Chevy Volt after 10 months

I thought the post was interesting too as I'd like something that really is like this.

So why do you say this?

 

I don't know about that. It probably depends where you live. I could see using one in my daily life, but there are parts of Houston that are pretty far apart and the comfort of a gas engine as a back up in case you cant charge for whatever reason would, to me, make the car that much more marketable. Options are good.

 

Doesn't seem to be effecting Tesla at all. They are coming out with a lower priced/ smaller model to the S soon and everyone is waiting in anticipation.

Tesla's have always been pure electric. GM just can't think out of the box and has too much money and engineering built into gas motor manufacturing.

Let's face it... when you ask people which car company is known for innovation in car technology, it's pretty rare that someone would list GM first.

 

Not true. The Volt has one of the world's most advanced power trains. Its incredibly under stressed and provides a normal driving experience with zero range anxiety. Compared to the Leaf-there is no comparison as the leaf is a miserable, penalty box of a car. Its range is dramatically lowered depending on conditions and it drives poorly and looks terrible. The Volt is a quality piece. As to GM being a gas motor way of thinking-GM was ahead of the electric curve decades ago with the EV1 and proved that an electric vehicle could be used for much of what constitutes normal driving.
The customer satisfaction scores for the Volt are off the charts and calling it an expensive, glorified hybrid is simply inaccurate on both counts.

 

Than perhaps you should investigate the innovations that GM has introduced over the last century

 

No one cares about the last century. They care about the last 10 years, if even that.

 

I had a Volt and it was flawless. I could get almost 50 miles out of a charge, if I hyper-miled. With the current charging infrastructure, I think the range-extending engine was the right call. I sold my Volt mostly because I just preferred the performance of its polar opposite, a CTS-V Wagon and I did not need 2 4-door cars. I drive sports cars whenever possible.

The GM hate is interesting. The 2 main bases I hear are that they made junk in the 70-80s, and they got a big government bailout and their creditors and shareholders got screwed. I am not sure what either has to do with whether some of their current products are good, and I have been satisfied with my Volt, Caddies, and Z06.

If you just want to boycott an entity that was bad, OK, but you don't have to go back very far to find a lot of bad about Germany and Japan. My Jewish friends' parents simply refused to buy German cars, but that sure has faded.

Finally, in this warlike world, GM (indeed the entire domestic car industry) was a huge reason we won WWII. They geared up to produce superior quantity and quality of aircraft, tanks and other vehicles. I don't like the idea of not having that capacity any longer as we see continuing violence around the world. I want to see domestic manufacturers succeed.

 

The Tesla Model S is magnificent, but it is a niche luxury vehicle. The roadster was an Elise with battery pack and electric motor stuffed in it for over $100K.

I hope they are as successful in a lower priced Model X. It has been delayed and still no pricing, although you can put down $5K to order one (interestingly, that is 2x the down payment for the Model S). Tesla's pitch on the X to me is more about a luxury SUV, not an economy car for the masses. I bet the Model X will be well north of $50K and I have seen articles guessing more like $80K. In fact, I'd not be surprised to see the X really be a Cayenne type competitor, not a Nissan Leaf competitor. If so, not exactly for "everyman."

 

you bust the balls of "soul sucking" (your words) SUV owners, and you had a VOLT?!?!?!


bwahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

 

Guilty. But at least I finally saw the light and sold it. I simply could not live with an automotive appliance. And I stayed in the right lane where all automotive appliances belong.

 

your penance is ten burnouts in the CTS-V while saying hail marys.

 

My pax say prayers all the time. Does that count?

 

Wow... totally agree. Also I think it's naive to assume that we could have let GM fail at the onset of the recession in 2007-2008. We bailed out the economy by bailing out GM.

I think the Volt is a terrific concept and glad to hear it's working well for people in the real world. I thought the styling was kind of blah, but compared to the Leaf it's OK. If they made a 2-door version that looked better, I'd be very interested.

 

There is a 2 door - Caddy ELR. To pricey for me, but at least not as bland

 

Couple of cool things about the Volt:

1) The fuel tank is actually under pressure. There is an air pump that pressurizes the tank to help extend the life of the fuel. To add fuel you first must hit the button to equalize the pressure.

