>>>>>GM expects 230 MPG for the Volt - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32370233/ns/business-autos/
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>>>>...which is pretty cool. Question of course is how much is the lititle sucker gonna cost? And then how much is the car-dealer going to stick it to you since they're in demand. I can already see GM's suggested price being like $40,000 for the thing, and then the dealers screwing everyone and getting $65,000 for them.
>>>>Anyway we'll see what happens. I really hope it works and the things are affordable to buy. The 300 mile range is nice, but I would like it to be closer to 600 - and how long does it take to charge the batteries from a 120 outlet? And lastly - in typical American car manufacturing style - the thing is dumb looking on the outside. Here they have this nice ground-breaking vehicle and it looks like every other ugly box that's been built the last 20 years. Geeeze - how about something a tad more sleek looking? I'm not saying that they gotta build a 4-door Tesla - but coooome one man! - at least get someone in the design department to make something with some more style to it!
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>>>I think the idea is this will open the door for all the major players to have to follow suit with primarily electric vehicles.
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>>>Americans are extremely stupid in general when buying vehicles (cash for clunkers has been the downpayment primarily for lots of new SUVs rather than intelligent/reasonable vehicles), but if they start seeing lots of shiny new electric vehicles, eventually they will catch on and it should become fashionable.
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>>>For the moment - a Prius is the way to go if at all possible. We bought one for my wife a couple of months ago and the gas mileage is right on the money vs EPA estimates - She's driven about 3500 miles and has an overall average of 46.something MPG. I just barely fit due to lack of headroom, but I think we're going to trade in my Kia on another one anyway - the mileage is worth it.
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>>>Once plug-in electrics come down into the $20k range (bet it will be within 3 years) we'll be into one of those.
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>>There are hacks you can do to the Prius to get much better MPG too. But again - the thing is ugly looking.
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>>As far as it being worth it cost wise for the MPG - do you realize how many MPG you'd have to get and how many miles you'd actually have to drive to make it worth buying something like that as opposed to a Kia from a cost standpoint?
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>After discounts we paid about 23K for the Prius, plus we got 0% 5 year financing. We paid almost 17K for the Kia (in 2005) at 4.9% IIRC. Considering how much nicer the car is, we think the Prius was worth the difference even before the mileage difference.
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>Assuming gas goes back up a lot (like it is in process of doing), the Prius improves it's value position.
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>The idea of not paying Islamic or Oil company terrorists as much is worth a LOT on top of everything else.

Ok - I was mistaken on my assumption of how big the difference in cost is between the two - I thought that the difference was a LOT more than that. Even so the millage difference between a Kia and Prius is not huge but I suppose still significant. Now if you want to compare pricing betwen the Volt and the Kia - well hey $23,000 sure pays for a lot of gas...thats like 200,000 miles worth of gas you can stuff in the kia. If you take into account the replacement costs of the batteries for the Volt every xxxx miles it would be years and years before it paid off from a finanical standpoint. Sure there is the benefit of not buying oil from bozo's - but hey this is America and unforntually our society here is more about money money money.