NYT Columnist Joe Nocera Defends Chevy Volt, Reveals His Obsession With Car Critics Fox News, Rush
New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, who in an August 2011 column likened the Tea Party movement to terrorists strapping on suicide vests (he later apologized), fiercely defended the Chevy Volt electric car against what he saw as a Fox News conspiracy campaign against it.
Nocera had breakfast with Volt owners during the New York International Auto Show for his Saturday column, "The Right Flames the Volt," and sounded like an enthusiastic gear-head himself when it came to the Volt:
Outside, a row of sporty Volts gleamed in the bright sun. On the market for a little more than a year, the Volt is a different kind of hybrid, containing both a 400-pound battery and a 9.3 gallon gas tank. The battery gets around 40 miles per charge, but “range anxiety” isn’t the problem that it is for owners of a purely electric car. When the Volt’s battery runs out of juice, the car shifts to gasoline. It is really quite ingenious.
Inside, the mood was upbeat. A month earlier, the Volt had been named European Car of the Year. It was coming off its best sales month yet, with some 2,200 cars sold. Its problems with the government -- which conducted a severe rollover test that caused a Volt to catch fire -- appeared to be over; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had given the Volt its highest crash-safety rating.
Between bites of eggs and bacon, the Volt owners gushed about how well the car drove -- and how much gasoline they were saving. They were early adopters, of course, willing to pay a high price ($40,000 before a $7,500 tax credit) to get their hands on a new technology. Many of them had become nearly obsessed with avoiding the gas station; for those with short commutes, it could be months between fill-ups.
But all was not well in Voltville, with Fox News and Rush Limbaugh afoot:
Yet there was also an undercurrent of nervousness at the breakfast. A reporter for Fox News had been prowling the auto show, asking nasty questions about the Volt. For months, the conservative propaganda machine -- including Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Neil Cavuto, the Fox News business editor -- had been mocking the Volt, and linking it to President Obama, who has long touted the promise of electric cars. Cavuto, who has called the Volt “roller skates with a plug,” was rumored to be going on the air that very night with yet another Volt hatchet job.
Nocera quoted Volt "brainchild" and retired auto executivce Bob Lutz:
The last straw came when his conservative intellectual hero, Charles Krauthammer, described the Volt as “flammable.” Krauthammer, Lutz felt, had to know better. Although he remains deeply conservative, Lutz told me that he has become disenchanted with the right’s willingness to spread lies to aid the cause.
Nocera had to awkwardly, and anti-climactically, admit Cavuto actually went easy on The Volt in his much-feared report: "He used a recent article in The New York Times -- about how long it takes for electric cars to reap savings for their owners -- to take a few jabs at the electric car movement."
(Indeed, Nick Bunkley's April 5 article blew a montetarily efficient hole in rationalizations for buying a Volt, at least as a money-saving purchase: "....the added cost of the fuel-efficient technologies is so high that it would take the average driver many years -- in some cases more than a decade -- to save money over comparable new models with conventional internal-combustion engines....Gas would have to approach $8 a gallon before many of the cars could be expected to pay off in the six years an average person owns a car.")
Nocera signed off by smearing Fox News:
Not to worry, though. With seven months to go before the election, Cavuto and his Fox News brethren will have plenty of opportunities to denigrate an innovative car, employing American technology and creating American jobs, in order to besmirch a president who had nothing to do with it.
It is, after all, what they do.
It's a bit rich for Joe ("Tea Partiers" are terrorists) Nocera to accuse anyone else of "besmirching" someone in the political arena.
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Comments
I wonder if Nocera reads
Submitted by bkeyser on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 9:56pm.
his own paper?
Only when he changes the cat litter or bird cage liner.
Submitted by drsamherman on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:02pm.
Other than that, he probably reads Pravda.
One Question
Submitted by IrateNate on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:26pm.
Does Nocera own a Volt? If so, why didn't he mention it? And if not, then why not?
➚ Great question
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:30pm.
Obviously it's because he's racist and secretly wants President Obama to fail.
