I can't imagine that this will not have a negative effect on sales all things consider like total cost of ownership.

That's why I didn't buy one because I heard GM was going to put a neutered I6 = I5 in it. Glad I bought a 2K6 Nissan Frontier instead!

I agree as to what kind of reaction this will on bodyshop and insurance rates.
To add to this will be the how much this will drive up the cost of the vehicle.
This makes me wonder if Ford has really thought this through or is this just a knee-jerk reaction in a desperate attempt to meeting CAFE Standards?

Two vehicles I would not buy would be the Honda Crosstour and the Ridgeline. Sales on both of these are dismal at best yet Honda refuses to say "Uncle" :-)

I came to that conclusion not too long after we bought our 2004 Honda Accord and the 2006 Nissan Frontier. The Honda has to last at least 2-3 more years and the Nissan will probably outlive me given it only has 26k miles.
If people would total up the total cost to own a vehicle I think more people would keep their cars at least 10 years.

Desperate time require desperate measure.
Have you ever seen someone drowning? They thrash their arms about grabbing for anything in the hopes of being saved. Even someone whom is trying to save them can be overcome by the drowning victims act of desperation. It takes someone whom is capable of dealing with situations like this to manage/save not only the person who is drowning but the other person who tried to help the drowning victim.
This is what I see GM doing with the Volt.

Good idea rtgsc ;-)
The unfortunate thing about the Volt is that GM never learned from the past and relied too much of government subsidies to make the Volt appear affordable to the masses.
There is no reason why GM could have could not have come out with a "real" homegrown alternative to the Prius.

I have AAA for my truck insurance. Have had them now for just over a year. I can't believe how antiquated they are in running their business. They are fine for their road service but beware of their sales pitch to try to sell you a battery when you don't need one.
Picking an insurance is like voting for the lesser of the two evil. All insurances are good until it comes time to submit a claim. All politicians will promise you "Change" until they get elected.

I'm surprised Mitsubishi is still selling vehicles. I expected them to have gone the way of the "also ran" vehicle manufactures a long time ago.

Yep John.......I hit the "Enter Key" before I proof read my comment. Thanks for the Heads Up :-)