Why would one buy Prime over 1st Gen Volt?

Threads like this are unnecessary but I will play along. First you're comparing a used car to a new car. New cars have warranties. I bought my Prime for about $17,500. What Volt could I get for <$9,000? The Prime has a lot more safety and convenient features the Volt doesn't have. The Volt needs Premium fuel and only gets 37 mpg. The Prime gets 54 mpg.

 

We like the design and we like Japanese cars. ( we also got a loyalty discount)

 

Outward visibility of Gen 1 Volt is a problem. Prime wins by a lot on forward and side visibility, about same for rearward. This is my experience from having leased a Gen 1 Volt for 36 months and recently test driven a Prime.

 

Find a busy Volt forum like gm-volt.com and do some reading.
The first few years the Volt had a pretty dismal reliability record, I think, based on posts from owners.

 

Prime is roomier than Volt by about 10-ft3.
But it all depends why you are asking? Keep the PiP.
Are you living in Ca. trying to get HOV stickers?
It all depends what you're personal requirements are.
Sounds like you want a used Volt.

 

better gas mileage
longer range
and a used volt means used battery, etc. if you buy a prime in nj or other café state you get a nice factory incentive ($5k for NJ plus another 4500 federal giveaway) that means it's 9500 off the sticker price (unless you don't pay tax's). that's a big chunk. it means a plus is about $17K for a brand new car with radar cruise, nav, etc. as well as 54MPG gas and 25 miles of electric. How can you pass that up for $17K (not including tax)

 

i would say most of the prime buyers weren't even looking at used cars.

 

4 years with my Gen I Volt and 0 issues.

 

I really wanted to get a Bolt but miserable experiences with GM cars in the 90s and early 00s killed it for me. Plus, GM makes all its money selling Silverados and Suburbans and other behemoths. The Volt/Bolt is just greenwashing. Sure enough Toyota sells Tacomas, etc but they are not shy about trying to be a little more environmentally friendly.

And, my 02 Prius lasted 16 years, with about $2 K of maintenance, not counting oil changes and tires. I'd go through that in a year in my Pontiac Grand Am

 

Why:

	Requirement	type	weight	Used Volt	New Prime
1	dynamic cruise control and automatic braking	mandatory	not negotiable​	No	Yes
2	gas efficiency	optional	40%	2.7 gal/100 mi premium	1.9 gal/100 mi regular
3	EV efficiency	optional	30%	35 kWh/100 mi	25 kWh/100 mi
4	range	optional	15%	380 mi	640 mi
5	tax credit	optional	10%	No	Yes
6	PriusChat content	optional	5%	trollish	beloved

Bob Wilson

 

"Unnecessary" ????? Why, exactly ??

Just because YOU don't find the information interesting or useful doesn't mean that nobody does.

 

If you really care, visit the forum.
I don't remember specifics......just a LOT of complaints.

 

The decisions of both companies is driven by profit with differences stemming from home country. The Prius started in a Japanese government program to reduce the emissions from cars, and efficiency has always been important to the resource poor country. That pursuit of efficiency and reduced emissions in Japanese cities doesn't always coincide with environmental friendliness. Toyota is using Australian coal as a source of hydrogen for their FCEVs in Japan for instance.

In terms of fuel economy for US market cars, Chevy is competitive with Toyota, and the odds are they beat them in trucks. Toyota's most efficient non-hybrid, is actually a Mazda. The V6 4wd Tacoma is 2mpg better on the city test than the larger Silverado 4wd with V8. The Colorado does much better. The least efficient truck with an EPA economy rating is the Tundra.
Fuel Economy
Fuel Economy

Go digging in any car forum, and you'll find complaints.

Volt owners gave the car high marks in surveys like Consumer Reports does.

 

The question was about Gen 1 Volts.....which goes back a fairly long time.

IIRC, a lot of those "first adopters" had repeated problems........but loved the car DESPITE the repeated warranty visits.

But then my memory might be off a bit too.

 

Looks like maybe a troll...
....but from the profile I deduced it could have possibly been a Ca. person with PiP with out-dated HOV stickers, urgently trying to get a new HOV sticker, which if Gen1 Volt, needs to make sure it is on the approved list as certain of the Gen1 Volts were not compliant at first.

So I threw the OP a lifeline....

 

My post about 'trollish' was just in fun. I'm always OK to share a requirements analysis.

Bob Wilson

 

And here I was going to support the OP by pointing out that buying a used 1973 Ford Pinto would also certainly cost a lot less than the Prime (and it goes boom, too!)

 

I saw one with collector's plates, so maybe not. No idea since I'm not in the market.

There are very few cases financially in which buying new is better than buying used.