Went EV

[C-Kwik]

[Jesda]

Good color choice. Did your state or employer throw in some purchasing credits? Did you get a home charger installed?

[C-Kwik]

The state does. No home charger...Its an apartment so its unlikely they will allow a 240V line. The 120V charger should be fine. My regular commute is a couple of miles...though I may require multiple trips on some days.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Couple miles? You should look into bicycles as well. I dunno how much you typically carry, but I know I very much enjoy a good ride.

[C-Kwik]

Couple miles? You should look into bicycles as well. I dunno how much you typically carry, but I know I very much enjoy a good ride.

Me too. You might be able to spot the three bikes hanging in my garage. But engineering projects don't carry well on my bike. Hopefully I'll have more opportunity to ride in the fall. I did get to ride a lot in the spring and that was fun.

[nissangirl74]

I'm interested in learning what you think of it over time. You should add it to your list.

[C-Kwik]

I'm interested in learning what you think of it over time. You should add it to your list.

Thanks! I knew I needed to do that during my last post, but I forgot after I posted it. I'll definitely keep you updated. I'll interject some initial thoughts after 189 miles (I can actually check this on my phone). Despite not having had any occasions before today to drive it fully within the EV range, I'm getting 77 mpg. In the Titan, at 189 miles, the needle would be at about 1/4 tank left and I'd be filling up soon at $80/tank. The dealer had filled it up before I left. I've used just over 3 gallons so far.

The drivetrain in this thing is smooth. No vibration at all. Its not a fast car, but its acceptable given the car's primary purpose. Its probably on par with the CRX though. The suspension is smooth for a compact car. Its got a firm feel and handles the road fairly well. It does tend towards understeer quite a bit as I pushed towards the limit. There is some oddness as you come to a stop and the regen/mechanical braking shifts around. But its pretty subtle. My mom wouldn't notice this. The steering is light but tracks well. The leather wrapped steering wheel feels really nice. The controls on the steering wheel are decent, but I liked the ones on the Chrysler 300 much better.

The interior. Mostly, its cheap. Lots of hard but nice looking plastic. The softer plastics are only slightly squishy. I was intending on getting the black leather interior but then I saw the one I got. Its a tan leather with suede (or suede-like at least) which is a bit more friendly on the buttocks in the heat. Moreover, they used the same material in the door panel where other colors get some cheap looking glossy plastic. It was one of those things that grew on me while I was talking to the salesman about options and what other Volts were arriving soon. The center stack is a bit odd. There are only a few real buttons. Most of the controls are capacitive touch buttons. Along with the touchscreen, there is no real haptic element to most of these buttons. The good news is I can control most of what I need from the steering wheel controls. One of my favorite things so far is that there is a Pandora app in the radio. I can actually just press that on my screen and it will cause my phone to play it. Another neat thing they did was to put a 12V plug in a cubby hole on top of the center display. It also has small cutouts to allow a wire to pass. With so many people using dash or window mounted docks for their phone or GPS, its one less cable running up the dash. Similar considerations were designed into the armrest console as well. The rear seats are a tad small but not unusual for a car this size. Its a big step down from the crew cab Titan. I had received a hell of a purchase offer at CarMax so I sold it to them and the girl there opened the door and simply described it as Ginormous. Headroom in the rear of the Volt is non-existent. Lucky for me I have few tall friends and more importantly, I probably won't be sitting back there. What does standout about the interior though are the 2 displays. The one on the center stack is nice but a bit cluttered at times. The learning curve will be steep. The dash uses a large screen in place of traditional gauges as well. Its informative, but it does feel like its watching me at time. It tells you how efficiently your driving at all times. There is some neat info about the way the drivetrain works as well but largely more of a novelty. Though, I appreciate access to the info. Another gripe is the lack of power seats as an option.

The exterior is simply sharp. Its a nice looking car. The wheels aren't recessed into the wheelwells unnecessarily. I opted for the basic silver wheels. The polished wheels looked terrible. As do the new sport wheels with some black colored insert. Its got great lines with a semi sporty appearance. The sloping roofline is nice, but is probably a big reason for the poor headroom in the rear seats. The biggest gripe about the exterior for me is the very low airdam. Its more of a sub airdam that reminds me of those you would see in the Camaros of the late 90's. That includes the propensity to scrape it. From what I've been reading though, GM will have the dealer swap it for a higher clearance version for free. I may opt for it.

I've only had the car 4 days so I'm sure there will be a lot more things to discover, but the prospect of amazing gas mileage is exciting. Especially when the truck was getting 12. I'm sad I had to get rid of it as I had done so much to make it the way I wanted. I doubt any future owner will truly appreciate it. Hell, I'm not sure they'll even know half the stuff I did.

