Fox News' faux controversy over the Chevy Volt superbowl ad

In 4700 miles, my average is 38.9 miles with a high of 43.1 miles per charge. I have a rather long commute (on 70mph highway, where I do use both lights and heat) so at the moment my gas usage only works out to 166mpg. However, now that there's a charging station by my office, I haven't used a drop in weeks.

As a new 2012 Volt Owner, I disagree with limp. I live in Florida (granted its flat) leave for work and return most days in the dark commuting 16-22 miles one way in heavy stop and go traffic....running A/C/lights/Bose stereo/and occasionally windshield wipers and rear defrost. My battery range has been 44-46 miles under these conditions. I am amazed at the ignorance of some people as they easily forget the "costs" of new technologies when introduced to the public. Think about what a microwave oven, 21" color TV, CD player, cell phones all cost when they became available and entered the market place in their earliest days. I traded a 2011 Lexus on the Volt and couldn't be happier with my new car. I don't agree with a lot that the President has done since taking office, but the GM bailout was not to save and Volt and bring it to the market. There were tens of thousands of jobs at stake, and if GM's increased market share isn't enough to convince you that the bailout was a good thing, then nothing will convince you otherwise.

"Mr. Morano is not a member of Fox news."

So what? It's not as though Cavuto is inviting people with contrary opinions.

"Second, our government IS paying 26% of the ad as we own 26% of GM."

Advertising is a normal part of doing business. They already have caps on executive pay. So wouldn't advertising help sales, pushing the stock up? Would you have it that GM stop _all_ advertising? Don't you think that would be silly?

"Articles have been written stating there is some $250,000.00 subsidy per car."

No, limp, articles have been _repeating_ that there is some $250K subsidy per car. It was immediately obvious that that figure came from amortizing R&D costs and grants over only one year.

"That statement has had little if no challenge other then by yourself. "

Baloney. David referenced an analysis on thestreet.com

Google on setting-it-straight-chevy-volt-vs-the-government

"Sixth, you can't compare the early sale of the Prius to that of the Volt."

Of course you can! The Prius was expensive compared to similar cars, and had a slow start.

"The Prius broke the ice on electric/hybrid cars paving the way for all others to follow."

Wrong. The GM EV-1 was introduced in 1996. The Prius was introduced in Japan in 1997, and came to America in 2000.

"Final words are the Volt is too expensive (average buyer family income 0f $175,000.00) […]"

So what's the _median_ income? It doesn't take many millionaires to skew the average.

"[…] impossible to justify in fuel savings, too small, cannot be purchased by over 1/2 of the market (live in apartments/condos with no where to charge), have too short a range on electric and the list goes on. "

You could say the exact same things about the plug-in Prius, yet Toyota thinks there's a market for it. If you're right, then GM _and_ Toyota have to both be wrong.

today i just completed 46 miles on battery and 6 miles on gas, all with my normal led daytime running lights on, and with the radio blarring, against some santa anna winds in our county. With the air on low, since it was such a nice day out i did not need either ac or heat, but did use my heated seat option for a few minutes on take off. The coninued bullshit info that faux spreads is just mindblowing

today i just completed 46 miles on battery and 6 miles on gas, all with my normal led daytime running lights on, and with the radio blarring, against some santa anna winds in our county. With the air on low, since it was such a nice day out i did not need either ac or heat, but did use my heated seat option for a few minutes on take off. The coninued bullshit info that faux spreads is just mindblowing

Limp I hear your passion but as a conservative Republican and a Volt owner your "facts" are just off. I have a 51 mile round trip commute and I'm entirely off of gas during the week since I get to plug in at work. So it is obviously not a "gas powered locomotive" as you indicate. If you go to voltstats.net you will see that a lot of people are driving the Volt 70 percent, 80 percent, even 90 percent plus in EV mode.

As far as range goes you should check out what real owners are saying instead of people that had the car for a day or two and drive it in such a manner to really shake it out. During the spring, summer and fall months I was averaging in the mid to high 40 miles of EV range. Several times I actually got over 50 miles of pure EV range. Now that it is cold (albeit a mild winter here in Virginia) I'm in the low to mid 30's range. Follow other real owners out there at gm-volt.com (not GM affiliated) and you can read the pro's and actual cons of the Volt (as opposed to the made up stuff that is prominent among fellow conservatives).

