Volt is an electric car that uses gas to create its own electricity. Plug it in, let it charge overnight, and it’s ready to run on a pure electric charge for up to 40 miles(3) — gas and emissions free. After that, Volt keeps going, even if you can’t plug it in. Volt uses a range-extending gas generator that produces enough energy to power it for hundreds of miles on a single tank of gas.

Features:
7″ LCD touch screen and 7″ digital reconfigurable LCD instrument cluster.
Remote vehicle starter system preconditions the cabin.
Bose® Energy Efficient sound system with six speakers and a subwoofer.
30 GB Hard Disk Drive for digital music storage.
High feature Navigation includes voice recognition.
XM Radio(11) with XM NavTraffic®(16)/Weather with three trial months.
OnStar®(12) with Directions and Connections Plan®(13) standard for five years.
Industry-first “mobile apps” capabilities via a smartphone device or web.
8 standard air bags(14):
Dual-stage front air bags for driver and front passenger, knee air bags, side-impact air bags and roof-rail air bags.
Three-point seatbelts in front seating positions.
LATCH (Lower Anchors and Top tethers for Children) system - rear seats.
8-year/100,000 mile(15) battery warranty.
Available leather-appointed seats.

Technology:
Volt is an electric vehicle with a range extender. Well, what does that mean? It means Volt runs on electricity from its battery, and then it runs on electricity it creates from gas.  Let’s assume you have a fully charged battery. Now, depending on the weather, the electrical features that are turned on and how you drive, you can drive up to 40 miles on the electricity stored in the battery — totally gas and emissions free. After that, its gas-powered, range-extending generator automatically kicks in to provide electrical power. So Volt can go for several hundred additional miles, until you can plug it in or fill it up again.

Mobile:
With the new OnStar mobile app, Volt owners can use a smartphone to access their vehicle’s current electric range and fuel efficiency. Plus, managing the Volt charging functions is easy with this application. You can look up the battery’s charge level, check on what time your Volt will be fully charged and ready to go, or even change charging priorities remotely with just a couple of taps. You can perform other commands remotely too — like unlocking doors or activating the remote start. The OnStar mobile app will be available when the Volt launches later this year.

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One of the best-selling SUV’s on the market is the Chevy Traverse, and it’s not because of its styling, some innovative technology, or its slightly higher price. Simply put, the Chevy Traverse is practical for families.

Actually, the Traverse is less than an SUV or even a mini-van, as many buyers want to get away from hunky vehicles in their driveways. CUV is the newest term for vehicles that are somewhere in between a car and an SUV. A CUV is the newest mainstream vehicle for up-and-coming families. The Chevy Traverse is more mainstream. For families, it offers three rows of seating. The Traverse has only been out for a couple of years and the 2010 model has very few changes over the 2009 model.

My daughter Charity had a Traverse for a test drive and almost fell in love with it. She raved about the convenience and the utility. The second row of seating can be purchased with a bench seat, but the captain’s chairs are probably more useful. Captain’s chairs in the second row give older children, teenagers, and adults much more room and also provide an open pass-through to the back row area. There is a fair amount of cargo room in the back, but for a long road trip, the luggage and family items will spill over into the other areas. The third row seats split and fold flat. This is useful for those long trips and carrying more suitcases and bags.

The 2010 Chevy Traverse is only offered with one engine size – a 3.6 liter V-6 that provides 281 horsepower. It is matched with a six speed automatic. The Traverse can be purchased in either front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. I personally have become a fan of having all-wheel drive because of safety concerns on wet roads, snow, ice, or even sandy conditions.

The exterior of the Traverse is very mainstream. It is not distinctive, but it is acceptable and appealing. The interior is functional but not futuristic or trend setting. Again, the interior offers all the conveniences for a family or even an around-town vehicle, but it is not designed like a sports car. It is easy to drive and it fits into tight spaces fairly well. My daughter Charity says it doesn’t feel “bulky” when she is driving or parking.

The 2010 Chevrolet Traverse is offered in three trim levels – the base LS, the LT, and the top-of-the-line LTZ. The primary difference in the different trim level models is the wheels, which come as 17 inch, 18 inch, or 20 inch. The back-up camera works really well and was certainly a strong point with my daughter, who has two younger children. She commented, “I can see all the bicycles, toys, and other paraphernalia left in the drive before I run over it. The screen for the camera is conveniently located on the rear view mirror.” I have advocated back-up cameras for many years and think they should be standard in most vehicles.

