I just bought a Chevy Volt
 

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Yes, I bought a Chevy Volt and the EV haters can all suck it. This car makes huge sense for me.

I’ve been wanting a sedan ever since I got rid of the despised BMW in 2011. I’m tired of climbing up into pickups or folding myself into a sports car every time I want to run to the grocery and it would be nice to be able to drive if a client visits and I need to take him to dinner or something. I actually had to rent a car for this once. I’ve also been intrigued by electric vehicles.

In the past year over 90% of my non-work travel has been within 20 miles of home. My office is 8.9 miles round trip, the supermarket 12.3, Lowes/Home Depot are 24 miles. Between us my wife and I spent just over $1800 on gas last year without going more than 20 miles from home.

With 2016 Volts coming out soon and gas at relatively low prices dealers are selling some of their stock at fire sale prices. I got a top of the line demo with 2800 miles on it for $27355. The MSRP sticker said $37985. After the $7500 tax credit it will cost me $19,855 - $18000 off sticker for an essentially new car.

It’s got plenty of leg room and heated leather seats, which were my major requirements. It also came with a bunch of gimcracks and dodads that I don’t really give a crap about (navigation, backup camera, some fancy entertainment system – it’s a rolling video arcade) but so far are kind of amusing.

I can plug it in at work and get my annual fuel bill down to less than $100.

Inside, this is a NICE car.

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Nice.

If it makes sense for your driving needs.

Good for you bro. Congrats it's a nice ride! But no I won't suck it.

Smart decision Patrick....CONGRATS!

If it works for you, great. Let us know how it works out long term.

some day I may get an electric car,

when I retire and I don't have to drive 1100 miles a week just going to work

I hope my jetta TDI will last a few more years to when I can retire and get out of this rat race

I expect maintenance costs will be a lot less for electric cars

My work has a couple as pool cars so I drive them often. Once they come down in price, I'll probably buy a used once since I'm the perfect target demo, similar to you. ~20 mile trip to work, plus I have free charging stations at work.

Keep us posted on long term behavior of the car. Looks nice.

Of all the EV options out there I would go with the Volt as well. Price was always the tipping point - sounds like you got in at much more reasonable level. My driving habits are near identical to yours and there are free charging stations at my workplace. Hummm...

That's what kept me away too. The 2016s are upgraded (different interiors and slightly better battery management) and are coming out soon, plus gas isn't $4 a gallon. Dealers and GM are wanting to get rid of current stock. There are still new 2014s out there and a lot of 2015s. Prices may drop, but you have to keep an eye out. GM had some great incentives in May that I missed out on. July may bring more rebates and discounts.

I started keeping records of where we went and what we drove when I first contemplated an EV a year ago, so I'll have something to compare the real world performance of the Volt to. I'll keep you posted.

That's Nice! CONGRATS!

Although I don't see myself EVER owning an electric or hybrid, the Volt is the only one that makes any sense.

Your Volt is like a locomotive - electric drive with liquid fuel only to provide juice. Those toyota and honda products don't make any sense.

Nice car. My next car could be an EV with range extender, too. It is a rare day that we drive more than 30 miles.

I love the Volt. I've considered one for my commute. Nice purchase!

This x1000.

I've been driving a Camry Hybrid for 7 years, almost 100K on the clock. ZERO issues. I get 36 MPG in Los Angeles. My only beef with a total electric is that I can't justify a car that I can't drive without a recharge overnight to say SF or LV. A Tesla, while nice, is out of my price range, with or without the tax rebate.

I came to the same conclusion. My brother has had a Prius for 4 years and I just wasn't impressed.
You do have to put a little effort into energy management with a Volt. Use battery power in town when the gas engine is inefficient and use the gas engine once you are on the highway. Because I was traveling on the highway all day I used the gas engine and got 350+ miles out of a 8.8 gallons of gas. Under those conditions it's just an unusually large and well appointed economy car. But when I get home I may go a month without using any gas at all.

I have been very impressed with Chevy cars recently, especially the interiors. I now rent Chevy Cruz's anytime I rent. The prius feels like a cheap cruddy car, the volt feels like something substantial.

Congrats, I thought about it myself my currently, my commute prohibits it. I am very curious how it goes. Keep us updated.

Whats the towing capacity? :)

One of our Actors has a Volt, he lives near the Studio in Burbank. I asked him about mileage and he told me he had 16,000 miles on the car and had actually used only 3.xx gallons of gas. Of course he gets to recharge it for free at the studio.

My wife loves loves loves her Fiat 500e. It is a really fun car to drive, and gets about 85 miles on a charge which is just long enough for her to do her longest commute. My son loves loves loves his Cmax plug-in, though he wishes he had more than 20 miles electrics range (Volt would be better, but CMax hauls more stuff). Truth be told for right now that actually is enough for him. Typical driving combined he's around 85-90mpg.

I need longer range for gigs and whatnot. If the Chevy Bolt ends upping what they say it will be (200+ mile range and around $30K), I might end up in one of those in a few years.

Welcome to the club. Have had mine for just under three years, averaging 96 mpg since new, routinely go over 1k miles in between 30 dollar fill ups. I'm not allowed to charge at work, or else, i'd still be on dealer gas. Anyone who buys a Prius over a Volt is insane.....
Todge

That is a smoking deal. At $20K, your electric "fuel" cost savings will lead to real lifetime savings.

