
Un oh. My wife's new passion.
And she doesn’t give one crap about plug-in technologies
I can still remember the debut of the original Chevy Volt concept. The long front end, like the Camaro and the Corvette. I had mixed feelings about that design, but in terms of a concept that form worked well I think. It drove the right kind of buzz. Nevertheless, it was the powertrain that I was focused upon. The design was largely irrelevant.
That sporty Volt design; however, meant a lot to many early fans of the Volt, and when GM reshaped the Volt to its current self after wind tunnel testing proved a real drag, many howled. For me, it was still all about the powertrain.
In hindsight though, I think the current Volt is exactly right, because my wife just fell in love with the Chevy Volt.
My wife isn’t much of a car person, nor does she really care about foreign oil dependence. She likes cars for one reason. Looks.
For Mother’s Day I tried talking my wife into dinner at one of our normal Old Town Pasadena favorites. Since I try to drive as little as possible, Old Town works well because it’s only a few stops away on the Metro Goldline, my preferred mode of transportation. But my wife wasn’t going for it. So I offered up Little Tokyo or downtown — both only a few more stops in the opposite direction.
Still, no. She wanted to go somewhere we rarely go. Somewhere different. Somewhere the train doesn’t go, at least not yet. So we ended up in Santa Monica.
Since it was Mother’s Day, I drove both ways. Now my wife believes she’s in the market for a new car — she’s not. Thus, whenever she sees a car she really likes, she points it out. “I think that’s the car I want.” Thus, it wasn’t surprising when we were driving down the 10 towards Santa Monica and she pointed out a car she liked. However, I was surprised when that car turned out to be the Nissan Leaf.
Of course, my wife is interested in a small car. Parking is a nightmare where she works, so a small car would make the job easier and provide more options. Nevertheless, since my wife doesn’t like the styling of the Toyota Prius all that much, I was a little surprised that she was impressed with the looks of the Leaf.
But what really shocked me was when she came home last night. “I know which car I want,” she said.”A Chevy Volt was parked next me. What a great looking car. Isn’t that the plug-in car you always talk about?”
For about 5 years now I’ve been telling her about the Volt, even going to Detroit a few times to follow the development of the Volt from concept to reality. I don’t know if she ever heard a word I said — and it hasn’t always been a good story. None of it would have mattered anyway. All it took was one look, a full visual inspection, and my wife fell in love with the Chevy Volt.
In terms of visual appeal, I have to conclude that both Nissan and GM did good. My wife’s stamp of approval is fashion gold in my opinion.
Unfortunately, I can see it now. If we trade our hybrid in for a plug-in, she’ll soon start telling me, maybe we could drive a little more and not have to take the subway everywhere since we’ll be using electricity rather than gas. If only GM had left the Volt looking more like a Camaro — my wife hates sport’s cars — I might have converted her into full subway submission. Now she has new tools to work me over. Ohhh, the irony.