We Don't Need No Stinking Sparky Cars

Well that changes everything. I'm going to run out and buy one and use the $5000 saving on a Nomex fireproof suit.

A good gasoline powered sedan costs around $20,000, leaving the buyer with $7,500 to $15,000 to cover gasonline and maintenance costs for years. Why would I buy an over-priced moving battery?

Reading some of the comments from the article makes me think about the hybrid drivers in the South Park episode "Smug Alert".

I remember when Ford discounted the Edsel, and we all know how that worked out.
Same crap, different decade.

I predict large parking lots filled with unsold Volts in the near future. If they get the price down to three or four grand maybe I'll get one for my collection, just to keep my disgust fresh.

This is a perfect example of how socialism is for the masses, not the socialist. If even one in one hundred Americans who voted for Obama bought a Chevy Volt it would be the best selling car in American History since the Model T, but the left only verbally support their own ideas.

Calif has mandated levels of sales of these cars that each manufacturer has to meet in order to sell any vehicles in that state. Selling way below cost is just the first step.

Look for them to throw a couple of them into any fleet purchase basically for free (I suspect that this may already be happening)

How about selling them in calif and then having the buyer trade it in at an out of state dealer for more than they paid for it.

Or giving them for way way below cost to anyone who buys a high end car or truck.

I heard a business reporter on a Toronto radio station (fan 590) actually treat this as a good news story for GM and EVs in general. Amazing levels of ignorance.

So, they are knocking $5000 off the price of a Volt? So what? At $35,000 its still an over priced POS!

Great now they should reduce the tax credit 5000...

California's electricity comes from hydro and nuclear. Why should anyone care if they want to use EVs to reduce some of the worst vehicle pollution in America. Is someone forcing you to buy one?
You would be the first to scream if you thought someone was restricting your freedom of choice.

...and no I don't own an EV nor do I gain any benefit from their sales. They are not practical where I live.

I don't own an electric car because, as others have pointed out, it's not a good bargain..... any of them, not just the Volt. However, if you restict the conversation to just the merits BETWEEN electric cars, the Volt has taken the right path. Although it's all electric all the time, it's not limited to short range. The engine drives an electrical generator. This is a way better idea than the PIOUS (Southpark's name for the Prius) and other "hybrids" which are sometimes electric and sometimes gasoline powered. Give it time and upgrades will simply slip into the existing design. It will prove to be a winner in it's genre.

A leader in their genre the way Stanley was a leader in the genre of steam-powered cars.

With vast, for all practical purposes limitless supplies of NG and oil we don't need the distraction of EVs for at least a century. Thus the volt et al are pointless exercises.

Why am I only moderately surprised that the tree hugging, butterfly kissing, ladybug stroking, Birkenstock wearing, commie pinkos are not buying these pieces of crap?

They want a big SUV with air conditioning!!!

If it lasts 10 years you will be the proud owner of your own toxic waste on wheels mobile. With zero trade in value and a certified cheque made out to some salvage company to have it taken away when it finally craps out. For the price of replacement batteries you can buy a small efficient car you could actually go on vacation with. I just bought a single new battery for my Silverado pickup and had to fill in a whole page of treehugging bullship before they let me carry it out of the store. I can imagine the paperwork related in the demise of a Volt. Unless you have money to burn these cars make little economic sense at this time. It's a pissing contest between the consumer and a government trying to force them onto the market. Like everything government involves itself with, it's destined to become a monetary black hole.

Don't see any need for deeper discounts or tax rebates since according to Sandy Renaldo on CTV, they've sold more cars Jan. to Aug. than they did for all of 2012.

Checking to see how many EV's were sold last year, I got sales figures of 3,300 Canada wide - and if your local gov't is anything like mine, I'd be willing to bet most of them were purchased by we taxpayers.

No, the MSM doesn't lie. They just don't tell the whole truth.

Regarding pollution: by far the largest source of particulate emissions - the part that lay people like yourself consider pollution and that are the key manmade ingredient in smog - in the LA basin is now from the grilling and frying of food - has been for decades. Cars - especially gasoline and NG powered ones are almost nil emitters of them. Posted by: Gord Tulk

A quick Google search will show that this is a fictitious statement.

"Southern California's chemical stew is the product of tailpipe emissions from cars and diesel pollution from trucks, trains and ships linked to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach."

"around 50% or more of the air pollution (smog) in Southern California is due to car emissions. Automobiles have become the primary source of air pollution in Los Angeles"

"emission control measures in Southern California have been effective. Although emissions of precursors have declined, motor vehicles remain the dominant source of emissions in Los Angeles."

The filters won't let me post the links, but they're easy to find.

north of 90

heist down the stupid flag will yah. First off U believe every thing U read, bad idea that, second, ignoring the source, the real problem in SoCal, Denver, GTA, etc., is air movement, no breeze, and the pollutants just hang there. Maybe U should travel a little, and U could edumakate yerself. I'm all for EV a specialty use vehicles, as in delivery vans, postal service, towmotors, and the likes, butt sonny grrl, the gov't shoving down ppl's throats is not a good bet, it's socialism, and that ain't never worked out well!!!