To Volt, or Not to Volt, that is the question
The Volt is an impressive car. Autoblog just came out with their first full review and it meshes well with everything that I have heard: the most impressive thing about the car is that you barely notice it is an EV. It is a competent, easy to drive, practical hatchback, which just happens to be powered by electricity (and a gasonline generator).
But here is my issue. I just bought a new 2010 Saab 9-3, a somewhat outdated but still very nice compact near-luxury car. It drives better and has nicer materials than the Chevy Volt. I paid a little under $19,000 for the base model, 2.0T stickshift - a very good price that comes with buying a 2010 Saab right now. Yes - that is $11k below MSRP, but this argument would hold with a range of compact cars as well, such as a Civic or Mazda 3.
The Volt costs ~$44,000 with $7,500 less in govt. rebates gets you to $36,680. This is $17,780 more than I paid for my Saab. The Saab gets 30mpg in the real world. Autoblog got 80mpg in the Volt, an impressive number. However, driving 15,000 miles a year, with gas costing $3 a gallon, it takes 19 years for buying the Volt to make economic sense. The Volt is not as nice to drive, not as nice a car, and will undoubtedly cost more to maintain over 19 years than the relatively simple Saab.
In order for it to make sense to buy the Volt with 5 years of ownership, gasoline would have to cost $12 a gallon. That simply is not going to happen. And the Saab is still the better car.
Looking at it another way, if gasoline cost $4 a gallon, and the Volt got 1,000mpg (you only drive it to work and back on electric power), it would still take 9 years to make up the cost difference.
So, I wont be buying a Volt, or recommending that anyone I know does. However, I do hope people buy the Volt, because I like it when early-adopters make poor economic decisions and I reap the eventual benefit.
But here is my issue. I just bought a new 2010 Saab 9-3, a somewhat outdated but still very nice compact near-luxury car. It drives better and has nicer materials than the Chevy Volt. I paid a little under $19,000 for the base model, 2.0T stickshift - a very good price that comes with buying a 2010 Saab right now. Yes - that is $11k below MSRP, but this argument would hold with a range of compact cars as well, such as a Civic or Mazda 3.
The Volt costs ~$44,000 with $7,500 less in govt. rebates gets you to $36,680. This is $17,780 more than I paid for my Saab. The Saab gets 30mpg in the real world. Autoblog got 80mpg in the Volt, an impressive number. However, driving 15,000 miles a year, with gas costing $3 a gallon, it takes 19 years for buying the Volt to make economic sense. The Volt is not as nice to drive, not as nice a car, and will undoubtedly cost more to maintain over 19 years than the relatively simple Saab.
In order for it to make sense to buy the Volt with 5 years of ownership, gasoline would have to cost $12 a gallon. That simply is not going to happen. And the Saab is still the better car.
Looking at it another way, if gasoline cost $4 a gallon, and the Volt got 1,000mpg (you only drive it to work and back on electric power), it would still take 9 years to make up the cost difference.
So, I wont be buying a Volt, or recommending that anyone I know does. However, I do hope people buy the Volt, because I like it when early-adopters make poor economic decisions and I reap the eventual benefit.
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