October 2017 Consumer Reports Review

nice!

 

Go Prius!

 

Per: Compare Side-by-Side

	metric	Prius Prime	BMW i3-REx	Ford C-MAX Energi
1	EV miles	25	72	20
2	kWh/100 mi	25	29	35
3	gal/100 mi	1.9(R)	2.6(P)	2.6(R)

Bob Wilson

 

What gets me is the Volt's owner's satisfaction compared to its predicted reliability score; it's quite a contrast...

 

Most are repeat GM owners who are used to the brand's overall poor reliability. Unloaded my last GM over three years ago - good riddance.

 

I dug into it a bit. The Volt reliability for every year in all for categories falls in the 'best' rating except for in 2016 which has a single average rating under "engine-minor' and the best in all others. I am not sure why CR gives the overall 'worst' rating.
That said, the 'worst' rating represents a 3% or 4% occurance.
My best guess is that under a certain number of respondents they give a lower 'predicted reliability' rating because they don't have enough data.

The Volt is a great driver's car. It is incredibly smooth, quite and responsive thanks to the electric drive. I expect the Prime will have similar result of owner satisfaction as long as the electric drive experience comes through (which I have heard it does).

 

funny, how it's rating is much worse than volt I.

 

CR does not like negative trends

 

I am quite fond of quiet cars...

 

The 2016 would have had the new model blues.
I wonder if the parking brake recall for the 2016 Prius effect its reliability rating.
Of course, this is a user survey, and the rating relies on what the user calls a problem. Confusing radio controls need to be fixed, but it won't leave me stranded on the side of the road for example.

 

is there a correlation between ratings and sales?

 

Not if you believe some of the "negative press" CR gave Priuses in years past.

I suspect that one could copy and paste previous CR posts in this forum onto the Volt's forum today.....

....and so it goes.

 

Look at the owner satisfaction for Teslas. I think it might be the most unreliable car we've ever owned, but people love them.

We thought of picking up a Volt. The first generation ones seemed (to me) to have been quite reliable other than some small issues like gas/charge doors getting stuck in the initial model year (IIRC).

 

I still have a lot of regret that Toyota didn't design and build their own BEV other than as a compliance vehicle.
Melding the joy of an electric car with Toyota's reliability would have been the best of both worlds.

 

What's funny is that we discussed the car and came to the conclusion that we basically wanted an electric Honda Accord. Although the Model S bills itself as a luxury car, it feels to us to have the same (or worse) build quality as our 20-year-old Honda Accord. I can remember my reaction after a couple months of ownership to be "man, this feels like a GM car"

Off the top of my head (since we have so many, I've probably forgotten some): Doors freeze shut in the winter (tesla declines to fix, so we don't use the car at all in any wet freezing weather - this is a big one, and we've apparently not alone), center console isn't reliable and functions don't work sometimes, software updates sometimes cause new issues with the car (bluetooth didn't work right for like 3 months after an update), car doesn't detect the key a good fraction of the time (have to wave the key around the cabin to get it to start sometimes - yes, with a new keyfob battery), TPMS system failed (they will actually fix this one because it's glaringly, ridiculously, stupid obvious), parts pipeline is ridiculous (we got rear ended while stopped at a stop light - it took like 3 weeks and a few calls just to get a new rear bumper cover in stock, and man did that thing look poor-made-in-China-to-the-lowest-bidder quality). Also, they've been changing the layout of the dash (speedometer, etc) from major system software updates v6-7-8 (don't let the high numbers fool you, actual build numbers are like 2.71 though I haven't checked in over a year). Each time they remove more and more information from it and of course move around the display information (a la cell phone interface du jour).

On top of it all, I feel like the people at the service centers are kind of d-bags. On the Tesla forums I remember seeing people state how the service people seem to just to say whatever to make you go away. Elsewhere I've heard the experience described as a mixture of condescension and denial. Both of these descriptions feel like they fit how we've been treated.

I'm personally kind of "over" the car (it kind of feels like a burden nowadays), and I say this as a car enthusiast.

Good luck though.

 

Practically speaking, if you really want a Model 3 or a used Model S, he might be the best option to get you one. I was told that Tesla employees get first-crack at used cars (so you might be able to pick up one at the best price before the public) and they are the first round of customers for Model 3s.