PurdueGuy

+1 I don't care if it's a Chevy.

Modern version of the Saturn S-Series, featuring: polymer panels - ~2400-2500lbs (or less) - 40mpg+ highway without any high tech expensive hardware - Low price point - very reliable - easy maintenance - available with manual trans - excellent handling and braking - available as coupe, sedan, wagon - reasonable acceleration in base model, fairly zipping in upper models (comparable to original SOHC vs DOHC engine options) Improve over original: - more refined engines (ecotecs should be fine) - better interior - smaller panel gaps, or more clever design of where panels meet to reduce appearance of panel gaps (the gaps were required due to more expansion/contraction of the polymer panels vs metal panels, perhaps advances in polymer plastics would reduce the expansion/contraction?) - offer performance version

Cool car, but it's honestly more along the lines of what you'd see a manufacturer take to SEMA more than show off at a major auto show - a fairly heavily modified version of an existing vehicle.

Hail Purdue!

I'm pretty sure 1996 was the last model year for the Corsica (not sure what the "/malubu sedan" means). I liked the '94 Chevy Corsica I drove for 3-4 years starting in '99, but I had previously been driving a '76 Mercury Monarch (straight 6), so comparatively the Corsica was way fast (3.1L) and way modern. Sadly, the auto trans took a dump out of state, and rather than haul the car home & pay for repairs, I got $50 for it at a junkyard.

Seems like you can often get better deals on the bread-and-butter cars that are abundant (Impala, Malibu, etc) with enough shopping around. Just have to watch out for ex-rental cars and the like.

That's not anal, that's just smart.

Ooh, fun with numbers! From what I'm finding, wind farms using current technology produce an average of 2MW per square mile. According to JamesBond above, California uses 265,000 Gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. So, 265,000,000 MW-hours per year From a quick internet search, it looks like the total area of California is 158706 sq mi. So, not taking into account fluctuations in demand and output from wind generators, and just assume constant 2MW/sq mi output, you would need to cover every square mile of California with wind turbines... plus another 834 Californias. In 2007, the US used 4,157,000,000,000 kilowatthours electricity, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That would require 2,078,500,000,000 square miles of wind farm. The US is 3,537,441 square miles We have .00017% of the space we need to power the US with wind farms. Not accounting for output and demand fluctuations. We CANNOT power this nation based heavily on wind power. It is not possible under current technology. Not remotely possible. I do encourage the continued development of the technology, but it is not yet something to think of as being a backbone of our energy grid.

Including or excluding government subsidies?

Throwing any codes? Had them checked?

Halloween is/can be a lot of fun, but it's not like it's some immoral choice for people to not make a big deal out of it. I understand wishing your kids to have as much fun and the good memories you did, though. Might be an economy issue, too. We spent around $25 on candy, and ran out. I feel that's pretty generous, especially since we don't have kids to take out to get candy.

Or 35 miles under these conditions and you'd like to get home again.

Are we really going to make a big deal over the 5th seat? 5-seat cars are really about 4.25 person seating. To me the more important question is which vehicle would more comfortably seat 4.

My parents are car shopping. They're looking at a lot of options, but I convinced them to look at an HHR, as they commute ~30miles each way daily, rarely have other people with them. So, fuel efficiency is a big plus, but they don't want to have to climb down into a small car, and my dad really likes a higher driving position like in a truck. Of course the HHR isn't that high, but it's better. They drove one and liked it pretty well. I'm under the impression that the HHR has been pretty well refined and a later model (they're looking at a 2010) should be really solid. Anyone aware of any key features to get or avoid?

In the hands of the press, many of which seem to like to test the range and top speed...

Be sure to check back in after 6mo-a year & let us know it held up. I went a different route with restoring my headlights, which were downright nasty. Sanded the UV protection layer off, smoothed to 1000 grit, cleaned, and added a few layers of high temp clearcoat. Looks great over a year later.

Just for the fun of it...

I guess I feel let down that the generating capacity and/or electric motor power isn't sufficient to prevent needing a mechanical connection between the engine & wheels. It's added complexity and weight, and takes away from what was supposed to make the Volt truly different from the Prius. Anyway, I ran some numbers to compare the Volt & Prius: Assumptions: Prius MPG: 65 Volt MPG: 35 Volt electric range: 35 Cost of gas: $3/gallon Cost of electricity: $0 (too lazy to look up the actual cost, but it should be significantly less than cost of gas, so I think/hope this works fine for generalization) Green comparison: Gallons of gas used - at between 70 and 80 miles driven and above, the Prius has used fewer gallons of gas Cost comparison: operating cost - of course, at the same mileage range the winner of fuel cost switches. If a driver averages about 70 miles a day or less, the Volt will have a lower fuel cost. Of course, the optimal driving habit to make the Volt financially advantaged over the Prius is pushing the car to it's full electric range without starting to use fuel. At this point, if the driver drives the car 320 days a year, they save about $450 in fuel over the Prius. If a driver averages 100 miles a day for 320 days a year, the Prius has about a $300 advantage. If the $36k after rebate Volt is optioned comparable to an upper-end Prius with all options but no accessories, it's only about $2k more than the Prius, so the Volt could make a lot of financial sense for someone who, if they were buying a Prius would load it to the hilt, and is generally going to drive somewhere close to the electric range of the Volt. Of course, a pure financial analysis would point toward buying a good used car, or at least a much less expensive one.

Attractive.

Good lord, can you just shut up for once? We know zero about this car (two thirds of the article are guesses), and you've already declared it a loser. Why are you even on this site when you are a perpetual pessimist and GM basher? I'm all for dealing with some harsh truth about the downsides of vehicles, but you are so utterly consistent about crapping all over everything that you just consistently piss of the majority of the site. Take a hint & tone it down.

I'd be fine with a monetary makeover. Color's fine. Please don't drop the dollar bill, I do NOT want to carry around dollar coins (though I'm fine with their existence). I'm fine with dropping the penny, maybe the nickel too. Keep any recent politicians off the currency. I don't think I like the idea of different sizes for different dollar amounts, unless it's an uber-fine difference detectable by machines but barely noticeable by people handling it. Frankly, I use my debit cards for 99.9% of my transactions anyway. I could see making the bills smaller, so as they sit in my wallet they take up less space. They're just sitting there for the rare occasion that I can't use my debit card anyway.

I restored the headlights on my SC2 by wetsanding all the original UV protection off, then wetsanding down to a high # grit, then thorough cleaning, then a high temp clearcoat. Been about a year, and aside from some bugs stuck to them, they still look new.

The one I priced was under $18k, but that's because the only manual trans I saw was with the 1.8L. Yeah... not buying a Cruze unless they come up with some better option combos.

And Beretta = 2dr Corsica, so the same applies there. I had a '94 Corsica, and it was a very nice car for what it was. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about proper maintenance at the time, and the auto trans at 185k miles likely had the original fluid, and went kaput too far from home to have it hauled home & fixed. $50 from the junkyard didn't even pay for my rental car to get home. 3100 V6 scooted though, and got reasonable fuel economy.

I think I like the looks of the 'Nox better, but this is a good looking vehicle. Kia has finally come up with a strong design language, and is making it work well.