The Chevrolet Volt has been in the news recently due to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's revelation that one of the crash-tested Volts caught fire while sitting in a storage facility weeks after a collision. While the issue only affects Volts that were in an accident, the potential danger has shined the spotlight onto the Volt as a whole.

Even before the safety issue with the fire arose, many in the industry had been questioning the viability of the electric vehicle, which arrived to much fanfare last year. General Motors set a sales target of 10,000 vehicles, but it now appears they will fall significantly short of that target, as the model is on track to sell 8,000 units by year's end, reports The Wall Street Journal. And with potential customers now possibly scared off due to the fires, it could actually be less than that.

"We're getting a lot of interest, we're just not getting a lot of buyers," William Willis, a Chevy dealer in Delaware, told the news source. "Customers come in, they are wowed by the display, the quick acceleration. It's just going to take a while for the American public to accept the price."

Whether you have a brand new Volt or a used car that's decades old, its important to keep everything functioning correctly through regular auto maintenance, including brake service and tune-ups.