Doug Coulter wrote:Chris, surely you realize you've got some serious fanatics on your hands here. (edit, Dave, if you didn't know, Chris is our resident skeptic, an honorable profession)
Just thought I'd go through the 'objective balance' thing. Not sure there's any point of disagreement here.
You are forgetting several interesting factors.
You are assuming price of fuel stays constant, but it never has before, so that one's obviously wrong. When Solar was $10/watt and electricity .03 a kwh, yeah, I looked like an idiot buying stuff that had a 30 year payoff - but it paid for itself in under 5 years because...electricity went up.
Who can tell. It has gone down as well as up, though that's looking pretty unlikely. The whole deal of 'being in control' of one's fuel is what counts. The reality is that it doesn't take that much less fuel to get it through its first 10 years of life, simply that GM has already burned that fuel up for you already making the batteries and all the other electrical/electronics kit on it.
I took my Volt in for inspection (had it just a year now). When they pulled off a wheel to look at brakes, they went nuts. The original tooling marks were on the disks (4 wheel disks on this thing) so they assumed bad caliper or something. Nope, you just never need the brakes till you're almost already stopped, due to regeneration - something no pure fuel vehicle can give you. I expect my brakes to last well pass 200k miles.
I replaced my front discs this year on my Vectra for the first time at 140,000 miles. That was 70,000 miles of me driving it. If the guy who owned it before me had driven the same, 200,000 miles is possible from modern cars.
The rear drums are still original on my car, at 150,000.
Just to note, seeing as European cars have historically tended to get rear discs before the US we've seen here what happens with 'old' discs - rear discs almost always get pitted and corroded after about 5 or 6 years because of too little use. I had to replace the rear discs on my 130k 6 year old Subaru a few years back, the brake bias is such that they don't get enough use (still original, at 130k), and if you don't use them enough they'll rust out before they wear. Less likely on the front. Hope GM has thought that one through. Unfortunately, one of my cars also has read discs which are going this way. My old banger has rear drums, thank goodness; a superior solution for the read axle but you don't seem to be able to tell vehicle manufacturers that.
I recommend light but regular use, and an occasional 'heavy burn'. You probably do this already, but don't get too eager to be brake-shy, especially in winter when the corrosion rate will be much higher if they are left 'unbraked'. It is a horrible waste of fuel in the cycle I usually drive, but I do a 'big brake' every now and again so that the rear discs come on actively and help reduce the corrosion.
Similar issues with the engine. Oil change interval - 2 years.
That's usual here too. 18k/2 years is standard. In fact, 18k/2 years has been common since 2000.
When I had my Skoda, I got 3 years free servicing too (that was annual services for that particular car, actually), with an extendable service/warranty all in for £500.
Probable engine life? We don't know, we hardly ever run ours. Due to my insisting on getting an oil change and forcing mine to run, I *only* got 185 mpg in 2012 so far.
The Skoda comes with 3 years, unlimited mileage warranty.
The Hyundai comes with 5 years, 60k mileage warranty.
You can buy Kia's here in UK that come with 7 year 100k warranties. There's probably an even better Kia deal than the examples I gave above, too.
These are bumper-to-bumper warranties.
If GM was as confident as you, they should improve their warranties to compete.
Too little use of cars can often be as much trouble as too much use. We have a 'family MPV' which I take out once a week just to make sure everything is firing regularly. Even that probably isn't enough to keep it on top form.
While I've not ridden in your compare car - here a lot of people compare the Volt to a Cruze ...People trade in Caddilacs, BMW 3 series and Audi 4's for this car....
The Skoda is an Audi A4 in a 're-branded' skin. Skoda is actually VAG's 'test bed' brand - they put new kit on these to make sure they work out first, before branding them as Audi. The idea is that if there's any show-stoppers that might kill the brand reputation then they don't get as far as the Audi. The benefit is that the Skoda is a fantastic deal.
You are therefore trying to make a comparison that cannot be honestly made. You will not get out of your econobox with a shit-eating grin every single time you drive it, but I do after driving my Volt.
I find no pleasure in driving here in UK anymore, whatsoever. They are overcrowded, potholed roads filled with aggressive tail-gating drivers who have no conception what you are doing when you ease of the throttle 'cos there's a red-light ahead. Real bone-headed driving here. I feel more comfortable driving a 'worthless' (nonetheless reliable and economical) old car in these conditions, and I get out on every trip with a grimace.
Car=domestic appliance. I used to enjoy my driving. That was many years ago. Don't care about the car anymore providing it is quiet and smooth.
As Dave was sort of pointing out, fossil fuels are causing many deaths, some of innocents, in our lust to get them and keep them flowing cheap. Diesels in EU all run on Libyan light sweet, which we don't get
No idea. For sure it is 'not all diesel'. I know we get some synthetic diesel from Qatar, and since 2010 there's been a legal requirement for B5 (5% blend with biodiesel). But it's stretching the truth by a measure of your enthusiasm to suggest the Volt reduces the consumption of conflict-resources, thereby helps reduce such conflicts. All that stuff in the batteries also comes from similarly divisive sources, and even if what you said is so it's not for us to 'fix'. I'm with Adam Smith in this particular scenario - we would be driving betterment by exercising our own personal interests, not by trying to moralise over it.