Yahoo! Finance: Obama's $250,000-per-car subsidized Chevy Volt one of its Worst Product Flops of 2011

President Obama, the auto baron, wants to remake General Motors in his image.

But Government Motors' highly-touted Chevrolet Volt made Yahoo! Finance's Worst Product Flops of 2011, sputtering in at third place.

GM was originally so excited about the Volt that the company had announced in January it was speeding up its roll-out by six months. But by November the excitement had fizzled out. Larry Nitz, GM's executive director for vehicle electrification told Reuters, "It's naive to think that the world is going to switch tomorrow to EVs [electric vehicles]." Indeed, sales for the vehicle have been consistently low. Only 125 models were sold in July 2011. This was after GM spokeswoman Michelle Bunker was quoted as saying that the Volt was "virtually sold out" due to its popularity — a statement later shown to be misguided. Adding insult to injury, Chevy Volts are under investigation for fires involving the cars' lithium-ion batteries. For concerned Volt owners, GM has offered free loaner cars.

It's complicated, but taxpayers are shelling out $250,000 per Volt. What other acidic news do we have about the Volt? Well, the 230 miles-per-gallon boast was as valid as many of Obama's campaign promises. The actual gas-milage for the Volt is much less. And GM is offering to buy back Volts and it may recall all of them.

The government should not be involved in picking winners and losers in the marketplace. However, let's give the White House credit. It picked a really big loser with the Volt. Too bad taxpayers are paying for this bad choice.

UPDATE January 5: AP is reporting that Chevy asking owners to bring in their Volts for repairs. Every lemon them sold in the United States. It's not a formal recall, but I suspect that political reasons are behind this "stealth recall."

The federal government should not be in the car business.

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