You mean the Toyota Prius Volt styling, is that the question?

Whatever it ends up looking like, it couldn’t be worse than Aztec.

Did anyone else watch GM’s 100th Anniversary video? If was pretty good as you got to see real GM employees. Lutz did make an appearance albeit looking three-sheets-to wind from a two-martini lunch.

howsmydriving, nothing on earth could be worse than the Aztec. Positively the ugliest thing known to man.

i actually kind of like the volt styling… the rear is a nice departure and although the front looks very generic from a distance the amount of actual detail and precision that went into things like the headlight housings and the vent trims more than makes up for it upon second glance.

Volt looks nothing like Prius. Prius is some kind of space-ship bubble thing with a flat arse end. Volt at least looks like a regular car. I can definately understand people getting behind the idea of a car that can get superior fuel mileage while still managing to look something like everything else on the road. No trend setters here… if you want it to sell in the mainstream sedan market… better make it look like every other mainstream sedan.

Until the Volt can cost as little as the new Insight it will not beat it in terms of sales. Yes going 40 miles without using any gasoline is great but what about when you need to go further? What if you want to take a trip somewhere? What if you need to drive across state lines to go see someone? What if you have a busy day and you are driving all over the place? These things may seem like they happen very little compared to a normal commute day but once you need to do one of them you are going to wish you had a good ol’ petrol engine delivering the estimated 70mpg. O ya and the Insight is supposed to cost 18,500…

P.S. – If a person really cares about saving money and the environment by using an efficient car then they shouldn’t care that the Volt looks more “mainstream” because paying 10-15k more just to look mainstream goes against the money saving policy, so the only thing left to defend yourself with would be that you care about the environment, lol.

Let’s see here, the Prius went on sale in 1999, the Dolt in what year? Lutz is the man, the savior of GM, the omnipotent car-guy! How much does the Dolt cost? What does it get for mileage? I thought so.

The Prius went on sale in 1999 with old-tech batteries that got it 45-50mpg and zero miles on all-electric power.

The Volt is going on sale in 2010 with new-tech batteries that allow the Volt to go 40 miles on all-electric power, and if more miles are needed, the piston-engine gas generator kicks in to recharge the batteries, NOT power the car. This will yield the car, in normal use, 150mpg. Sure, it’ll cost significantly more than the Prius/Insight, but it’ll use so much less fuel, put far less carbon emissions into the air, and do it with cleaner battery tech (that you can plug into the wall, too, and use as much energy, annually as a refrigerator), to boot.

There is really no comparison between the Prius and the Volt. The Prius was a game-changer. The Volt has leapfrogged it.

Uhh … did everyone read the same article I did? The second sentence is a complete contradiction:

“While GM vice chairman has gone on record saying the [b]production would look radically different[/b] from the concept, ”

I wish LLN would do more proof reading of their articles. The editor / copyright was asleep at the wheel!

inline6, I understand the tow trucks they’ll be using to pickup the roadside Dolts are of the same game-changer technology.

inline6: the Volt hasn’t leapfrogged anything yet. It has the potential to do so. The biggest concern for GM is that if they’re seriously looking at 2012 before production begins who knows how many other plug-ins it’s going to be competing against? The rest of the industry isn’t just standing still waiting to buy a Volt so they can take it apart and find out what makes it tick. Who knows, somebody could be even farther along than GM. The General -for better or for worse- seems to have this propensity to leak vast amounts information whether it’s intended or not.

–Inline6–
So your telling me that the Volt is a EV1 with it’s own on board generator….

That’s Frisker out line for the Karma…………

and the company that Frisker team up with for the power plants have come a long….LONG……Way from the EV1….

Finally GM has realized that form over function does NOT work. I for one am glad they decided to take a tough stance on this issue: fuel economy first, looks second. That’s how it should be if you want to survive in today’s market.

Lutz has nothing to defend about the way this car looks. It’s got a sporty/sexy stance. And hell! it looks way better than the gay ass Prius. I can’t see pictures in this new and unimproved version of LLN, but there are some pictures and even a video at motortrend.com

Chalk me up as one more aesthetically challenged American. I like the production Volt’s looks. I am ignorant enough to believe in beauty being in the eye of the beholder. I am foolish enough to believe that the propulsion system of this car enhances its appeal. And, someday, if I work hard enough, I will have enough money to buy cars like this that so many predict will fail. I will get what I want without worrying about the fact that 90% of the world is laughing at me. I invite a few more of you to smile when you read the comments of those who would detract from your own gut reaction to something like the Volt. Some of the first autos had stuffed horses’ heads on them to make the drivers feel less odd and to help them cope with the queer looks from people who wondered how their carriage was moving sans horses (haven’t any of you wondered why so many car companies put horses on their emblems?). The Volt has a generic body too. I feel safe in assuming that the Volt could have been even slipperier if not for someone at GM wanting it to at least resemble what we have come to expect from cars. I could be wrong, but I am still not going to cow to my critics.

Still looks 100x better than that crap Prius…

I think it looks good. Not as radical as the concept, but still a nice looking car, and 100% better looking than the Prius (both old and new one).