Re:A Joke (Score 5, Informative)

Hmm, looks like none of the other ~7000 Volt owners read /. Had to go and create and create an account to provide at least one pro Volt response here. I bought my Volt in December, the pessimal time to get an electric car unless you live in LA or Florida. Yep, cold weather knocks a good 5 to 10 miles off the range. Even so, I really like this car. Growing up my parents had Pontiac station wagons, and I never thought I'd spend a dime on an American car, so I've owned a Saab, a Subaru, a VW, and a Toyota (Prius).

I work out of two offices, my primary one which is a 36 mile commute, and another regional office, which is an 84 mile commute. Generally I go to my primary office 4 days a week. In cold weather, I'm on the gas engine maybe 2 to 3 miles, but if it's warm I'm electric all the way. I'm on gas for about 44 miles on the longer commute.

I'm getting around 109mpg. Since early December, I've bought around $60 in gas. It's hard to tell due to the mild winter, but I think my electric bill has gone up around $25/mo.

Sure, I could have bought a cheaper car, and I'll never save enough in gas (well, unless Iran destabilizes the middle East and we end up with $10/gal gas) to recover my cost, but I actually like driving the Volt. It's not a sports car, but it's not sluggish either. 0-60 is 9.2 seconds, but the instant torque from the electric engine makes it feel much faster. In "Sport" mode, it does 0-30 in 3.0 seconds.

And it's made by Americans who seem to have figured out how to make a car that's as fun as any import I've owned. GM has plenty of problems, but maybe some of the cool Volt engineering will seep into their other cars.