Not a pretty car by any means, but better than the Prius or the new Insight. Would look better in a darker color though. That green looks hideous, especially with the black panels. Black would actually look pretty cool, for a hype-rid that is.

That’s exactly what I was thinking, golf4me. It’s not a particularly beautiful car, but stacked against the competition this vehicle actually has some sort of style. I’m quite impressed by the interior. The green colour was probably not picked for looks, but for a cheesy statement.

Amazing to me that GM had the foresight to leave it a 2+2, since a third seat there would be next to useless. Not at all amazing that it’s already broken - It’s standing still but the speedo reads 10 mph…

Definately a nice car… but I can’t see something smaller than Cobalt selling for $35k+

I’m sure GM will sell many of them… but with the next-gen Prius and the new Insight hitting the market at $20,000 - $30,000 justifying that extra 5-10k is gonna be really really hard.

wow, i am actually really impressed by this car. well done GM.

This car is vital to put GM back on the map

I would consider this but I hope it’s not a 35k car….

New Insight supposedly coming in at 18k?

just think buying this car will help most people eliminate gasoline consumption from their daily commute. Not only does it have the visual value of less reliance on foreign oil, it saves the average person a whole lot of money per year.

Cool $30K-$35K for the car and another $3K-$8K for the dealer MARK-UP, and a V8 Camaro for the same price…Hmmmm Horse power 1, MPG 0…

How come the Prius doesn’t look as anywhere close to as good as this?

People bring up the entry cost of a Prius or Insight, but don’t realized most Americans would never have to fill this car up daily. Some people could potentially never buy gas in the span of a year.

2012 MY? I hope not. I don’t believe Bob Lutz will accept that either. Even the likes of Chrysler could have their own plug in by that time. Timing is everything. Oh yeah, and then there’s the price…

This just doesn’t look like a $30K - 40K car. It looks like a mix of the Scion tC with the old Dodge Stratus. The concept had such a unique look to it, this is just plain boring. Then again when the Taurus was a best seller, it looked boring and the Camry…..well, not exactly the standard bearer for excitement.

Raineman, people will justify the extra 5 - 10k just knowing that they are dong the right thing by buying American

For an American sedan it looks great, if sort of bland the way an Acura TL looks bland. If you hadn’t seen the concept car for comparison, you’d be thrilled by the production car’s styling.

The problem in the showroom is going to be that the $38,000 Volt is parked next to a $22,000 Malibu, which is about the same size and looks just as good. It’s hard for consumers to imagine saving $16,000 worth of gasoline. Or if money is no object and they want a car with cachet, they can have an entry BMW, a Volvo XC, a Highlander Hybrid… all kinds of cars with more brand aura… for the same coin.

where’s the shifter? and i agree with everyone else..too expensive for what you get..crappy color too

I agree a dark color would look better, but overall they didn’t sacrifice much from the prototype. What is the big knob thing that is recessed in the console at the bottom?? I can’t figure it out from the pictures.

“It’s hard for consumers to imagine saving $16,000 worth of gasoline.” – Not only is it hard to imagine, it’s hard to do. Well said, Tom.

“where’s the shifter?” – It looks to me like it’s a column shifter, like a sort of “three on the tree” type. What’s interesting, though, is that there seems to be a “Park” BUTTON on the lower-right of the center stack. Cool, sort of. A bit close to my passenger, though. I wouldn’t want her to get mad at me and throw it into park…

I like this interior. I can’t help but notice that the center stack resembles a giant iPod, though. Still, I’m really liking it.

The one thing that bugs me is the huge black rim around the windows. In the concept, that was transparent. This is not, and it looks weird. Maybe I’ll get used to it with time.

I’d love to see this car in yellow and in red.

“What is the big knob thing that is recessed in the console at the bottom??” – The handbrake, maybe? It could even be the shifter. Who knows? It’s different, and kind of cool.

GM plans to have them all crushed at a secret location by their 105th anniversary

^ Can GM afford cake for their b-day? i’ll see when i get to work later.

im starting to warm up to this thing pretty quick…

The hard part will be convincing drivers that they should buy this instead of a luxury car as this car is roughly the same size as competing cars in that price point. So do you buy the car with the possibility of using little to no gas or a luxury car. It is more of a statement car as opposed to an economical decision.

@MercMark
LOL

I’m not sure how hard some on here mash the fun pedal, but I don’t buy gas everyday like some here (even with my daily work schedule) or GM may think. I buy gas at the most 3-4 days at the most. At 40k this car doesn’t seem worth it for those that would be interested in the gas saving. GM has to try to bring the cost closer to 28-30k for buyers to make this a success. With Honda having a sub 20K hybrid on the market and Toyota coming with its Gen. 3 Prius most likely coming in at a lower price (with a shared Lexus they can bring it in lower). Without the suits the car does look better but not 40k worth. The interior looks pretty good, but I don’t like the video game screen in front of driver (just a bit over the top). I hope GM has over hyped this car.

You buy gas every 3-4 days? Wow! I’m on week 3 with my Cobalt, and still have 1/4th of a tank left.

Let’s do some math here.

Cobalt SS: $21,000… 25MPG
Volt: $35,000… no gas use on daily commute.

I drive about 25 miles per day. 11 to work and back… plus around the corner to burger-whatever for lunch. Currently that costs me $4. I do that… oh… 240 days out of the year. So over the 5 years I plan to keep the car… I will spend less than $5000 on fuel.

