: New Crystal Red Volt owner in Ontario



Silidus
04-19-2012, 02:48 PM
Hi All,

Had my new volt for a week now an I am absolutely loving this car!

I have a long commute so gas is not entirely gone from my life, but averaging 2.0L/100Km is certainly a good feeling over my old V6 Accord. I would highly recommend anyone in Canada to do the math, and I mean actually DO the math instead of taking the numbers from the EPA or US magazines. This car just plain makes sense in Canada, and is incredibly fun to drive.

(For those who don't know, we pay $1.36 dollars per Litre for regular gas, $5.15/US gal, and 6cents / KWh)


Now if only I could get homelink to register my door opener I would be set 8/

tboult
04-19-2012, 02:53 PM
Hi All,

Had my new volt for a week now an I am absolutely loving this car!

I have a long commute so gas is not entirely gone from my life, but averaging 2.0L/100Km is certainly a good feeling over my old V6 Accord. I would highly recommend anyone in Canada to do the math, and I mean actually DO the math instead of taking the numbers from the EPA or US magazines. This car just plain makes sense in Canada, and is incredibly fun to drive.

(For those who don't know, we pay $1.36 dollars per Litre for regular gas, $5.15/US gal, and 6cents / KWh)


Now if only I could get homelink to register my door opener I would be set 8/

Welcome and congrats. Glad to see there are some in ontario.. did you pre order or what there actually one on the lot?

Yes the numbers make sense.. and when you consider the quality/fun it would make sense even if the number did not.


Did you read the section of the manual where for some openers you might have to get your door opener to "learn" about your remote too.. I effectively had to reprogram both sides. (which is, of course, much more secure).

2BeLivingGreen
04-19-2012, 03:08 PM
Welcome and enjoy the VOLT! The numbers do make sense! And the thing is the EPA or magazines do not have the numbers that reflect how one uses a car on a daily basis. You use electricity first the gas mileage is only for long trips.

The car is just fun to drive, so much more so than the conventional car.

Tboult is right about reading the owners manual, depending on the type and vintage of garage door open there are different ways to program it, sequence etc.

Silidus
04-19-2012, 03:12 PM
I just took the one off the lot. Worked out great since I had finally decided to look at a Volt on the Monday, found a dealer that actually had one for test drive on Tuesday, and took possession on Thursday. Done deal.

Yeah, my garage door opener has a 'learn' button, but I can't seem to get past even the first step with homelink.

With previous vehicles, I would first 'train' the homelink by holding the button on the system and the garage door opener (cycling the opener) until the homelink LED began to flash rapidly. Once that was done, I could press the 'learn' button on the opener, press the homelink button within 30 seconds, and it worked.

With the Volt, the homelink never 'trains', it just flashes slowly until my arm gets tired. Pushing the 'learn' button on the opener doesn't seem to work either. I wish there was some way I could just set the frequency manually and bypass the whole 'train' step.

flmark
04-19-2012, 03:13 PM
Homelink is a real PITA. I thought it would be fresh in my mind since I got first Volt in December. Nope. Just got second Volt and ...
First, programming one Volt knocked out other...twice. I thought I had previously figured out I could have 4 vehicles on garage door (which I ultimately got done), but I kept having to repeat procedure because vehicles kept getting knocked off. One important thing to remember is that having hand held remote helps greatly (the original one that came with opener; fyi, my opener is from 1996). AND... when light starts rapid flashing on homelink and nothing happens...REPEAT...and repeat again (if necessary), WHILE opener is in learn mode. I found that first press of homelink button NEVER caught the code the first time. The learn mode of opener is so short that climbing up and down ladder, popping in car and getting enough time to push homelink button MULTIPLE times was biggest challenge. Keep at it. And good luck.

Neromanceres
04-19-2012, 03:15 PM
Congrats Silidus, I'm jealous. I can't wait to order my Volt. Wish we had the lease deal they get in the US. What part of Ontario are you from? Are you on voltstats.net?

Although I agree the payback here in Ontario is better than in most places keep in mind that your value of 6cents/KWh is the overnight rate on TOU pricing. And is only for generation cost and does not include transmission costs, debt retirement charge and HST. In reality It's closer ~10 cents/KWh all in.

Silidus
04-19-2012, 03:23 PM
Congrats Silidus, I'm jealous. I can't wait to order my Volt. Wish we had the lease deal they get in the US. What part of Ontario are you from? Are you on voltstats.net?

Although I agree the payback here in Ontario is better than in most places keep in mind that your value of 6cents/KWh is the overnight rate on TOU pricing. And is only for generation cost and does not include transmission costs, debt retirement charge and HST. In reality It's closer ~10 cents/KWh all in.

I'm just north of Toronto.

Yeah I suppose 10c/KWh is more accurate (I only charge between 7pm and 7am so I used the over night rate).

I haven't jumped on voltstats.net yet. In fact I am a little worried about what that will do to me. 2.0L/100km is good for me, but I fear a leaderboard may mean I will stop going to work just to preserve my 'electric streak'.

Shaft
04-19-2012, 04:53 PM
Silidus:

Which dealer?

