I don't have an opinion of either car but best selling does not tell which product is best. Most successful yes, better not always.
Yes, they are idiots and so are you. You have the additional attribute of "huckster". The car sucks, the company sucks and evidently the dealers suck as well.
It was made in my first sentence in my first post in this thread: It's understandable you got confused since I've neither trashed your baby nor given it false praises and you therefore cannot figure out if I'm friend or foe. I am not here to take sides. That said, I will state that your attitude is very defensive. If the car is so wonderful as you want to portray, it will stand on its own merits. However, it is Government Motors we are talking about, so I think it's prudent to be wary.
So basically GM is mom and pop and Toyota is well, Toyota. IOW Toyota is kicking GM's ass. Toyota owns the hybrid market. Toyota makes GM look like a start up. Toyota - 100 GM - 0 Toyota has taken the ball and run with it. Toyota knows how to design and build cars, GM...well, is GM.
I've always been a Chevy truck guy, I love the smooth ride and they last forever. And yet I have a dodge and Ford pickups, go figure. Next 1/2 ton I get will be between a Toyota and GM. Next diesel between Dodge and GM, depending on how good the new GM diesel is looking. The mileage on the new Chevy diesels are damn impressive from what my friends are telling me. If the engine can get as dependable as the dodge diesel it would be a good one. Pick-ups are the exception in the auto business, there are a lot of good choices out there.
I've owned two, a 69' Impala and a Chevette. My now dead ex father in law was something of a motor head and shade tree mechanic. He thought GM was garbage and loved Ford.
The Allison transmissions in the Chevrolet pickups are awesome and the trucks look great too. I love the Cummins engines in the Dodge trucks. The Ford truck chassis is tough as hell and the interiors hold up well. I've got a beef with GM but the trucks are designed well and put together right.
And I'm not here to pump the Volt and tell everybody that they should buy one and its the greatest thing ever. I'm just here to try to correct some of the innacuracy's (mostly ignorance) being displayed here. I dont care if you are a friend or foe. I like controversy. Nothing great was ever achieved that wasn't controversial. You know, the Leaf and Focus electric and Tesla are being subsidized just as much as the Volt. Yes, in the end the market will decide. It's just amazing how many people want something to fail. Something that they really don't know how it works and how it can work for some people. But most importantly, something that probably nobody here has even test driven. You're taking a massive, huge company that you don't like the government's involvement in it and using that to critisize it's least selling product. Why don't you judge the two on their own merits? I mean, I don't hear anybody bashing Cadillac. That's just as much GM as the Volt is.
GM is behind the ball when it comes to hybrid/alternative fuel vehicles and they will readily admit that. It will take years for them to catch up. But they have a great start with the Volt. I would say over 90% of Volt purchasers do not own a GM vehicle. It really is a conquest car. Many people are buying Volt's instead of a Prius and I'm sure many are still buying a Prius instead of a Volt. But it puts GM in the ball game.