As far as the $250,000 subsidy goes.... think about it this way. The new Dallas Cowboy stadium was approximately $1.2 billion. If somebody made an argument that said it was an utter flop and was a poor financial decision because that equates to $150 million for each Cowboy home game in the first season and there is no way that the Cowboys can expect the 100,000 paying customers to pay $150 million collectively for each game, you would laugh at somebody for making such a poorly reasoned argument. Among some of the reasons why it is so wrong is that a) you don't need to recoup all the money in the first year and b) there are other revenue streams (concerts, college games, motorcycle races, monster truck rallies, etc.) that all rent out the location and generate revenue. Same thing goes for the Volt. The $3 billion "subsidy" that GM got from the feds covered many things among them money to help with the plant that builds the Volt. Other cars are also built at this same Hamtramck plant and yet that "think tank" conveniently assigned all the "subsidy" to the Volt. And then they only assigned it to the first several months of production of the Volt when the plant will function for decades to come. It's easy to see why the hypothetical Cowboy argument is a joke and once you understand some basic facts about how that one group come up with the $250k per Volt subsidy number you begin to realize how completely dishonest and yes, moronic, the argument was. As a conservative I'm ashamed to be associated with groups like that. And I would add that Morano has no ethical problems with repeating something he knows to be false. What does that say about him and Fox for continuing to say the same lie?

Finally, the Volt is pretty expensive. It will not gain wide acceptance at the current price but neither will comparably priced Audi's, Lexus or BMWs. That is the main competition for the Volt and there is little doubt in my mind that for $35k (my net price) I would much rather have the Volt than one of those cars. There is a reason it won so many awards. I just wish more conservatives would test drive one and make up there own minds instead of listening to the propaganda about this car.

Hey Steve,

You are quite correct. As a "conservative" and as somebody who is a lifelong Republican I'm personally getting to the point where I'm quite mad at Fox and other conservative media. I entirely understand that no media is free of bias but the treatment of the Volt on Fox and Drudge is really eye opening for me. If you know anything about the Volt you understand that Obama deserves no credit for the Volt whatsoever. It's a product of a lot of hard work by people such as Lutz, Lauckner, Posawatz, Farah, et al. prior to the bailout and prior to Obama.

In addition, as a conservative I can understand the angst about the bailout and the tax credit, however, to go to the point that Fox will out and out lie to their viewers... well, it kinda shocks the system. When a news organization intentionally misleads their viewers there would likely be two reasons for that course of action. One is that people are paying you to lie. The other is that they view it as a business opportunity to lie. In other words, some people will actually tune in to be lied to which leads to increased viewership which leads to increased advertisement revenue. I personally don't know if people are paying Fox to lie about the Volt or whether they are pandering to get ratings but I follow the Volt on a daily basis and, as a conservative there is little doubt that Fox is out and out lying about the Volt. To what end, I do not know but it disturbs me.

My commute is much different than yours, I have not had to buy gas since I bought the car.

In June.

Of last year.

Seriously, I have put 5000 miles on my Volt, and have used less than 2 gallons of the gas that was in it when I bought it. I expect that in June of this year I will have to put some gas in it since the car is programmed to use up gas that is a year old to keep it from going stale. I will follow the owner's manual and only put a few gallons in it at that time. That should be enough for the next year...

My commute is much different than yours, I have not had to buy gas since I bought the car.

In June.

Of last year.

Seriously, I have put 5000 miles on my Volt, and have used less than 2 gallons of the gas that was in it when I bought it. I expect that in June of this year I will have to put some gas in it since the car is programmed to use up gas that is a year old to keep it from going stale. I will follow the owner's manual and only put a few gallons in it at that time. That should be enough for the next year...

Check Voltstat.net for some real world mileage numbers.

"You're welcome for the tax dollars spent to subsidize the car, save the company that made it, and give you the write off you'll get for buying it."

I have a Volt. Thanks for the write off. You have kids? A mortgage? You're welcome for the write off. (Such an ignorant way to bash the Volt)

All TV talking heads are meat puppets reading a teleprompter, but Faux News has a clear agenda. If they left it at voicing an opinion it would be fine, but they've gone beyond that into the realm of falsifications and distortions to push a narrative.

I'm getting more than 250 MPG in my Volt. I've been to a gas station twice since August 2011, and I bought around 6 gallons each time.

Strange how people forget that the Ford CEO was in congress begging for money with the other 2 CEO's. Ford ended up not needing it, so why pay the gov interest on a loan that is not needed. But to say that Ford is somehow better because they were not bailed out, is a stretch. Even foreign brands like Honda and Toyota wanted money from the US gov. Good thing they didn't get it. Foreign brands get subsidized enough by their own country.
To people like you, I say go buy a horse and buggy.