Volt sales are down not because of lack of demand but because for now GM has essentially given up on it. Low gas prices hurt but there are still people willing to look at it. December is a big Volt month because people lock in the year end tax credit. My dealership had one the whole month. I lost out on at least 3 sales because of lack of inventory. January comes around and they send us about 10. Now they'll just sit. Consumers quickly catch on to what manufacturers focus is on and will ignore products that they feel aren't getting enough attention. GM is back to their old ways. They've never seen an 8 cylinder they didn't like. It's all about trucks and SUV's. Why focus on selling 50k Volt's a year when you have waiting lists of people willing to pay $90k for Z06's? It will stay this way until the party stops and everything will repeat again. Nissan sells more Leafs because they have made it more of a priority and are subsidizing it by offering $200 leases. Parent's can get their teenager a brand new car for less than an old beater and this one can only go 75 miles so they keep a tight leash on them! Nobody is actually replacing a vehicle to get a Leaf. GM has chosen not to do this. I still don't get why Tesla gets grouped in to this category. It's like bashing a Civic cause you just came back from driving an M3. Or complaining that a Holiday Inn wasn't as good a stay as Ritz Carlton. They are in different category's. It's just fun to bash the Volt and Tesla can do no wrong. Real life fires count, Tesla - 3+, Volt - 0. Oh right there was the one crash test where the Volt was smashed twice, then rolled 3 times and then put outside without the battery being disconnected (standard procedure). That car caught fire but at least the Volt gives you 3 weeks to get out of the vehicle before catching fire. How in the world can a $120k vehicle be the example of what car companies should produce? Remember, Tesla doesn't sell enough cars to make a profit. They only survive through selling renewable energy tax credits. The real losers here are the engineers at GM who have made an incredible product and their work is so under appreciated by both GM and society. Why don't any of you actually drive one and see how you like it? You'd be surprised how many 50+ white male Obama hatin' Republicans I've sold these to that love them. I'll bet not one of you has ever even looked at one or ever will. Ignorance is so much easier than progress.
"Volt sales are down not because of lack of demand but because for now GM has essentially given up on it." Yeah maybe if they just made more volts people would start buying them, LOL, talk anout being in denial.
lol, Sandy made it back...It was confirmed a few years ago that he actually does sell Volts for a living...I'd call him a shill, but in this instance he actually sells the kool aid that he drinks.
With comments like that im surprised he hasnt managed to procure a job at corporate, its exactly the kind of b.s. I would expect to hear from one of their executives after they whiffed on earnings. I can see it now: "People are not buying the car, not because they dont like it, but because the government wont pay them enough to buy it, and we just havent built enough of them so that people will realize what an awesome car it is. We plan on upping volt production next quarter to make up for the lack of sales."
Because we don't have to go "look at" or learn about things we intuitively know will fail. That's why it was us, not you, who was saying the same thing years ago that we are today. It was you who was telling us what a success it would be. You can bring up all the excuses in the world for the why, but you were wrong and we were right.
Sigh.. you hardly know where to begin. Basically, sandy confirmed every point I made. The car was mismarketed. They should have branded it as a caddy, put it in the sleek caddy coupe body and charged $80k for it. Instead, people see it in the shoddy econobox chassis but get the privilege of paying Bimmer money for it. The only way it was going to be successful was if they basically gave it away and created the network effect. You get enough of them, people will expect charging stations at work, etc. Maybe it becomes some sort of techy status symbol. You buy a Leaf, you know you are getting, a glorified golf cart. You buy a Prius you know you are getting toyota reliability and a sophisticated tech package of which ultra high mileage is part of the attraction but not the whole deal. You buy a Tesla you know you are getting world class performance, sexy looks and a conversation starter at the country club. It's not clear to me what you get if you buy a Volt. Other than a big loss when you trade it in.
You hate the Volt not because of what it is or what it does, you hate it for what it represents. You hate GM. You hate the greenies. You hate it because Obama likes it. The Volt did not fail, GM failed the Volt. The Leaf is a far inferior car yet is now selling better than the Volt because Nissan believes in it. They market it. GM would rather sell more SUV's and trucks. Nobody has yet explained why logistically the functions of what the Volt does is a failure. Most likely that is because none of you (just like Neil Cavuto) actually know how it operates.
Just a heads up. An apostrophe generally means possession, not plural. In certain cases it is a contraction, such as from "it is" to "it's". Regardless, you never sold "Volt's" or "Chevy's", although there is a possibility that you sold Chevrolets. Admittedly in slang Chevies is allowed. Curious that you seem unfamiliar with the proper spelling and punctuation of the brand you claim to represent. But maybe you do not read or write much. Actually, that would be an unsurprising revelation. Also see: