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This is just a quick list of the people that have test driven the 2010 Chevy Volt that GM let me have for 90 days. (It goes back to them on February 10 2011, a date I am already dreading. Maybe I should deliver it back to Detroit.) I picked up the car in Burbank on Wednesday, November 10, 2010.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

DH. A friend of mine who lives up on Mullholland Drive in Beverly Hills. He loved it. Enough that he asked if GM might let him have one for a few weeks.

Rob B. He had to get to dinner and since his wife was meeting him there I saved him from having to double-drive home. We asked OnStar to program the GPS for us, which was a nice demonstration of the technology and service. It was night time (damn daylight savings), but the car performed well and Rob liked it. He saw it the next day in daylight and said he'd consider leasing one in black (it would replace a 5-series BMW). The technology is definitely a selling point.

Friday, November 12

Rob L., my brother-in-law. Took it for a short ride in the Pacific Palisades Riviera neighborhood with his youngest son checking out the back seat. Said it felt amazing.

Saturday, November 13

Tana, a couple houses down, took the Volt for a drive just a few blocks away and back. She drives a Mercedes and was very impressed with the solid feel and interior of the car. Her daughter loved riding along electric.

John D., the father of one of my sons' friends, drives an Aston Martin and a Ferrari. After taking the Volt for a spin around the block in the Riviera section of the Pacific Palisades he said, "I'll order one. I hate the Aston Martin. I'll get one of these and for my everyday driving I won't burn any gas. That will be great."

Julie and Jack each drove the Volt down at the CAB get together at Fathers Office in Culver City. They both loved it and had a lot of questions about how the car worked, charged, the interface on the electronics and so on. Jack really stomped on the pedal, and we all enjoyed flying through the side streets of Culver City.

Sunday, November 14

Tom Teicholz, journalist, took the Volt for a spin on the taxiway of Santa Monica's airport. He proclaimed it delightful, surprising, and more solid than the Prius.

Alexandra Paul, former EV1 driver, rocketed up a four lane road in Pacific Palisades and said, "This is so much fun, I can't wait for my Volt to get here." I took the Volt over to make sure it fit in her garage (no problem). Her garage will be like ours, one Rav4 Electric and one Volt. She is the official spokesperson for the Volt, so it's a good thing she enjoyed driving it.

Ian Murrary took a few twists and turns at good speed in the Pacific Palisades. He was impressed and said the car was really solid. He's got 160,000 miles on a first generation Prius, so this is someone with a lot of alt-car cred. He said the Volt was obviously a front-runner.

Monday, November 15

Antoine Wilson, novelist, took a spin in the Volt. He was not impressed with the mess of buttons on the stack, and like every person so far had to double check where the gear indicator was in order to shift into drive. But he said it was really solid, handled well, felt heavy and substantial.

Thursday, November 18

I spotted Josh B. across the room. I knew through intermediaries he was a fan of electric cars, so I did something I would never be able to do normally and walked right up to him. I said, "I have something you'll want to take a ride in." Polite, but a little skeptical: "Really? What is it?" See, in Hollywood, my offer could be anything. I've got the hot new Ferrari. I've got Bing Cosby's old Rambler. I've got a screenplay I want to have someone read and this is my gag to get it. Who knows. "I've got the Chevy Volt." "Where? Here?" "Right outside in the driveway. Want to take it for a ride?" "What, now? Yes!"

I figured we would take a spin around the block. Blocks in the Palisades are pretty large. (Otherwise it would be two houses per block.) Two car lengths down the street and he was loving the car. "This is fantastic. This is amazing. I can't believe they did this. I mean, I've read about it, but I hadn't see one yet." Like my wife, Josh has an electric Rav 4. Unlike her, he also has a cool conversion car, too. He was being a little ginger on the little side street so I said, "Go ahead, take it out on Sunset."

In a moment we were flying down Sunset. Just sailing along. "This is so quiet. It's wonderful. And their making them? Selling them? Delivering them yet?" I explained their availability. "Do you mind if I take it down to San Vicente?" No, sure, that will be fun. So we turn down Allenford and then another right onto San Vicente. I showed him what it would be like if the generator kicked in by turning on Mountain Mode. "Boy, you can barely hear it."

Twists and turns down 7th street and then back up an insanely twisty street and we were pulling back into the driveway. "That was fantastic. Thank you. I owe you. I don't know what I owe you, but I owe you. That was great fun." He said that the timing couldn't be better, since he was just about to get a new car, so it would probably be a Volt. We'll see.

Then I took our host and friend Howard G. for a test drive. He was much more conservative and just went out to Sunset, down a couple blocks and returned along the side streets. he loved it. He has 116,000 miles on his Prius and it's time for a new car. He also said he'd probably get one.

The last drive of the night was Jodi. She's an activist and has done a lot more for peace than I've done for electric cars. It was pitch black at this point, and I hoped she knew her way around these little streets. "You know, I used to have an electric car conversion, but that was back in the late seventies and it was a dog. This is really peppy," as we fired down a small residential street at 45mph. "Wow, and it can corner," around a hairpin turn to head back to the party. "This is so much more fun than my Prius," barely missing a fallen tree branch. "Oh, I know that person, I hope their garden is okay." I was relieved when we made it back to the driveway in one piece. I admit that there were a couple times that I thought, "There are a lot of airbags, and it's okay, it's not my car, it's not my car." Sorry, GM.