Chevrolet Volt Already Listed As One Of Detroit's Top 6 Dinosaurs Heading For Extinction?

For a century, the North American auto market was an island of dinosaurs surrounded by an ocean of pygmies. Open roads, cheap gasoline, and an affluent population led to the rise of automotive species seen nowhere else in the world.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the combination of special circumstances and geographical isolation produced chrome-bedecked, V-8 powered, behemoth passenger cars. In the 1980s and 1990s, they gave birth to pickup trucks and their offspring, body-on-frame sport utility vehicles. Detroit lost its engineering edge as manufacturers on other continents pioneered front-wheel-drive, multi-valve engines, and hybrid gas-electric powertrains.

2012 Jeep Wrangler PentaStar Photo Gallery

2012 Toyota Camry Photo Gallery

2012 Porsche 911 Carrera Photo Gallery

Concours d'Elegance 2011 Photo Gallery

2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG Photo Gallery

The Quail Event 2011 Photo Gallery

Concours d'Elegance Weekend 2011 Photo Gallery

AutoSpies.com Photo Galleries

If you want to see your photos running on our homepage photo ticker, be sure to upload your photos on the go by sending them to Mobile@AutoSpies.com

Share on Facebook

Read Article

veyron1001 - 8/26/2011 10:52:40 AM

+6 Boost

Who wants to buy an american prius when the Japanese one costs half as much and higher quality?

Joe_Limon - 8/26/2011 11:04:29 AM

-1 Boost

The person who wrote this article needs to get out more. Local markets are not strongly influenced by global trends. If that were the case there would be a lot more suvs and muscle cars around the world, and not isolated to just North America. Cars sold in china are generally manufactured in China so it doesn't really matter if they buy just as many vehicles as the usa, or many times more vehicles then the usa.

It's almost as if the author purposely neglected that idea in the case of the USA influencing the world, and then remembered it conveniently in the flip side scenario.

Joe_Limon - 8/26/2011 11:10:21 AM

-3 Boost

also lol
"Today's Lincolns are little more than fancy Fords. That's not going to cut it with brand-conscious consumers in China and elsewhere."

that's why buick is doing so well? lmao!

As to his Volt criticisms, it seems as the Author isn't aware of the Volt only being sold in a selected seven states, if unrestricted and with supply to meet the demand it would have already sold over 20,000 units!

vdiv - 8/29/2011 10:55:28 PM

+1 Boost

Predictable and sad. Nevertheless EVs and hybrids now have a notable momentum and if GM doesn't want to be soon considered irrelevant (some say they have been that for over two decades now) they better be working on the Volt successor. Allegedly they are already collaborating with Toyota on large vehicle hybrid drive-trains.