Chevy Volt's first pre-production model now on the road, in testing
By Ross Miller 
posted June 26th 2009 12:38AM
posted June 26th 2009 12:38AM
posted June 26th 2009 12:38AM
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Neat.
Yeah it wasn't even cool enough to get a line in Transformer: RotF
Yet another ugly electric car with a fat, mountainous ass.
The Volt is essentially a PR manuever: It exists, and thus takes heat off GM, but is ugly enough to reduce demand and allow GM to go on doing business as usual.
If GM was really serious about selling this electric car they would have hired someone who was not 10 years old to design the facia and what not of this car.
Hey, if I blow a good $50K on a new type of car I want it to look like something batman or Captain Elektro would drive, not another losermobile.
America shold be ashamed of their products. Darn busted up Honda civic with a broken motor still goes for more than an american car. The only thing America made good was BIG BLOCK 4 Barrel PONTIACS.
Everyone says $40K, can anyone point to a document that mentions the price.
Why buy this if the Honda Insight is under $20K? I doubt it's worth the extra +$20K.
Insight is not a plug-in afaik.
It looks better than any Prius ever has. I just wish they would have left some more definitive lines in it.
It looks exactly like a Prius. The only difference is that it's shorter and has a longer nose.
My first thought was "looks like a crappy chevy-made body kit strapped on a Prius."
GM has always been really good at making concepts look neat, and making production versions really crappy and boring.
Double neat.
Sweet.
Wow.. its, kinda ugly...
How is this ugly?
It may not be as sexy as the concept, but it's still quite a bit better than Chevy's other models.
It looks like as Prius and a Ford Focus had a illegitimate love child.
I still fail to see how that could be considered ugly. Generic, yes. Ugly, no.
gonna have to go with ugly as well, either that or black is really unflattering. the silver spoiler? really.
the proportion from the front end to the back just look really weird
gonna have to go with ugly as well, either that or black is really unflattering. the silver spoiler? really.
the proportion from the front end to the back just look really weird
It's definitely better looking than the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius.
What part of preproduction didn't you get? The color and the spoiler could and will easily change before it ships in mass. *shrugs* Who cares. Its an American made car. Won't touch it with a 10 meter cattle prod. I've been burned too many times over the year. I just went with Toyota a couple years ago and its like a rock....so to speak. If I can't trust tried and true engineering in a traditional car how the heck am I to trust something as new as the Volt? Maybe after 5 years on the market and not seeing a spike in failed transmissions, gas pumps (Which I think is still in this type of car.), etc maybe.
Cobalt with a spoiler?
not be as sexy as the concept? Thats an understatement thats like comparing an ipod to an original xbox. its about as sexy as a garbage can this thing is fugly no imagination at all. I thought the concept was a work of art this is just garbage. Why did it change so much?! its like they went from 100 to 0 in artistic design in less then a second. Who was in charge of this project homer simpson? how could they go from such a sexy car to this?
Its looks like crap. They took a great concept and normalized the design into a Malibu. Company should have been bankrupt years ago.
A Chevy Monza!
10 per week isn't full-production. Autoblog is doing fine.
Oooh! PoPo!
Double ugly.
Ha yeah Tesla FTW
Double sweet.
Double Chevy Monza
I really hope this car succeeds. Not just because I want to see GM get back on their feet, but for full-on electric cars to become more mainstream. I can't wait to test drive one myself.
thats exactly what I want, I want electric to be mainstream and a stunt like this just might make other manufacturers jump into electric production.
Volt still isn't full-on electric, but it's a big step and more practical than most vehicles of the type. It's electric for the first 40 or so miles then it relies on the conventional engine.
@sitruc
Well... That's technically true. But the gas engine is supposed to be just a backup in case you go over 40 miles. It's more of a convenience thing in my mind. I still view the car as an electric car.
Fair enough. I just wanted to point out the important distinction and part of why the Volt is more practical at this point.
//Before somebody misinterprets that, I'm not saying the segment is for everybody and/or affordable.
The gas engine just runs a generator that powers the electric motor after the battery is down to a certain percent of charge (I forget the exact number). What I don't understand is why it can't throw some charge back into the battery, say while idling at a light, until there's enough juice in it to run electric-only.
No matter what, you're still running electrically regardless if the generator is running or not. It is actually less efficient to try and charge up the battery using the generator rather than just sustaining the 30% state-of-charge, because once you get home, you can just plug it in and pay about a dollar to charge it up overall.
it looks so sweet in black
Looks like it just got t-boned.
wow, it actually doesn't look bad!
http://image.motortrend.com/f/roadtests/hatchbacks/9924943/112_0808_02z+2008_COBB_tuning_subaru_wrx_sti+side.jpg
Anyone see the similarity?
Check out the headlights - pulled straight from a 2004-2008 Acura TL. Coming GM, it's no surprise and I don't mind if a failing company copies a bit to get a car to look good. And the Volt does look damn good.
Not really...
On one hand, I see Subaru's typically quirky yet compelling design, and on the other, I see GM's typical bland and uninteresting design cues. That both cars are 4-door hatchbacks is really the only similarity.
Just to add:
I will give GM credit for taking a step in the right direction, but they have many, many steps to go before most of their cars are worth buying.
Nope. The Subaru looks much more appealing to me.
I must admit it does look better than the Prius.
It damn should look better considering that it will cost almost $20k more than a Prius. GM really messed this one up though. This does NOT look like a $40k car. Not to mentiont that the new Prius design looks better than this.
The Prius defined the segment, has a plug-in version that will be out before the Volt and is backed by a company that did not blackmail billions of tax payers dollars in order to stay afloat for another year or two. This is GM's Hail Mary to make it look as though the car faker is clued in. It's taken too long, will cost too much (especially compared with the new Honda hybrid) and will still lose GM money on every sale. GM did have a viable electric car in the EV-1 a decade ago but the tards at GM HQ couldn't see beyond their bonuses that this was a glimpse of the future. Instead they continued to suck on the teat of big profits from SUVs and trucks in ignorance of the impending oil spikes and stuffed billions into lobbying against pollution and efficiency legislation. Then, with the noose tightening, they announce a Volt concept that looks cool but the production model looks so plain that only it's mother would love it.
Do I sound bitter? Maybe because I foolishly owned 2 crappy GMs (a Saturn and a Pontiac) before realising the folly and now I get to be a forced shareholder. Never another GM in my family, even this this dolt won't bolt for a Volt.
If you're referring to the Obama administration's actions with GM as blackmail, then you're a bit off the mark. It's more like "meddling in private industry with someone else's money," if there's one word for that...