GM Produces the Volt!

[Coito ergo sum]

Ah, Meeky, go back to crying about whatever it is you're pissing your pants over today. No wait, go run to the moderators again, little girl.

I've never run to the mods about anything, but do enlighten me as to what you are wittering about eh, old chap?

Ginger.

[Meekychuppet]

Ah, Meeky, go back to crying about whatever it is you're pissing your pants over today. No wait, go run to the moderators again, little girl.

I've never run to the mods about anything, but do enlighten me as to what you are wittering about eh, old chap?

Ginger.

Can anyone translate?

[charlou]

He yawned gingerly?

[Meekychuppet]

He yawned gingerly?

I dunno. He accused me of running to the mods about something, then posted the the word 'ginger'. If that makes sense to anyone else then I am all ears.

[Coito ergo sum]

He yawned gingerly?

Got it!

It's a soulless yawn.

[Meekychuppet]

Sounds like someone is trying to disown something stupid that they said.

[charlou]

That's one of the reasons we're raising a generation of wimps!

Back in my day, kids would just roam around the vehicle, sitting or sleeping on the floor, etc. No seatbelts ever. And, mom and dad would smoke with the windows most of the way up.

Kids today....

I remember age three, being in the back of my parents' panel van (no seats or belts) when dad rolled it one night on a dirt track outside Albany .. getting tossed around and knocked and bruised about ... A couple of nice biker guys helped us out that night.

[maiforpeace]

That's one of the reasons we're raising a generation of wimps!

Back in my day, kids would just roam around the vehicle, sitting or sleeping on the floor, etc. No seatbelts ever. And, mom and dad would smoke with the windows most of the way up.

Kids today....

I remember age three, being in the back of my parents' panel van (no seats or belts) when dad rolled it one night on a dirt track outside Albany .. getting tossed around and knocked and bruised about ... A couple of nice biker guys helped us out that night.

I have a similar memory - we would sit in the back of our paneled station wagon, on the slippery floor/storage area, and my mother would take the corners as fast as she could so we would slam from one side to the other, like an amusement park ride.

Those were the days. :sighsm:

[Coito ergo sum]

That's one of the reasons we're raising a generation of wimps!

Back in my day, kids would just roam around the vehicle, sitting or sleeping on the floor, etc. No seatbelts ever. And, mom and dad would smoke with the windows most of the way up.

Kids today....

I remember age three, being in the back of my parents' panel van (no seats or belts) when dad rolled it one night on a dirt track outside Albany .. getting tossed around and knocked and bruised about ... A couple of nice biker guys helped us out that night.

I have a similar memory - we would sit in the back of our paneled station wagon, on the slippery floor/storage area, and my mother would take the corners as fast as she could so we would slam from one side to the other, like an amusement park ride.

Those were the days. :sighsm:

LOL - when I was in grammar school, we used to sit in the back of the bus where it was bumpiest. If you timed it right when the bus went over certain bumps on the way to or from school, you could bounce almost up to the roof of the bus.....

[drl2]

My father had a pickup truck that we'd take on the 2 hour ride to the beach almost every weekend; he'd gotten hold of a bench seat from a wrecked van, and my sister and I would ride the whole way in the back of the truck on a seat that not only lacked belts, but wasn't even bolted down in any way.

My mother had a Gran Torino for a while that wouldn't start without the seatbelts fastened in the front... so she would pull the belt forward, start the car, and release the belt...

[leo-rcc]

I knew he'd run to the moderators.....

A: He didn't
B: Yes, great band indeed.

[Coito ergo sum]

And.... touted by the Obama Administration as just about the greatest boon to the auto industry since the horseless carriage....the Volt turns out to be a giant load of bullshit....

Green Technology: Government Motors' all-electric car isn't all-electric and doesn't get near the touted hundreds of miles per gallon. Like "shovel-ready" jobs, maybe there's no such thing as "plug-ready" cars either.

The Chevy Volt, hailed by the Obama administration as the electric savior of the auto industry and the planet, makes its debut in showrooms next month, but it's already being rolled out for test drives by journalists. It appears we're all being taken for a ride.

When President Obama visited a GM plant in Hamtramck near Detroit a few months ago to drive a Chevy Volt 10 feet off an assembly line, we called the car an "electric Edsel." Now that it's about to hit the road, nothing revealed has changed our mind.

Advertised as an all-electric car that could drive 50 miles on its lithium battery, GM addressed concerns about where you plug the thing in en route to grandma's house by adding a small gasoline engine to help maintain the charge on the battery as it starts to run down. It was still an electric car, we were told, and not a hybrid on steroids.

That's not quite true. The gasoline engine has been found to be more than a range-extender for the battery. Volt engineers are now admitting that when the vehicle's lithium-ion battery pack runs down and at speeds near or above 70 mph, the Volt's gasoline engine will directly drive the front wheels along with the electric motors. That's not charging the battery — that's driving the car.

So it's not an all-electric car, but rather a pricey $41,000 hybrid that requires a taxpayer-funded $7,500 subsidy to get car shoppers to look at it. But gee, even despite the false advertising about the powertrain, isn't a car that gets 230 miles per gallon of gas worth it?

We heard GM's then-CEO Fritz Henderson claim the Volt would get 230 miles per gallon in city conditions. Popular Mechanics found the Volt to get about 37.5 mpg in city driving, and Motor Trend reports: "Without any plugging in, (a weeklong trip to Grandma's house) should return fuel economy in the high 30s to low 40s."

Car and Driver reported that "getting on the nearest highway and commuting with the 80-mph flow of traffic — basically the worst-case scenario — yielded 26 miles; a fairly spirited backroad loop netted 31; and a carefully modulated cruise below 60 mph pushed the figure into the upper 30s."

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysi ... Motors.htm

$41,000....subsided, sort of, by the government to the tune of a $7500 tax credit (that, of course, has limits and restrictions....), still costs $35,000 for a teeny-tiny death trap, and in reality doesn't get better gas mileage....

Huh?

[Coito ergo sum]

[laklak]

Might work in an urban environment where you don't drive much, but out here in the sticks it wouldn't even get me to Walmart on a single charge.

[Ronja]

I'm late into this thread, but this did catch my eye:

... Plus, people could do well just to move closer to work. Even if you drive a hummer, if you commute three to five miles to work, the gas consumption is small...

Why would one choose to drive if the distance is just 3-5 miles? Why not bicycle (during snowfree months at least)? That's what I did when we lived 6.5 km from my work, and that is what MiM does now that we live 5.5 km from his work. The time spent is pretty exactly the same, too, seeing as morning and afternoon car traffic is congested but bike traffic, even though very lively, can proceed at full speed.

Or does your city/town lack (safe, separate) bike routes?