Coach's test drive of the Volt

maybe your wife will let you buy it, you should have brought her along.

 

Well glad you liked the ride/quality. But yes the back seat leg room is a tad small if the driver in front is tall. The price depends on how well you shop and what credits you get. Its prices expecting people to get the 7500 fed + maybe some state credits. My 43 list was 30net.

My wife was not as excited when I got mine. But now its what she takes most trips when I'm not using it.

 

The navigation with map display is an option in 2012 but was standard in 2011. If you don't get that option there is still an OnStar "turn-by-turn" navigation that is integrated into the driver display screen and that also has a voice prompt. OnStar hardware comes standard with every Volt and is "free" for the first 3 years (was 5 years with 2011) and then is an optional annual subscription after that. I have the full navigation in my 2011 Volt but I've heard the standard 2012 OnStar version is very usable even though it doesn't show a map on the center screen.

One thing that is cool and very useful with both full GPS navigation and the OnStar "turn-by-turn" version is that you can lookup and send destinations to the car via OnStar using either MapQuest or Google maps on a Mac or PC or using the Volt OnStar smartphone app. You can do this before getting in the car or while driving (when a passenger can send a destination). You can also use OnStar to talk to a real OnStar operator who can lookup a destination for you and send it to your car.

 

I agree it's too expensive to sell in big numbers. If it were priced the same as the low end PIP, I would probably have one as it fits my driving needs to a "T". It drives very well and has real world usable torque.

 

Price difference with rebate (if that works for you) are not that big. And with the non HOVs sitting on lots in Cali. they are selling at steep discounts. People are getting 5K or more off of MSRP. You could ask your local dealer, I've read on gm-volt.com about at least one person getting their local dealer to match the Cali price. You can find real dealer $$ on gm-volt.com

 

Four and a half years ago, when I bought my Xebra, I'd have bought the Volt, had it been available. At that time it would have been the only freeway-capable partly-EV available new, other than the one-seat Corbin Sparrow, which only had a 20-mile range. And at that time I thought the REEV concept was a good one. With their experience and existing engineering from the EV1, GM could have built the Volt back then. But of course they didn't want to sell an EV, and only came around to it when they saw Tesla beating them to the punch, and then Nissan. And now, IMO, there are better choices.

As I've posted elsewhere, I thought the Volt was a nice ride, but neither as comfortable, nor as fun as the Leaf. And I don't trust its reliability with such a complex mechanism. Both the Leaf and the Prius look like more reliable designs to me.

 

GM announced the concept Volt in early 2007 and committed to produce it around the summer of 2007. At least by 2008, Lutz was stating in public that the Volt would roll off the assembly line in November 2011. Nissan did not announce the LEAF until August of 2009. I have never seen any evidence that GM felt any pressure from Nissan when deciding whether or when to produce the Volt.

I wrote up a more precise timeline on this topic before but Google can't find it right now.

 

One thing cited in the greenlighting of the volt was the tesla roadster. There is no way the leaf was involved in the decision. The leaf seems to have sprung also from the roadster, as well as marketing learned, or thought learned, from the ev1, prius, and insight. The karma was sprung from the tesla S.

 

meet

That's the first I've ever heard that particular Volt history... and I was blogging about it then daily in addition to pariticipating in online disucssions heavily.

All along, the targeted rollout date was late 2010. Nothing budged it either, despite certain milestones & goals not being met... or plans from aany other automaker.

Not that the history really matters, since we all know what is needed now... SALES.
.

 

Jeff, is this it?
http://priuschat.com/forums/chevrolet-volt/100824-gm-offers-buy-back-volt-2.html#post1428882

 

Brain fart. Yes, I obviously meant Nov. 2010 since I picked up my own Volt in Dec. 2010 and mentioned 2010 in the old thread that Scott dredged up. In other words, there is zero evidence that the Nissan LEAF influenced GM in the productization schedule of the Volt.

 

Yes! Thanks!!!

 

One owner. You can find one person to say anything.