I am a long-time Republican. I joined the Army at age 18, volunteered for Vietnam and did all that right-winger stuff – and when I was finally old enough to vote for the first time, I voted for (ouch) Nixon all the way up to the war hero John McCain, but as a “conservative” I read between the lines of the lies about the Volt and looked at the data. (I now call Fox News – Faux News and I am the one who coined this term on GM-Volt. I refuse to let Faux News (or MSNBC or CNN do my thinking for me.)

What I’ve learned about the Volt, GM “lied” about performance figures. #1. They said most drivers could average mid-30s on a charge. I easily get mid-40s and once just to see how far my Volt could go in a “worse case scenario” I did a tad over 70, but I nearly died by not using the AC and other features in my Volt during my experiment. At nearly 26,000 miles now, I’ve only needed 39 gallons of gasoline. Look me up on VoltStats as “Dusty” – the data doesn’t lie like Neil Cavuto, Rush Limbaugh, Sara Palin, John Stossel and other “journalist jihadists.”

I admit that age 62, I drive my Volt nearly like a little old lady, but the “fuel” economy is amazing. My father (when I was a kid) talked about NOT going by MPG but MPD (miles per dollar) and he converted his pickup to also run on propane which resulted going further on a buck than it could on gasoline. As I use this formula for my Volt, I am actually able to drive it farther on a bucks worth of electricity, that I was able to drive my car when I was 18 years old when gasoline was 37 cents per gallon (when I was a senior in high school, and remember that now I am a senior citizen, factor-in I drive like a little old lady).

As I write my comment today, gasoline prices are approaching an all-time high but have not peaked at the 2008 prices. My electric rates (12.5 cents per kilowatt hour) remain very stable, despite what is going on in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC regions, thus I am nearly isolated from the politics of oil.

As a war veteran, I am repulsed at the fact that our military has to be used as the “cops of the world” to ensure that oil can continue flowing out of the middle east. As a fiscal conservative, I am disappointed in the trillions we have spent (not to mention the blood spilled) concerning recent events of the past decade in the middle east.

Beyond the politics, my 2012 Volt has been back to the dealership one time, and that was for an oil change and a tire rotation. Next Monday, it goes back again for a bumper-to-bumper customer satisfaction event to check the coolant levels for the battery, install wind buffers on the mirrors and one other tiny “issue” that GM wants to look into. That “issue” was so insignificant, I forgot what it was. I suspect GM will also replace the original 110 volt charger that came with my Volt because the rubber neck on the end of the charger has a fray.

I’ve owned two Camaros in my youth, a Mustang, a 240-Z and nothing I’ve ever had sticks on the road like my Volt as it runs through the corners and along twisting roads… Nothing I’ve owned before, gets into and out of parking spaces at busy shopping centers as my Volt does. Nothing else I have owned (except for a Harley Davidson) puts as large a smile on my face as my Volt… and never before have I ever purchased a second same-vehicle in a row. On May 16, I ordered a 2015 Volt because my experience with the 2012 has been so favorable. And, I probably will trade-in our 2013 Malibu ECO in on a 2016 Volt when they become available.

My wife and I own two ranches here in Texas near Abilene. My grandparents owned a ranch near Fort Stockton that was 6 miles square. Oil has been depleted under all three ranches and as I gaze out the windows of our properties where we live, I can see the faint images of the many thousands and thousands of wind turbines that provide a clean American fuel, nearly 24/7 because the winds here are so reliable. And as an “old school Republican” I wonder why the extreme right believes “green” is a four letter word.

Last, I salute new GM CEO Mary Barra for having the guts to correct so many wrongs that historically have been ignored under the “good-old-boy” leadership of the past. When I see “more bad news for GM” in regard to recalls, (as a former broadcast journalist myself and who taught this subject at a private university) I don’t see the announcements of recalls as “bad news” but rather as “encouraging news” as Barra takes the bull by the horns and provides a fix not only for engineering problems, but as she “fixes” a tainted corporate culture that had been pervasive for a couple of decades.

GM is now on the right-path… my Volt is on the right road… and as a”right-winger” I wonder why the right-wing media can not figure out why this car is “right” for America. (Could it be because the number two owner of Faux News is a Saudi billionaire and has an agenda against alternative-fueled vehicles?) Go Google on your own and make you own decision and if you want to know the honest truth about Chevrolet Volts, just go ask an owner so you can think “outside the Fox.”

“What started out as a simple car purchase turned out to be a life altering event.”

It’s like someone trying to explain the first time they did a sky dive. You can’t explain it. Those that say we can’t recoup our money over this car or that car are not living in our world.

Nobody tells a Bugatti owner that he or she will never recoup the difference in price compared to a Ferrari. Who cares? Both owners love their cars. Yet, those apples and oranges don’t seem to bother others.

The Volt is just a totally different car. Totally. I owned two beautiful Seville’s. I loved those cars. They were my babies. I sold them for 2 times blue book after 15 years of ownership, each. There are a lot of people out there that want to fix up a certain type of car. The less they have to spend, the better. 2 X blue book was pennies compared to the money they would have had to spend. I literally had a list of people who wanted me to call them when I sold them both.

I wouldn’t trade my Volt for BOTH of those Cadillac’s. Period. The Volt is smoother and quieter by a long shot. The gas savings is just a huge plus.

I wouldn’t care if I never recouped my money over a Prius. I’ve been in several Prius’s. There is no comparison.

The Prius owners need to talk to Volt owners who previously owned the Prius. There are a few. It is the number 1 traded in car for the Volt.

MrEnergyCzar

To be honest, many readers don’t like when we get political, but we get political for one reason: to correct insane bias and misinformation. Truthfully, we’d rather avoid politics.

It’s a shame the way EV spin is repeated and repeated and repeated, and same goes for solar and wind energy. It’s not what we’d like to focus our days on.

And I really wonder if these illogical attacks are triggering / will trigger enough backlash that it actually hurts these media outlets and politicians to a noticeable degree.

If we had developed EVs in the 1970s and 1980s we could have avoided three oil wars and saved ourselves $9 trillion dollars. Add in the billion dollars per day we pay for imported oil, year after year after year. Add in the cost of ‘homeland security’.

Add in the hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.

The movement from oil to electricity will result in a payback that will greatly dwarf the 200x return we’ve achieved by subsidizing solar. There’s likely to be more zeros in front of that x.

Republicans need to stop thinking 1 year ahead, and start to develop a long term strategy that isn’t simply cutting government spending and lowering taxes. While thats all well and good,the government still has a responsibility beyond that.

The 2008 recession smashed our economy, put millions out of work, and along with the Bush tax cuts, killed the government’s tax revenues. It was like a company cutting its product prices and loosing a lot of sales.

You don’t recover from that by cutting taxes and putting more people out of work.

You put people to work so that they pay taxes.

Your tax dollars have been used, since the beginning of America, to assist businesses to grow and expand. We use our tax dollars, day in and day out, to grow business.

This newly-found right wing hate for business is really stupid. It shows that many of us have little knowledge of the history of America but have bought into some crackpot myths pushed by uneducated radio loudmouths.

If that bothers you then do something to help drag your party out of the Dark Ages and into the 21st Century. One can be for low cost government and maximum personal freedom without being for ignorance.