Stand by because the heroes of automotive banter are back in front of the video camera. In our season premiere we cover GM’s hotly anticipated new vehicle of the century: the Chevrolet Volt. We would be remiss to give it all away here, but in a nut shell, the boys are smitten. Read more…
Low Tech Meets Low Compromise in the Battle for Fuel Efficiency
It’s not as if Chevrolet has never attempted this before. Take a mainstream small car, make some powertrain tweaks and attempt to turn the vehicle into a hyper-mileage car that passes as conventional transportation. As General Motors’ entry-priced brand, Chevrolet has a long history–not all of it memorable–at marketing highly efficient vehicles. Some notable–scratch that, tragic–examples include the Chevette diesel, the GEO Metro XFi, and the Cobalt XFE. None of these vehicles set the sales charts on fire (a scant 324 diesel Chevettes were sold in 1986), so does Chevrolet’s latest hyper-miler, the Cruze ECO, have any chance at succes? Read more…
It’s not often that we anticipate testing a vehicle as much as we did with Chevrolet’s Volt. That’s because it’s not often that a vehicle comes along packing a powertrain as revolutionary as GM’s Voltec system. And it was because of this advanced propulsion system and its lightning paced development that we were preparing ourselves to overlook a few rough spots in the days before the vehicle’s delivery. We figured that if mighty Toyota still hadn’t sanded off all the sharp edges on its hybrid powertrain after three generations of Prius development the Volt and its more advanced, but still first gen, technology could be a bit of a half-baked science experiment in the real-world hands of our editors. The truth, it turns out, is that GM has managed to surprise our jaded staff with the level of refinement we enjoyed in our production-spec Volt. It’s so astonishing that it’s difficult to put into words, but we’re confident that after digesting both our written and video reviews you’ll understand our level of admiration for what the General’s best and brightest have accomplished with the world’s first extended-range electric vehicle. Read more…
Executive Editor Brandon Dye takes the 2011 Chevrolet Volt out for a spin. He also gives a little tutorial on how to charge up your range-extended electric vehicle. Read more…
Over the past fifteen years or so, automakers seem to have struggled to develop compelling forward thinking concept cars. Those concepts that were not retro in nature seem to be simply too bizarre to be attractive, or are overly obvious predictions of production models that are just around the corner. We should celebrate, then, the Chevrolet Mi-ray Concept. Read more…
Even when there were approximately 67 better options Chevrolet still managed to sell a lot of Aveos. So GM Brass should be feeling pretty confident about the Sonic’s future now that Chevy’s new compact class entrant can take on any competitor without excuse. Read more…
With its designation as 2011 North American Car of the Year the Chevrolet Volt has added yet another award to its trophy case. Up against the fully electric but limited range Nissan Leaf and the wonderful but conventional Hyundai Sonata, the Volt proves to be the most original car to be introduced in quite some time. We’re eager to get our hands on this new extended range electric vehicle to see how it stacks up in the real world. We’re betting there are plenty of consumers who are eager to try this new mode of transportation out for themselves. Read more…
Chevrolet Packages Unbridled Spirit in a Corvette for the Country Club Crowd
Appropriately built in Kentucky, a state whose license plates declare its ‘unbridled spirit’, the legacy of the Corvette is long, rich and detailed. A late addition to the 6th generation (C6) Corvette, the Grand Sport model finally allows the Corvette buyer to upgrade to the suspension and brakes available on the Z06 model without being limited to a manual transmission and fixed roof combination.The first question many ask is why bother offering a Corvette with an automatic?The reality is that many Corvette buyers are retired gentlemen who have waited much of their long lives to buy a Corvette.To them it is an image car that lets them relive their childhood dreams.Many of these customers have spent most of their driving years piloting the family car with an automatic and have no desire to relearn how to shift for themselves.They simply want something fast and fun combined with the appeal of the Corvette name.If it weren’t for these buyers, GM likely wouldn’t be able to draw enough volume to offer a Corvette at all, much less one with a genuine manual transmission. Read more…
To say that your mileage may vary seems to be the understatement of the decade. The Environmental Protection Agency has finally finished the math it needed in order to produce what you see above, the offical EPA Window Sticker for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. A bit confusing, eh? It actually isn’t so bad when you break it down. On the left you have what the Volt is capable of using only its on-board electric motor and battery pack charged up via the grid. On the right you have your standard MPG once the battery pack has been drained of its nuclear or coal fired electro juice. You’ll note that beside each MPGe or MPG figure there is a per 100 miles figure, which calculates just how much energy it takes to move the vehicle 100 miles. And at the bottom there are some charts for estimating how your mileage will vary with charging and how the Volt compares to other vehicles. What does this all mean? Well, on electric power alone it will get the equivalent of 93 MPG for roughly 35 miles (according to the EPA offical number) and 37 MPG after that. We were hoping for a bit more fuel miserly once the battery drained, but considering that the curb weight is more on par with a full-sized sedan we’ll call it impressive nonetheless and report back our real-world fuel economy and driving impressions once GM tosses us the keys. Read more…
