Paul,
We owned a 2004 and the a 2006 Prius AND a 2007 Camry Hybrid before evolving to a 2011 Leaf ordered on Day 1 of Nissan taking Leaf orders back in August of 2010. Most of the members of SacEV had a Prius before going to a full EV.

Given all the massive feedback on how the various Ford plug-in models are NOT coming that close to their EPA projected fuel use and further that the Volt actually does regularly achieve buyer's expectations, these prices on the 2013 Volt are just AMAZING. We are in the last 6 months of our 3 year lease on a 2011 Volt and have been TOTALLY impressed with the overall performance, fit, and GM support. I had not owned ANY "American car" for over 40 years before taking delivery of the Chevy Volt (though I get a new car every 2-3 years and have owned everything from Porsche, BMW, Audi, Lexus,Infiniti, VW, Toyota, Honda, and Mazda over these last 40 years). The Volt rides like an Audi and has the 0-40 mph kick of our BMW and make like a Lexus.

I have seen ads in the greater Sacramento area for as much as $8100 cash off the sales price of a 2013 Volt ! $4000 from GM and a $4100 "dealer discount" so perhaps GM is also providing some further "indirect selling" incentives to the dealers on top of the cash discount to the buyer?????

I wonder....

Let's see, we now live in Europe (Warsaw), but will be returning to California later this year (Jet-setters?) to live near San Francisco. We, of course, are much more attractive than the average couple, and we are DINKs. Since between us we have run over 300 official marathons and actually won individual overall and age group awards (not slow, therefore clearly on the slimmer side), and we are even building a new, high tech house back in California later this year,

I guess it will be no surprise that we are ALREADY on the waiting list with our local BMW dealer to place an early order for an i3.

What the analysis did not indicate is that we, and I suspect other i3 customers, will be migrating from other plug-in vehicles.

Personally I would want it as a plug-in hybrid, and then it would be a very attractive option for our personal road trip/distance car. A two door is too restrictive an option for our (read many practical people) as a first car, but for a couple's personal travel car.....

And I do like the styling. We had, many years ago, the original Lexus Coupe (SC300 model), and I still think it was one of the most attractive cars ever. These days, we would ONLY consider PHEV format in any car for our garage.

Like a "famous car blogger" wrote elsewhere on this very site, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," and for me, my very first car, a Renault Dauphine which I rebuilt from combining a 1960 body with the running gear from a totaled 1962 model I had painted "candy apple red." It was beautiful, IMHO, of course.

Not my idea of "beautiful" even as applied to a bike. Personally I go for the more modern designs.

Boy, do I absolutely agree with you on this one. I would have gotten either the Leaf OR the Volt in a metallic green as my first choice. I had the green on the Tesla as my first choice until I saw the car in person with that color. The Tesla "green" IMHO is more "olive drab" and THAT was not in my top preferences at all !

Might be a plus to KEEP the orders coming. Perhaps the majority of the deep pocketed early adopters are already IN the order que?

Many years ago, like 30+, I recall psychological research data, I think out of the Univ. of Michigan, doing psychomotor performance testing, that demonstrated much LESS handicap with pot than with alcohol.

Clearly the alcohol lobby is much better invested and effective than the pot "lobby," but I think there is probably a considerable evidentiary history of research that would show that a pot user is less dangerous behind the wheel than even an under the U.S. borderline alcohol user.

Further, in much if not all of Europe, the blood alcohol limit for driving is .02 not the significantly more lenient .08 that is common in the U.S. Again I would suggest that this is further evidence of our liquor lobby.