2017 volt- great deal?

Sounds too good to be true

 

sounds like a good deal. with the prime going as low as 20k net, it isn't too surprising.

 

It's more because of CAFE fines on trucks avoidance.

 

You'd be silly not to buy it! Volts are excellent very long lasting cars.

 

That's a great price! There are some amazing deals on plug ins right now. I actually think we are at peak discounts currently. Incentives combined with low prices are making various plug ins ridiculously cheap. Lots of great plug ins to be had for $20k or under after all incentives.

 

Personally, any future vehicle purchase MUST have ACC (adaptive/advance cruise control). On 2017 Volts, IIRC only the premier models can have the optional ACC so that car is most likely a base LT model. ACC option is very easy to spot on the Volt: the front "bowtie" on the grill is a separate piece that contains the radar unit.

 

I've been having lots of fun driving my 17 Volt around. Got about 26k miles on it, of which only around 3k of it was on gas due to long distance trips and the occasional really cold weather or engine maintenance mode (turns on the gas engine for 10-15 minutes every 6 weeks to lube itself up). Most of my driving is to work and back, which I can do entirely on electric even in winter as long as I don't floor the gas pedal at every stoplight (this is tougher than it sounds since it's so fun to take off from a stop thanks to the electric motor's "instant torque" lol). But I like having the gas engine, so if I forget to plug it in, which I recently did lol, or I have a long range trip, I can just use the gas engine.

You also get Android Auto/Apple Carplay compatibility, something Toyota is still reluctant to do for some reason. Basically you can use Google Maps or Waze on your center dash, which is superior to the car's built in navigation if it has it. It also has 4G LTE and wi-fi hotspot capability, so if you do a lot of traveling for work, you can use this for a better signal in some areas.

If I saw that deal, I would grab it in a heartbeat. It is a smaller vehicle, but so long as you're not ferrying around 5 adults constantly, it works great as a commuter vehicle. And despite the sedan shape, it's actually a liftback, similar to a Prius albeit with less room. But you can fit quite a bit of stuff back there still.

Should you decide to look at it, when you first arrive at the dealership, mention that you're considering the BMW i3, Toyota Prius Prime, the Honda Clarity, the Hyundai Ioniq plug-in, and the Kia Niro Plug-in. Even if you're not really considering them, if you talk about cross shopping all of those plug-in hybrids, it'll help weigh the argument in your favor later. True, only the i3 has longer EV range, but those other cars cost a lot less than an equivalent Volt.

Before buying it, ask them if they'd be willing to knock a few more hundred bucks off the price. When they inevitably balk at that, tell them that while that Volt is a really nice deal, the 2019's coming out in a month or two will have even faster charging, power seats, and you can disable the engine running in cold weather until temps drop to the negatives (and being in Minnesota, that's something you'll find valuable.

Tell them that the 2019's will be coming out soon, and that you'd be more than willing to wait for it. Or you could buy that Volt they have right there, today, if they can knock say, another $500 off.

Keep in mind some of those options will only be available on a higher trim (aka pricier) Volt, but bluff that those options are very nice to have and would be worth the price (and yes, in my opinion they are. The faster 7.2 kW charging speed on 240v alone means you can fully charge in 2 hours vs 4 that the current Gen 2 Volts have).

If they say no, see if they change their mind when you start walking out. It's close to the end of the month, so if they're desperate for a sale, they may lower the price. But even if they say no, that's still a good price for a new one.

 

Just checked cars.com for new volts in the $25k price range and at least one of them was honest enough to state that price includes the $7500 tax credit. BUT you have to go to their website to even find that out. The others just had an * by the discount but no fineprint footnote. As the saying goes, Buyer Beware.

 

The listing details say "Discount includes $7500 tax credit".

 

Yes it does seem pretty shady. Notice the price history graph on CarGurus. I bet they changed their 'strategy' to sell the car by recently including the rebate in the listed price.

You sure that is the correct listing? The link leads to a vehicle out of Galesburg, IL.

 

That's mild compared to Volt listings I've seen that also included all the potential incentives available at the time in the price listed. Some of them had to be mutually exclusive, like conquest vs loyalty incentives.

 

Yup, that's the one I was referring too. Go to their actual website and you'll find the $7500 disclaimer there.

 

Except now they are killing off the entire line of Volts and do we really want a 2019 or a late Nov/Dec 2018 Volt... As I count the production line will care all that much about the quality of what is being produced if they know they are being laid off come March...

 

Exactly.

Also, I wonder what is going to happen with battery replacements, etc...when the time comes? Hopefully the batteries will last the life of the vehicle and nobody will need to worry about it!