[Rifleman]

once again, I have to vent.

so GM comes out with the Chevy Volt, plug in electric car (ok understand that it goes 40 miles on the charge, but it does have a gas engine like the Prius so it's a Hybrid, but if you go less then 40 miles between charges you won't burn any gas)

the heart check moment... STICKER SHOCK!!!! $41 GRAND!!!

So I looked up the Honda Civic DX, manual tranny $15,655 MSRP.

so lets do a little math...

$41 grand minus $15 and a half large gives us just over $25 grand.

$25 Grand devided by $3 bux a gallon for gas gives us about 8500 gallons of gas.

the Civic gets 25 MPG city so if we figure out the miles 8500 gal of gas will get in the Civic....


... It's over 200,000 miles!!!!

So basically for what you would pay for the Volt, you could buy a civic. Then drive it for 10 years.... FOR FREE!

ca'mon guys, I'd love to plug my car in each night and never have to buy gas again... but $41 grand?!?!?! really? I can't afford that kind of "green"

 

[zx10rwannabe]

i really like your math there, present it that way to everyone! thats rediculous....i thought volt was supose to save ppl money ...

 

[Omofo]

It not about saving people money, it's about reducing dependence on oil and conserving resources.

 

[ZX10Miami]

The prius and volt are more for rich people to feel good about themselves but also to start a trend and hopefully bring the prices down in time.

There is talk of how the prius actually damages the environment due to batteries being made somewhere, then shipped, then the car parts shipped, then shipping the car over here..... vs saving an old, decent car.

I like the Volt idea when the price comes to earth. Not exactly a hybrid- more like a diesel electric sub but runs on gas when it needs a charge.

How does the AC work in these cars? It must be a compressor with an electric motor to spin it. That could save gas on any car.

Doesn't AC rob about 7% power on average from a motor?

 

[rainking12]

Minus the $7,500 rebate you get from the government. So final cost would be around $33,500.

 

[Rifleman]

Minus the $7,500 rebate you get from the government. So final cost would be around $33,500.

yeah but that's an entire additional can of worms.

that "government" rebate is actually our taxes, we are paying for it. Or we are borrowing the money and we are paying for it with interest.

even worst, after doing the math above and deciding against the Volt on ecconomic grounds... I'm forced to subsidize rich libs who want to feel better about themselves (one of the leading causes of "smug" a la Southpark) and gullible morons who haven't done the math above.

In either case I'm not happy about it.

Besides, @ $33,5 you can still get about 150,000 miles worth of gas for the civic, so you can drive it for 8.5 years for free.

 

[Rifleman]

It not about saving people money, it's about reducing dependence on oil and conserving resources.

Ok, well, if that's the case, there are alternatives that make more sense.

1. deregulate and increase domestic production always tops my list. That would at the very least reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

2. Convert Government fleet vehicles to propane or natural gas, or hydrogen fuel cells, onboard hydrocarbon reforming vehicles, et al. This would be more expensive then issuing civics to all the postal carriers and congresscritters but it would do two things, it would give the manufactures a reason to build such vehicles and it would give distributors a reason to set up infrastructure to fuel said vehicles.

I'm not super happy about that, but it's better then building a civic size car and charging $41 grand for it and then getting the tax payer to subsidize the rich libs and chronicly guillable.

 

[rainking12]

yeah but that's an entire additional can of worms.

that "government" rebate is actually our taxes, we are paying for it. Or we are borrowing the money and we are paying for it with interest.

even worst, after doing the math above and deciding against the Volt on ecconomic grounds... I'm forced to subsidize rich libs who want to feel better about themselves (one of the leading causes of "smug" a la Southpark) and gullible morons who haven't done the math above.

In either case I'm not happy about it.

Besides, @ $33,5 you can still get about 150,000 miles worth of gas for the civic, so you can drive it for 15 years for free.

How about because of the rebate, it makes more people buy this car which in turn creates competition which creates lower cost. How about when the technology improves and gets cheaper and they can make the car for 20k? This country is know for that. What about the lower emission and cleaner air? What about 10 years from now, we drop our fossil fuel consumption down 80%? You have to look at the big picture and not just the immediate effects.

 

[9R to 10R]

Fuck that, give me my damn GT500 for life baby, averages 8.6 miles per gallon, the low fuel light comes on at about 90 miles, lol. I would not trade it for anything in the world.

 

[BratNetwork]

You also have to factor in the cost of your electric bill... its not like you just stop buying gas and the electric for the car appears out of thin air. Obviously the electric would still be cheaper than the gasoline, but I would have to imagine that its going to take a decent amount on electric to move that car with people in it and up hills and stuff.

With the whole battery being more devastating to the environment due to shipping... what about when that battery goes bad and you have to dispose of it? They say the environmental impact of disposing of a battery that size is greater than driving it that amount of time on gasoline. Plus then you have to factor in that those batteries aren't going to last the life of the rest of the car so you will eventually have to replace that and those suckers are freakin expensive!

When I see the president and other politicians driving in electric cars and the presidential limo and airforce1 is electric then I'll consider it. If its as good as they tell us it is, then why isn't it good enough for them?

 

[Omofo]

What if you live in an area where gas is $5 a gallon?

 

[Scott10r]

You also have to factor in the cost of your electric bill... its not like you just stop buying gas and the electric for the car appears out of thin air. Obviously the electric would still be cheaper than the gasoline, but I would have to imagine that its going to take a decent amount on electric to move that car with people in it and up hills and stuff.

With the whole battery being more devastating to the environment due to shipping... what about when that battery goes bad and you have to dispose of it? They say the environmental impact of disposing of a battery that size is greater than driving it that amount of time on gasoline. Plus then you have to factor in that those batteries aren't going to last the life of the rest of the car so you will eventually have to replace that and those suckers are freakin expensive!

When I see the president and other politicians driving in electric cars and the presidential limo and airforce1 is electric then I'll consider it. If its as good as they tell us it is, then why isn't it good enough for them?

:+1: I dont think this Volt, or even most of the hybrids, are to the point yet where they are feasable for the average joe. That being said, the technology has to start somewhere, so hopefully they sell enough of these things to get along the next couple of years until they really are refined enough to make sense.

 

[ZX10Miami]

What if you live in an area where gas is $5 a gallon?

Or the next time it costs us all $5 or more.

I used to wonder about the whole, plugging in and how much that would cost and how much that would stress the outdated elec grid and how much of the elec comes from coal.

But apparently, it is still better overall for elec and they even have a plan where the cars could feed back into the system at peak demand while they are parked and plugged.

What annoys me is the whole hydrogen game. Maybe they can make it work some day but that day looks to be far off if it's even realistic at all.
Expensive to build the car and takes more energy to retrieve the hydrogen than it gives back. It's a battery that can be refilled faster and more importantly; the oil companies have a hope to be the one's distributing that through their existing outlets.

And that's why we have to hear about hydrogen so much, because the oil companies are in on that one, they even have their "show" stations that already fill the $1million hydrogen cars.