[OriginalWheelman]

Sounds nice. I'm curious what the increase in your electric bill will be.

[C-Kwik]

I can post the difference betwennext month and last month, but I've also been blasting the A/C all month so it might be hard to differentiate it.

[bigbadberry3]

Great looking exterior, shame to hear about the interior. Any special instructions if you get into an accident?

[MinisterofDOOM]

I'm definitely interested to hear your impressions. While I'm disappointed that the tuning wasn't done differently (less full-electric mode, more low-RPM generator mode for more balanced usability rather than the bragging rights of "PZEV") I still think the the Volt is an important step away from broken hybrids toward something approximating a practical electric vehicle.

I actually like the looks of the Volt overall. The proportions are not ideal, but what Chevy has done with them is impressive. Not sure about the black strip below the windows (it was neat when it was glass on the concept, but now it's just silly) but otherwise the details are quite nice.

I'd actually quite like to drive one for a month or two. Don't want to own one...have no need for it. But I'd like to spend enough time with the car to decide whether I could actually daily-drive it. I'm still not convinced that saving money on gas is all that appealing in the end. Driving the Volt means I'm not driving something else. So the Volt needs to be a CAR on top of saving me money.

[themadscientist]

I'd run an extension cord to the neighbor's house.

[C-Kwik]

While I'm disappointed that the tuning wasn't done differently (less full-electric mode, more low-RPM generator mode for more balanced usability rather than the bragging rights of "PZEV") I still think the the Volt is an important step away from broken hybrids toward something approximating a practical electric vehicle.

Not sure why that would be helpful. Any gas burned is more costly if you can accomplish the same with just the electric motors. And usability shouldn't be affected if I understand how the system works correctly. Which matches my observations as the gas mode feels the same as the electric mode.

[nissangirl74]

I'm not gonna ask how much you paid but MSRP is $39K. At today's price of $3.709 / gallon, that would buy 10,514 gallons of fuel. That's 126,000+ miles in the Titan. I know you can get a helluva lot more miles out of the Volt but I have to be honest. I'd rather drop that money in the tank of something I really enjoy driving. : That's not a knock on you, so please don't take it that way. I have never driven one so I'm not gonna knock it. I hope it's everything you want and nothing you don't. It's just not a choice I'd make for myself with that kind of price tag.

[C-Kwik]

Its a lease. I don't have an income yet so the tax credit would be useless to me. But some of the tax credit gets rolled into a lease through the incentive from Ally (Leasing agency). The dealer or GM also provided some incentive and CA provides a rebate as well. The Residual Value remains crazy high and the interest is low at 1%. All this adds up to a relatively low lease payment. Chevy is advertising $250/month on a base Volt. I've heard of even lower payments through some dealers. I ran the numbers and Going with a Volt will end up costing me a total of $3K after selling the Titan, receiving the CA rebate and considering the difference in fuel expenditures. By the time this lease is over, the Titan will likely have depreciated by that much. There are also some small repairs the Titan needs so that would be an issue. New tires will be needed in about a year at the latest. I suspect I'd be dropping about $2K into it within the next year.

Surely, I thought of more exciting cars. I have a brochure for the BRZ on my desk as we speak. I thought about used cars, but most of the ones I want are going to cost too much, only get about double the mileage of the Titan (if that) and probably won't have a warranty. Or they would be old and require work. I hate paying for repairs and I certainly don't have time to work on stuff for at least a year. I looked at leasing other new cars, but the monthly was much more and I wouldn't have nearly the fuel savings. I had rented a Chrysler 300 Limited for a couple of weeks last month (my mom's car was in the shop and I took advantage of the rental coverage she didn't need) and I considered one. While it got better mileage on the freeway or longer trips, short trips were bringing the average down to within 3 mpg of the Titan. There would be no benefit to be had there. I really like the Land Rover Evoque but cost was rather high optioned the way I wanted it. Its gas mileage rating is not bad for a CUV but not enough to offset the costs. An Audi A4 was also on my radar but had the same problem as the Evoque. My gas savings alone covers 75% of the lease payment on a Volt.

Two more pressing reasons made the choice easier. First, we avoided driving the Titan. That sucked. My fuel consumption costs were tabulated based on me avoiding driving the Titan. If I had driven it everywhere, it would be double. In fact one month this year I had a $600 gas bill. It was fun when I did drive it, but painful in the wallet.

The other reason was this decision gave us a financial cushion. While we are doing okay financially, the money I got for the Titan is basically two years worth of the lease payments (the drive off costs will be offset by the CA rebate). That money will sit in a money market that will be used to make the payments. So between this cushion and the money we save on gas each month (almost $300/month average), it provides us a great deal of flexibility.

