Just traded my truck to lease a 2012 Volt...

So I went to test drive a Volt yesterday at Nimnicht Chevrolet here in Jacksonville yesterday, and was highly impressed! The power was unreal, and just the overall driving feel was very responsive. I managed to track on down in Green Cove Springs and did all the paperwork. We got rid of our 2004 Chevy Trailblazer to get it. I decided to lease the car since I am unsure about it, but after 2 days so far I am extremely impressed.. The Volt absolutely destroys the Prius around down. Unfortunately anything past the 40 miles the benefits quickly go away, and the Prius will win on long distance journeys. So I am happy to say that we are a Prius and Volt family now. I will be keeping everyone posted, and taking pictures of them together later on today.. Right now I got the Volt in the garage charging so we can go run some errands at St Johns Town Center. Garber Chevrolet was saying this is the first one to go to a customer in NE & Central Florida but somehow I doubt that? I still have to take it back at some point this week to get it detailed/topped off with gas as the service shop was closed by the time we got done signing the papers. Do apologize for no photos yet, but they are coming!! Thank you guys for opening my eyes to the possibilities of hybrids/EV's.

 

Yeah. The first one I went to test drive at Nimnicht (was a demo, and the only one they had on the lot) it had 111 miles on it, and the battery was completely drained.. So I drove it up Cassatt Ave and around the block, and only got about 35-36mpg... I only drove it for 5 miles before taking it back to the dealer, and requesting to have it charged. I offered to wait, and come back in a few hours. They insisted I call back Monday though.. So I drove to Garber cause they had a demo, and 2 others for sale. They let me test drive the black one no questions asked which I was quite suprised.. The charge on it when I took it out was at 37mi, so I got the full experience. After that I was hooked.. I have put about 40 or so EV miles on it today, and am completely impressed. It is just unfortunately once you run out of gas the mpg is still good, but not the same 55-60 I manage in the Prius. So for me it will be about using the Volt when I know the round trip will be between say 40-100 miles or so. Then using the Prius if I am going to out of town, or have a lot of running around to do. Really digging the smart phone app too where I can check the charge, and remote start the car from inside my apartment. I am however having problems synching my Ipod to the radio. It is the base Volt, with the regular radio. Whenever I plug it up songs will play in alphabetical order, but when I press menu it pops up with a black screen saying to wait because it is indexing... Anyone that has experienced this how long does it take before they sync together? Going to try updating the software on my Ipod since the manual said something about the software in the car/Ipod might be out of date with each other.

It is really something odd not having to worry about the engine when accelerating up hills and such. Plus the acceleration of the Volt is just amazing. It is almost like a rocket taking off it feels like. Oddly enough speed/accel rate and all seems to have minimum impact on the battery life.. Even using the AC and having my wife/kids in the car it still goes as far as it says on the battery charge. We shall see though. Looking forward to some several thousand miles between fill up tanks. Right now my drive to work is about 24 mile round trip through suburbia. So the car should be perfect.

 

Well the truck was not used for its intended purpose in the first place. It was a 4WD LS that we had bought to replace a vehicle that had gotten totalled after being rear ended. So it was only driven on the roadway in 2Hi all the time. I used 4WD once when I went onto dirt/sand just messing around to see how it would do. We had never owned a truck before, and thought it would be great. We also had a 2007 SRT-8 Magnum at the time... The truck was starting to have transmission issues (common in the 4L60E's), so we were already looking at replacing it with an EV/PHEV since we already had the Prius. We had been saving up money to buy a Leaf, and I was looking into lease terms on both cars. I have never had an auto lease before, but this one is 530 a month with the negative carried over from the truck. I went in there expecting closer to 400/450 (they advertise the 350/mo lease 2899+tax/fees on GM's site).. Obviously though when you get into fee's, negative equity, and the smart lease protection it just does not work out that way. Still the truck was 242/mo and cost $72 to fill at the pump after going approx 300 miles. Rarely did I ever see that, more like 270 miles or so. I am kind of banking on the fact that gas is going to go through the roof further than in 2008. So buying the truck was really a stupid decision on our part, but after the accident we felt we needed a truck. Would have bought the Volt outright, but I am unsure about the lithium ion battery packs, and the car overall in the far future. That is the predominant reason I was looking at that option for the Leaf/Volt. After the first Volt was not charged though, and realizing there were no charging stations in Jacksonville that kind of sealed the Leafs fate in my mind. Cause had it not been for the gas engine it would have been dead in the roadway. Shall see though. Plus looking at the book looks to me the scheduled maintenance costs will be nill.. All I see out to my 36000 mile limit is tire rotations every 7500.

Was not impulse though. I don't think anyone can impulse a lease. Upfront costs are to high compared to a loan that you can take out for up to 96 months (which is rediculous). Just got tired of paying for the truck to sit there. Since we bought the Prius (Feb 28) it has seen over 10,100 miles of use. It was my first hybrid, and I was sceptical of the whole thing then. Have not looked back, and to be honest won't miss the truck either. Our Pontiac GXP that got totalled was not nearly as nice as the Volt is, and it was about the same payment wise. Just cannot wait to see what the future brings. In 3 years time the car may have a 100 mile range, or even more. As long as all goes well I will not be looking back. Hopefully though they do get cheaper... Now I just need to find a good 240V station that I can install so I do not have to wait on the trickle charger.

