull this off is because if GM don’t and it all becomes “pie in the sky”, then GM will lose (almost obliterate) a lot of their technical credibility. This is why this Chevy Volt project is so important for GM. Something more valuble than money is on the line for GM, their reputation. Money can come and go, but reputations are hard fought and won for.
GM have been very vocal about the Chevy Volt being workable. The whole of the auto world are looking at them and waiting. Mr Lutz is confident that it will happen.
However, my confidence in GM could be misplaced, because my vision of GM delivering all hinges on one important principle:
That GM are aware that their reputation is at stake.
Let’s face it, GM aren’t exactly, shall we say, the most perceptive company in the world. If they were, they would have seen the fuel crisis coming and prepared well in advance by diversifying their product range. To this day GM are absolutely adamant that their quality and reliability is on par (if not, better) than Toyota’s. Yet, ask them to prove it and it all goes a bit hazy. This is a true story….
I watched a presentation by Mr Lutz where he discussed quality and reliability. He pulled a survey out which showed that Buick is now on par with Lexus (which, I’m sure it is. I don’t doubt that), but what did worry me was what Mr Lutz said next. Now I’m not quoting word for word, but here is a paraphrasing of Mr Lutz said:
“As you can see, Buick’s quality and reliability is now the same as Lexus. And you have to ask yourself, ‘Where is Toyota in the top five makers in this survey?’ Toyota aren’t there. Our quality and reliability is now better than Toyota!”
Erm….where does Mr Lutz think Lexus get their engineering from? Also, Mr Lutz’s reasoning was, somewhat, flimsy. He mentioned that Toyota wasn’t in the top five in that survey. But neither was Chevrolet, which is Toyota’s main competitor. Where did THEY come?
But back to my point. If that presentation was anything to go by, I’m not sure GM are aware of what is at stake with the Chevy Volt. I hope they do deliver. Because if they don’t, they won’t be thought of in the same light again…….
Its amazing how the Vega slipped out of the public conscience and people at Ford are still afraid to say the word “Pinto” without a PR nightmare. Not that the Pinto was a great car but it was far, far better than the Vega.
You don’t even see Vegas in the junkyard anymore, they’ve been crushed years ago. Even the ones here in the South rusted to bits. But Corollas, Starlets, Datsuns and Pintos (all in good shape) still find their way to the crusher to this day.
Well done Paul! You did a great job making the Vega relevant again.
Even in the 80s I never saw Vegas anymore. I actually liked the looks but I got to agree with Paul Niedermeyer that Vega did more to damage GM’s image than any other car.
Katie- El KaBob only looks at bright spots. If you showed him that the majority of GM brands were BELOW average (for the industry)in the same survey, or the pile of GM vehicles at the bottom of recent CR survey he would go “Hellen Keller” on you.
I always remember that most of the Volt hype comes out of one mouth and that mouth is attached to a brain that would not recognize reality (much less truth) if it bit him in the left thigh and tore a chunk out.
But since Bobus Maximus won’t retire until the Volt is here I look forward to 7-8 years of his entertaining stories (if GM and him survive).
Sajeev- most never made it to the crusher, they just decomposed in someones yard and the block was recycled.
Agree about the Pinto, I think it’s problem was that it survived long enough to reach infamy, the Vega didn’t.
Merry Christmas folks,
Bunter
I still remember the story a friend’s Dad told me: he traded his 427cid ‘67 Corvette for a new Vega Wagon to haul his family around. Even exchange! Did he ever regret that decision 2 years later!
Bunter: you’re probably right, Ford sold too many Pintos and continued production until 1980. Everyone knows somebody who owned one. If only their chassis and engines took a sh– as quickly as the Vega’s did…
The reason why I think GM will pull this off is because if GM don’t and it all becomes “pie in the sky”, then GM will lose (almost obliterate) a lot of their technical credibility.
Katie,
You may be right, but that does not mean the Volt is going to fly. If I told you your reputation depended on jumping out of the 10th story window and surviving, that does nothing to actually change the odds of surviving the fall.
So, yes, GM will put a huge effort in. But the problem is that the battery still needs to be discovered. Think about that for a second. You can’t make discoveries happen according to a project schedule. Spending more money cannot force a discovery sooner, either.