Five tests were not done
Submitted by bmac32 on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:31pm.
No NHTSA tests so maybe it's safe but so are dozens of other car at far less. Volt is the Obama car like the VW was to another.
➚Got that right
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:36pm.
Obama came up with the idea with nothing but a D-Cell battery and a sanitary cocktail napkin.
OK to be fair
Submitted by bmac32 on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:42pm.
The car has been tested but it's still no better than dozens of cars costing a lot less. No you need a gas station plus a charging station at home.
I did read that the Volt will
Submitted by killa37 on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:37pm.
I did read that the Volt will pay for itself in.........................27 years.................so maybe he's got a point!!! Of course, the damn car isn't even built to last more than a few years, so nobody will ever get their 'money's worth' out of this boondoggle of a 'green vehicle'.
Apparantly this guy's strength is making stupid statements...............if I'm not mistaken, quite a number of Volt parts and labor have been shipped and outsourced to other countries - so much for his statements about 'creating AMERICAN jobs, huh???
a question
Submitted by MidAmerica on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:38pm.
You are a guy competing for the affections of a beautiful young lady. You drive up in a Chevy Volt and the other guy drives up in a Chevy Corvette. Who gets the girl?
➚Depends
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:41pm.
Personally, I don't think Jeanine Garofolo is all that hot, but volt owners might.
I don't think Jeanine Garofolo is all that clean
Submitted by Radical1979 on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:53pm.
but volt owners might.
I don't think I'd let her in my car without a delousing.
How did we segue from 'a
Submitted by killa37 on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 11:12pm.
How did we segue from 'a beautiful young lady' to a scabies-ridden, crab-infested, impetigo-infected, stinky filthy trollup like Germine Gawdawfullo anyway????
➚ Very easily
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 11:21pm.
I found a very ripe red herring in the dumpster out back and suddenly wanted to share it with everybody.
Next course is kim chi.
Bon apetit!
There are a few Filipino
Submitted by killa37 on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 11:28pm.
There are a few Filipino 'delicasies' over here in Asia that would also qualify. One is called 'balut' (ba-loot), which is a fertile chicken egg - allowed to get ripe and basically rot inside the shell..........and then they poke a hole in the end of the eggshell and suck the insides out!!
There is also a Hawaiian tree called the 'noni' (no-nee) which bears fruit that is kind of yellowish, and smells like rotten and decayed limburger cheese!!! It has some great medicinal value, if you can ingest it somehow!!!
Of course, when I went to the dump the other day, I smelled a lot of maggots from some 'ripe' garbage!!!
For some reason, I think Gawdawfullo is in the same ballpark as all of this!!!
Mid
Submitted by Radical1979 on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:44pm.
If you're competing for the affections of a beautiful and intelligent young lady, you can drive up in just about anything but a Volt or a "Smart" car, etc.
Smart women (who won't expect you to spend a fortune on them) won't be looking for a flashy car. Liberal women, they'll be looking for a flashy car, a guy to spend a fortune on them, and then accuse you of being part of the 1%.
: )
Submitted by MidAmerica on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:57pm.
Sorry, my question is something only guys understand. You get a Corvette to get superficial but Hot women.
You mean you wouldn't get a
Submitted by killa37 on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 11:13pm.
You mean you wouldn't get a Megyn Kelly type, or a Michelle Malkin type??? Well, I'm still waiting for Kim Basinger to call me, cause I'm a lot nicer and in better shape than her stupid fat ex-husband!!! But I don't have a Corvette................I couldn't fit my tools and/or my surfboard inside of it - and still have room for the girl!!!
I feel your pain
Submitted by MidAmerica on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 11:21pm.
Kim hasn't called me either. Do you think she has other men besides us?
image is everything
Submitted by MidAmerica on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 11:15pm.
This girl is most likely neither liberal or Conservative....but who cares? Like your going to take her out to talk current events? ...and she ain't gonna get in no electric toy car. She'd be insulted and mortified to be seen in it.
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/05/01-karvajal-design...
