Volt Birth Watch 40: Rust Never Sleeps

Frank Williams
by Frank Williams

We just received this photo via email from one of TTAC's Best and Brightest: "This may be out of date, but I figured you may find it noteworthy for the Volt birthwatch series. Just under a year ago, GM had a Volt on display at the Indy 500. The car was likely a non-running example, but nonetheless it was there to showcase GM's engineering prowess so I judged it in that light. What I saw was… not good. Some of the trim on the Volt was rusting! Rust! On such a high profile vehicle at such a high profile event!" As the photo shows, it wasn't just a spot or two, either. Whatever GM's reason for showing the vehicle in this condition, let's just hope the production version – whatever it ends up looking like – will have better quality trim. And that their attention to the detail on this display model isn't indicative of their attention to detail on the engineering side.

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  • Bruce Banner Bruce Banner on Apr 15, 2008

    It's obviously high-performance energy-saving rust that was meant to be flaunted. Much like Homer's speed holes.

  • Phil Ressler Phil Ressler on Apr 15, 2008
    And that their attention to the detail on this display model isn't indicative of their attention to detail on the engineering side. No, it indicates inattention to detail on the business side. There are a lot of reasons a metal susceptible to corrosion might end up on a prototype or a mock-up vehicle. It's the business side managing the circulation of the prototype that is mismanaging exposure, blind to the market consequences of their lax maintenance of Volt's physical presence. Phil
  • Rtz Rtz on Apr 15, 2008

    Looks like bare steel and when the vehicle was washed, flash rust. Interesting over sight nonetheless.

  • Jthorner Jthorner on Apr 16, 2008

    I'm stunned that nobody has the job of making the concept cars look good before the show opens and rechecking them every night. Even bare steel can be made to look good for a few days with attention to detail. Sweating the details should be a habit from the top to the bottom of the company ladder.

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