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The luxurious to me is more along the lines of an Escalade or BMW 7 series. Space, trim, all the trinkets you can think of, performance, comfort. A "luxury small car" is an oxymoron.
I assume your husband did not drive a Focus or Scion or Corolla before Volt ? Even the Corolla, a somewhat bigger compact, is rated at 30 mpg city / 42 hwy. Let's take the middle, 36 mpg. At 36 mpg, a person driving 18,000 miles a year, which is more miles than the vast majority of Americans are driving, will use 500 gallons of gas. At the current price of gas ($1.85 here) it's $925 per year. Even if gas was $2.50, it would be $1,250 per year. The Corolla base MSRP is $17,230. Volt, $33,170. How many years would it take to make up the difference, even if you never have to put any gas in that Volt ?
Now, I see that you're leasing, so you're largely shielded from the real cost of that Volt. Of course the flip side is, you're stuck making this lease payment and never really own anything. Not saying this is right or wrong, it's a matter of preference. I can't even lease, the amount I drive makes it impractical, I buy my cars and ride them into the ground in 10 years. My car currently averages 25 mph, about half city / highway, and last year I drove around 19,000 miles. That's a whopping $1,406 in gas. I think it was closer to $1,600 because the gas was a bit more expensive. It's a sports sedan that's fun to drive and would eat up a Volt or Corolla on the road, it also has enough room for a family of four with luggage to take a week long road trip in the Upper Michigan peninsula with some comfort (although now we have an SUV for this). And it was still cheaper than Volt.
I am not knocking Volt - quite the opposite, as I said, I believe it to be the best executed electric car concept currently available. I'm just saying that if you look at it from a purely financial perspective, there are other cars that make far more sense. And it's the best electric car...
It's perfectly fine to buy it if you like it, and it's even better if you lease since you're shielded from many potential problems down the road. But the whole electric car market is not yet out of a niche. They are getting closer though.
That's the current rate which certainly won't last. Gas has been $4 a gallon or more in some areas. You obviously want a car that's fun to drive....been there, done that. But that's not what we need or want now. When we go on vacations we take the van which has all the room we need. And from a financial perspective, the volt was the best option for us.
What a short sighted post. Do you really think a diminishing commodity will stay priced low? The lower demand in oil has helped drive their prices lower as well as lowered our emissions EV are a great product for a sustainable future. Oil is not, at any price.
What a short sighted post. Do you really think a diminishing commodity will stay priced low? The lower demand in oil has helped drive their prices lower as well as lowered our emissions EV are a great product for a sustainable future. Oil is not, at any price.
Of course the majority of electricity in the USA is produced by burning fossil fuel. If you converted, say even 30% of the cars on the road to electricity, then hundreds of additional power plants will need to be constructed to power them.
People who buy electric cars and think they are living a "sustainable" lifestyle are fooling themselves. Driving around town in a 2000+ lb hunk of metal, plastics, and exotic rare earths, isn't sustainable no matter how it's powered. Get a bike, walk, or take public transport.
Why pay a premium to purchase and electrical/hybrid car when you can purchase one of those old-fashioned "gas guzzlers" that get 35-40 mpg for much, much less. Quite frankly, the math just doesn't work. Hell, even my Corvette can get 30mpg out on the open road.
Let the market decide what technology it prefers.
Obviously as our Corvettes prove, car markets are more complicated than just the math.
Of course the majority of electricity in the USA is produced by burning fossil fuel. If you converted, say even 30% of the cars on the road to electricity, then hundreds of additional power plants will need to be constructed to power them. .
^^^^Not even close to accurate. The US has a huge amount of excess generation capacity at night, when most EVs would be recharged.
That's the current rate which certainly won't last. Gas has been $4 a gallon or more in some areas. You obviously want a car that's fun to drive....been there, done that. But that's not what we need or want now. When we go on vacations we take the van which has all the room we need. And from a financial perspective, the volt was the best option for us.
Maybe you don't but millions of us do. There is no reason whatsoever to abandon gasoline powered cars.
When I go on vacation I drive a very powerful V-8 powered BMW and love it.
There is no reason whatsoever to utilize taxpayer money in the development of alternative fuels.
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