I think they are about to outdo the Edsel debacle.

For those of you too young to remember the Edsel see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel

Here is a link to an image of the Chevy Volt, GM's great hope in the electric car stakes.

http://www.lazyenvironmentalist.com/Chevy%20Volt.jpg

Note the long bonnet and cramped looking passenger compartment.

To me it looks like too much gingerbread and not enough functionality.

My guess. FLOP!

No wonder Toyota is eating GM's lunch. Also their breakfast and dinner.

Yes Steven, when I look at the 'brutish' styling of the Chevy volt or.. the current one prowling around .. like a kind of retarded bulldog..

I feel rather 'edselish' about it... on style alone.

They are selling some..but then, they also sold a lot of Edsels for the first couple of years.

Steve Toyota is doing some much better then ford for one simple reason. They don’t need to pay billions in health insurance to former employees every year. This allows Toyota to spend a lot more money on marketing and research then GM.

I do agree the car does look a bit tacky! It looks like the bastard child of a Nissan 350z and a Chrysler 300c.

I don’t think it will do very well hear but in the US it might do alright. Those tacky yank tank designs rarely do well in Australia

As a car market Australia does not even get on the gauge.

Our domestic vehicle market is about half the size of the Texas market in USA.

I did work for an ex GM accountant at one stage in USA. He said that GM had convinced themselves that they could not make compact cars in US, something to do with the overhead recovery… don’t ask me to explain, I am quoting not making statements.

As for Toyota/Holden one of the planks of the Button Plan for vehicle manufacture in Australia resulted in a shot-gun marriage between GMH and Toyota (remember the GM Astra based on a Camry and The Toyota badged Commodores). Apparently because Toyota were not doing too well at that time and Holden were going gang-busters, all that happened is GMH handed about $10 million to Toyota and as soon as they could, got a quicky divorce.

As an investment, GMH is on the ropes, a junk-bond opportunity for anyone with immeasurable resources to throw in a hole.

And EasyTimes observation on GM ex-employee is absolutely correct, for every car GM sell about 16% of the revenue goes to fund ex-employees sickness and retirement schemes. It is in the billions per year.

That is a massive cost to cover before you actually market the car.

as for the Volt - looks like a copy of some of the Chrysler offerings.

Look at those panels.
Get some really good "Jesus is coming soon" stickers on them.
Id buy one.
The shape is cool.