For a while I made a hobby out of bashing the Chevy Volt. Was I shooting fish in a barrel? Yes; if by “shooting” you mean “detonate with a nuclear bomb” and by “barrel” you mean “area of ideologically driven blinders” and by “fish” you mean “unsupportable assumptions”. Was it pointless? Yes! (Since when does it do any good to point out the emperor is wearing no clothes?) Do I care? No. Volt bashing made me happy so what other reason did I need?
Eventually (in March 2012) I decided I’d beaten the dry earth where a horse once stood for too long. Every person on earth had either figured out the Volt was an expensive bust or they were unteachable. (Also I had baby chicks to raise; a far more important task than watching politics.)
Here’s a list of various rants I spewed forth about the lamentable wheeled horseshit produced by planned economy misfits in my country. The list might be incomplete and it’s definitely out of order. I work for free so you get the quality you’d expect. Here goes:
- The Car We Were Forced To Build (Note: I didn’t remember this link until a few days after this post went live)
- Volt Learning Curve; Reality With A Sledgehammer
- Volt Revolt
- I Just Plain Love Hammering The Chevy Volt
- The Chevy Volt Is Still Shovel Ready: Jobs Money Quote
- The Chevy Volt Is Still Shovel Ready: The Great Leap Forward
- The Chevy Volt Is Still Shovel Ready
- Smart Car Follows The Chevy Volt Down The Rathole
- The Chevy Volt’s Slogan: FAIL Of The Century
- The Chevy Volt (As Expected) Continues To Bleed Money (A dead horse, sufficiently beaten, is dead. A green jobs government subsidy, never dies.)
- High MPG Does NOT Mean Gutless Shitbox: Part II (Here is an identical priced alternative to the Volt with high MPG and…unlike the Volt…balls!)
What interests me is the media is slowly getting with the program. I called off Volt bashing in March and but the Washington Post has looked past Obamas halo to write about it in September. Well done gentlemen. I refer to GM’s vaunted Volt is on the road to nowhere fast:
“No matter how you slice it, the American taxpayer has gotten precious little for the administration’s investment in battery-powered vehicles, in terms of permanent jobs or lower carbon dioxide emissions. There is no market, or not much of one, for vehicles that are less convenient and cost thousands of dollars more than similar-sized gas-powered alternatives — but do not save enough fuel to compensate. The basic theory of the Obama push for electric vehicles — if you build them, customers will come — was a myth. And an expensive one, at that.”
A final note to folks who haven’t hear my Volt screeds. I have no problem with electric cars (in fact I’m pissed what passes for one because I had such high hopes). I do, however, have a problem with shitty cars. I also have an uncontrollable urge to take a meat cleaver to the perversities of a command economy especially when they take root in my country.
