It has now been one year since General Motors (GM) first delivered the Chevy Volt to market. And what a year it’s been.
The Volt makes GM literally no money – it costs $41,000 to make, and sells for $41,000.
And they are selling far fewer than GM’s announced expectations.
At least in part because (at least) four Volts have burst into flames – two in April, and two in November.
And GM and the Barack Obama Administration knew about the fires since (at least) June – and said nothing until November.
Less Government President Seton Motley:
“Happy First Birthday to the non-profit, flammable, rolling disaster that is the Chevy Volt. One year of disappointing, unprofitable sales, fires, fire-induced buybacks - and fire cover-ups.
“What’s a few Volt flame-outs – and a danger-suppressing cover-up – when you’re trying to fundamentally transform America?
“The Chevy Volt is yet another failure-based, Crony Socialist, Leftist ideological General Motors decision. Of the sort we expected when President Barack Obama upped the GM bailout to $50 billion. On these myriad bad ideas, GM has delivered.
“So let’s celebrate the Chevy Volt’s first birthday. We’ll get a giant cake – and we know what we can use as a candle.”
We the taxpayers own more than 500,000 shares of GM stock, on which we are poised to lose more than $16 billion. Less Government tracks the looming loss – and offers the solution for how we can extricate ourselves from GM – at www.BailoutCost.com.
Reminds me of those cold war comedies with Russian and East German cars. I believe they were all turned into planters when the wall came down. With govt handling things its not exactly the Midas touch!
Hmmm — where to begin?
1. Sales: Sales of the Volt less than hoped, but more than the Prius in its first year in North America. Buyers of the Prius were also given a tax credit — passed by a Republican Congress under a Republican President.
2. Fires: The fires from damaged batteries started weeks after crash tests, and NHTSA didn’t drain the batteries. Sorta like not draining a cracked gas tank. There haven’t been any fires in the real world. Garage fires were determined by fire marshals to have started away from the car. You’ll need a lot more evidence to say that GM/NHTSA covered this up like Ford covered up dangers with the Pinto.
3. R&D: You’re trying so hard to make this the Obamamobile, but development of the Volt started during W’s administration, with the exhibition of the prototype before the 2008 election.
4: You could also say that the Prius was a “failure-based, Crony Socialist, Leftist ideological” Toyota decision. One that, in time, paid off handsomely. It took a few years for the Prius to make back its development costs, but the technology has now found its way into every major car manufacturer.
5: While it’s expensive, the Volt has gotten very good reviews from just about every automobile magazine and web site.
GM made a good car. Alas, for Ayn Rand acolytes, the Volt has to be a bad car because GM got a bailout.
Loading up the station wagon tomorrow and moving to Detroit,can*t wait! Really surprised to hear that Japan makes such horrible cars,i missed that one.I seem to remember reading that i can buy 5 houses for a dollar in Detroit too,must be Bushes fault!