I participated quite a bit here before the Volt launched, but slacked off after all was known. Today I bought a black 2012 Volt (7905). Most of my first 800 miles will be using gas as I'm going to do some long-distance driving over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but then I will go into my normal routine which should use no gas most days...that will be cool.

Congrats, I just got mine today too.

Congrats on the new car. It will be interesting to see how, over time, your respond to the change. I know you've expressed a preference for a smaller battery and a reduced EV range for a lesser price. After a few weeks I wanted more range for a higher price! LOL I'm betting that those beautiful serene quiet EV miles will leave you wanting more, but you may go an entirely different direction.

The fun is always in the adventure.

I participated quite a bit here before the Volt launched, but slacked off after all was known. Today I bought a black 2012 Volt (7905). Most of my first 800 miles will be using gas as I'm going to do some long-distance driving over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but then I will go into my normal routine which should use no gas most days...that will be cool.

Congrats PDT. Great to hear another longtimer get their Volt. What interior and options did you get?

Congratulations..... have fun!

DonC, I'm pretty excited to see how reality compares with my imagination. I will share my impressions over time on this thread if anyone is interested. I fully expect that some of my preconceptions will be wrong. I'm curious which ones will be wrong.

Koz, I didn't get any options. As DonC had mentioned, I'm what some might generously call "frugal". :) If I could have paid less for even fewer frills I would have, as long as it was still an EREV with at least 20 miles range.

So far, I really like the color, I think it's a very good-looking car. I know black is not the greatest color for maintaining its beauty. I mainly got black because it was available (on the lot) and I got what I think is a good deal on it in this calendar year so I can get the rebate relatively quickly. On the drive home, the engine came on and I didn't hear it until after I had stopped then accelerated to get on the highway going 70 MPH. I could really hear it and feel some engine vibration then. OnStar is pretty cool. I like the app and I think I will really like remote start.

I have only had it for 10 hours and I've been asleep for 5.5 of those, but so far I'm happy. In some ways, I feel like I've already had it for ages after having thought so much about it for most of 4 years.

Congrats and Good Luck with your new Volt.

Good to hear about the purchase. Recommendation is to put it up on www.voltstats.net and be part of a public view of Volt numbers.

Congrats and don't worry too much about having to do mostly gas miles at first, you will like the gas mileage the Volt gets in (actually hybrid) mode. I'm usually around 42+mpg if I don't horse it too much and yes you want to use premium hi-test fuel.

Enjoy!! (I know u will)

Congrats, I just got mine too.

Until I get my 240V charger, i'll be using a little more gas too.

But so far I've gone about 73-75 miles per day, and only a few (3-15) on gas.

Congratulations on your new Volt pdt! Enjoy and have fun!

Congratulations! You picked the right colour (mine is black too)! A very interesting psychological journey will develop as you rack up the mileage on the volt, vibration and engine noise free for the most part of course. You will ultimately look at ICE cars and their drivers and shake your head and feel an odd kind of pity for them. I realize this sounds presumptuous and slightly arrogant, but most Volt drivers probably know what I mean.

Enjoy. And try not to smile foolishly for months as I have...I haven't stopped yet.

Get the On Star remote link app if you can; it's great. Spring for the 240V charger if you can; it's really useful.

Figaro

Congrats to all of you! We can add our Volts to our Thanksgiving blessings! :D

I drove to work on the freeway in traffic behind a huge pickup with twin exhaust pipes behind the cab that stick straight upward with a slight curve back toward the bed of the truck (straight at the car behind it). Every time he accelerated it was a ridiculously enormous black cloud of yuck coming back at me. All I could think was thank goodness that Volts don't create ugly black smoke like that!

Enjoy!!

I also picked my Volt from the dealer last night. I had an interesting experience this morning when I started the car. The dashboard indicator displayed that the tire pressure in one of my rear tires was only 16 psi. I drove it back the dealer. The service department found that a small screw had punctured the tire. They plugged the hole as a temporary fix and ordered a new tire, which they will install at no cost on Monday. Overall, not a great way to start with my new Volt, but the dealer treated me very well to quickly take care of the problem.

Congrats pdt - glad you ended up with what you wanted ...

Good luck! I've spent the last few days getting all of my settings customized and figuring everything out.

Good on ya mate. Enjoy!