I wish I took a picture of it, but I have a gigantic white board on my wall that had a ton of financial scenarios plastered all over it. This one won. Frankly, the thought of having to sell the Titan had been in the back of my mind for well over a year. I really should have done it sooner. I was in denial.

[nissangirl74]

I understand completely. And the lease makes sense. I have no regrets about our Insights. They have saved us a TON of money over the past year. I don't ever see us owning another modern car that isn't a hybrid. We've become way too spoiled to turn back.

[themadscientist]

I could see a leased hybrid. As long as the lease is up before the battery pack fails. My ex just bought a Prius, a USED Prius. I clowned on her mercilessly.

[nissangirl74]

Such a horrid, horrid car

[C-Kwik]

To be fair, the Volt wasn't even on radar initially. Weeks ago, I had wondered what Volt leases were like simply out of curiosity as I wasn't sure if it would be a cheaper option considering the lessor wouldn't be able to use the tax credit. And it was merely out of this curiosity while evaluating other options that I stumbled upon the current lease deals. It ended up being semi-impulsive but I still put a lot of thought and math into it over the week after I saw the lease deals. It didn't hurt that I've always loved the way the Volt looks. Nothing against the tech in a Prius, but for God's sake is it ugly. The older insights are a cool idea for a cheap commuter, but given we already have a 2-seater, we needed at least one car that can hold at least 4 people.

[nissangirl74]

We have WAY too many two-seaters. Out of our whole collection, the Frontier is the ONLY thing that holds five of us.

[C-Kwik]

I could see a leased hybrid. As long as the lease is up before the battery pack fails. My ex just bought a Prius, a USED Prius. I clowned on her mercilessly.

Cause I'm sure you needed her to buy a Prius to do that.

[themadscientist]

No, we are on good terms. I was just surprised that after being married to a gearhead for seven years she would do such a boneheaded car purchase.

[BusyBadger]

We have WAY too many two-sweaters...

Two-sweaters?

[Bubba1]

To be fair, the Volt wasn't even on radar initially. Weeks ago, I had wondered what Volt leases were like simply out of curiosity as I wasn't sure if it would be a cheaper option considering the lessor wouldn't be able to use the tax credit. And it was merely out of this curiosity while evaluating other options that I stumbled upon the current lease deals. It ended up being semi-impulsive but I still put a lot of thought and math into it over the week after I saw the lease deals. It didn't hurt that I've always loved the way the Volt looks. Nothing against the tech in a Prius, but for God's sake is it ugly. The older insights are a cool idea for a cheap commuter, but given we already have a 2-seater, we needed at least one car that can hold at least 4 people.

Very cool getting an EV. How long is your lease? Love to hear updates on how it's doing. I think a Volt makes a lotta sense, especially on a lease, as everything is under warranty. the only downside I see to an EV is years after you return it, when a future owner faces replacing expensive batteries that may no longer be under warranty.

[C-Kwik]

To be fair, the Volt wasn't even on radar initially. Weeks ago, I had wondered what Volt leases were like simply out of curiosity as I wasn't sure if it would be a cheaper option considering the lessor wouldn't be able to use the tax credit. And it was merely out of this curiosity while evaluating other options that I stumbled upon the current lease deals. It ended up being semi-impulsive but I still put a lot of thought and math into it over the week after I saw the lease deals. It didn't hurt that I've always loved the way the Volt looks. Nothing against the tech in a Prius, but for God's sake is it ugly. The older insights are a cool idea for a cheap commuter, but given we already have a 2-seater, we needed at least one car that can hold at least 4 people.

Very cool getting an EV. How long is your lease? Love to hear updates on how it's doing. I think a Volt makes a lotta sense, especially on a lease, as everything is under warranty. the only downside I see to an EV is years after you return it, when a future owner faces replacing expensive batteries that may no longer be under warranty.

36 month lease. The battery has an 8 year, 100K warranty. So the next owner will at least have 5 worry free years.

[themadscientist]

I wouldn't call finding your discarded fast food wrappers under the seats "worry free."

[Mr1der]

Does the CRX still get better gas mileage?

[nissangirl74]

We have WAY too many two-sweaters...

Two-sweaters?

YUCK and I fixed it.

[C-Kwik]

Does the CRX still get better gas mileage?

It gets about 35-40 on the highway. Less if I drive it. I've seen as low as 25 mpg. I think my gf tends to average around 30 mpg using it to commute.

[bigbadberry3]

Not sure if you just angry or didn't see my post, any special instructions for a car accident?