Can someone please explain to me?

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by NJGOAT

While a bit sensationalized and not 100% correct, there is a lot of truth in what he said. The Japanese government has a long history of supporting their "pride" industries. Japanese automakers benefit from a lot of R&D investment by the government that takes some of the burden off of them.

For instance, the American government sets out an emissions reduction standard and orders the automakers to comply. The automakers pay for this out of their own pockets. The Japanese government orders the same mandate, but also funds the research to make it possible, removing the burden from their companies.

When it comes to the Prius, while it was not directly funded by the Japanese government, they did fund a large portion of the R&D, particularly into battery technology that had long been the roadblock to hybrids. By the government picking up the tab on the battery issue, it freed Toyota to develop the actual system, which still cost a lot of money. There is some speculation that the Japanese government also invested heavily into the company that jointly developed the transmission with Toyota as it is the transmission that makes the hybrid work.

When the Prius was first sold in Japan it was subsidized, but hybrids never really caught on there. When it was brought to the U.S. it was a smashing success, but was also sold at a substantial loss. Toyota claims that the car is now break even on average, but I have also heard that base model Prius' still sell at a loss, while the upper range models generate a small profit per unit.

The American companies had largely ignored hybrids do to the immense cost of developing the battery technology. Toyota was able to get around that through government assistance and certainly gained an advantage that they quickly cemented with their patents.

I think the overall point though is that people deride the American companies for taking government money, but in most foreign markets (especially Japan) the government directly funds a lot of the development work done by those companies, giving them an advantage.

Not to mention how healthcare costs are handled in different countries. Some of the US automakers have pretty high costs added to each car just to pay retiree medical costs.

[M3 Mitch]

Creme, it depends on what you want. If you just want reliable A to B with minimal fuel costs, but not a very engaging car to drive, with good MPG as a hedge against gas going to $5 and beyond, the Prius would be for you, maybe new maybe used. The Honda is a more engaging but slightly less efficient option.

A hybrid works best in an urban driving environment, in a rural open road environment there may be some advantage but it's small.

Like Goat said, the Volt is a different technology from the Prius, Toyota licensee Ford, and Honda hybrids - it would really work well for someone that lives where electric rates are low, and seldom go a long way from home. I do wonder about how it will hold up for people who seldom use the gas engine - will it have "storage" problems? If I were going to run one, I would make it a point to keep the gas tank full, maybe put some stabilizer in the gas, and I would make it a point to go far enough to run the gas engine for 10-20 miles at least a couple times a month.

I don't know if GM has cured their old habit of releasing a new model before they get all the bugs out of it, but in general the first-year of any design from them is little more than a beta-test model really. Their build quality has gotten better over the last few years, but, I agree with Goat that they are probably the worst built save Chrysler (and Chrysler may have pulled their heads out of their collective bums, maybe, it's too soon to tell really)

No doubt the GM sales people would poo-poo what I wrote and say it's "not necessary", but I imagine the Volt's chief designer would agree with me, if only off the record.

In any of these cars where the engine is started and loaded by a computer, with no warmup, I would be for using a really good synthetic oil of the correct (usually thin) viscosity specified.

[RcHydro]

Today I saw a piece on the news about GM's CEO wanting a .50 to a dollar per gallon price hike in a gas tax to help boost the sales of their Volt. How greedy and not in touch with reality can you get. Just another reason to never buy from GM.