Best Link of the Day -- The Volt -- Nothing To Do With the Bakken

The photo alone -- at the link -- is worth a look

The Volt is dying. What took it so long?

By the way, how long was the Edsel in production? 1958, 1959, and 1960 model years

Link here to ThomasNet.com. Dateline: March 9, 2012.

In August we noted that the Chevy Volt was dying. As we asked then, what took so long? The New York Times now reports that Government Motors will, for the third time since the car debuted in December 2010, pause production of the strikingly undemanded car for at least a month because “dealers had more than they needed.”​

The shutdown will lay off 1,300 workers at the Volt’s Detroit plant. Not even President Obama’s pledge to purchase a Volt when he leaves office could sway people possessed of common sense to buy one of the lemons.

GM officials were hoping to sell 45,000 Volts in the United States for the year during 2012, but that’s been abandoned as unrealistic – 1,023 Volts were sold in February, 603 in January. For comparison purposes, Toyota sold 154,000 Camrys in February. Seeing as how there are 3,600 unsold Volts on lots around the U.S., that means in less than one day Toyota moves more Camrys than the sum total of unsold Volt inventory.

Every unsold Volt saves the American taxpayer: $7,500.

A huge thank you to Don for sending this link. I definitely would have missed it.

I hate to pile on, but ... whatever ...

Link to Bloomberg:

Pity the Chevy Volt. Ever since it became known that the plug-in hybrid car’s batteries had burst into flames after government crash tests, the Volt has become the whipping boy of Republican politicians.

Conservatives have equated General Motors Co. (GM)’s Volt with everything from government bailouts to radical left-wing environmentalism. 

Don suggests a nice little sticker for those who leave the voting booth in November who vote for the incumbent: "I voted for the Dolt."

Again, because these posts always result in lots of nasty mail: I have nothing against coal-powered vehicles. I am against the government subsidizing to the tune of $10,000 or more for cars at twice-the-price for cars with half-the-value. And yes, it's well beyond $10,000/car: the GM bailout includes forward-carrying-losses so that GM does not pay any federal taxes for ten years, according to CNBC. Of course, Ford continues to pay federal taxes.

To complete the triad of stories Don sent me, old news, but just a reminder for those who might have missed, or like me, forgot: Chevy Volt voted European car of the year.