I always wanted to pay $40k for a GM first year car, sporting new vehicle powertrain uses.
Like Cadillac 8-6-4 cylinder deactivation.
That went well…..

And looking for a $7k discount, before the car is even built, should build the car’s image and resale value quite nicely.

Sweet!

DrFill

Why should it be nearly twice the price? My point is that GM shouldn’t expect people to pay outrageous prices for their vehicles, when there is no need. Think about it this way:

Let’s say you live in England, and you want a Volt. If the Volt starts at $40,000 for US people, for you it will start well above £25,000 ($50,000 if converted to USD). That’s quite a bit of money. Nissan, Mercedes, and many others will be putting out full electrics at the same time the Volt is released, and you will have more diesel, plug-in hybrid, and maybe even some real alternatives like hydrogen coming out. If I had to pay that much to get 100mpg, I wouldn’t even go anywhere near the dealer. The older ForTwo can get 100mpg with a £1 octane booster, and that thing is only £8,000. Yeah, it’s a box, and yeah they don’t compare, but do they need to be THAT far apart in price?

I know the Prius doesn’t compare to the Volt, but it shouldn’t be so freakin’ expensive.

And the reason the Volt should be priced the same as the Prius is so that GM could kick Toyota’s @$$. Like I said, even if the Volt were $5,000 more than the Prius, GM would still kick Toyota’s @$$. I want GM to kick Toyota’s @$$. Let’s get our money back.

When the Prius is a plug-in hybrid with Li-Ion batteries (which it will be in probably about 3 years) then you can compare the pricing, the Prius will cost a lot more then too, but otherwise it’s like comparing a V8 model to an i4 model and wondering why the pricing is so different.

GM claims the Volt will achieve “100+mpg”. It will go 40 miles without needing to run its’ engine at all, which means that 70% of the population of the country can go to work and back home without every burning a drop of gasoline. (Yes, I know electricity isn’t free, and I’m not a big fan of electric cars myself as I don’t believe our grid can support a large amount of them, but that’s a topic for a different day).

You can’t compare a car that gets “100mpg” to one that gets 45mpg and expect them to cost the same. The Prius had a heck of a premium on it over standard cars at first as well, all to get maybe 20mpg more. But people still bought it. What makes you think they won’t pay a premium for one that gets 3 times that improvement?

The gamble is in what the Prius comes in at when it gets it’s Li-Ion plug-in version (and it won’t be $25K like the one is now) and what gas prices are when the Volt comes out.

I will say, though, that many of GM’s vehicles are better made than they were 20 years ago, and even though I’m not too fond of Chevy and GMC styling, the vehicles are put together well. Still, the Volt price needs to be brought down before it will be seriously considered.

As far as buying a new car just to get better mileage, you’re right. It makes absolutely no sense to purchase a vehicle just for that. But if you are in the market for a new vehicle, which I am, then it makes sense to get one that helps you save money in the long run, whether that savings be in resale, reliability or fuel mileage. I’m looking to get a new vehicle soon, as my work may be relocating and my carpool will not be going with me. I’d seriously consider something electric if I could afford it, and I like the Volt’s principle. Really, I do. It’s the price, and only the price, that makes the Volt very difficult to consider, and the sad thing is that price is what steers me away from most GM vehicles.

If GM matched the price of the Volt with the price of the Prius, they would sell so fast that the $7,000 incentive would expire within a year. Even if they priced the Volt at $5,000 MORE than the Prius, I really think people would still look at the Volt first. I would. You can’t beat the idea of saving fuel, saving the environment, and helping the American economy all at the same time. But my wallet is my first concern, and the Volt doesn’t look promising, even with the $7,000 tax credit. I know it’s destined for the high price market, but why? Why are we, the middle class, the ones who are not allowed to save gas? We’re the majority, and they target the elite with something like this? That’s what I don’t understand. Hopefully, I made my point.

Just to give you some idea of the disparity in MPG we’re talking about here, given the scenario above at what we pay for gas now, you would spend almost all of that $2000/yr that you set aside for gas. And that’s just at $4/gallon. And we won’t even get into the added insurance costs of having 2 vehicles, including one that’s a motorcycle.

You have to understand that the Volt is being designed for a world where gas is $8/gallon OR MORE. Which, when you consider that gas prices have DOUBLED in the past 12 months and we’ve still got 24 months until the Volt comes out, isn’t exactly an impossible scenario.

If gas is $8/gallon, the Volt will only cost about $1000/yr to fill-up for your average person. Even if you averaged 40mpg in some other vehicle, you’re looking at spending $3000/yr. And that’s IF gas prices are 1> only $8, and 2> they don’t change over the course of ownership of your car.

Now imagine where gas prices could be in 7 more years by the time you pay off that Volt. You think gas prices will still be the same?

The Volt’s a gamble. A gamble that oil prices will continue to rise at a considerable rate. Toyota took a gamble on the Prius years back too. And back then the other automakers said they were crazy, that prices would come back down, and that Toyota was stupid to take a loss on every one they sold. Look where they are now.

Continuing…

But the next step is to get us off oil, and the real benefit of the Volt concept is not the ‘plug in part, it’s the electric motivation part. This enables the generator to be charged in a number of ways, through house current, or the next wave of fuel – hydrogen cells, for example.

$33,000 > $29,800 (Fully loaded Prius)

I remember a post saying the Volt would most likely START in the HIGH 40K range, which means base price would be above $45,000, most likely $48,000 or $49,000. However, even if the Volt were to be only $40,000, it would still be cheaper to buy a foreign sipper WITHOUT the tax incentive. What’s worse is that the foreign sipper has tariffs added on. Does GM owe the oil companies some money, or something? I just don’t understand why they feel the need to be in the same price range with cars that are in a much higher quality range. Come on, GM, bring this price down to the point where a normal person can afford this, not just your employees with their discount.