Our Volt had its first full charge last night and I volunteered to go pick up a pie for Thanksgiving from the bakery this morning. I got to try out the remote start feature which is great and also eNav. Our round trip was 14.4 miles using 3.5 kWh of electricity. I'm starting to feel the "I really don't want to ever use gas unless I absolutely can't avoid it" bug coming on. Thoughts of a 220V charging setup are creeping into my mind. I'm also going to lobby hard for charging at work.

On my third day with this car, I really think this is a great piece of engineering. Kudos to the people who engineered and built it. That must have been fun and satisfying.

I'm really glad I decided to get this car now. I took two friends at work out in it the day after I bought it. I hope to try to spread the word.

Also, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I wish there were a "geek mode" that would give more details of the operation of the drive system. I'd really like to know when those clutches are being operated.

Maybe I'm being a little paranoid, but though I find the voltstats website very cool and would like to participate, it concerns me to give out access to my car. It feels like handing the keys to my car to a stranger.

I'm starting to feel the "I really don't want to ever use gas unless I absolutely can't avoid it" bug coming .

Also more commonly known as Gas Anxiety! Hehe my wife has the worst case, she loves not stopping at the gas station.

I wish there were a "geek mode" that would give more details of the operation of the drive system.

At the moment, the only known geek mode is to buy a DashDAQ, with the Volt extension option. It's major geeky though (and not entirely cheap).

I've not seen any specific reason to be overly concerned about voltstat security or intentions, but I understand your feelings there. It's a trade-off between the major cool factor and convenience, and the concern for privacy and security.

Well, we have had the Volt for 5 days now and it already has 902 miles on it. 159 miles in EV mode. A few things that may be of interest. I plugged in at my in-laws and at the home of friends we were visiting. The only issue I had was trying to plug into a very old outdoor outlet on a lamp post by my in-laws' driveway. The charger really didn't like that, blinking red lights. Luckily my in-laws let me have a spot in their garage to plug in inside which worked fine. Since I have had it, about a dozen people have ridden in it and 5 people besides myself have driven it. One friend was already talking about buying one. Everyone I have talked with has learned alot about the car. On the trip I just finished after the battery had been depleted, I filled up with gas after a fairly long descent. After I filled up the car showed 3 miles of EV range and the engine turned on after 2.1 miles. This made me wonder how much power the regenerative braking can handle.

I am also really itching to know more about what is going on in this car while I'm driving. I can't see spending the money for a DashDAQ, but my curiousity is extremely strong. Among other things, I'd like to know what mode it is operating in and what percentage of braking energy is going into the battery and the friction brakes. Also, I think I'm going to want a 220V charger, but they seem overpriced.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with this car.

(edit): I currently hold the dubious honor of lowest % of EV miles on the voltstats.net website. That will change. :)

(edit): I currently hold the dubious honor of lowest % of EV miles on the voltstats.net website. That will change. :)


Been there myself, when I joined voltstats I was at 18%EV.. now I'm up to 65% with lifetime MPG of 107 and its all still climbing. (Expect I'll level out at about 80% EV, given my reoccurring long trips). And the first 900 or so miles were driving my volt home, where it was a pleasure to drive and getting 40-42MPG was way better than my other cars.

And I hope to have a lower-cost Volt geek-tool, Using OBDII with bluetooth connection and an android phone.

Maybe someone with the DashDAQ or some other tool knows the maximum power the regenerative braking can put into the battery. Anyone? Sorry if this is answered somewhere, but a cursory search did not come up with the answer.

Maybe someone with the DashDAQ or some other tool knows the maximum power the regenerative braking can put into the battery.

I haven't really tested to find an answer to that, but the most power I've seen flowing into the battery has been in the 60 kW range (note: the battery doesn't care whether the motors are regen-ing because of 'L' or the brake pedal).

At that charge rate the battery probably isn't charging terribly efficiently, so substantially less energy is actually being stored (the rest going up in heat in the battery/charger/whatnot).

I have a long way to go to climb out of my %EV hole...it may take me several months to get up to the 70% average.

I called the Volt Advisors today about the lack of an option to turn off engine assisted heating when plugged in. Does anyone have this option on their 2012 Volt? It's strange to have something documented in the manual that isn't actually there in the car.