Neither. Both are products of "Government Motors". The...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 3:08am.
guy who gets the girl is the one who drives up in a Thunderbird! (Unless the girl is a Volvo loving Lib.)
It's funny, both my aunt and
Submitted by LinTaylor on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 11:58pm.
It's funny, both my aunt and I call the Volt an "ugly roller skate", and it has nothing to do with politics (I'm Libertarian, she's rabidly Liberal) and everything to do with the fact that it's an ugly car.
Give the Volt a chance
Submitted by TomP2 on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 1:46am.
It disheartens me to see so much negative attacks against the Volt because of Obama. It is a truly unique and original American design. The concept was drawn up and the design began on the car long before Obama got his fingers into GM. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the GM bankruptcy, conservative would be kinder to this car.
Some trash it for being too expensive; it is, as is most brand new innovative technology. Some bash it for going only 40 miles on a battery, but that was a design compromise. Increase battery mileage and add another $10,000 dollars to an already expensive car. Drop the mileage down to 20 miles to reduce cost and you have a car very similar to a Prius. But numerous studies showed that 75% of Americans drive no more than 40 miles a day. So make a car which would use no gas at all for 75% of the driving public, trim costs, and then added a normal combustion engine for unlimited driving, instead of being stuck on the side of the road like the Nissan Leaf. What is so bad about that?
So what if it is a green car touted by liberals? I like to think of the Volt as a way to give the finger to Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. A lot is made of the car catching on fire. But that was in a crash test conducted by the NHTSA and it didn’t burn on impact. It caught on fire sitting in a lot 3 weeks later. NHTSA did not drain the fuel and batteries as recommended.
Some people hate the car because the batteries cells come from South Korea; however GM designed the battery and assembles the parts. Oh yeah, the cells are recyclable and there is speculation that individual dead cells could be removed and replaced with good ones to extend the life of the battery which has a 100,000 mile warranty.
The New York Times article showing how uneconomical the car is was also just another piece of NYT propaganda. The study was rigged to make the Toyota Prius look good and the Volt to look bad; go figure. You can read about that in my article here
http://2taboos.com/2012/04/08/new-york-times-makes-veiled-attack-on-the-...
The volt isn't perfect but it deserves a chance.
Give the Volt a chance?
Submitted by cocodrie on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 2:00am.
When subsidies, incentives and all the other costs are figured in, the Volt is worth about 250,000 dollars per unit. What a bargain from Government motors for a "car" that nobody wants or can use because of its shortcomings.
Billions of taxpayer dollars at work on a useless government project designed to enrich the friends of the inept present in the white house.
Jesus Loves You so much He died for you
For the VOlt propagandist
Submitted by Unsane on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 6:49am.
I'm not pro- or anti-Volt. But the market - that damned market! - right now is clearly anti-Volt. And for good reason.
You can THINK that the Volt is a way to give the finger to Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, but there are other, better ways to do so. (Like reminding Venezuela that if not for the southern United States and the Caribbean, no place else can refine its oil. Remind Iran that it has no oil refinery; besides, it is better equipped to provide oil to the Eastern Hemisphere anyway - transport costs. Ditto Russia. Maybe you like giving the finger to Canada?)
If this car is so great, and so economical, why is the government subsidizing it with massive tax breaks? If it is as wonderful as you say it is, the market will respond with gusto and it will start flying off the lot. But it simply isn't, and it's not because of evil conservative propaganda. It's because there are better, more reliable, more proven alternatives out there that people want.
Finally, where does the electricity come from which powers the Volt anyway?
P.S. Do YOU own a Volt?
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
One of the issues with the
Submitted by celator on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:44am.
One of the issues with the Volt (and there are many) is that there was never a large market for it in the first place, a fundamental rule for success. Even now there are only 200-300 Volts sold per month (as best I can determine), an anemic market for the car. The "build it and they will come" applies only when potential buyers respond by saying "Yes, that's what I've been looking for!"
