Sorry about the double post. A bit of a computer hang-up took place while trying to correct a typo.

>Chevrolet VOLT will meet the challenge for under $30k.

When will the Volt go on sale? Do they take orders yet?

“When will the Volt go on sale? Do they take orders yet?”

I wish it were on sale now! They are gearing up for 2010 production. But, taking orders is totally up to the individual dealer, not GM. I haven’t heard of anyone taking a down payment yet!

The Escape is within spitting distance of four thousand pounds, which is kind of ridiculous for a dinky little thing like that. No, it's not huge compared to a Cat D10.

Prius is classified as a mid-size sedan. Its hatch design gives it lot more passenger & cargo space than actual sedan.

So it should be compared with Camry, instead most people who are ignorant of the fact compare it with Corolla and think that its $6,000 more. And the oil-backed media does that too.

The only solution is to reduce the length of next gen Prius by another 2-3 inches and cost by around $1,000 k to make it even more affordable.

A wagon like design will still give it same space.

George:

The Escape is small compared to a Cat D10, but that's a fatuous comparison. It's also small compared to most cars I see parked in driveways in a nice suburb of Miami, when I'm down there visiting family, and its still on the smaller end of things in my more youthful and urban neighborhood in Boston. It's lighter than the average American-built vehicle (4150 lbs.). (Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14187951/)

We might have grounds to complain that the entire American market is overweight, but that is a much larger discussion, and picking on one of the more efficient cars out there is not a great place to start.

The point George appears to make is the EV portion of these SUV hybrids is underpowered for the size and weight. Prius is moving close to selling its 1M vehicle. Escape, while an admirable stop-gap from Ford - is selling a whole lot less. Why? My guess is people like the higher mileage, unique (green) identity and original technology of the Prius.

Let's not forget that Escape hybrid is a converted standard SUV using hybrid power components licensed from Toyota. Bill Ford needs to rethink "flexible manufacturing" for innovative design. The proof is in the numbers.

gr:
Your post contains many errors!
It has been covered time and time again. The Escape is a TOTALLY FORD design with no parts bought or taken from Toyota. Ford and Toyota have a cross licensing agreement so they don't sue each other over patents. The Ford has over 100 patents UNIQUE to it and only shares less then 10 with Toyota. Toyota of course has a boatload of patents on the Prius too.

The Escape is a great vehicle for its class but in my mind was not the best vehicle to spend all of that work turning into a hybrid. The Fusion or a from the ground up crossover SUV would have been a better choice. Something that is not like driving a brick through the air on the highway.

Another reason for poor sales of the hybrid Escape, a huge hybrid premium. The non hybrid is discounted heavily all the time, the hybrid is generally not discounted. So there is a bigger difference between the base and the hybrid in the real world then the numbers suggest.

George K stated:
Highlander Hybrid went down even with a completely redesigned model : Reason : They made it wider, longer and heavier and it gave 10 % lesser mileage. Green customers simply rejected it.

This is not a vaid statement...the article is reporting sales from Oct '06 to Oct '07. The newly-redesigned '08 Highlander Hybrid has only recently hit the market, like within the last week or so. Very few (if any) of the 08's are included in these figures. As has already been stated, gas mileage is the same, just the EPA number adjustment that affected all vehicles across the board.

Sorry, the original statement I quoted was not made by George K, but rather was actually by Max Reid.

Just saw the 2009 Corolla & Matrix on the toyota site. No hybrid. :-(

Harvey D & Goerge K:

With oil at $96/barrel one would expect gas to be at least $3.50/gal at the pump. Are refiners buying oil at a reduced price? Is there a secondary cheaper oil market?

Somehing to consider...

Each dollar increase for a barrel of oil equates to about a 4.5 cents increase for a gallon of gasoline at the pump.

Therefore $96/ a barrel oil is approximately equivelant to $4.32 at the retail level.

However the large vertically integrated oil giant are leveraged with futures, so the consumer doesn't see the reflection at the pump until about 6 months later...

In conclusion expect to see gas over $4 a gallon by spring.

Best Regards,
Zmorg77