"Gas stations....where nobody knows your name."

[Chakravartin]

macphanatic wrote:
Note that this is the car from a company that manufactures the Volt at a cost of roughly $89,000 and sells it for $40,000. No wonder the Fed lost money on their bailout.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/boblutz/2012...olt-costs/

The statement that GM “loses” over $40K per Volt is preposterous. What the “analyst” in whom poor Ben Klayman placed his faith has done is to divide the total development cost and plant investment by the number of Volts produced thus far. That’s like saying that a real estate company that puts up a $10 million building and has rental income of one million the first year is “losing” 9 million dollars, or several hundred thousand per renter.

[DinerDave]

Uncle Wig, what I was alluding to, unsuccessfully I guess, is that if
go inside the gas station to pay cash, or do other things, you can learn
the name of your local, friendly cashier. Then I went on the credit card
tangent, as this is a sore spot with me whenever I see my P+L, credit cards
are very, very expensive for retailers. Then again, nearly impossible to
survive in many industries without taking plastic, customers want the
convenience. I try to make sure they pay handsomely for that convenience.

Dave

[ztirffritz]

Grateful11 wrote:
The diesel is a $4000 option on the Cruze plus diesel is $0.80/gal more around here than gas, I'll stick with our Prius.

Your mileage may vary...

Around here Diesel is the same or less than premium gasoline. The engine lasts longer, it is more fuel efficient, and has generally lower maintenance costs. As soon as they come out with a Volt or similar that is a Diesel hybrid I'll probably get one. The Volt model makes the most sense to me. I found the info at this link to be mostly accurate comparing gas and diesel engines. Most hybrids don't make any sense environmentally or financially unless you drive 20k mile/year for 15 years or so.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/th...23640.html

[Grateful11]

I'm not comparing diesel to premium. Who runs premium in a car that doesn't need or require it, might as
well flush your money down the toilet if one runs premium in a Prius. In the Winter our Prius gets 49.5mpg,
in the Summer it gets about 50.5mpg.

Sure the diesel engine will last longer probably much, much longer than the car itself will last. I'm not throwing
off on Chevy as we have an '02 Tahoe Z71 that I wouldn't trade for a brand new one. I know a bit about diesels
and how long they last as there are 4 diesel tractors here on the farm ranging from 40-106hp. The oldest
is a '78 IH 686 with a German made 6 cyl. engine and an aftermarket M&W turbocharger and it has about
5000 hours on it. The newest is a '12 JD 5065M with Mexican made 5 cyl. turbocharged engine and about
275 hours on it.

[The UnDoug]

Thanks, everyone. I figured it might be implying that the people at the gas station won't know your name because you'll need to gas up Iess frequently. I just don't think the commercial conveys that very effectively.

[Speedy]

Effective only for those who already drive an oil burner.

[Bill in NC]

Sure, if the gas option would require premium (e.g. Mercedes/BMW)

BUT, mass market diesel vehicles have had a checkered past here in the U.S.

Even the VW TDi models had major issues when the U.S. switched to ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) back around 2007.

As documented on tdiforums, VW claimed any problems with the new TDI system were because of people putting in gasoline.

Which is why VW initially refused warranty repairs and told those affected to shell out up to $10,000 out of pocket (many chose to spend that $ on an attorney instead).

So until the new Chevy diesels have some miles on them I'd let someone else beta-test them.

ztirffritz wrote:
[quote=Grateful11]
The diesel is a $4000 option on the Cruze plus diesel is $0.80/gal more around here than gas, I'll stick with our Prius.

Your mileage may vary...

Around here Diesel is the same or less than premium gasoline. The engine lasts longer, it is more fuel efficient, and has generally lower maintenance costs. As soon as they come out with a Volt or similar that is a Diesel hybrid I'll probably get one. The Volt model makes the most sense to me. I found the info at this link to be mostly accurate comparing gas and diesel engines. Most hybrids don't make any sense environmentally or financially unless you drive 20k mile/year for 15 years or so.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/th...23640.html

[$tevie]

The people who know each other in that commercial are in the convenience store area buying things and hanging out. Which is such a stretch and has more to do with how often you need a bad cup of coffee or a bag of M&Ms than how often you need gas. It is a commercial concept gone way wrong.

[Harbourmaster]

And it only took Chevy what, another 35+ years to build a small car that could get better mileage than my old Chevette?

[max]

Harbourmaster wrote:
And it only took Chevy what, another 35+ years to build a small car that could get better mileage than my old Chevette?

Not exactly, the engine has been around for a while. I have it in my old Opel.....