High Demand for Volt Leads to Supercharged Price
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If you're in the market for a Chevy Volt, part of the plug-in hybrid's appeal is probably the gas money that its electric engine will save you. But if you're planning to plug one into the outlet in your garage anytime soon, you may be in for a shock -- sticker shock, that is -- at what's being charged for this rechargeable car.
The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the Volt starts at $40,280, but with the revolutionary vehicle in short supply and high demand, some Chevrolet dealers are marking the Volt's price up, way up, from its MSRP.
According to the Arizona Daily Star, Moises Paiewonsky, a 29-year-old assistant music professor from Tucson, flew cross-country to New York -- one of only a half-dozen states plus the District of Columbia where the car is currently available -- to plunk down $50,000 for his Volt, about $6,000 more than his particular model's sticker price.
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The Chevrolet Volt, or the Chevy Volt, if you prefer.
/ GMThe memo was signed by by GM's vice president for Chevrolet sales and service, and the GM division's vice president for marketing.
New GM Chairman: "I Don't Know Anything About Cars"
(AP)
Edward E. Whitacre Jr has been appointed as the new chairman of GM and will take post after the company emerges from chapter 11, despite admittedly knowing nothing about cars.
"I don't know anything about cars," Whitacre, the 67-year-old former chairman of AT&T, said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg News after his appointment. "A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I'm not that old, and I think the business principles are the same."
But there has been concern in some quarters over his ability to lead the nation's biggest auto company out of bankruptcy. According to the Associated Press, Telecom industry analyst Victor Schnee called Whitacre's appointment "bizarre." Although Schnee admits that Whitacre has accomplished a great deal, he does not have much confidence in his ability to run GM better than previous management.
However, others seem to be more positive in the new appointee. "GM is not now about just making cars," Jim Hall, an auto industry consultant and former GM engineer, told Bloomberg. "It's about re-creating itself as a 21st-century car company. They have to have somebody at the top that understands they have to make a new GM.
Michael Robinet, an automotive analyst at CSM Worldwide Inc. told Bloomberg, "Let's face it: The chairman is not necessarily operational… The chairman is about ensuring a strategy is followed."
GM's interim chairmen Kent Kresa said that Whitacre was "an excellent choice" after being recommended for the position by Steve Rattener, one of President Obama's senior automotive advisers.
"We need to bring back the confidence of the American public in this company," Kent Kresa, the automaker's interim chairman, told the New York Times. "Having a strong board is a big piece of that."
GM Reinvents Itself In 60 Seconds
(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
At least that's the message the automaker is hawking in its new 60-second ad set to begin airing Wednesday.
The spot, heavy on sports imagery and self-effacement, centers on the theme of reinvention – the new GM's goal after it emerges from the bankruptcy process it entered into Monday.
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