Does anyone here have problems with phone calls through bluetooth? Three times when I've made a call through bluetooth using the bluetooth-voice options, the call is made, but the audio is not passed through in either direction.

I love driving without using gas. So cool. I got 4 m/kWh on my way to work with fan only in daylight and 3.7 m/kWh on my way home with auto-comfort and auto-defog in the dark.

I finally had a chance to drive from fully charged into CS mode. I got just over 31 miles in EV mode on a 45-degree sunny day with climate on ECO mostly on the highway at 65 MPH. After about a 100 mile trip on the highway, I filled up with gas then got about 36 MPG coming home on a clear night, same climate settings.

I was a little surprised about the 36 MPG. I was expecting closer to 40.

Still, I have filled up with gas three times, with about 22% EV miles, still the lowest on voltstats :(, and I have an average of 53 MPG based on odometer and pumped gallons.

I got off the bottom of the %EV list! Went out to dinner last night, ~28 mile round-trip and used no gas!

29 miles of EV range today, needed 29.5. Gas engine ran for the last 0.6 miles and used 0.07 gallons of gas, 8.6 m/g. Bummer.

Also, even with fan only, the climate system would use up to 100% power, I'm assuming for defogging which apparently can't be turned off since trying to change the autodefog setting does nothing.

The whole "gas anxiety" thing is real. I was really frustrated when I had to use gas because I couldn't charge at work, then because I had an electrical issue at home. Hate using gas!

Just went over 30% EV miles, slowly climbing out of the hole...

Climbed to over 40% EV miles lifetime today. I could have substantially reduced my gas usage today if I had the 240V charger...I think I know what my birthday present to myself is going to be.

Climbing fast...

BTW, I avoid the defroster/defogger by having the system off. If on fan, and fan is off, system seems off (no defroster/defogger).
At least that what it seems to me. I've have 4 people in the car and had the windows fog up, so I presumed it was off. Turned on fan and cleared the windows, turned it off again.

Then again being in CO, I might never have so rarely needed it it might seem that way.

Thanks tboult. I noticed that too. It seems strange that the only way to turn off the climate system is to turn the fan speed down to zero. It seems like a climate off button on the center stack or at least on the climate screen on the touch display would have been a good idea.

After a month with the Volt I would say the center stack is the thing I like the least. The bottom of the touch screen is difficult to touch and the layout and function of the buttons on the center stack is not very intuitive. It's not horrible, it just seems it could be better.

I went over 2000 total miles and 1000 EV miles, slowly climbing up the %EV leader-board, getting closer to the average.

I'm not sure if I am imagining it, but when the engine comes on for temperature as the car transitions to CS mode it feels like the response of the car to accelerator position changes. Maybe it is just the unusual sounds coming from the engine that make it seem that way.

It also seems to me that the transition to friction braking is not consistent, sometimes I feel the deceleration changing without a change in brake pedal position. It can be a bit disconcerting at times.

I had another new person in the car last night. There is still so little understanding of how this car works. Still, once she got the idea she talked about wanting one.

I went over 2000 total miles and 1000 EV miles, slowly climbing up the %EV leader-board, getting closer to the average.

I'm not sure if I am imagining it, but when the engine comes on for temperature as the car transitions to CS mode it feels like the response of the car to accelerator position changes. Maybe it is just the unusual sounds coming from the engine that make it seem that way.

It also seems to me that the transition to friction braking is not consistent, sometimes I feel the deceleration changing without a change in brake pedal position. It can be a bit disconcerting at times.

I had another new person in the car last night. There is still so little understanding of how this car works. Still, once she got the idea she talked about wanting one.


I think the friction brake can come on without moving the pedal as the car slows. Regen becomes less effective in producing the requested torque for braking, so if the system is trying to meet a particular braking request level (i.e. pedal position) then it would make up for reducing regen by adding friction.

Made it to 50% EV miles!

I was interviewed this week about the Volt and plug-in vehicles for our the internal website at work. It will be interesting to see how it turns out and what kind of response, if any, it generates.

I tried a trip with fan only HVAC in ~35 degree temperatures on a cloudy morning with no snow or rain. 32.5 mile EV range. I have to admit I was disappointed. The fact that my trip was 32.5 miles +100 feet was also a bummer since the engine turned on for the last 30 seconds of my 45-minute trip.