I’m confident that GM will produce a working example of the Chevy Volt by Easter 2008…
We should know soon enough then…
Helped drop a 350 V8 into a vega many years ago. We spent a fair amount of time on the body fixing things and glueing trim back on inside. It was a real piece of ****. We installed the V8 with a kit we bought from somewhere that had engine and trans mounts, and other bits for installing a chevy or ford rear end in the car. Fortunately the Th350 trans actually fit pretty well, aftermarket shifter saved us from having to figure that out. The customized radiator was not big enough and leaked.
Definately a beater car, it excelled at laying rubber for yards.
Correct me if my memory has failed me but. Wasn’t the Vega Motor Trend Car of the year TWICE??
Actually the later ones were great beaters since you could get one for almost nothing.
Engineer,
I understand your logic, but given that GM have put so much of their technical credibility on the line by saying “This is viable and it WILL work”, then nothing comes, what kind of message does that send about GM’s technical prowess?
Most car companies, keep a lid on projects like this until, they have a workable example.
I suppose it could highlight how desperate GM are, that even their credibility, like their profits, is into negative figures!
You don’t even see Vegas in the junkyard anymore, they’ve been crushed years ago. Even the ones here in the South rusted to bits. But Corollas, Starlets, Datsuns and Pintos (all in good shape) still find their way to the crusher to this day.
That’s because the hot rodders have long since snatched up every worthy Vega they could find to rebuild with small block V8’s stuffed in the engine bay.
am I imagining that Paul said GM was going to sell this without a battery? As a cost saver or because the battery hasn’t been invented yet?
Would you rather drive an 1989 Civic LX with 115K or a 1999 Chevy Cavalier/Ford Focus/Dodge Neon with 60K?
I’ll take the 99 Focus with a 5speed
Vegas still do exist. My sister and her husband just found a ‘75 16,000 mile one. She intends to drive it in the winter because the goop they put on the roads where she lives literally eats cars. Interestingly, modern oils do a lot to stave off the catastrophic engine problems – aluminum block, cast iron heads???? – but when the car rusts out totally in three years it will join the rest of the “returning to nature” vehicles out on the back 40, so who cares? But yeah, I am old enough to remember the hype, and it was certainly a lot prettier than the Pinto. But goodness, it wasn’t out for 2 years before the bad news came roaring in. Replaced by the Chevette – I had a Fiat 124 coupe at that time, and seriously, the interior of the Fiat must have been 25 times better than the Chevette. Oi vay.
When terminal rust set in after three years
I don’t have firsthand experience with the Vega, but I became familiar with it’s stablemate, the Astre. And, yes, three years seems to about right for terminal rust. The bottom of the doors and the area around the wheel wells went in year two. The rocker panels, the floors, and well everything else went in year 3. If the engine didn’t seize before then of course.
It really was incredibly primitive, even by the standards of the day. Such a pity too, as in terms of styling it was streaks ahead of almost anything else coming out of Detroit at the time.
Oh well.
KatiePuckrick: The issue is really not so much whether GM gets the Volt to run; it probably will. The Volt was created to compete against the very successful Prius. That’s were the potentially big problem is. The Volt is much more expensive to produce, with a sales price being hinted at of $30k minimum. Prius sales didn’t really take off until incentives lowered the average transaction price from about $26k to below $24k.
And the technology of the Volt is just more of a gamble, relatively speaking. GM/Lutz’s hubris is driving it to take a big risk, which even if it “works” (runs), will leave them with a substantial cost disatvantage vis-a-vis the Prius. that’s where the analogy to the Vega really hits home. Are they trying to impress us with their technical prowess, or sell cars profitably?
I’m confident that GM will produce a working example of the Chevy Volt by Easter 2008 (which what Mr Lutz said will happen).
GM are bullish in saying that it WILL happen and that Toyota will look stupid for being big naysayers.
First: I don’t see where producing a working protoype sometime in 2008 is a big challenge. That says nothing of producing a viable/reliable/affordable vehicle.
Second: Where does Toyota say they can’t produce a viable product let alone a working prototype. Seems more like semi senile Lutz is setting up a strawman.
I only remember toyota stating the parallel was more efficient than serial. Did they say serial couldn’t be done? I don’t thinks so.
