Chevy Volt caught on camera

[Manedwolf]

And it's UGLY.

Which end is the front?



Why can't GM hire a designer that's a designer? All their vehicles look like angry kitchen appliances.

And what IS up with the 80's/90's unibrow plastic taillight bar? LET IT GO, GM. THE FIREBIRD IS DEAD.
This is like a Pontiac Sunfire that tapers backwards from hood to tail. What the hell, GM? Seriously, what?

(Added: Remember the in your face grill and LED headlights on the showcar? Gone! Generic GM economy car nose.)

[Boomhauer]

And it's UGLY.

Which end is the front?

Wait, I thought that was how all vehicles came these days?

[Bigjake]

Why can't GM hire a designer that's a designer? All their vehicles look like angry kitchen appliances.

Thats funny, I don't care who you are   

Maybe they're trying to appeal to the same crowd of wierdos that thing the Prius is aesthetically pleasing.

[AJ Dual]

I dunno.

The auto-makers are famous for disguising the details of pre-production cars from the auto-paparazzi. They cover stuff in black plastic on the test tracks, to fabricating downright fakes.

Wasn't the Volt due in 2011? Two more years seems far away for them to have the cosmetics finalized, when Car & Driver is constantly full of franken-cars caught on the test tracks that are due in the very next model year.

[Perd Hapley]

Looks OK. 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

The body slopes downward to the rear for aerodynamics, which are a teeny tiny bit important in a high efficiency vehicle.

[thebaldguy]

I've actually seen quite a few disguised prototypes in Minnesota. Why Minnesota?

Winter testing.

Years ago, the son of an local auto column/talk show (Paul Brand?) snapped some pics of a disguised "new" VW Beetle in Bemidi, Minnesota. It had black vinyl front and rear end covers to hide the shape. The driver emerged from the store, saw the guy taking pictures, and ran to the car and sped off.

I've seen disguised GM models in downtown Minneapolis. They were disguised with front/rear end covers, and had some sensors on the roof.

The license plates were special GM Manufacturing plates from Michigan.

[lupinus]

it's not good, but could be worse.

The new civic coupe?  My goodness it's fugly

[seeker_two]

Nicer-looking than the Prius.....a co-worker has one....I call it the "Stealth Egg"....good thing she got white instead of brown....

[Bigjake]

Nicer-looking than the Prius.....a co-worker has one....I call it the "Stealth Egg"....good thing she got white instead of brown....

completely off topic, but I just had my very first dinner of fresh eggs, of this years hatch! Most tasty Rhode Island and Welsummer eggs.

[Firethorn]

Two more years seems far away for them to have the cosmetics finalized,

Indeed, it's quite possible that the picture car is pretty much entirely a test mule; really only intended to test the mechanicals.

And yeah, efficiency dictates much of a car's profile today.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I know that Chevy has been testing the Volt drive train by stuffing Volt innards into a Malibu body.  Or was it an old Cavalier body?  I don't remember.  It doesn't matter, the point is that body work is proceeding somewhat independently from the work on the drive system.  Either can change tremendously before the final product is finished.

There's video of GM's CEO giving the Volt/Malibu frankencar a test drive floating around somehwere.

[Gewehr98]

LET IT GO, GM. THE FIREBIRD IS DEAD.

I liked the last iteration of the Firebird.  It'll probably come back, now that its sister-ship Camaro is hitting the market again soon.

At least the Volt mule above, heavily cladded and disguised though it is, looks better than 99% of the rice-burners on the road today.

OMGWTF? Aerodynamic design for an energy-efficient electric vehicle? 

Who woulda thunk it? 

[The Annoyed Man]

More importantly, isn't the Volt supposed to have an operating range of only 40 miles?  I would be interested in the car as a commuter, but my round-trip is 50 miles.  Unless someone installs outlets in the parking garage, the limited range would kill it for me.

[Manedwolf]

More importantly, isn't the Volt supposed to have an operating range of only 40 miles?  I would be interested in the car as a commuter, but my round-trip is 50 miles.  Unless someone installs outlets in the parking garage, the limited range would kill it for me.

MBTA put a row of metered power spaces in the Alewife T garage, but removed them because A) nobody used them, and B), duh, they were vandalized.

[The Annoyed Man]

Imagine that.  They were vandalized.   Hey, now that is a business opportunity.  Paid charging/parking meters.  Swipe a card to allow access to the plug, charge for the charge (HAHAHAHAHHA!), and pocket the money.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

More importantly, isn't the Volt supposed to have an operating range of only 40 miles?  I would be interested in the car as a commuter, but my round-trip is 50 miles.  Unless someone installs outlets in the parking garage, the limited range would kill it for me.

It has a range of 40 miles running on the batteries alone.  After 40 miles, a gas generator turns on to power the electric motors for another 300 or 400 miles.

[Manedwolf]

It has a range of 40 miles running on the batteries alone.  After 40 miles, a gas generator hopefully turns on to power the electric motors for another 300 or 400 miles.

FTFY. It IS a GM product.

[AJ Dual]

More importantly, isn't the Volt supposed to have an operating range of only 40 miles?  I would be interested in the car as a commuter, but my round-trip is 50 miles.  Unless someone installs outlets in the parking garage, the limited range would kill it for me.

It has a range of 40 miles running on the batteries alone.  After 40 miles, a gas generator turns on to power the electric motors for another 300 or 400 miles.

Which is the way all hybrids should have been from the beginning. It's mechanically simpler. I don't understand why Honda and Toyota did the "synergy drive" style the way they have implemented it. They need very complicated drivetrains with all the accompanying parasitic losses to keep switching back and forth like that.

generator -> battery -> electric motor = much simpler. The way subs and diesel electric locomotives have been doing it for nearly a century.

