Soo...is it totaled?

Glad your ok and sorry about the car. The horns in the UK or Europe would not be aloud even bull bars on four wheel drives are being banned on safety grounds. No fixed objects mascots etc are aloud to cut the risk of injury to pedestrians and cyclists.

 

That sounds like me. I do about 50-60 miles a day. all electric now. I used the gallon when I had to go drive to another town and there were not any charge stations.

 

Do you have a place to plug in at home? Are there any charging stations near your work or will they let you plug in at work?

Chances are you could get by easily on electric, and use gas just occasionally. Here is a neat tool to see what you could expect for EV range with various vehicles. put in your start and stop address.

jurassictest.ch/GR/

The Volt is listed on the site as an Ampera (european version)

 

Use www.plugshare.com to find the charging stations and find out how much they cost if they are not free.

When you are going to be leaving the Volt for an extended period, try to leave it plugged in to a regular outlet. You can use your smartphone to check in on it, do a remote start, check tire pressure, etc.

A few people, very few, with Volts never plug them in. Not sure why, but they seem to be fine with the 40+mpg hybrid mode. Not as good as a Prius in this mode, but not terribly bad either.

For long trips, 200-300 miles, you will start with a full charge and then use gasoline like a Prius hybrid, only about 300 miles though before you will need to add gasoline. A Prius can go about 500 miles between fillups. For these longer trips, over 120 miles, the Prius would use a little less gasoline.

I will probably fill up sometime in January.

When you are using mainly the EV mode, you get to avoid a bunch of the regular maintenance things like adding gasoline and oil changes. You will still want to rotate tires on a regular basis and get it washed.

Go drive one, make sure you like the ride and the space for your tack. I think you will but a test drive will answer those questions better than I could. I was hauling a mountain bike in the back of mine until I got a bicycle rack installed.

 

Some insurance company is paying for a rental. Things have changed since 2006. Dealers have inventory. Tonight Holman Toyota is showing 19 PiP, 34 liftbacks, 5 c, & 9 v. You may have to search for your package & color but if you just want "a car" you should be able to find one tomorrow.

 

No plug in here, but have been seriously considering them. FWIW, I think that is the way to go today. Five or ten years down the road the true EV's should be on the road as they are testing them now in limited locations throughout the world. Any way we can reduce our dependance on fossil fuel is a plus for all of us in more than one way.

Ron

 

Sorry Speedy about the accident, glad you are OK.
My wife totalled a Chevy Vega years ago on NJ Rt 130 a guy pulled in front of her from a stop sign.
When we moved from NJ we had 3 law suits hanging over us, 2 from car accidents, one of which we were not at fault, the other was minor tap on fender and kid's parents sued, very litigious state. In any case, you would be justified here. Check out El Dobro's deal on a new PiP in NJ $27600 after Toyota incentives. Lease good too.

 

Speedy, I chose the PiP because of long distance driving. If you do use the vehicle for long distance, then the Volt is not a good solution as it only gets 30mpg once it kicks over the gas. The PiP will get you about 60 mpg if you are a decent hyper miler. That said, I wish I had a bigger pack than a 4.4 kWh, so I could drive up to West LA on the freeways and back with no gas used.

 

Please don't mislead. People that drive the Volt longer distances are getting about 45mpg once it kicks over to gas. People who drive the PiP are getting about 55 mpg once it kicks over to gas.

There definitely is an advantage to the PiP on longer trips, but lets understand where that advantage kicks in.

PiP - 13 miles EV, 3 gallons of gasoline ( 165 miles) : 178 miles
Volt - 40 miles EV, 3 gallons of gasoline ( 135 miles) : 175 miles



Your not the only one that wishes the PiP had a larger battery...

www.greencarreports.com/news/1079832_2012-toyota-prius-plug-in-hybrid-is-it-an-electric-car-or-not

 

Time's a-wasting. Why wait for the insurance company? Start web surfing inventory.

 

Nov 5 is your deadline for the good PiP deals from Toyota.
In addition you would qualify for the $2500 Federal tax credit on Plug-Ins.
No New Jersey incentives, but Toyota giving best deals in NJ/NY I guess to compensate.

 

Keep in mind that the Federal Tax credit is different for different Plug-Ins. For the Volt and Leaf it is a $7500 tax credit.

 

Yes of course I am PiP-focussed in my comments here.
Due to Toyota incentives right now to Nov 5, there is a window of opportunity for $27.5k PiPs @ 0% (before taxes and credits). I assumed the OP may be interested in a PiP.