Even if prices jump to $7/gal I will spend far less than the $14,000 price difference in the two cars. So spending the extra money to buy a Hybrid doesn’t make sense to me.

I would buy this ANYDAY over a Prius or Honda’s new Insight.

RaineMan -
Why stop there with your analysis? Why don’t you consider the Kia Rio that goes for around 13K and gets about 32 mpg? It is cheaper and gets better gas mileage. By your metric, you got screwed for purchasing that Cobalt SS.

u needa understand that this car is just the first step in the evolution of cars

look past the price to 20 or 25 yrs in the future bc this is what it looks like.. metaphorically

I’m trading in my wifes Tahoe for a 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, Invoice starts at $65,784 plus I know I’ll get it for less then that, and yes Tax, Lic, bla, bla bla, fees, but come on now, that is worth it…

I completely agree with g35. You guys are really missing the point with this vehicle. It’s not at all in the same league as hybrids like the Prius/Insight. It’s an altogether new concept. Yes, this first release of a revolutionary technology may seem to be priced high but you aren’t comparing apples to apples.

But I completely understand that it all comes down to the perception that the buying public will have when the Volt is released for sale. For those who want to break away from a gasoline-dependent vehicle, the Volt makes a lot of sense. Just think of how many people will no longer need a single drop of gasoline for their daily commute (unfortunately, I live in Los Angeles and I’m not one of them). THIS IS A MONUMENTAL DEVELOPMENT in the evolution of the mass-produced automobile and you guys aren’t seeing it that way.

Anyone old enough to remember when calculators first came out? They cost well over $100 and hardly did more than add and subtract. People back then said no one would ever want to spend that kind of money for a device that does the same thing you can do on your own.

But they did. In droves, by the way.

The Volt will succeed because it offers many buyers the best of both worlds. They won’t need to buy gasoline, execpt for the longer trips that don’t make up their daily commute. They won’t have to worry about being stuck with a dead battery anywhere because the high mileage gasoline engine is ready to go for them when needed.

This is history in the making, folks. And I’m not saying that because it’s GM and American. I would be saying the same thing if it were Toyota or Honda or BMW introducing this GROUNDBREAKINGA technology to the world.

Beemer, I can think of all sorts of things like that:

VHS
CD Players
iPods
iPhones
Personal Computers
DVD Players
DVDs
Color Televisions
Flat-Panel Televisions
Color Computer Monitors
Flat-Panel Computer Monitors
HD Televisions
In-Car DVD Players
PlayStations (and any other console game)
Cars in general

Early adopters of just about any product have the problem of high price to deal with. But they accept that. I really think the Volt will do well, especially since it’s shaping up to be a nice, attractive vehicle inside and out. I’m very impressed by the interior.

Now, to me, $35,000 is still a hefty price. I’ll have to test drive it before I actually determine it’s worth $35,000 of my hard-earned money. But down the road, the price will drop. Used ones in a few years may go for $20,000, depending on how many are made. And not only that, GM will most likely place this drivetrain in a lot of other vehicles. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be seeing the Malibu and the [gulp] Cruze with the option of a Volt powerplant. Things are looking up.

I like….thats all I have to say.

need more oil for gm ur a piece of **** redneck who knows nothing about cars

Oh look it’s a 2011 Chevorlet Citation

The idea that you will drive the Volt and never use a drop of gas is a lie. Plain and simple. They asked one of the engineers at the launch to clarify that and he just changed the subject. That gasoline motor WILL fire up on you, even on short trips; like the Prius, it will come on when you want A/C, it will come on when the batteries and motor get hot; it will come on when the driveshaft torque drops too low. Besides, you don’t want that motor to sit without being run; if it sits, all the oil and coolant drains out of it, and every time it fires up it will be like a cold-start, which is where 80% of the wear on an engine comes from. By the way, did you read the part of the press materials from the launch where they said that if you drive it over 200 miles without an overnight charge, your MPG drops back down to around 30 mpg?

IT’s very goodlooking, although they cribbed heavily from the European Honda Civic hatchback. If this were $25,000 it would sell like crazy. $35k is just too much. You can roll around in an entry-level BMW for that price.

All you people are right, paying too much for new technology is just worthless (f**k you cheap plasma TVs and laptops). Early adopters—whom we have to thank for just about everything in our lives that we can afford right now—are such losers anyway. GM must be crazy trying to bring this to market and eventually bring down the price using economies of scale. Like the electric starter, automatic transmission, AC, radio, ABS, airbag, power window, and let’s not forget cup holder technology, you’d think GM would have learned it’s lesson about trying to push the technological envelope. If only we could be so lucky to all be driving brand new Model Ts right now. If only they’d listen to us brilliant LLN commenters.

Let’s say the Volt comes out at $38k. The government gives them a credit of 5-10k. The Volt sells from anywhere around 28k to 33k. Those sound likely too me. And probably certain states like California will offer their own rebates or incentives. It’s likely the Volt will be selling for around $30k, give or take a grand.

Has anybody tried to figure out how much you’d save on fuel though?

02WRXPSM- I’m sure your right on some of that, but otherwise that was pretty much a worthless rant. Why would the electric motor come on when the batteries and motor are too hot, it can’t supply any direct drive power so that the electric motor can “shut down”. And unless it’s got very little juice left, it’ll have enough driveshaft torque, which is the plan. I had read something about the gasoline motor starting and running for a minute or so to protect from cold starts- but maybe that had to do with the hybrid Tahoe, I don’t remember.

Till gm price that thing the same as the rest of their fleet models it will sit on the showroom floor.