Paul Neidermeyer: Unlike sparkly Vegas in the ads, his car had no exterior trim, ill-fitting taxi-cab rubber flooring and grim wall-to-wall hard plastic. There wasn’t even a door on the glove box. I had never seen anything like it before because nobody had built an interior like this before.
Another great article, but you must not have seen an AMC Gremlin, which debuted in April 1970 (or about six months before the Vega debuted). The interior was just as bad as the one found in the Vega. I know – I learned to drive on my father’s 1973 Gremlin.
Juniper: Correct me if my memory has failed me but. Wasn’t the Vega Motor Trend Car of the year TWICE??
The Vega won for the 1971 model year. The Chevy Monza (GM’s Mustang II competitor), which was based on the Vega platform, won for the 1975 model year.
Sajeev Mehta: Its amazing how the Vega slipped out of the public conscience and people at Ford are still afraid to say the word “Pinto” without a PR nightmare. Not that the Pinto was a great car but it was far, far better than the Vega.
The Pinto’s mechanicals and bodywork were far superior to those of the Vega. Ford at least had the good sense to use well-tested powerplants from its European operations in the Pinto. Unfortunately, the Pinto had one huge flaw that would earn the car its place in the Automotive Hall of Shame.
Ford worked hard to save weight and keep costs down, which resulted in a structure that was not as sound as it should be. In a 1971 comparison test that pitted the Pinto against the main import and domestic competition (including the Gremlin and Vega), Car & Driver commented on how “loose” the whole car felt because of its construction. As we all know, that flimsy construction led to a far more serious problem…
Interestingly, a 1981 article in the Rutgers Law Review by a noted law professor pointed out that the Pinto’s death rate was in line with other cars of its type, and its rate of fire-related deaths was only slightly higher than that of other competitive vehicles. It also pointed out that the infamous memo, where Ford supposedly weighed the costs of making improvements against the cost of trial judgments, was widely misinterpreted, as the federal government required automakers to use that formula, and the memo in question didn’t even deal with the Pinto.
The Mother Jones article that really got the whole ball rolling also exaggerated the number of fire-related Pinto deaths.
On the other hand, while the figures showed how rare severe rear-end collisions are in real life, in tests the Pinto’s gas tank and fuel-filler neck were pretty vulnerable. A big reason that Henry Ford II fired Lee Iacocca is that he held him responsible for the entire Pinto fiasco.
Both the Pinto and the Vega ended up giving their respective manufacturers’ a black eye, and probably did as much for Toyota and Honda as they ever did for themselves.
True story – so many Vega engines were failing by the mid-1970s that one California junkyard posted a sign that simply said – No Vegas.
While I agree that GM (and every other automaker) has made past mistakes, I think it would be wise to wait until the car has actually been released and tested by both consumers and the press before we jump to conclusions. It like saying that BMW can’t produce an environmentally sound car because the 325e. Until we see it in the flesh all we can do is fill column inches with speculation.
I inherited a ‘72 Vega as my first car (in 1982). Equipped with AM radio! It had such a chronic starting problem that after seeming months of intensive work a mechanic finally installed a choke, with a lever mounted on the dash that I’d pull when starting the car.
With no AC and a black interior it became very unpleasant as summer arrived, and even as a 16 year old I soon decided I couldn’t tolerate it. So I abandoned it to the side yard and bought a 4-banger economy Mustang (horrible branding suicide by Ford of course, but I like it then).
Eventually my mother traded it for a load of firewood.
Bytor brings up a good point about serial hybrids (Volt) being less efficient (in continous use) than the parallel hybrid (Prius). The Volt’s potential advantage will be in city driving, and staying well within the projected 40 mile battery range. Once past that, it loses relative efficiency.
The Vega had the opposite problem. GM designed the Vega to beat the imports in highway cruising, which is why they used a 2.56 rear axle; it gave low rpms on the freeway even with that three-speed. But that gearing was very clumsy around town; you always felt like you were in second gear starting off.
In both cases, GM chose to empasize a certain perceived technical advantage in a top-down way, at the expense of a more balanced, real-world package. Beyond the hard-core, are folks really going to want to plug and un-plug their cars daily? I know my wife wouldn’t.
Paul wrote: “Beyond the hard-core, are folks really going to want to plug and un-plug their cars daily?”