That's just not the case with the Volt, at least for large numbers of potential buyers. In the final analysis, there is little reason to buy a Volt, and even the "green" aspect falls flat on its face whenever you charge the battery with electricity supplied by coal-fired generating plants. The fact that Obama's EPA has already shut down over 100 coal fired generating plants makes the power from coal fired plants even more expensive (yes, I know there are hydro and nuclear plants, but they will be on Obama's chopping block. Count on it.)
So.... an product undesired by a large groups of drivers, buoyed up by a phony "green" marketing program, far too expensive for what you get, difficult or at least challenging to "charge up", with a design that is, at best, unimpressive, and you have a formula for failure. And that's what has happened. Marketing 101.
"Chevy Volt: It Won't Burn On Impact"®
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 8:04am.
Not exactly advertising-hall-of-fame stuff there.
its a pile of crap
Submitted by dmacleo on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 10:16am.
run it in winter in maine and let me know how efficient that battery is when it takes 30 minutes of warm up time to break ice off windows. and that tiny engine does not have cooling system capacity to efficiently warm everything quickly.
its a niche car at best that we all are being soaked for to the tune of approx 250K per unit when all fed, state, local subsidies are figured in.
What a great selling point!
Submitted by CobraMan on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 12:05pm.
"It caught on fire sitting in a lot 3 weeks later."
Spontaneous combustion! What a great selling point! Get into a fender bender and you car erupts into flames all by itself, while sitting in the dealer's parking lot waiting to be fixed. Although, if you drain the fuel and batteries, thus making the car inert, you could avoid the fire. But, of course, you still have to wait for the repairs, and you still need to PAY for more electrolyte and fuel, because the government requires that fuel and electrolyte to be properly disposed (a requirement that adds quite a bit to the costs of the repair) once removed from the vehicle. So, by adding an additional several thousands dollars to the repair costs, you car will be as new, and as vulnerable to accident damage, as it was before. Woo Hoo!
By the way, while it's true that most urban dwellers drive less that 40 miles in a single trip (that's one way), most vehicles carry cargo at least once a day, whether that cargo is groceries, equipment, or passengers. The Volt can't carry that cargo, it isn't designed for it so there's no carrying capacity at all, so what's a Volt owner to do when they need to carry cargo? Do they hire someone with a mini-van and drive ahead of them?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
And the irony is ...
Submitted by texastommy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:00am.
Rush is correct when he says it's a coal powered vehicle.
Volts and Golf Carts
Submitted by Reggie on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:27am.
Electric cars are like golf carts - they have a very limited application (which is why they don't sell very many). In the real world of our national economy, the movement of goods and services to support our 350 million people requires oil. Exploring alternatives makes sense from a research perspective, but practical substitutions for oil are nowhere on the horizon.
The high tech Chevy volt....
Submitted by c5then on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:48am.
8 lead-acid batteries and a lawn mower engine all hooked up to a "special" transmission.
It's like something you'd expect to see on MythBusters.
And you get all that for only $41,000.
Call Now!
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Electric Car nonsense
Submitted by billyjack on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 8:37am.
An electric car will use as much as 8 times as much energy to go the same distance as a gasoline powered vehicle of similar weight. The electricity has to come from somewhere. By the time we burn a fossil fuel to generate electricity and send it across power lines and waste 40-60% charging a battery, then additional losses converting chemical energy back to electricity. The reality is that we will need massive more amounts of generating capacity if electricity replaces gasoline. For all the glue heads that have gone organic; wind and solar if doubled could produce nearly 1% of our needs.
Green Energy development
Submitted by crabman2 on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 9:34am.
I'm all for the Volt , wind generated , and solar generated energy . But all of these are in the early stages of development . When they are developed further I will start using them . They are not there yet , so we still need fossil fuel based energy .
Only 35% of ALL hybrid owners would buy another one.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 1:54pm.
And that includes Prius, which actually works.
But even worse than a Volt is the $100,000 Tesla* Roadster... if you ever let the batteries go dead, it costs a minimum of $40,000 to fix.
* the same Tesla that US taxpayers underwrote to the tune of $480 million.