In a bid to further increase consumer confidence, GM is now offering to buy back Chevrolet Volts from any owner who fears the car is a fire risk. Just last week GM offered to loan a different GM vehicle to Volt owners until the battery-fire relation was investigated and solved.
This all comes from fires sparked by crashed Volts at the National Highway Transportation Safety Association’s facilities. They were crash testing the Volt, and left the damaged Volts sitting without disconnecting the battery – GM claims that was why the fires started, and GM also wants to remind consumers the fires started 3 weeks after the crash.
GM put out the option to provide loaner cars to the 6,000 GM Volt owners if they were worried about fire risks. As of Wednesday, GM said 33 Volt owners had asked for loaner cars. Some customers had asked if the company planned to buy back the cars, but no one has requested to turn theirs in, GM spokesperson Selim Bingol said.
“If someone asks, we’ll snap it up in a second,” Mr. Bingol said. GM believes the car is safe, but wants to reassure Volt owners and ensure they are comfortable with their vehicle.
GM has 134 day’s supply of the Chevy Volt, compared to Nissan’s 21 day supply of the Leaf. The recent fire issues could further slow the sales of the Chevy Volt.
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Not entirely correct…
http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2011/12/02/volt-buyback-general-motors-says-possible-not-probable/?mod=google_news_blog
A company spokesman said GM chief Dan Akerson mentioned in an interview that the company wants to “do what’s right†for its customers, and buying back cars could be one way of reassuring Volt buyers that they won’t be stuck with a car of which they are too afraid to drive.
“His quotes were in the context of the doing what is right for the customer and not the announcement of a new initiative as was insinuated by some reports,†said company spokesman Rob Peterson.
There seems to be much confusion about the buy back. On the same day the Ner York Times website reported:
“A G.M. spokesman, Rob Peterson, confirmed the buyback offer. “If there’s a customer that wants to sell back their Volt, we’ll buy it back from them,†Mr. Peterson said.”
The comment from Don Akerson wasn’t what made people think GM would buy back the Volt, it was the comments that Rob Peterson himself made, so it’s strange he was clarifying what Don Akerson had said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/business/gm-offers-to-buy-back-volts-over-fire-risk.html
Didn’t GM delay the Volt years ago because of “thermal events” aka battery fires? Seriously! they still haven’t figured this one out! However, three weeks after a crash is a good buffer zone:)