Cowmeat learns to drive the Volt

[cowmeat]

If buying again today, do you think you'd go for a Volt again, or an alternative like an Ioniq PHEV or Clarity?

My next will be a full EV I'm sure.

I've never driven the Volt more than a hundred miles and I've had it two years. I think the longest trip was from the dealership in St Pete back to Lakeland, so an EV with a couple hundred mile range would work fine for me

[Volermo]

Would you recommend a used 2017 Volt Premium.It has around 47K.would the bugs be out of it? My wife wants a plug-in hybrid. Also considering a 2018 Prius Prime with 16K.Prius goes about 25 miles on electric compared to Volts 50 miles. The Prius is more expensive,lower powered,better gas mileage. Would the Priuses reliability outweigh Volt’s higher performance.Just asking your opinion,and Thanx .

[cowmeat]

Would you recommend a used 2017 Volt Premium.It has around 47K.would the bugs be out of it? My wife wants a plug-in hybrid. Also considering a 2018 Prius Prime with 16K.Prius goes about 25 miles on electric compared to Volts 50 miles. The Prius is more expensive,lower powered,better gas mileage. Would the Priuses reliability outweigh Volt’s higher performance.Just asking your opinion,and Thanx .

I love the Volt, which really is an amazing car, but . . . . .

In reality both of my Volts have had catastrophic issues that not only left me stranded, but if they weren't covered under warranty would have put me thousands of dollars in the hole or sent them to the junkyard due to the prohibitively expensive parts & labor.

Mt first Volt suffered a failure of the big battery which luckily was covered under the Voltec warranty. My son bought it from me when I got the new one but I've already warned him he needs to look for something else since it's now beyond the warranty period. While it does have a brand new big battery in it, another failure would be the end of it

My new Volt suffered the dreaded "shift to park" message, which is now probably the most common issue with the Gen 2 Volts but can be triggered by a myriad of different causes. Unlike a lot of them mine required a complete transmission change out with less than 10K miles on it, and it sat at the dealership for three months while they waited on parts. I don't drive it hard, it was just some faulty bearing which caused it. It left me dead in the water on the side of the road (twice) and the second time it died just as I hit the off-ramp of I-4 at 70 mph - it loses brake pedal, power steering, etc . . . not a fun experience and not one I'd want me wife to ever have to survive.

I'd stick with the Prius since it's more proven and parts are way more readily available

[ksa8907]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

I love the Volt, which really is an amazing car, but . . . . .

In reality both of my Volts have had catastrophic issues that not only left me stranded, but if they weren't covered under warranty would have put me thousands of dollars in the hole or sent them to the junkyard due to the prohibitively expensive parts & labor.

Mt first Volt suffered a failure of the big battery which luckily was covered under the Voltec warranty. My son bought it from me when I got the new one but I've already warned him he needs to look for something else since it's now beyond the warranty period. While it does have a brand new big battery in it, another failure would be the end of it

My new Volt suffered the dreaded "shift to park" message, which is now probably the most common issue with the Gen 2 Volts but can be triggered by a myriad of different causes. Unlike a lot of them mine required a complete transmission change out with less than 10K miles on it, and it sat at the dealership for three months while they waited on parts. I don't drive it hard, it was just some faulty bearing which caused it. It left me dead in the water on the side of the road (twice) and the second time it died when I hit the off-ramp of I-4 at 70 mph - it loses brake pedal, power steering, etc . . . not a fun experience and not one I'd want me wife to ever have to survive.

I'd stick with the Prius since it's more proven and parts are way more readily available

I somewhat agree here, it's a fair amount of risk because the repairs are so expensive, similar to buying a 100k mile bmw or merc. My gen1 volt is a wonderful vehicle and besides one big issue covered under warranty (faulty coolant sensor that basically requires a non-GM bypass to eliminate the problem) it has been completely trouble free for 60k miles.

Luckily the car is now so undervalued as a vehicle that if it did crap out on me, I could sell the HV battery and part out/scrap the rest for about the value of the vehicle.

[cowmeat]

BTW . . GM's part list for the latest recall on the new Volt (the one for the evap hose) was literally like 3 zip ties and some wire loom

I asked the guy if I was reading that right and he confirmed that yes that's the fix

[rmay635703]

A junkyard replacement battery for a Gen 1 is usually under $2500

My 2013 just passed 100,000 miles how long it stays on the road will really depend on whether I can continue to get cheap low mile batteries and if I still have a cheap cooter repair guy to drop the battery

I really don’t view the battery issue any differently than the 2010-2015 Prius that blows the head gasket in that some can fix the issue for $160 and others want $8000 for an engine install

Thus far my Volt has had no major issues besides recalls


In so far as **** to park issues that issue affects a broad range of GM products, really quite pathetic a cheap shift sensor can brick any 2010-2019 Malibu after all of the bad press over the cobalt ignition failure