Looking back at my first thousand miles

Well about 1100 miles have passed since these were taken, and was just going through my camera and found them. Lots has gone on since then with driving to Virginia and all.. Only managed to make it to 1494 miles with only burning 0.2 gallons of gas before having to go on my 638 mile journey.


Trip A which I reset after every gas burning journey to see how long I can go between burning fuel.


Trip B which is the lifetime average of the car. Which I find a bit misleading since the mpg only factors in gas usage. Either way currently at 123mpg and 31kwh/100mi for my economy.

 

With the lease deal you MUST remember that you are paying fee's, registration, and for any extra optional equipment up front. So seeing as I have not seen a Volt with a backup camera that is at least another $700 you can take on to the lease fee. Even my base Volt with no other options has the backup camera installed.. Plus you also must pay the first months payment on top of those fee's.. So realistically for a BASE model Volt you are looking at a minimum of $3080 down to get the $350 a month lease deal...

The problem with this being is my father in law just went to Vaden Chevrolet of Beaufort to be put on the list, and even they told him thy have 4 Volt's coming in. ALL of them are fully loaded. So it will be very hard to find a base Volt like mine according to their sales manager unless you specifically go to the dealer and order the car that way. I just happened to luck out and be in the right place at the right time to get mine. I really do not feel the Premium Volt's are worth the added $6000 on the price.. I think the heated seats suck, the navigation definately sucks (you get navigation through On Star included in the base Volt anyway), and the Bose stereo sucks compared to the one I have.. Not to mention the navigation menu's are confusing to me as they are different than in the base model. Granted that is all my opinion, and there are a lot of people that are happy with their Premium Volt's... I just think you get more bang for your buck out of the base model. The only thing I do like about the Premium Volt's is they come with the dark center console opposed to my white one. The white one hase grown on me though over the last couple months and now it does not bother me as much.

 

My father in law has the Cruze, and it is definaely a bigger car, and just as nice for the amount of money you spend vs the Volt.. He has the turbo 1.4L though, and averages between 30-32mpg on a tank of gas in town, and about 38mpg on the highway.

The blackout areas on the exterior of the vehicle are one thing I do not like. Which is why I got the car in black seeing as that looks right to me in that color.. The other colors are starting to grow on me with it, but I have just never had a car with something like that on it before. GM says they did that to make the car appear bigger...

The side mirros are no fixed, they do fold in. So you do not need to worry about that. They are however as you point out plastic, but I do not notice any ill effects from this. They tried to save weight wherever they can, and there are area's where this shows more than others. Maybe my expectations are lower than others in this department, but I try to factor in the overall cost of car+battery pack when evaluating the overall package.

With 2100 miles on the clock now in my Volt I must say I am happier with it with every passing day. It does start to develope though the minor interior noises like with the Prius that occassionally get on my nerves. Only when driving over rough pavement though. Also the fact that when the gasoline engine is running it makes a vibration through the brake pedal and steering wheel. While subtle it is somewhat annoying. People next to the car at stop lights (particularly Prius drivers) will stare as the car is revving unnaturally high for a stopped vehicle. Sometimes the motor will shut off at lights though, and sometimes it doesn't. That is one area I still have not figured out as there are only about 4 times I have ever needed the engine in 3 months.

 

Our insurance on the Volt is actually cheaper than the insurance on the Prius. Not by much, but in the cost chart it is 55% premium Prius and 45% Volt. The truck which the Volt took the place of was much more expensive to insure than the Volt as it dropped my premium by about $30/mo.

As far as maintenance goes I couldn't tell you as I am now only at 2300 miles... The only "scheduled" maintenance per say is the tire rotation every 7500 miles. The engine oil only gets changed when indicated by the life monitor (at 2300 miles I still have 96% life left) OR every 2 years whichever comes first.. Pretty much if you take and double the service schedule of the Prius you have the Volts for the rest of it. It says to change the air filter at the first oil change after 24,000mi and stuff like that. It goes all the way out to 150,000mi where it says to inspect/change the engine belt. No mention of transmission fluid changes or anything (but we see how this went with the Prius), so I myself am debating whether I want to change the transaxle fluid at 20,000mi like I am going to do with my Prius thanks to information from the other members on here... I certaintly do not want to see a major component like that fail. There has been a few (enough I think to call a trend) transaxle failures in the Volt isolated so far to the 2011MY. They have all been replaced under warranty, but they failed suddenly with little warning in most cases... So I am being mindful of things, and if I see the MIL come on I am pulling over and turning it off immediately to prevent further damage... So far though nothing has shaken my confidence in the car though. Until (if) it leaves me stranded on the side of the road then maybe I will rethink that. My owning experience has been very positive so far.