I got ~4.4m/kWh today. That's a personal best. Warm weather is good.

Great to hear about your experience's w/ your new Volt
Wish I could say the same as spouse will not give up Prius.
Guess I will have to buy one for myself (if I can get unburied from other toys like Quads, trailers and motorcycles!!)

Great to hear about your experience's w/ your new Volt
Wish I could say the same as spouse will not give up Prius.
Guess I will have to buy one for myself (if I can get unburied from other toys like Quads, trailers and motorcycles!!)

George, you are clearly on a path to talk yourself into buying a Volt. You may as well give in now and enjoy it longer or at least until you end up stuck with your wife's Prius :)

George,

My wife drove the Volt on a long trip and loved it. Has your wife driven a Volt?

The cover for the turn signal light on the driver's-side side-mirror is cracked in two places. My first concern is that this could be the source of ongoing problems due to moisture infiltration, so should I try to seal the crack temporarily with some silicone or something? My second thought is, how silly is the repair going to be? Will the whole assembly need to be replaced in order to replace a $3 piece of plastic or can I just get the clear piece of plastic? Where should I go to get this fixed?

Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions.

I made an appointment at my local dealer to get the battery reinforcement done. They didn't have the parts needed, but did do the airbag fix. They also evaluated the noise from the struts and said there is a bulletin saying it's a known issue (also with some Cruzes too) that is not a safety issue, just noisy. They didn't have the struts either. They also told me I need to bring in my charger to get a replacement. The price to replace the cracked blinker lens on the side mirror is ~$120+labor.

The technician stayed late to speak with me about the Volt. He said he has more the 20 hours of training on the Volt. He seemed very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the Volt. I definitely felt better about my Volt having surgery after meeting the surgeon.

I'm consistently getting m/kWh equivalent to 40-50 MPC.

I'm wondering if I should call a Volt advisor about the struts. They are noisy.

The cover for the turn signal light on the driver's-side side-mirror is cracked in two places. My first concern is that this could be the source of ongoing problems due to moisture infiltration, so should I try to seal the crack temporarily with some silicone or something? My second thought is, how silly is the repair going to be? Will the whole assembly need to be replaced in order to replace a $3 piece of plastic or can I just get the clear piece of plastic? Where should I go to get this fixed?

Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions.

it will be repaired under warranty unless it has been damaged by an impact. either way i would replace the lenz/houseing/assy.

I made an appointment at my local dealer to get the battery reinforcement done. They didn't have the parts needed, but did do the airbag fix. They also evaluated the noise from the struts and said there is a bulletin saying it's a known issue (also with some Cruzes too) that is not a safety issue, just noisy. They didn't have the struts either. They also told me I need to bring in my charger to get a replacement. The price to replace the cracked blinker lens on the side mirror is ~$120+labor.

The technician stayed late to speak with me about the Volt. He said he has more the 20 hours of training on the Volt. He seemed very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the Volt. I definitely felt better about my Volt having surgery after meeting the surgeon.

I'm consistently getting m/kWh equivalent to 40-50 MPC.

I'm wondering if I should call a Volt advisor about the struts. They are noisy.

Absolutely have them replace the struts! Mine did the same thing. Made a weird noise when you turned the steering wheel. Kind of a bumping or grinding noise. Had it looked at & they said it was the struts. They ordered the parts & got it fixed. Now the car is extremely quiet the way it's supposed to be.

Absolutely have them replace the struts! Mine did the same thing. Made a weird noise when you turned the steering wheel. Kind of a bumping or grinding noise. Had it looked at & they said it was the struts. They ordered the parts & got it fixed. Now the car is extremely quiet the way it's supposed to be.

Volt advisor said the same thing.

Surgery complete. I have my Volt back after the "enhancement" with a new EVSE as well.

The tax issue is possibly resolved. My wife spent about 4 hours on the phone with the IRS. We're still not sure what happened, but we were assured that we will actually get the tax credit in "2-3 weeks". We'll see.

The dealer thoroughly washed our Volt after the surgery and effectively demonstrated that water can get into the cracked blinker. That is about a $200 fix. I guess I'll ask them to order the part...

Surgery complete. I have my Volt back after the "enhancement" with a new EVSE as well.

The tax issue is possibly resolved. My wife spent about 4 hours on the phone with the IRS. We're still not sure what happened, but we were assured that we will actually get the tax credit in "2-3 weeks". We'll see.

