Chevy "Volt Unplugged" Tour (test drives) - October thru November 2010

Apparently, they're offering test drives starting in Seattle on October 9 and 10. Yay! I didn't know about this until a friend emailed me as I've been really slammed.

"Volt Unplugged" pits six Chevy Volts against the wide expanse of America — Autoblog Green

Click on the button at the bottom of Volt Unplugged | Content or go to https://www.teamchevytestdrive.com/register.aspx.

 

Beats me. I signed up for Seattle and got confirmation but we don't even know where it's being held, yet.

I'd imagine that like many driving events I've been to in the past (GM, Lexus, Mazda and Mercedes), it'll be at some very large rented out parking lot w/cones set up to mark the course/route. The couple events I've been to that were out on the open road didn't involve any highway driving.

 

I got my confirmation email yesterday. They assigned me to a specific time slot on Sunday at Best Buy in Lynnwood. There is a highway nearby, but I doubt we'll be able to go on it.

When we signed up, we didn't even know the venue, city, logistics (first come first served or time slot), which day we'd get, etc. On 10/4, they quietly added the venues and hours to the left side of http://www.chevroletvoltage.com/index.php/Content/volt-unplugged.html but they didn't notify us.

 

positive impressions at Volt test drive

Independent of the poor CS mileage news that came out today, I overall came out of the Volt drive event w/a much more positive impression than going in. (Keep in mind, I'm not a Volt fan.)

My event was held at a Best Buy in Lynnwood, WA and out on the open road but w/no highway. I drove once and rode along twice (time was running out) and when I drove, my friend was riding along and asking lots of questions to the GM rep. I also had to focus on just driving.

They had 4 Volts on hand, all being driven. The one I drove and the ones I rode in were low on battery and pretty much in CS mode, most of the time. The displays were pretty neat. The capacitive touch controls were cool too. The smoothness of the drivetrain was impressive.

The ICE turning on/off was not very perceptible and the ICE was very quiet. At one point, I floored it and the ICE never got loud or buzzy. From one stop, I floored it and spun the tires a bit causing the traction control to kick in a bit. (I saw a yellow indicator blink briefly.)

I was under the impression that the ICE could be roaring (might still be, going up a steep long grade w/a dead battery) but it never was for me. Acceleration and power was pretty good. Handling was fine although the steering was pretty light and didn't have a lot of feel (not unlike that of a Prius). I didn't know about the sport mode when I was driving (GM rep didn't tell me) but another driver was told about it when I rode along.

Although the 4 seat config and tunnel is limiting, it seemed like the cargo versatility wasn't bad given the back seats could fold down. From touching the interior surfaces, I agree w/Popular Mechanics that some of it feels a bit low-rent for a $41K car.

If the test drives are coming to your city, I strongly recommend going, even if you're a naysayer or anti-Volt. It might sway you, a little.

I met a # of people w/all different backgrounds. One guy was a Zap Xebra owner, another was a former Prius owner and there was a 07 Prius owner who seemed upset by the HID headlight situation (replacement costs, labor, etc.) even though his HIDs have never gone out. (I mentioned my 06 had more mileage than his and the HIDs are still fine, Lucsious Garage video, etc. and told him about the ~$1200/pair, previously often stolen in NY and NJ 02-03 Nissan Maxima HIDs. I used to an 02 Max and would see reports of this happening often in maxima.org amonst NY and NJ owners, WAY before the press got wind of this.)

Link to some photos I took: http://picasaweb.google.com/1056841...?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHfgvjkguWfQA&feat=directlink

 

It was great. No, unfortunately, I was too busy driving and then in the back for the other 2 rides (and couldn't see the IP much).

I didn't think it'd be great anyway since the cars were in CS mode and the drives were city. Also, the cars were intentionally powered off at the end of each drive. I'm guessing it was so people could experience foot on brake + push power button to start. Fortunately, at least 2/3 of the route had no traffic.

I wish I had more time to talk to some of the other folks, including GM people. I also spotted a Tahoe Hybrid in the parking lot. Judging by the gear on the ground around it + California plates, I think it was used to haul the crew + their tent and supplies.

The GM folks had Flip cameras on hand to ask our opinions. IIRC, they have plans to compile and post some of the best clips on their site.

 

no automatic pedestrian noisemaker and side note

Forgot to mention: There was no automatic pedestrian noisemaker of any sort on the units we drove. Someone asked a GM rep about that and I mentioned the Leaf's noisemaker (and showed the noisemaker videos efusco posted to some folks in line earlier). The GM rep said that there's some work they've done on that but I don't think he said whether it'd have it one way or the other.

Instead, you can pull back the turn signal stalk to emit a series of brief, light barks of the horn which is less obnoxious than pushing on the horn.

Side note:
One of the drivers (where I rode along) mentioned she drives a 74 Mustang, which is obviously a huge contrast in technology. The GM rep briefly described regenerative braking to recharge the battery. She was very impressed by that and said something like "someone had put a lot of thought into this".

I didn't interject about hybrids and many EVs having done this for a long time (including the EV1) but it goes to show how far the American public has to go in terms of education on hybrids and EVs.

 

much more detailed report

One of my friends from college (also a former roommate and we worked at the same company, for many years) posted a lot more details about the Lynnwood, WA Volt drive than anyone else here. I didn't know he was a huge Volt enthusiast until I spoke to him at the event.

See Volt Unplugged 10/10 report.

He's had a Gen III Prius as a rental, driven my Gen II Prius before (w/o my presence) and I forgot he had a Gen II rental before. He's generally more into handling than straight line performance (his RX-8 is great for the former, not so much for the latter) and hasn't been a huge hybrid enthusiast other than for the technology.

From what I gather, he seems more interested in being able to have an alternative to fossil fuels to run his car, potentially from a clean, renewable source, hence his interest in the Volt and potentially, the PHV Prius and Leaf. Those are game changers, in his book.

 

Side note: I didn't realize that my friend had plotted out the test drive route. For the Lynnwood, WA event, it was 4.5 miles and he plotted it out at Volt Unplugged drive - Lynwood, WA - Google Maps.

There was definitely WAY more time behind the wheel than we got at the Leaf event up here.