Winding Road drives the Chevy Volt...

[68fastback]

...damning by faint praise, it would seem.

Winding Road #60 (http://www.windingroad.com/articles/blogs/blog-three-stories-with-the-chevy-volt/?src=Nextscreen)

[Birdman]

"Underwelmed" would be a good word to describe it....:spitcopy:

[Alloy Dave]

not a fan. And what's funny is, they didn't really discuss the key aspects of the car, which are things like range, battery life, acceleration, disposal of batteries, cost per mile of electricity, etc. All they talked about was things like ride, interior, ergonomics....things ANY car has. Geesh.

[68fastback]

Price point seems very high, especially since Nissan Leaf electric is already here and $13-15K cheaper! ...Focus electrric arives next year, and two Chinese competitors arrive next year (?) at about half the price of the Volt. Seems to me the fact that the Volt goes, stops, turns, etc 'acceptably' at a $40K price point is like nourishing but tasteless food at twice the price -- nothing wrong with it but why bother?

Even on te Volt forums there's lots of disappointment. The general sentiment seems to be: 'GM, you dumbed down the styling from the original concept and nearly doubled the estimated price -- if I'm gonna pay big money I want style and performance ...something special.'

GM' hedging it's bets too. They're making like it really starts shipping shortly, but there will be less than 3K units built in the J1 cycle from what I've read. The following year it ramps up some but doesn't really get into volume manufacturing until 2013. By then it could be passe or out-gunned by alternatives. We shall see, but hard to imagine a big rush to buy them, but you never know!