I admit it, I am an avid reader of WIRED magazine, more or less since it's inception.
For those not familiar with it, every issue has a segment called "Expired-Tired-Wired"; a concise commentary about tech trends.

In this month's issue, the Volt got shoved into the expired box, with the ?Prius a step higher in the tired box (graphic shown, LINK )
Who writes this stuff?!

Good news is anyway, GM-Volt.com got linked from the WIRED blog today..we are the place where "legions of people" are hanging out eagerly waiting for their Volts. True.

 

Wow, what a disappointment. I enjoy Wired too and am really shocked to see this from them (of all people).

I wonder who authors that section of the magazine. I would like to contact them.

 

No worrys man. When meteorite sickness outwires the Volt, there's gotta be something wrong with the editor. When the tires hit the road, that will put Volt back on the front page.

 

Let's put the Prius, Venturi and Volt on a quarter mile track, then let's see which on is tired...

 

"True, that", as the chracters on the famous HBO series "The Wire" were so fond of saying.

Speaking of the legions, someone asked the other day how many people were now on the definitive GM-Volt.com waiting list. I don't remember seeing an answer. Can you tell us?

What about a post promoting the waiting list again? It has been pretty low profile lately, and mabe some new bloggers aren't aware of it. I think that it is a great idea. The more names the better.

I have promoted the idea of deposits several times. Lyle, you seem to have good communications with GM Volt people. Could you suggest it to them? If nothing else, the knowledge that you can produce some people willing to put up actual cash might give you a little more leverage.

Somebody even tried to start a bidding war with me a few days ago! A lot of these guys are for real.

 

The Volt technology is far superior to the Prius and Venturi. Either the editor does not have a clue or for some reason does not like GM. You decide.

 

OK, I found the answer to my question on the thread below. 4000. Not bad.

Still, I think that it would be a good idea to talk up the witing list a bit more.

If gas really does go to $6.00/gallon by 2010, as someone suggested yesterday, 60-100,000 Volts/year will not be nearly enough!

 

What's a Wired?

 

Kent, Wired is a magazine. I'm surprised you asked, you posted on their blog when the Volt was introduced!

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2007/01/chevy_volt_coul.html

Wired did a good job covering the Volt. They also wrote a very good article on the Tesla when few else knew about it. In fact, when I first read it on a plane that's what got me interested in electric vehicles.

To me the Expired-Tired-Wired almost looks like a computer generated Zeitgeist that measures propensity of Geeks to engage in a particular subject around the water cooler. There were a ton of articles about the Volt when it was introduced at the Detroit auto show. It is dropped off significantly since then.

 

Noel Park,

I keep suggesting a "running tab" kind of a wait list with perhaps some of our email addresses redacted. At least a number.

This would likely be the first study as to how many people would be willing to buy a Volt. GM may find that info useful.

 

Dave B. and Noel-
I would be glad to put up a ticker showing the number of sign-ups, the issue is writing the original code to do that, and where to put it.

If you have some ideas where you would like it to be displayed and if there are any php coders out there willing to volunteer to write a snippet, then we could do it.

 

Considering that the Venturi concept came out YEARS ago, and the company hasn't actually ever sold any, it's safe to say it's the most expired thing on that entire list.

 

Well, I'm nowhere near smart enough to figure out how to do that. I also fear that the ticker sort of fades into the background after a while if we don't watch out.

How about a simple one sentence post, say every week or two, saying "4000 on the waiting list today."

Puts me in the mind of the old TV spot, "Parents, it's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?"

"Bob, there are 4000 on the waiting list. Have you seen the 2009 Prius?"

Many thanks for your interest and response.

 

Hey, Jimmy at #5, you're right, the Volt technology is superior. It's the same principle of a diesel-electric submarine or a diesel locomotive. It's all electric drive with a generator to charge the depleted batteries, brilliant. The genius is in the simplicity. Yes, the series system is far better than the parallel system. Let's hope they actually do it to prove it is superior.

 

People don't worry about Wired putting GM-volt.com on the expired list. I wish my website could be put on the expired list at Wired. They get tons of visitors and a link will help this website in the search engines and will send a bunch of people here straight from their site.

Even somewhat bad advertising is good publicity!

 

Lyle,

This site also has a link from Wikipedia. See reference #10 at the bottom of the page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevy_Volt

 

Here's $10 that says those clueless dolts
running Wired think that BYD is a brand of underwear. Any takers?

 

# kent beuchert Says:
November 1st, 2007 at 5:51 pm Quote

Here’s $10 that says those clueless dolts
running Wired think that BYD is a brand of underwear. Any takers?

Anyone with my experience with Chinese quality would probably say it is.

M.

 

Wired always seemed to me to be the People Magazine of the technology world.

 

Kent-

BYD would have better luck selling underwear, given that its batteries of choice were considered unacceptable for EV use back in the days of THOMAS EDISON.