Prius Plug-in and Volt Pros and Cons

Free oil changes is not exactly "free." You have to go along with all the other recommended work if you want the oil change for free. Not a bad thing in itself, but for those of us who like to do our own maintenance, the free oil change diminishes rapidly in significance.

 

It's definitely not "free," it's included in the price of the car (nothing is free). I just don't understand why anyone wouldn't take advantage of it unless it's a hassle to get to the dealership, or you find pleasure in doing service work yourself. The only other recommended work they do up until 25k miles is tire rotations (I find their "inspections" to be BS). After 25k miles, by all means follow what you think is best.

 

The latter point is not rhetorical. I recall my dad rummaging around in the engine compartment of his car, with parts scattered about. When asked what was wrong with the car, he would say "nothing; I just enjoy doing this". Drove my mother bonkers. This was years ago before you needed expensive specialized equipment and training to mess with a car. I did not inherit this propensity for things mechanical; the only maintenance/repair tool I know how to use is a credit card.

 

It wasn't meant to be. I meant it seriously not sarcastically. There are lots of people that enjoy working on cars, and it wouldn't surprise me if they got more pleasure from working on their own cars on their own schedules and would rather pay for the oil and do it themselves than let the dealership do it for free during the "free" service period. But for the majority it seems like it would be a given to take advantage of already having paid for those first couple services, unless it's too expensive for you to drive to the dealership getting 100mpg in a PHEV (okay that was sarcasm ).

 

Since there are quite a few Volt folks around here, let me ask this...Like Dianne advertise the sale prices for PIP on the forum here, are there any Volt forums where I can get a sense of Volt Price? Thanks..

 

There is a VERY active Volt forum here:
GM-Volt: Chevy Volt Forum
It was one of the resources I used when shopping for (2) hybrids.
Neither of them ended up being a Volt.

 

I didn't save it, but they printed off a list of scheduled maintenance to go along with all the oil changes. The costs go up after the first one. I'm due for my next oil change in a month or so, and I'll see then, if it continues to be worthwhile.

 

yes, i changed it at 5,000 and 15,000, at 22,000 now. no extra charges, but they did try to convince me to do an alignment at 15,000. and of course, my time wasted going to, waiting, and coming back from the dealership, and the time it took to suck out the overfilled oil.

 

I am trying to clarify how the 25000 mile service works in Canada. In the U.S., all Toyota-recommended maintenance items (such as they are) are included in the "free" ToyotaCare. Is only the oil change at 10000 mile intervals provided in Canada?

 

Not so you could find it as easily as the PiP forum.
I can tell you that with the 2015's out the 2014 prices are sliding little by little. I beat my friend's price and another friend pulled the trigger yesterday and edged mine.

There's a base version with a couple toys that's popular and MSRP is a bit under 36k - I bought that a month ago for 32+.
Subtract 10k worth of Fed and State and I netted out a bit over 22k.
My big deal was netting out close to zero with my PiP trade-in. So maybe I could've squeezed them for 31k on the Volt and they in turn squeeze me out on the trade in, whatever... I'm happy

There've been some reports of sales at 30k but it wasn't clear to me if those had the few extra toys. My dealer said full leather would add $1200 btw
Hope that helps

 

Someone already mentioned the Volt forum but the bottom line is that the PiP and Volt can be had for approximately the same price after credits and rebates in many areas. It is easy to find $4,000 discount on in-stock Volts at California dealers. Each car has its advantages but price is often no longer a difference like it was in the past. Volt prices (both MSRP and street) have dropped a lot in the last 4 years. I assume the Volt 2.0 that comes out late next year will be priced at MSRP to be equivalent to today's discounted street prices.

 

It's every 8000 kms. Nothing but the oil change is free. The rest is fairly similar I'd imagine.

 

everything here is free for 25,000 miles or 2 years. of course, there isn't much besides the 2 oil changes.

 

Our service interval is 8000km=5000 mi. We get the oil change at 10000mi (16000km) intervals. Every 5000mi we get tire rotation and fluid level and related inspections (wow! ).

 

Thanks..Base Volt models are advertised by dealers here for $29,995. Plus you get the $7.5K Fed credit. No State credits in AZ.

I was thinking about Used Volts also as prices for used ones seems to have dropped quite a bit.
Chevy Volt Resale Values Plunge as Lease Returns Hit Market | National Legal and Policy Center
From the article " A search on the Manheim auction site, a primary indicator of vehicle wholesale value, shows that 81 Chevy Volts, model year 2012, were sold at auction for the week ending August 2nd. The average price was $14,871 for vehicles that are only two or three years old, primarily coming off of the manipulated leases."

 

So you think the Volt 2.0 will be cheaper than the current one even though it will have a bit more range and better MPG?

 

It's widely assumed there will be two battery sizes. Here's my office pool entry:

The cheap version will likely have an EPA range of about 28 miles and be a little cheaper than the 2014 Volt which sells today at a discount for about $30-32k. I'm guessing it will sell for MSRP $28k and come with a 12 kWh pack and a range of 28 miles. The larger pack will be MSRP $33k with a 18 kWh pack and a range of 45 miles. I'm calling gas mpg of roughly 40 city and 44 highway. The smaller pack car will likely be limited to about 84 KW or 112 HP which is about the same as the Nissan LEAF. The large pack will probably rise from 111 kW and 149 HP for a 2014 Volt to around 120 kW and 160 HP.

Of course, that's all complete guesswork. They only things I'm feeling somewhat confident about are that the small battery will be 2/3 the size of the big battery because I think they will stick with large format cells but use 2 in parallel for the small pack and 3 in parallel for the large pack. I'm guessing incremental nominal battery increase over the 17.1 pack in the 2015 Volt. I'm guessing they will use 69% of the large pack like the 2014 Volt and will use a more conservative 65% for the small pack. It wouldn't surprise me if the small pack gets full bench seating in the rear and the large pack stays at 4. I'm guessing they will have a new and more efficient inverter based on designs that were partially funded by DOE grants recently. Probably they can tweak the motors a bit also. Maybe EV MPGe of 105-110 up from 98 today.

I'm doubting they can reach the magic 50 miles EV range and 50 mpg but I don't think they need to. Those specs and prices would substantially undercut the Prius Plugin and Ford Energi for many customers.

 

No other car besides Prius has made so many small developments that add up to the range of a Prius. Not without giving something else up.

 

You increases 90% EV to 100%.

How is it working out for you MPGe wise?

 

I did, and just hit 1,000 today. OnStar reports 2 gas miles but those were out of the factory I guess.

MPGe isn't as easy to figure out and VoltStats is useless as there's no kWh accumulated like the PiP.
In between charges I can tell I'm getting 5.1 - 5.2 miles per kWh and again no gas so best est is I'm close to 150MPGe

100kWh x 5.15 = 515 miles
100 / 33.7 / .85 = 3.5
515 / 3.5 = 147 MPGe
I'm not adding in that .5 gallons to the formula as I really have used no gas (well 3/100 when the Volt ran system maintenance)

I would do a carfinder search and see if you can find used for anything close to 15k.
That article comes from a biased site that's against "government intervention" ie $7500 tax back
I just did a search and in a 75 mile radius I found just 2 as low as $18,500. Both were 4 yrs old and one had been in an accident.
Most were 20-21k but personally I'd rather have new and get that gvt intervention funding