2) The car is NOT a hybrid. To be a hybrid, there has to be two sources of propulsion- in this case an electric motor and an engine. The engine of the Volt is not connected to the transmission- it is simply used as a generator to charge the battery, which powers the electric motor, which powers the wheels.

However...

2a) The engine CAN insert itself into the transmission and power the wheels directly, if needed. If for some reason the motor cant keep up with the work it needs to do, the engine can engage its clutch and go in to the transmission and work in tandem with the motor. That would make it a hybrid in that mode.

3) They are made IN Hamtramck, DETROIT. Although I *think* they have expanded into other facilities since then.

4) The batteries are both liquid cooled and liquid HEATED. This keeps the batteries at the most desired temperature for maximum range and is also why they're expected to last beyond ten years.

There is a lot going on under the hood of a Volt. But the most impressive is how seamless everything works. It really is just like driving a normal car.

 

It actually does it for fuel economy. Max acceleration tests with the engine running I've seen show that the engine was disengaged, wailing away at 5000rpm or whatever the peak HP is.

I leased an early Volt, VIN 777, and loved it. Perfect appliance. Plug it in, drive it around, plug it in again. One oil change and a bunch of tire rotations in 3 years. I went as long as 4 months w/o buying gasoline. Smooth, quiet, and relatively quick feeling because it's so silent you don't think anything of using 90% of it's performance all the time. Nothing blew up, failed, or fell off during my 3 year lease. It really changed my opinion of what GM is capable of.

I was a little sad to see it go but it's achilles heal for me was that it was just too small. Yeah, the seats fold down (all the way if you remove the headrests) but about the 100th time you do it, you start to wish you just had a bigger car. At least I did.

All my car nut buddies took a similar arc: disbelief when they heard I got one followed by approval when they drove it. They've all talked about getting one (cheap & used) but noone has pulled the trigger because of the size issue.

 

There's no requirement to do so. It tracks the average age of the fuel in the tank and will force you to burn it off after a year. As PaulK mentioned, the tank is actually sealed and under a little pressure.

The engine also runs for a few minutes every 6 weeks if you haven't needed it otherwise. I had that happen a few times.

 

GM scraps European version of Chevy Volt | The Detroit News


Volt sales have also struggled and never met GM's initial forecasts for sales growth.

Volt sales fell 34 percent in June in the United States to 1,777 and are down 12.6 percent this year to 8,615. GM — like many other automakers — cut prices of its plug-in hybrid Volt last year. GM is also offering hefty incentives for its slow-selling plug-in Cadillac ELR, which has sold just 390 vehicles in the first six months of the year.

Last September, then GM CEO Dan Akerson told The Detroit News that the automaker would take on upstart EV automaker Tesla Motors. Akerson said the Detroit automaker plans to confront Tesla via its Cadillac brand.

"If you want to compete head-to-head with Tesla, and we ultimately will, you want to do it with a Cadillac," he said.

 

As a baby boomer I only bought European cars in the past. The modern American cars have caught up with our European friends. I now buy some American cars and have been very happy. I still enjoy European cars and own a few.

The only area we are still behind are the super cars. The Mosler is nice but not quite up to Ferrari or Lamborghini standards. Although that may be changing with some of the high performance American cars that are coming.

As a side bar I love the Volt. If I had to commute I would own one. I drove a tesla and was very impressed

Best

Lee

 

Tracy gas only lasts three months before it goes bad. This clock starts when the gas leaves the refinery.In the past gas lasted longer but not today.

If the gas is in the car over three months I would use Stabil. I use it in all of my cars and have had no problems. It is an inexpensive insurance. If the car and the gas is used regularly as transportation nothing is needed. The supply chain from the refinery to your gas station pump is very short.

IN THE Volt were the gas engine may not be used much or at all I would use Stabil.

Also in older cars that were not designed for the dry gas we have today need the gas lubricants that you can buy at any auto parts store. I use it on my 54 and 65 vettes.

Best

Lee