The dealer thoroughly washed our Volt after the surgery and effectively demonstrated that water can get into the cracked blinker. That is about a $200 fix. I guess I'll ask them to order the part...

if you are mechanically inclined..... http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/

if you are mechanically inclined..... http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/

If anyone can find the driver's-side side-mirror-mounted blinker lens part, please let me know. I was not able to find it.

If anyone can find the driver's-side side-mirror-mounted blinker lens part, please let me know. I was not able to find it.

mirror is sold as an assy. http://parts.nalleygmc.com/products/MIRROR-InsideOutside-Rear-View/2950146/20989904.html

mirror is sold as an assy. http://parts.nalleygmc.com/products/MIRROR-InsideOutside-Rear-View/2950146/20989904.html

Interesting, thanks. I'm not inclined to try painting to match. The dealer I took it to said they can get just the lens so they wouldn't need to do any painting.

The last two times I have completely depleted the battery, the total energy usage reported was 9.8 kWh. In the past I have seen 10.4 kWh. The second time I happened to check the status via the Android OnStar app and it reported 0 miles EV range with 5% battery capacity left. That seemed odd in and of itself, but 5% is suspiciously close to 100*(10.4-9.8)/10.4. Could this be related to the recent "enhancement"? Sorry if there is a thread on this already. I did a half-hearted search before posting.

@ pdt,

This is not likely a result of the enhancement, but more likely going through a relearn process as the weather changes.

I finally drained the battery again and used 10.3 kWh, so that mystery seems solved. It probably would have been 10.4, but I parked with "1 mile" of range left. When I came back to the car, it immediately started off in CS mode, however I don't think the engine came on until about a mile or two into my drive since I started off going down a long hill.

The thing I like least about the Volt is the center stack. My family frequently makes inadvertent changes to the climate settings while using the touch-screen to skip/find songs on an iPod. This happened today with an unintentional and unnoticed change of the climate settings to comfort, low fan, and 83 degrees on a rainy, chilly day when I wasn't in the car to notice on a 23 mile trip. This resulted in about 2.7m/kWh when I'm normally getting over 4m/kWh. That's annoying.

I had my highest EV range yet at 44 miles on a mild day on the highway going about 60MPH on average.

On another note, I typically don't use more than 15-20 miles in a given day, so I'm wondering if it's better for battery life/energy consumption to charge every other day. Any thoughts?

When I turned the car on after work, the CEL was on and there was a dashboard warning about a problem with the high voltage charging system. The Onstar rep dialed the local dealer and I dropped it off. We'll see what they find out tomorrow. The car didn't seem to have any issues as I drove the 2 miles to the dealer from work.

Picked up mine last month. About 65% electric miles. What you'll enjoy, the gas mileage is 38 - 40 without really acting to straight on the gas. Gotta love the efficiency. Never thought such a car would be here, now, today, AND in most of our driveways. I was hear 5 years and finally sprung for the real thing. Next up, TESLA S.

Dealer said there was a bad quick-disconnect on on a hose to the battery. Let's hope that fixed it!

Well, it's been a full year today since we bought our Volt, so thought I would post some stats and thoughts.

16385 miles
7720 EV miles (47% EV)
77 MPG
40.5 MPG in CS mode (via voltstats.net)

We drove it more on long trips than I had anticipated, so put more miles and had lower EV% than I had thought we would. It handles a trip with my family of 4 quite well and uses much less gas than our Rav 4, so no regrets there other than being one of the people driving the fleet average (http://www.chevrolet.com/volt-electric-car.html?cmp=OLA_BRAND_6281040_49641403) EV% down to 62%.

The car has done exactly what it was designed to do. I am still very impressed with the engineering. The center stack is the only thing that continues to disappoint and a fifth seat would be nice.

It's been a great car for the first year and I would definitely recommend the Volt. It's by far the best car I've owned.

Passed the 20,000 mile mark this week. We have been putting more EV miles on as my twins learn to drive. Due to that I noticed that one day the car reported 10.7 kWh used before switching to gas and the next day reported 9.7 kWh. That's about the full range I've seen. It's just hard to understand since it doesn't seem like the two days were all that different.

Another long trip coming up, so my %EV will be creeping back down again...