First of all, it's a GM product, which is a big strikeout for me. I bought a few brand-new GM products in the last decade - and all of them literally started to fall apart after the first year. The last one, a 2007 Acadia, had the power steering pump die. And 3 weeks to wait for a replacement. And just before I traded it in, the pump started to go again. Sorry GM, my faith in your product longevity is not high.
Second of all, I get the idea of an "extended-range" hybrid. Use the battery for commuting, gas engine when you need to go far. Because let's face it, the majority of people do not have the cash to buy more than one new car at a time, and if they're going to drop $25k+ on a car, it's gotta be able to go for those drives on the weekend. The Volt sounds like a savoir, right? Until you can buy a cheap $15k all-electric commuter car for going to and from work, and an alternative-fuel vehicle you can travel long distances with the ease of refueling that gas offers, this is as good as it's going to get, right?
The problem with the Volt is that it really does neither of those things exceptionally well. Oh sure, it'll bring you to work and back, and you'll never have to charge it... but you might have to fill it up. And since it's based on the Cobalt platform, you're not going to be able to fit very many large Americans into it, along with all their matched luggage for a long road trip to the grandparent's house. And since you've already spent your monthly payment budget on one car, you'll have to buy a used car, and heave money you simply don't have into keeping that thing running.
Now, finally, as a petrol-head myself, I find the concept of the Volt nauseating. If I wanted to be told how to drive, I'd make it simple, and live in a communist country. They could also tell me what to eat and what to drink, where to work and how much money I can make. I wouldn't be able to "occupy" anything, because I wouldn't have any freedom or rights to complain about being trodden over anyways.
Yes, there is an epidemic on our roads. Inattentive drivers, people driving drunk, young kids and their Folgers-can-equipped Civics racing between the lights, and the men with small penises and their jacked-up trucks pretending they're in a Nascar race, drowning the rest of us in the blue smoke emanating from their modified diesels.
But clamping down on our freedom to push the go-pedal when you come around the corner on a highway, and are greeted with a kilometer or more of untwisting and empty tarmac in front of you? Frankly, I'd rather have my testicles removed through my nasal canal than even feel guilty about being able to achieve that most primitive of adrenaline rushes. Do I do that in rush hour traffic? Perhaps in school zones during morning drop-off? No, perhaps because I am not an idiot. Perhaps because I am one of the few people remaining on the planet with both a drivers' license that's record is empty, along with a criminal record that is also as blank, that knows when to keep it in my trousers, and when to let my foot make the pedal meet the carpet.
The Volt is the personification of everything I, as a petrol-head, cannot stand. It is built by a useless corporation that's taken too much money from Joe Blow consumer, still cranks out substandard products, doesn't do anything it's supposed to beyond acceptable, and now, makes you feel guilty for wanting to have fun.
Me, I'd rather continue to pump dead dinosaurs into my obnoxious car, and go for a drive.
