Hey limp, I'm not sure why
Hey limp, I'm not sure why you think trading in a Lexus for a Volt is an ego trip. I'm not sure what Lexus you have in mind but the base model of the ES350 is several thousand dollars over what you would pay for a base model of the Volt. So let's go with that for comparison's sake. Now I own the Volt and can tell you quite a bit about it and I know I've never been in the ES350. So it's incredibly hard for me to say which is better. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you haven't been in a Volt have you? And have you been in a ES350?
I will not argue on the merits of the ES350 vs the Volt as I don't have practical experience with the ES350 but humor me a little bit for a personal evaluation of the two cars from their specs. The ES350 has 5 seats which, for most people, is better than 4 seats. But for me personally, I don't care about the extra seat. I have a wife, a 4 year old and a 6 month old. I don't need or care about a 5th seat as it may impact me on 1 or 2 days a year and for that I can use my CRV.
The Volt is currently getting me over 300 MPG. The EPA rating for the ES350 is 19 and 27 (city and highway). I've run the number at about $3.50 per gallon vs my last car that got a combined 30 MPG and the Volt saved me about $2,000 per year. If I'm saving about $2,000 per year in a car that gets about 30 MPG how much will I save compared to a car that will get roughly 24 MPG combined? Maybe $2,400? Does that sound fair?
I personally plan to have the Volt for several hundred thousand miles but let's just say I go for 8 years in the Volt. The total cost of ownership for the Volt will be about $20,000 less ($2,400 times 8 plus the price differential between the two). Now, as I said, the ES350 may be an awesome car but is it worth $20,000 more over the Volt for a lifespan of 8 years? It's an open question but I'm guessing that I would rather have the Volt plus $20k in my pocket than the ES350.
I'll add one little thing on to this analysis. The Volt's 0 to 30 MPH time is about 3.2 seconds. It won't be confused with a high end sports car but, believe me, it is quite fun to drive. Electric motors, while they don't have a lot of horsepower, have a lot of torque and it means that they are very quick off the line.
So what I would suggest to you is that the Volt is probably in your neck of the woods now. Go test drive one (put it in SPORT mode to experience the fun of the Volt), go to voltstats.net to see what real world performance people are getting from it and then read gm-volt.com to get the viewpoint of hundreds and thousands of Volt owners (a lot of them are Republicans BTW) and I guarantee you that you will have your eyes opened. You will then, likely, understand why people who have traded in BMWs, Audi's, Lexus, etc. are VERY happy with their Volt purchase.
You can still be against the bailout or the tax credits but when you look at the reality of the value proposition of the Volt you start to realize that this car is pretty damn awesome and can work out great for many people. Be well.