Comments on: Volt Birth Watch 110: Running On Empty?

By: joeaverage

joeaverage — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:40:08 +0000

Gas was $2.75 this morning. I have heard of gas as low as $2.55 in other parts of the country.

While I still want an EV – who will buy the Volt? Does the average consumer even care anymore (short attention spans and shorter memory).

Anybody seeing a pattern here – high gas prices followed by higher gas prices only to crash out and render any alt.energy advancements pointless for another decade?

By: eye for cars

eye for cars — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:45:28 +0000

Farago… how about an Over/Under on the number of Volt Birth Watch posts. 200? 300? more?

By: HPE

HPE — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:36:22 +0000

I’ve seen the Volt live and the thing that stunned me is just how bulky it is. In fairness it does look better in the metal (clay), but I just kept thinking, “There is no way this can possibly be as aero-efficient as a current-gen Prius.” The frontal area in particular seemed huge for this type of car, which spells bad news to me.

By: Wolven

Wolven — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:17:37 +0000

“Frankly, we think (the production model) comes across pretty awful in pictures, but we can attest that it appears well proportioned and convincingly cool in person”

HA HA HA HA HA ha ha…. Oh that cracks me up. Apperently there IS something to all the ChryCo GM merger BS. That line was Daimler\Chryslers tag line to EVERY new Chrysler\Dodge\Jeep they came out with…

“Uh, really, it looks better in person…”

HA HA HA HA ha ha…

By: brush

brush — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:53:25 +0000

Perhaps the saviour of the Volt is being developed downunder. http://www.csiro.au/news/UltraBattery4HybridCars.html
Could mean cheaper Volts (no pun intended)

By: KixStart

KixStart — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:19:57 +0000

This is remarkable… We are still over two years from launch and GM talks about this wonder-mobile enough to justify 110 “Volt Birth Watches.”

A “Prius Birth Watch” or “Insight Birth Watch” would never have survived; it would have been starved for news.

Thank God for “Maximum Bob” Lutz or the auto industry would be very, very dull.

By: psarhjinian

psarhjinian — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:34:25 +0000

The post goes on to call the Volt’s iPod-ripoff interior “a little gimmicky,”

A little gimmicky? It’s downright stupid to have a control that gives no tactile feedback, especially when it’s being used at 100km/h by an inattentive operator.

Note to manufacturers: big single-purpose knobs and buttons that are adjacent to their read-outs are good. Small controls, buttons and/or multi-purpose controls, as well as controls far away from the their read-outs, are bad.

Good example: the Toyota Camry’s centre stack

Bad example: the current Acura RL, BMW’s 7-Series, the 2003-2007 Saab 9-3.