Chevrolet had a huge promotion at South by Southwest. One hook was free local taxi rides in the Cruze, their version of the Honda Civic/Toyota Corolla.
The second hook was what got me – a test drive in the new Chevrolet Volt – a mostly electric car that won’t hit the market till “the end of 2010” – and then only in seven states.
I enjoyed it! It was very quiet. The build quality seemed to be solid. It was about as roomy as a Prius. I hit the pedal to the metal, and the acceleration wasn’t bad… maybe slightly faster than a Prius. The coolest thing was that during my 5 mile test drive, the gas engine didn’t kick in once.
My recommendation? Wait.The Volt has a lot of cutting-edge technology, and it will be a few years till it becomes cheap enough to compete with the value of a Prius. My real recommendation is that if you want to buy a green car, get a used Prius. Buying used is almost always more green than buying new. You’ll save as much as $20,000 – and you won’t have to wait until they are available in your market.
Yes, the photo is really poor, due to my cheapo cell phone.
I saw an ad for one of the hybrids that bragged mileage in the 30s. Seems really lame to pay extra for fancy technology in a midsize car when I could just buy any of the compacts that get mileage in the 30s or 40s with conventional engines. The Cooper, for instance, is designed to handle a tall driver (and looks cool, too).
If I could find a minivan with mileage in the 30s, that would be interesting.
Sadly, Europe gets minivans that have much better fuel economy than what we get in the States. They have small diesels.