Everyone has seen the pictures of the car going down the road with a gas nozzle still attached to the car. Will the connection to the Volt be tight enough that there will be a new set of pictures on the ‘net? Volt going down the road with the plug and wall socket and maybe a circuit breaker panel not far behind. Can Kelly Ripa do an On* commercial for that? Will they have diagnostic trouble codes being set if you forget to unplug it? Inquiring minds are curiously yellow…
I guess the one bright spot in the Vega debacle is that the car itself disintegrated so quickly and completely that nothing remained of it but a bad memory.
Will Lucy hold the football this time so Charlie Brown can kick a field goal?
GM’s been promising “THIS time we’ll produce a world-beating car” for as long as I can remember, which dates back to the era of the X-Cars and the J-Car Cavalier/Cimarron.
Unless GM has revolutionized its management culture, I suspect they’ll produce yet another “80%-good-enough” car, with egregious bean-counter corner cutting that make it an inferior product, then flog it with a massively expensive flag-waving jingoistic and puerile marketing campaign. Put your money into the product this time, not the TV ads.
I’ve been burned by GM too many times before. I’ll wait for the 3- and 5-year reliability ratings.
I hope Phil reads this-
My wife and I bought a used Vega in the late ’70s. We lived in Hawaii at the time. It was a wonderfully reliable car that never gave us a single problem of any kind.
It was in two accidents, both of which were caused by the other driver. After the first, we put a junk yard fender on it and drove it until the 2nd accident. After that, it just wasn’t useable any more.
This brings back memories! My second car as a student was a 5 year old ‘74 Vega that I bought for very little. I worked at a fiberglass shop part time, so I was able to hold the metal together long enough for a safety inspection. It did reasonably well for a cheap car, but after a year and half it was “fill it with oil and change the gas”. GM had a hidden warranty for rust, but you needed a lawyer to get any results. After two years, an electrical fault caused the entire wiring harness to go up in smoke. It was 13 years before I would buy another GM product. Now I will never buy another GM product
I suppose it could highlight how desperate GM are, that even their credibility, like their profits, is into negative figures!
BINGO!
GM’s been promising “THIS time we’ll produce a world-beating car” for as long as I can remember, which dates back to the era of the X-Cars and the J-Car Cavalier/Cimarron.
BINGO^2!
There are still a few Vegas around:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1975-CHEVY-VEGA-RUST-FREE-ORIGINAL-NICE_W0QQitemZ220184533646QQihZ012QQcategoryZ6173QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
“Will the connection to the Volt be tight enough that there will be a new set of pictures on the ‘net?”
It should be a simple matter to make sure the car will not move until it has been unplugged. But then again, this is coming from the company which can’t make the Astra’s clock tell time in North America, so who knows.
The biggest problem with the Volt is that huge 16 kWh battery.
From all we know the A123 battery is solid. It seems to be safe and reliable. But more proof is needed.
It’s heavy and expensive, though. Currently it costs around $1000/kWh, so the Chevy Volt battery would cost $16K. Let’s say with GM’s volume purchase the price can be cut in half to $8K.
Throw in $3K tax credit from the government and you’re down to $5K.
That’s still quite expensive, but may be low enough to get some sales going.
Over time, the cost of the battery can be further reduced.
So, do I think we will see something like the Chevy Volt on the roads over the next decade?
Yes.
Can it compete with the Toyota Prius?
The Volt uses no gas in the city. Even on a 200 mile trip, say, from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe it might use less gas than a Prius. Advantage: Volt.
The Prius is cheaper. Advantage: Prius.
The Prius works fine with smaller batteries, that can gradually evolve in size, as battery technology and cost permit. Advantage: Prius.
The Volt uses no gas in the city. Even on a 200 mile trip, say, from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe it might use less gas than a Prius. Advantage: Volt.
Now that you got to Lake Tahoe how do you get back without a charge?
What happens if you get stuck in traffic behind a serious accident?
What happens when you miss calculate your load/range ratio?
The Prius works because Toyota was actually smart enough to know that an all electric car is NOT what the public wants. Until there is are service stations that will be able to charge the battery in the Volt in less than 5 minutes all over the place the Volt will be a losing proposition.