There are a couple of Teslas in my neighborhood. I've wondered about their range in Houston, where Air Conditioning is essential.

With the price of god lithium batteries so low, I've considered buying a 914 shell and converting it to electric. Maybe next year...

Congrats, sounds like you did great on the purchase price and it makes total sense for you. One of our managers at my prior job had one and loved it. For the right circumstances it makes for a good transportation appliance.

We have several Opel Amperas (= Chevy Volt) as company cars.
Not impressed by Opels in general, and I think the difference to Chevy is not major.
But I too would love an EV, so maybe I have to re-think soon.

The German government wants to see 1 million EVs on the Autobahn by 2020. So far there are 25,000. No way they will reach that target with todays prices on the cars.
Our Norwegian neighbours had a rush for EVs for some years now, because it is very cheap to "reload" them (I think there are free stations in some cities), you have free parking and you are allowed to use some special lanes in the cities, like buslanes and so on. This resulted in a chaos because the public transportation was stuck in traffic jams caused by too many EVs.
I think Tesla lead the stats on sold cars for some time in Norway?!

Congrats! That is indeed a great price. I've had mine for almost 2 years and I'm still impressed with it. I have a 32-mile r/t commute with no charging options at work and I *rarely* run out of all-electric range before getting home. Typically only when I have to run after-work errands that take me above 40 miles for the day. Even then I might use only 1 or 2 tenths of a gallon. We're averaging 79 MPG over the last 23 months. A little lower than the average Volt driver, but that's because the Volt has become our primary road trip car over the Honda Element or M3. We make a 520 mile (r/t) trip about every 4-6 weeks to check on my 80 y.o. mother. 38 MPG at 75 MPH means we use about 55% of the gas that either of the other cars would.

Check out Volt Stats: Details for Volt #2013-35182 (Shoe's Volt) for a detailed look at my particular car.

Toyota seems to have lost its way with the Prius, being very conservative/timid in design and spec. The plug in Prius should have had 40 or 50 miles electric range, not <20. They have lost their technology leadership in a segment that they pioneered. Disappointing, but maybe the 2016 Prius will be better.

That said, the Prius outsells every other hybrid by a large margin so maybe Toyota knows what it's doing.

I hope all U guys go electrolux......more gasoline for me.

I was ready to make the jump to electric as soon as we started shopping for our next car... however we only have one charging station at work and three people now driving electrics. :(

You will enjoy it on the 'dark side' wd15

I have had my Volt (Sparkers) for just a little over a year - and it is the best commuter car I have ever owned. Perfect!

Like you, I got a screaming deal on my '13 - it was a 'promotional car' (I believe used at a golf tournament) and had 153 miles on it - I got it for $27k and with the rebates (fed - $7500 and state - $4500) the car ended up costing me $15k.

My commute is 42.7 miles round trip (see below) - and I get to charge at work (in the photo you can see the charger in the background). So, I hardly ever charge at home, just once on the weekends. My fuel costs are nothing... even in the winter it did great - but it does cycle the engine if it gets too cold - so my mileage isn't as good as some hypermilers... they are getting over 500 mpg.

It has been a very solid car the first year - the only thing, the back seats are a bit tight in the leg room category, and it is so quiet, sometimes you have to peep the 'people horn' because people will just stand around too close the car when you want to get going.

I even took it on a couple of trips last year. I went to OK City and the hotel I stayed at was so cool about the car - they found me a place to plug it in and everything.

So, even with a couple of long trips under it's belt... 211mpg - read it and weep boys.... ;)
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Spend it how U like .....FP, sounds like you gotta deal but for the 15 grand I can buy a lotta gasoline.

But I got a pretty good car for $15k fgeezer - I needed a new commuter (I get a new commuter about every 10-11 years, my last one was a 2003 Misubishi based Sebring coupe). My other choices in the 15k range weren't really as nice as the Volt in general (as wd15 stated - they have a pretty nice interior - heated leather seats - and they have back-up cameras, nav, lots of great options), it drives nice, accelerates like crazy... Over time, it really will pay for itself I think.

But, enjoy your time at the gas pump. Another weird thing about having an electric car - I usually am clueless on the price of gas. I had to fill the pcar the other day - wow - $55 to fill it up, gas went down since last I filled it up, last fall.

The reality is that this car makes good sense for some people. Some people have a hard time admitting that their driving needs are different from others.

I commute too far, my winter is too cold, and I can't charge my car at work. But for a certain segment the Volt makes perfect sense now.

I agree - if you had a really long commute it might not be as efficient (although you would always get about 40 miles on electricity before it switches over to the engine, and then you get about 35-40 mpg). And it doesn't do as well in the winter - I did notice that, it uses the engine some when it gets below 30 - I think partially to heat the batteries, so I found I filled up about once every 2 months in the winter, and I would have to plug it in at home for about 1/2 hour each day to make up for the loss in battery power on really cold days.

But, it is nice to have it as a choice now...

So.......FP, You can charge your car at work? Who pays the electric bill, your employer ?

You're welcome (I helped pay for your car). We all did.

Haters gonna hate. Whatever.


'Below 30' is not winter, that's fall. :)

Ditto. BTW, where does all this "free" electricity people use to charge these cars come from?

You're helping pay for the electricity too. Not to mention building roads for me with fuel tax money.
Don't blame me, I didn't create the system.