PurdueGuy

They could also just say they're bringing Detroit's most fuel efficient vehicles, and invite the press to meet them at Washington. Then, if the Volt mule makes it fine, let them know it was in the group too, and show it off. If the volt has issues, quickly put it in a fully enclosed trailer & send it home, and never mention that it was on the road to begin with.

yeah, but I bet if they really wanted to, they could get permits, especially since I'm sure it would be escorted by other vehicles to protect it and be there in case there's any problems. If you can move a house down the road with the right permits, I bet detroit could drive a concept down the road with the right permits & safety precautions.

Would be awesome if they could somehow show up in a Cruze Volt mule.

I kinda like the tailgates on that body style, since they have the roll-down window. Gotta think it feels great to roll down all the windows while on a drive.

makes too much sense, no one will listen to it

I thought he was a great spokesperson for Buick, but all good things must come to an end I suppose.

Lotta good info in that article, though it is a long read. Cliff's notes: It takes a long time to transition from one energy technology to the next. People who insist that we can change our energy technology (say, from fossil fuels to wind and other renewables) within a short time span haven't counted the cost. We may be able to speed up transition with aggressive, persistent plans, but it will still take a long, long time. Nuclear would be a much larger producer of the US's electricity if people would quit equating nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and Washington would stop screwing with regulations all the time. It's the same problem that has hindered autos from having diesel options - the constant change in regulation scares away development for fear that a developed product will then be rendered unsellable and the whole project will be a major capital loss for the company.

wait, you're going to die to save gm europe?

I thought the second dollar was to cover the carbon credits required to throw away the can or bottle when you're done, and the third dollar buys the drink?

Oh come on, the Ion isn't that bad. It's 90% the same as a cobalt. The main disappointments are interior design & exterior styling. Mechanically, it hasn't had any more problems than most cars. It was certainly a sales disappointment after the S-Series, though.

sounds cool, and I should probably buy a bike sometime. I need the exercise, and could use it to run around town.

But forest fires are stopped by man, something that didn't used to happen. We have had to learn that we need to purposely cause (and control) fires in many areas, because otherwise too much underbrush builds up, resulting in an eventual fire that destroys the trees (see Yellowstone fire in the 80's). So is the overall forest fire level higher today, or 500 years ago? While we may cause fires, we also stop them far before they would end naturally, so if there are 100 yearly fires in the US, but they only burn 1/1000th of the amount of land, pollution from forest fires would actually be reduced. We have to keep in mind that we tend to over estimate anything we personally observe. If someone lives in the smog filled valleys of california, it may be hard for them to understand that there are 40+ states (and large areas of the rest and their own) that really don't have smog problems. The same thing happens with heat waves and snow storms. Every heat wave, you hear people crying "see! global warming!", and every snow storm you hear others crying "where's global warming now!" Of course some of it is tongue-in-cheek, but there are fanatics that really mean these things, even though no individual heat wave or snow storm means anything about the overall state of the global climate. Also keep in mind that just because someone can show you a graph with measure A going up and measure B going up, that one causes the other. They may have nothing to do with each other.

Each new Saturn small car. S-Series sold like hotcakes (though it slowed a little in the last couple out of 11 years). Ion never sold anywhere near S-Series levels, and now it looks like the Astra is going to make Ion sales levels look good.

I think the early adopters will probably at least support the limited production of the first year or two. It's the long-term success that's more questionable.

and it boils my blood when people are truly convinced that it's gospel truth and we're all gonna die if everyone doesn't start riding bicycles everywhere. We just don't know what's going on well enough yet to predict with any real accuracy what's going to happen, or understand to what degree our pollution affects global temperatures. It is certainly worth studying, but some politicians have grabbed ahold of it and are squeezing every last drop of fear they can out of it to push their agendas.

Wow. Fact is, scientists still have a pretty feeble understanding of how the earth works, but they want to pretend they do. That's a pretty crappy foundation for making major political decisions. I personally agree with the thought that it's just better to not pollute as much, but we still really don't know to what extent our pollution has on the environment. It may be very noticable... or it may not. We don't know, because we have a feeble understanding of how the earth works. The earth is often pretty resilient.

The trouble is when you link a free market to one that's not. It's like having the olympics, but some countries can use steroids and other aids.

Yeah, I don't think most people bought SUVs because of tax credits. It may have been icing on the cake for some, but most people have been convincing themselves that they needed them for safety and/or image. As much as I'd like to point the finger at the gov't, I think they had very little to do with it. What is the gov'ts fault is not creating an environment of fair trade relating to the Japanese auto industry and others. Considering the help that the foreign competition gets from their gov'ts, I think some loans that the gov't will make money off of as long as the automakers don't go belly up are a pretty reasonable way for the gov't to help the domestics. It would be very sad to see automaking go the way of the textile industry.

well, that's all pretty strange... hope it all gets worked out!

Plus I guess the xB & co are smaller than the HHR. *shrug* I just want GM to not make an ugly box, but put a classy spin on it if they make one.

HHR isn't good enough for ya?

Kia made the xB uglier. Good job?

done.

Of course the issue is how reliable your assumptions are. Price of fuel: I personally have doubts that gas will stay under, at, or near $3 a gallon for more than the next 3-6 months tops. We have spent a lot of time around $3.50 and higher, and I expect the oil companies will shift the price back in that range here shortly. MPG advantage: your numbers look about right for the malibu/aura hybrid, but the mild hybrid system in the vue GL has shown a larger % improvement IIRC. Also, there should be the next gen system coming out soon. I would say your numbers are very reasonable for today, but may become outdated soon. Another nitpicky thing: in these types of calculations, I prefer to set them up so a person can take a guess at their own average annual mileage and find out the real years. Some people drive crazy high miles each year, and the vehicle would pay for itself quite quickly. Another good measure is the mileage of the vehicle when it breaks even. I once did similar calculations for the Prius (I forget my assumptions), and it wouldn't break even (according to my #s, which may be outdated now) until about 225k miles. Due to the likelihood of expensive repairs and the fact that the car will be pretty well worn out by then, it was a simple conclusion that it simply didn't pay for itself. If the car's cost will go up another several grand due to a new battery pack before it even pays for itself, it will never break even. Big props for taking the time to punch the numbers, though! Don't take my picky critiques as a put-down, I really wish more shoppers would take the time to research & punch the numbers themselves. Many of the hybrids don't make sense until past $4 a gallon gas, and sometimes quite far past that.

sweet... *drool*