 

Really just unsure of the battery tech, and I have never had a PHEV before. Plus I would really like a car with more than 40, or even 100 mile range. Unfortunately the Tesla is out of my reach both pricewise, and unpractical due to having a wife and 2 children. I figure by the time my lease is up the Volts then will have 100 mile range or so, and probably be cheaper. If not then I do retain the option to buy out in the end. Which I also like if the car remains as awesome as it has been the first 2 days. Plus I am trying to build my faith back up in Chevrolet as well. I was a huge fan of Pontiac (a Grand Prix was my second car, and I got another one after that one was rear ended as well). Chevrolet/GMC I have not been so lucky. Granted the GMC's issues were not the trucks fault. More my mom did not take care of it, and then just gave it to me to try and fix. Then the Trailblazer I had the dreaded gauge needles sticking, the HVAC motor go bad (from disconnecting the battery to reset, is a known problem), and then the tranny was starting to work its way out the door (with 106,800 on the clicker). I am really hoping the Volt (and all of GM's new product line, my Grandma & father-in law both bought Cruze's at the same time I bought the Prius) that they have turned over a new leaf in life per say. My Pontiac's were always awesome cars I thought with top notch build quality. Initial impressions with the Volt is that it is even better. I like to reserve the option though just in case it tanks to pay my dues and get rid of it. Granted in 36,000 I will not see it myself. A lot of the guys over on the GM-Volt forum will though. Just like I have learned a lot from the Prius taxi drivers on here about the type of car/repairs the car needs in higher miles. I will be watching the Volt forums for the same thing. Maybe I am just paranoid, but at least the Prius is somewhat like a conventional car that I am familiar with. The Volt has a lot of automatic and touch screen stuff. Plus the main panel does not have buttons, you just touch around where the label/bump is to say go to radio home. I will be mainly using it as an EV anyway, so the mileage really was not a big deal. For someone who wants a car to go very far, from my initial driving would be better off buying a Prius... Now that is my opinion thus far. Cause as I said before in pure gas mode it was only (I use that term loosely, I have been hitting 55-57mpg in the Prius on the current tank) 35ish mpg. So while I may get the first 40 miles gas free, if I say drove from here to my in-laws at over 200 miles away I think the benefits would be negated. I still need to dig in the owners book though and figure out all the modes it has.

My only gripe so far is my Ipod will not register with the car. For me that is a huge selling point (as was the aux jack on the Prius) so I no longer have to cart CD's. Being able to connect through USB and choose on the Volt's screen was a really good feature. All I can get though is it will play all of the songs on my Ipod in alphabetical order, but I get a message saying "still indexing." So I cannot physically go into the menu and say choose by artist/etc... The Volt's manual only says that if the Ipod does not work through USB to just use the Aux jack.. That rubs me the wrong way a little, and maybe I am being petty. So far though that is my only gripe. Dropped off a huge load of donations/recyclables and the trunk had plenty of room for everything.

 

Thanks. Will do tomorrow since I have to call them anyway, and go back for the tank of gas/delivery prep cleaning. At 10:30 yesterday we were just ready to go home/get to bed. I read over on the GM-Volt.com forums that there was supposed to be some kind of comprehensive software update for the 11's that has been pushed back. For the time being will just be using my aux jack cord from the Prius.

 

I agree with this. Especially as I was originally looking at a Leaf.. I am not going to say the car is impractical. As I did a lot of research on PHEV's before buying the Volt.. Even considering modifying our current 2011 Prius using the Engineer Kit, or the PICC one. Until I see the cold weather range on the Volt later this year, and spend more time on the road with it I think I have made the best choice for me. It is kind of venturing off into the unknown. It really is seemless though as far as plugging it in whenever I come home. I thought it might be a slight inconvenience, but it really is not. I press the button on the door to pop it open, and in literally 2 seconds hook it up, and then as I get my stuff out of the trunk make sure the light goes green/horn beep for charging. Then I just check from my Smartphone every few hours to see how it is doing (the On Star App is awesome!!).. I have also noticed at my work today people react a lot differently to the Volt than they did when I bought the Prius. I guess the Volt has that cool factor, but it certaintly has caught peoples attention. Before I could not even talk about hybrids without being ridiculed, but all throughout today I had people seeking me out to ask about the Volt. So maybe this will be the car that changes the main stream thought about alternative vehicles.

As a side note before I post the pictures (I know I'm a day late, and I promised them yesterday) I called the dealer about the Ipod problem. They told me it could take 20-30 minutes to sync with the car... It wound up taking almost an hour (I have an almost full 16GB 3rd Gen Ipod).. The good news is though once it has synched with the car if you unplug it, and plug it back in it does not need to index again. That was my biggest fear with that.. So I apologize for any flags I raised with that. This is my first car with a display like this. Heck the Prius was my first car with an auxillery jack, lol. Guess that is enough babbling though. Now on to the pictures!!

 

Some more.. Not sure what the photo posting limit per thread is here which is why I have broken it up into 2.








The dreaded Ipod indexing screen... you just have to leave the car on and wait for it to eventually sync. Like I was saying above dealer says it should take 20 minutes depending on how much music you have, but for me it took an hour. So beware if you have an Ipod bigger than my 16GB one.