Overpriced junk

[mini14]

Consumer Reports says GM
Volt falls short on range

Reuters, by John Crawley & Matthew Lewis
WASHINGTON - General Motors Co's (NYSE:GM - News) mostly electric Chevy Volt turned in a
lackluster performance for efficiency in its first series of road tests by product raters at Consumer Reports.
"We would have really liked to have loved it," David Champion, director of Consumer Reports auto test
center told Reuters on Monday after announcing the organization's top picks for 2011. "It was fun to drive
and the ride quality was pretty good. But when you look at the finances, for us it doesn't make any sense,
" Champion said. He said consumers seeking value and top fuel efficiency

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Consumer-R...61633.html

Reply from mini14:
Can anyone say overpriced junk? As a capitalistic society, we should have learned a long time ago that
you cannot force-feed a market. It has to develop from the ground up with demand preceding supply.
No way the Volt fits that scenario.That is to say that the government is not telling us the truth about
something like the performance of their 'Volt?' How could that be? They are generally so honest and open
with your best interests at heart. A perfect car for the DC crowd! It costs way too much, and underperforms
in every category. Like a Public Sector Union Employee.

[$tevie]

YAAMS

[mattkime]

>>It has to develop from the ground up with demand preceding supply.

I'm sure we'd have stunningly fast horses by now.

[Uncle Wig]

Once again Consumer Reports and mini14 are completely full of shit.

"Consumer Reports drove the Volt at its test track in Connecticut under the coldest temperatures this winter, and Champion acknowledged that car may perform better in temperate climates and in more city-like conditions."

And still it performed within the nominal range given by GM. Your gasoline powered car gets worse mileage on the coldest days too. CR, try driving the car in the urban environment for which it was designed, not doing laps on your test track. And account for factors such as cold temperatures in your testing methodology, duh!

[OWC Jamie]

c'mon now, it got The Presidential Seal of Approval.

[Uncle Wig]

billb, that is one of my favorite photos of Barack Obama!

[Gutenberg]

Consumer Reports has always been anti-GM. Many times they have had a right to be. But all-electric cars, at least for the time being, are short-run city cars, and CR did not perform a fair test, as Uncle Wig said.

[vision63]

Uncle Wig wrote:
Once again Consumer Reports and mini14 are completely full of shit.

"Consumer Reports drove the Volt at its test track in Connecticut under the coldest temperatures this winter, and Champion acknowledged that car may perform better in temperate climates and in more city-like conditions."

And still it performed within the nominal range given by GM. Your gasoline powered car gets worse mileage on the coldest days too. CR, try driving the car in the urban environment for which it was designed, not doing laps on your test track. And account for factors such as cold temperatures in your testing methodology, duh!

I think the test was valid. The car was designed to be used in the USA. Connecticut is in the USA. A car shouldn't be that finicky. The story doesn't mention the Volt's overall gas mileage though. So you can't really compare.

[Mac1337]

I said way back that Volt brings the worst of both worlds together. You have to worry about filling it up and charging it up. And if you think people are going to put up with 8 hours, or even 4 hours of charge time you are nuts. There are enough thing I have to remember as it is. Wanna hybird, get a Prius.

[Uncle Wig]

vision63 wrote:
[quote=Uncle Wig]
Once again Consumer Reports and mini14 are completely full of shit.

"Consumer Reports drove the Volt at its test track in Connecticut under the coldest temperatures this winter, and Champion acknowledged that car may perform better in temperate climates and in more city-like conditions."

And still it performed within the nominal range given by GM. Your gasoline powered car gets worse mileage on the coldest days too. CR, try driving the car in the urban environment for which it was designed, not doing laps on your test track. And account for factors such as cold temperatures in your testing methodology, duh!

I think the test was valid. The car was designed to be used in the USA. Connecticut is in the USA. A car shouldn't be that finicky. The story doesn't mention the Volt's overall gas mileage though. So you can't really compare.
It's valid to the extent that it reflects the car's performance on a very cold day on a test track. That would likely resemble some usage by some consumers on some days. But to present a fair and representative test of the car's performance, they should have driven in different (e.g. urban) environments in different weather conditions. As I understand it, CR purchases all the vehicles they test rather than accept freebies from the carmakers. So how come they couldn't have given it a more thorough test?