Car And Driver is bucking its Detroit-loving rep by running a blog post by Steve Siler that is just a little bit critical of Chevy’s Volt EREV. “With the splashy reveal safely behind us, we’ve taken several opportunities to look more critically at the Volt, studying the design, crawling around inside, and interviewing—make that interrogating—many of those responsible for making it a reality, including Bob Lutz, vice president of global product development, and Jon Lauckner, vice president of global project management. They all promise a game-changer certainly for GM, and over time, possibly the world,” writes Siler. “Still,” run-on sentences aside, Siler reckons that “a reality check is in order.” Siler bemoans the clutchless shift from concept styling to production model, saying “Bye-Bye, Gangsta-Mini. Hello, Sensible Sedan.” “Frankly, we think (the production model) comes across pretty awful in pictures, but we can attest that it appears well proportioned and convincingly cool in person: the details indeed carry the day,” says Siler. The post goes on to call the Volt’s iPod-ripoff interior “a little gimmicky,” and savages the Volt for not offering enough interior room for a dog. No word though on the Volt’s likely astronomical price-tag or government-subsidized production. Still, even the most mild criticism of the Volt is worth noting when it comes from a publication that’s as Detroit-friendly as C/D.
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The post goes on to call the Volt’s iPod-ripoff interior “a little gimmicky,”
A little gimmicky? It’s downright stupid to have a control that gives no tactile feedback, especially when it’s being used at 100km/h by an inattentive operator.
Note to manufacturers: big single-purpose knobs and buttons that are adjacent to their read-outs are good. Small controls, buttons and/or multi-purpose controls, as well as controls far away from the their read-outs, are bad.
Good example: the Toyota Camry’s centre stack
Bad example: the current Acura RL, BMW’s 7-Series, the 2003-2007 Saab 9-3.
This is remarkable… We are still over two years from launch and GM talks about this wonder-mobile enough to justify 110 “Volt Birth Watches.”
A “Prius Birth Watch” or “Insight Birth Watch” would never have survived; it would have been starved for news.
Thank God for “Maximum Bob” Lutz or the auto industry would be very, very dull.
Perhaps the saviour of the Volt is being developed downunder. http://www.csiro.au/news/UltraBattery4HybridCars.html
Could mean cheaper Volts (no pun intended)
“Frankly, we think (the production model) comes across pretty awful in pictures, but we can attest that it appears well proportioned and convincingly cool in person”
HA HA HA HA HA ha ha…. Oh that cracks me up. Apperently there IS something to all the ChryCo GM merger BS. That line was DaimlerChryslers tag line to EVERY new ChryslerDodgeJeep they came out with…
“Uh, really, it looks better in person…”
HA HA HA HA ha ha…
I’ve seen the Volt live and the thing that stunned me is just how bulky it is. In fairness it does look better in the metal (clay), but I just kept thinking, “There is no way this can possibly be as aero-efficient as a current-gen Prius.” The frontal area in particular seemed huge for this type of car, which spells bad news to me.
Farago… how about an Over/Under on the number of Volt Birth Watch posts. 200? 300? more?
Gas was $2.75 this morning. I have heard of gas as low as $2.55 in other parts of the country.
While I still want an EV – who will buy the Volt? Does the average consumer even care anymore (short attention spans and shorter memory).
Anybody seeing a pattern here – high gas prices followed by higher gas prices only to crash out and render any alt.energy advancements pointless for another decade?