[mtnbkr]

FWIW, one of the big defense contractors is pimping a new diesel electric vehicle for the military.  I don't recall the name or it's specific purpose (think it's a general purpose vehicle), but they're talking up the modular and diesel electric features.

Chris

[Gewehr98]

FTFY. It IS a GM product.

Yeah, ok.  Like nobody here has a reliable GM vehicle sans Hirohito amenities. (aka, my Chevy pickup, my dad's Saturn Vue, etc...)

To quote Fistful: Manedwolf, why do you hate America so much? 

[Manedwolf]

There are some reliable GM products. Some.

If ALL their vehicles were reliable and were not corner-cutting crank-em-out cars, they would not be losing so much marketshare, would they? Then there's the focus on chrome and gee-whiz in their luxury lines, NOT quality. My parents rented one of the new top-of-the-line Cadillacs, and half the gadget features weren't working right. Neither was the passenger-side window, or the driver's side seat motor control on one of the two joysticks. This was a brand new Cadillac. DTS, I think. Quality assurance? What's that? But it's got gadgets and chromeplated plastic all over! They just...maybe don't work.

Meanwhile, if you get into a new Lexus, it just freaking works.

I'm sorry, but I know too many people whose GM vehicles are in the shop far, far, too often, and they just don't have the longevity of a lot of "import brands" that are made by US workers right here. See, I also consider Honda of America and Toyota to be American cars...even moreso, because most of their cars are made in Ohio or Kentucky, whereas some of the Big Three cars are made in Mexico.

Again, if GM stuff was all good, why are they losing all their marketshare and nearing bankruptcy, when people choose cars that don't break over cars that do...?

[mtnbkr]

I've not had good experiences with GM products.

First was a Pontiac Bonneville.  The engine was reliable enough and it ran strong, but many components attached to the engine weren't as well designed.  In the ten years my parents had that car, it went through 3-4 alternators, at least one AC compressor, and multiple power window motors (there was other stuff, but those are the specific problems I can think of).

The 2nd was a Pontiac Grand Prix my wife owned when we got married.  She replaced the transmission once and had it rebuilt once prior to us getting married.  The ABS system failed.  During the time it was failing, it would kick in even in a normal braking situation (hint: that doesn't help braking on dry pavement).  It ran rough as hell for no apparent reason.  The last straw was it trying to kill me in rush  hour traffic on I66.  The cruise control kicked in by itself and tried to accelerate from 10mph to whatever speed it wanted.  I had to stand on the brakes while wrestling it to the breakdown lane.  I shut it off and cranked it back up.  Worked fine and then went haywire again.  I repeated shutdown/crank process again and it was fine till I got home.  I bought another car within the week.

I've owned three Toyotas (actually still have two of them).  The 93 Paseo needed nothing but normal wear and tear items (tires, plugs, clutch, brake pads, etc) during the 120k miles I put on it (sold it with 196k miles) and 8 years I owned it. 

The 97 4Runner has been equally reliable except for the rear axle seal I replaced in 2003.  It's a common problem in 3rd gen 4Runners (and easy repair), but hasn't come back since.  With 158k miles, I'd still drive it cross country right now if necessary. 

My newest Toyota is a 2003 Camry.  Other than a freak problem where the water pump leaked onto the pulleys, which contaminated the idler arm bearing and alternator bearing, resulting in the replacement of all three components, it has been reliable.  Had I caught the leak early enough, it probably would've just been the water pump.  With only 50k miles and two years of ownership (125k total miles), the jury is still out on that one.

In all fairness, the 1993 Nissan Altima I owned for a couple years was a lemon on par with the Pontiacs (worse actually), so I won't buy another Nissan either.  I bought it with 50k on the odometer.  By the time it hit 90k, it had a major oil leak, a significant water leak, no AC, and intermittent electrical problems.  When I was offered $400 on trade-in when I bought the Camry, I was all too happy to take it.

There are a lot of American cars I'd like to own, but cars are too expensive to take risks on.  I keep my cars for a long time and expect them to last (and not kill me...).

Chris

[Gewehr98]

Dunno, my Subaru Loyale was a total POS.  I ditched it like a bad habit after the second engine went Glock-mode kB!  It was still under warranty, so the new owner got to deal with that. Fool me once, as the saying goes.  The irony is that I kept the first dead engine to rebuild for a trike I wanted to build, but sold it to a fellow who wanted it for a kitplane.  Evidently the little Subaru flat fours have replaced the venerable VW air-cooled engines as a suitable kitplane powerplant.

IOW, nobody's immune to kicking lemons out the factory door.  Just because they burn rice doesn't mean they're immune to the problem of being created by humans for humans, let alone make them the subject of what amounts to downright worship. The local auto repair shops here in the Great White North have plenty of AcurInfiniLexToys on their parking lots to illustrate that niggling detail.  They're automobiles, and they wear out.  Whether they run on Sake, Auslese, Chianti, Strongbow (save for the Lucas electrics), or Budweiser, that doesn't change.   

[mtnbkr]

No doubt.  My point was that I've had more trouble with either of the Pontiacs I've been exposed to than all three of my Toyotas (FWIW, the Nissan was more trouble than all 5 cars).  I'm not a nipponphile, I'm equally suspicious of Honda and Subaru.  The former because my brother's Civic just felt "fragile" and the latter because I know multiple people who've had expensive problems such as failed transmissions, etc. 

Cars are too expensive to take risks with.  So far, Toyota has been the safe bet for me.  It's a boring automotive existence, but it leaves money for other pursuits.

Chris