Did you get any discount?

And where will I see you driving around Toronto?

bonaire
04-19-2012, 04:58 PM
.10/kWh down here in Lewiston, but at my house in PA - it's .17+ per kWh. Our region with the Niagara Hydro here is still quite good especially with the prices of Petrol up in CA. Gasoline over here on the Indian reservations is about $3.79 right now but $4.17 at most taxed spots.

DonC
04-19-2012, 05:24 PM
Congrats on the car and welcome to the forum. Other than Homelink, hopefully your car will be trouble free. If not you might do a quick search, you might find a quick solution.

Yes the Volt is a very fun car to drive. Enjoy!

kickincanada
04-19-2012, 05:37 PM
Most have have been Volt die hards for a while. But what prompted you to become interested in buying a Volt? We're always intested to hear new experiences and reasons for choosing the best vehicle which of course is the Volt!. Oh there is also a Canadian thread found here...
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?7649-OFFICIAL-CANADIAN-VOLT-THREAD/page168


Hi All,

Had my new volt for a week now an I am absolutely loving this car!

I have a long commute so gas is not entirely gone from my life, but averaging 2.0L/100Km is certainly a good feeling over my old V6 Accord. I would highly recommend anyone in Canada to do the math, and I mean actually DO the math instead of taking the numbers from the EPA or US magazines. This car just plain makes sense in Canada, and is incredibly fun to drive.

(For those who don't know, we pay $1.36 dollars per Litre for regular gas, $5.15/US gal, and 6cents / KWh)


Now if only I could get homelink to register my door opener I would be set 8/

BAZINGA
04-19-2012, 06:55 PM
Welcome fellow Crystal Red Volt owner. You need this Corvette accessory to dress the rear plate.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/AFVETTE/2012%20Volt/d9c0ca66.jpg

Re the Homelink, in addition to having to press the LEARN button on my opener, I then had to press and hold the button on the old door opener while holding the Homelink button in the overhead console.

Hope this works for you.

Cheers and Miles's of Smile's to you

MIN FUEL
04-19-2012, 09:10 PM
Damn, I thought GM told me that I would have to only Crystal Red Volt in Ontario! You may see me on the 401 between Guelph and Pearson Airport every day. Good thing I just put on the summer rims in case we park next to each other. When you register on voltstats make sure you join the Ontario Group.

Cord
04-19-2012, 10:03 PM
Grats, and RED has to be the top color for volts this year.

Years ago on a visit to Canada, this Texas boy though you must have a LOT of electric cars as the parking meters seem to all have electrical outlets. MY visit was in the Summer :-)


I was able to control 3 different doors with the link control but one door has to be totally reset and we to re-learn all the hand remotes. One door seemed to allow only 3 remotes total the Volt being one of the three.

Silidus
04-20-2012, 09:17 AM
Thanks All,

The dealership I found the Volt at was Markville Chevy, they had 2 on the lot last week, one now.

I am usually north of the city, Newmarket, GreenLine, 404 etc, so far its been fun just to see the heads turn. When searching for a volt I was told by a different dealer that 'There is one in Newmarket', seems we are still a rare sight.

As to what 'turned me on' to the volt. My 10 year old accord was starting to show its age, nothing serious, and it still ran great but I was getting the feeling I needed a new car in the next few years. I had my eye on the Volt (and a few hybrids) as my next car but was putting it off since the Accord still ran. I have always been a fan of electric engines, ever since building one with a tin can and some copper wire back in highschool so I had followed the volt through development and knew a little more about the tech than most laymen. So one day I figured I would just do the math.... and that sold it.

I like to drive. I simply cant stand a gutless vehicle no matter how 'fuel efficient' it may be, and I was looking for a nicer car (fully loaded Accord Coup for the last 10 years pretty much set the curve). The Volt had everything I wanted, It's so much fun to drive, has decent pep, and best of all costs the same (over 7 years) as a car without any of those things. 8}

frankydude
04-20-2012, 10:36 AM
Congratulations on your new Volt!
Price of gas in Montreal is at 1.45$ per liter - $5.50 per US gallon.
The math is just more enlightening!

Enjoy you almost silent commute!

Francois & Line
B-2653 C-19249

CdnVolt
04-27-2012, 10:44 PM
Hey I am in Northern Ontario with a Crystal Red Volt too! I will send u a private message with my email, maybe we can trade cold weather volt owner stories. I am having issues with using the app on my iPhone as it is setup but never refreshes for me to use it. Did you have this issue in Ontario? Anyone else? Thanks!

Silidus
04-30-2012, 02:01 PM
Hey I am in Northern Ontario with a Crystal Red Volt too! I will send u a private message with my email, maybe we can trade cold weather volt owner stories. I am having issues with using the app on my iPhone as it is setup but never refreshes for me to use it. Did you have this issue in Ontario? Anyone else? Thanks!

I am using the android app but I assume it is similar. The app only shows the data from the last sync between the car and 'onstar'. The android app has a button near the top of the screen to prompt a refresh and pull the most recent data from the vehicle.

Hope that helps. 8}