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August 19, 2010
First Look video: 2011 Chevrolet Cruze
Chevrolet replaces the mediocre Cobalt this September with an all-new sedan, the Cruze. Already on sale in many markets around the globe, the Cruze will give the division a much more competitive small car in the States than in the past. We borrowed one recently to give our auto engineers a chance to preview this significant new model and share their impressions in this First Look video.

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By Malcolm Gunn, Special to The Windsor Star August 5, 2010

Raise your hand if you have never, ever — ever — driven a Chevy Impala. Think about it for a minute . . . maybe your dad owned one, or maybe even his dad, since the brand goes back more than five decades.

And if you’re a business traveller and/or suburbia dweller, chances are you’ve either owned or rented an Impala. It’s a car that most people rarely give second thought to, yet it’s engrained in the automotive landscape. As Chevy once pitched about its trucks, the Impala really is “like a rock.”

Literally scads of these ubiquitous sedans can be found unobtrusively going about their business without fuss or drama on nearly every city block, rural road and freeway in the land.

The Impala has been a Chevrolet and parent General Motors stalwart since 1958 when it was a trim option for the Bel Air coupe. And except for a couple of interruptions in the mid-’80s and ’90s, the brand survived. The multiplicity of duties that it has performed include police vehicle, taxi cab, rental-fleet workhorse and, between 1994 and ‘96, sinister-looking performance “SS” sedan.

The Impala’s current incarnation began for the 2006 model year when Chevrolet tweaked the sheetmetal and installed a trio of new powerplants, including a 303-horsepower V8 that formed part of the SS package. Despite the passage of time and the departure of the SS, the Impala continues to look decidedly attractive, in a conservative sort of way.

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Chevrolet’s Coming Cruze Is Downright Entertaining
By: Bill Visnic , Contributor

The long-talked-about 2011 Chevrolet Cruze is finally going on sale in September 2010, and although Chevrolet is still working out some details, it uncrated a few engineering prototypes for a first-time drive on U.S. soil at GM’s proving grounds in Milford, Michigan. The engineers on hand said the three cars were about 85 percent representative of the final-product Cruze.

Unless that final 15 percent gets really messed up, the compact-sedan-segment big dogs — the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla — had better start looking over their shoulders for Chevy’s Cobalt replacement. The 2011 Cruze is more than equal to those big-selling Japanese compacts and has enough going on to pique the interest of enthusiast drivers, too.

And although the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze costs a bit more than the Cobalt (the base Cruze rings in at $16,995; our test car’s price tag was $22,695), Chevy’s impressive all-new compact is price-competitive with the imports, as well as with the all-new 2012 Ford Focus, coming to our shores in early 2011. All three of the prototypes Chevy offered for test-drives were sedans and all had the new 1.4-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine. A variety of trim levels were represented, but we concentrated mostly on the line-topping LTZ.

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Aligns Fuel Cell Researchers with Company’s Core Engineering Organizations

DETROIT (June 15, 2007)—General Motors Corp. is moving more than 500 fuel cell experts from advanced development laboratories to core engineering functions to prepare this technology for future production.

More than 400 fuel cell engineers will report to GM’s Powertrain Group to begin production engineering of fuel cell systems. Another 100 will transfer to GM’s Global Product Development organization to start integrating fuel cells into future company vehicles. Finally, more than 150 fuel cell scientists and program support will remain as part of GM’s Research and Development center to continue advanced research in hydrogen storage, fuel cells and program commercialization.

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WANT A QUOTE OR TEST DRIVE FOR A CHEVROLET CRUZE? CLICK HERE!

At a press conference in Lordstown, OH this afternoon, GM CEO Rick Wagoner officially announced that the Chevrolet Cruze would be built at the plant alongside the exitsing Cobalt.  Wagoner alluded to this in June during the company’s annual meeting. Read the rest of this entry »

Chevy Camaro SS photos emerge

We’ve had fun looking at the new Camaro in LS and LT trim, and even the RS appearance package livens things up a bit, but if we’re to be honest, we really only care about the SS model. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a quote on Chevrolet vehicles? Contact Roy Foss Motors today!

There has been talk of the Impala continuing in its current FWD configuration, eschewing the RWD Zeta based alternative. There have been a number of different reasons this has been discussed, one being lost sales in the transition.

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