It is one thing to run out of gas in a car that can be filled from a gaas can on the side of the road. It is something entitely different to run out of battery power in a vehicle that is just DEAD without a charge! What might be a big hassle is now a major fuck-up that will require a very expensive tow.
Correct me if I am wrong but does not the Prius’s gasoline engine still function without the aide of teh electrical motor and battery pack? This redundancy of systems make the prius a much better fit in todays world.
Until we see it in the flesh all we can do is fill column inches with speculation.
Yes and no! This is mostly true of all new projects whether they are cars or hotdogs. BUT, we are talking about GM here. GM have a long and sordid history of promising fireworks and then shooting blanks as the very fine article by Paul points out. Someone speculated on whether substantive change in GM’s corporate machinations had happened or is happening and I think the answer is clearly no. There is no reason to believe that GM’s corporate culture has changed, learned from it’s mistakes, taken on a bit of humility nor is it likely to happen unless they fire everyone down to engineer level including rabid Rick and especially loony lutz! What characterizes GM is Hype, boilerplate, arrogance (extreme at times)and a propensity to produce 80% cars (with the exception of the Corvette). As this is what we have come to expect of GM, increasing numbers of people take what they say with a truckload of salt especially when Lutz is the mouthpiece!
The Volt is a good concept and I would like to see it work but I am not holding my breath. In any case, with GM’s financials in the state they are in, I doubt that the autogiant formally known as GM will even exist in 2010 unless a miracle happens. So start praying for one ASAP!
whatdiiknow1: The Volt is a hybrid, and has an on-board generator that feeds the batteries and electric motor. It’s not a typical electric car that way. It’s total range is the combination of about 40 miles on straight battery power, and some 300 miles from the gas-fueled gen-set.
My mom had an orange 1972 Vega wagon. She thought it was a cute car, but it broke down constantly, and always was overheating. Pretty amazing that I saw a yellow coupe in decent condition, for sale a couple years ago. Then again maybe there was a reason it was for sale…
She replaced her Vega with a Buick, which had a check engine light that kept coming on- after about a year she replaced that with a Lancia Beta coupe, which wasn’t much more reliable- but at least it was fun to drive!
Duh……
Thanks Paul!
Now I will go and pull my ____ out of my____!
As far as “will people be willing to plug it in every day?” You are willing to do things based on what you get back. If people have a daily driving habit that usually does not require the engine to start, and seldom if ever have to buy gas, I think they will. It will become part of the normal routine of getting home and into the house. think about what you do now when you get home from work. Turn off the lights,Grab your bag, get out, lock the car, etc. etc. Plugging it in will just be one more item. AND your wife and mine won’t have to pump gas or even go to the gas station. (not that she does now)
I had a two Vegas. I put a V8 in one and kept it for 20 year….
The reason that GM came out with the 350 diesel was to prove that they could come out with an engine worse than Vega!
Juniper: “(not that she does now (pump her gas))” You’re right; one of her favorite things about Oregon is that we have no self-serve gas(!)
Oops, not paying attention makes me look like an ass.
Paul Niedermeyer: Beyond the hard-core, are folks really going to want to plug and un-plug their cars daily? I know my wife wouldn’t.
It isn’t a question what folks want, so much as it is a question of will folks do it? In sub-zero weather, I don’t like plugging and unplugging my car’s headbolt heater into an outdoor electric outlet. But I do it because I want it to start on frigid mornings.
If your wife (and other potential Volt buyers) want to get better gas mileage, using the charged battery and electric motor to supplement the gas engine, they’ll plug their cars in. If they don’t give a damn, they won’t.
The Volt uses no gas in the city. Even on a 200 mile trip, say, from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe it might use less gas than a Prius. Advantage: Volt.
Remember, electricity is not free. So comparing gasoline consumption is only part of the picture.
OTOH, at ~$0.15/kWh and assuming the Volt would typically use 50% of the 16 kWh battery, a charge will still only cost $1.20. If the Volt could do a 40 mile trip on that, it would be impressive.
The Prius would burn close to a gallon of gas on a 40 mile trip. Any bets that gas will drop to $1.20/gal anytime soon?
WhatEVER happens with the Volt, which WILL be a flop (knowing GM’s ways for the last 25 years), it will NOT change MY view of GM. I will always think they stink!
