Republican Representative Mike Kelly ran a Chevy dealership that has been family owned since 1953. Kelly took ownership of the dealership in 1995, ... Kelly recently said at hearings on government fuel economy ratings some eyebrow raising comments about the Chevy Volt:
“I’m a Chevrolet dealer… we have a Chevy Volt on the lot, it’s been there now for four weeks. We’ve had one person come in to look at it, just to see what it actually looks like… Here’s a car that costs $45,763. I can stock that car for probably a year and then have to sell it at some ridiculous price. By the way, I just received some additional information from Chevrolet: in addition to the $7,500 [federal] tax credit, Pennsylvania is going to throw another $3,500 to anybody foolish enough to buy one of these cars, somehow giving them $11,000 of taxpayer money to buy this Volt.”
“When you look at this, it makes absolutely no sense. I can stock a Chevy Cruze, which is about a $17,500 car and turns every 30 to 40 days out of inventory… or I can have a Volt, which never turns and creates nothing for me on the lot except interest costs… So a lot of these things that we’re seeing going on have a tremendous economic impact on people who are being asked to stock them and sell them. There is no market for this car. I do have some friends who have sold them, and they’re mostly to people who have an academic interest in it, or municipalities who are asking to buy these cars.”
As for the Chevy Volt being a green job creator, well not for Kelly:
“I can tell you… as far as job creation, the guy who ordered that Volt for my store is no longer in that job. So it actually worked against him. I was told that the reason that car is on our lot is that General Motors told him he had to stock it. I said ‘let me understand. I told you that under no circumstances were you to order a Volt,’ and he said ‘yeah.’ ‘So, why did you order it?’ ‘Because General Motors told me.’ ‘Is this the same General Motors that tried to take my Cadillac franchise from me? These are the guys you’re listening to, but the guy who signs your paycheck doesn’t have as much influence as the guys who tried to take away the franchise?’”
– it is simply way too early to say if there is a market for the Volt or not.
Unless you are Congressman Kelly, that is...Read on at gas2
Source: thetruthaboutcars.com