My brother in law had a 75 Vega – by then it was a great car, as all the issues had been resolved.
He still misses that car.
My very first car was a 1974 Vega with 4 speed manual transmission. It was not the Vega GT so it had a single barrel carburator. It did a top-speed of somewhere around 112 MPH. I was in highschool and taking auto-mechanics and it was a great project car. I learned to rebuild carburators, change clutches and clutch cables, in-tank fuel pumps, adjust valve lash (every 2 to 3 weeks, change gaskets, rebuild engines and install steel liners, and finally, body work including welding on new sheet metal. I sold the car with 120,000 miles on it in good running condition and bought the first 1985 Pontiac Fiero 2M6 in Canada which I still have and drive (amongst other cars also). The truth is the Vega had all the promise of a world class car if GM had only done a bit more work and not taken all those shortcuts. The simplicity of design made it easy to work on if it didn’t have such a propensity to leak and burn oil.
The Volt has all the specs to be the game changer in automobiles, but GM has all the capability to have not learned a single thing in 4 decades….and destined to repeat.
Good article. Thanks for pointing out the parallels.
I drove a red ‘72 Vega wagon for years. Very cool looking car. Unlike modern vehicles, the Vega generated a limitless number of entertaining stories, since you never knew where a stift stick would shear off or an engine explode.
One similarity with the Volt: the Vega consistently got 200 miles per gallon. Of course, that was of motor oil.
I see a basic problem with the Chevy Volt’s concept, as a business model:
Let’s assume for a moment that the Chevy Volt meets or surpasses all current* expectations. For the purposes of discussion, we’ll assume that the Volt will at least meet its target of 40 miles battery range. We’ll also assume that, between income tax credits, fuel savings and money on the hood, the average Volt owner will break even cost-wise between the Volt and an equivalent gas-sipper at the 5-year mark (assuming that both vehicles are financed for 60 months at equal interest rates). To be generous, we’ll even assume that the Volt’s fit, finish, amenities and performance are on a par with an equivalent vehicle driven exclusively by burning dead dinosaurs.
Given all that, I have one question:
As an apartment dweller, exactly how do I charge my Volt’s batteries, other than by running the durn thing’s engine? Am I expected to run several hundred feet of extension cord from my third-floor apartment down to my Volt? If so, how can I prevent other residents from using my electricity at my expense? If not, who will pay to add a secure charging station for my vehicle, at either home or work (the main places my present vehicle spends time stationary)?
*Pun intended, of course.
And the funny thing is, the ad slogan for the underachieving Vega was “The Little Car That Does Everything Well.”
What the makers of the “Volt” dont realize or maybe they do in that this vehicle will need to be plugged into your home electrical outlet at night! Just think how much your Electric bill will be? and also Hydro is not cheap no matter what Country we all live in either, time has not come really!
Thanks for the link, jthorner. Quite entertaining.
“…has no rust at all…”
then:
“…you will see there is [sic] a few places were [sic] the paint has came [sic] off and it is rusty looking but there are no holes…”
Talk about an important caveat. To be fair, that particular example does appear to be in top-notch shape for a Vega.
That (horrendous) speedometer appears to have been in use well into the 1990s at GM…
The PowerGlide was not the only transmission, a 3-speed stick was available. Everybody else had a 4, of course. GM has historically been very parsimonious with their cogs.
I got to drive one so equipped back in ‘74 or so – not a bad car but then nothing to write home about, either. Better handling than some things but nothing like a Fiat, say.
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As to the future…
And the Prius is avaible today. Advantage Prius.
And in 20010 or 11 or 12 or whenever, the Volt will still be a First Model Year Experiment from the company that built the Vega. Advantage Prius.
And let’s not forget that the Prius is a moving target. It will probably offer significantly better fuel economy in 2009. And when Li-ion is available for the Volt, it will also be available for the Prius.
I’ve seen both sides of the proverbial equation. The Prius is truly an exceptional product… but it took nearly a decade for it to become popular in the North American market. It’s still not very sought after in the EU.
The Volt may be the car that gets GM back at the forefront… then again, maybe not. None of us really know if the plug-in hybrid concept will take root in this market. I still have to admire GM though for having the courage to pursue it in a non-half azed way. There are a LOT of companies out there that are making billions and pay precious little thought to the long-term future.