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Who else is/was afflicted by this ailment?

12K views 38 replies 30 participants last post by  SteveC5088 
#1 · (Edited)
When I first purchased the Volt, I envisioned it being my daily driver to work. My roundtrip commute is 17 miles, so I was thinking I would just about never use any gas! A little while after purchase I sat down with the wife, it was agreed she'd take the Volt on M/W/F since she had to shuttle the kids to preschool those days and would drive up to 40 miles. I would drive the Volt to work Tu/Th. That made the most sense as it would minimize gas usage. The other person would take the ICE'er the other days (GMC Terrain).

Then a few weeks later she came to me and said "I don't like the way the Terrain drives! It doesn't have any power and the engine sound is annoying. And I don't like switching cars every other day! I'm taking the Volt M-F!". It was at that time I was afflicted with "Thewifestolemyvolt" disease.

I (mostly) cured myself by getting her to agree to swap the GMC for a Cmax Energi (2nd car needed to have 5 seats, decent storage, and 20+ mile range, and the Cmax winded up the winner). Now we both have EVs that will cover the bulk of our normal driving without having to burn any gas!
 
#3 ·
Hi bro,

I have the same problem with my wife, but she doesn't want us to get rid of our old Opel Astra break because of its towing capacity, our Ampera has no towing capacity, so I proposed her to buy a Volvo V60 PHEV. But when she saw the V60 price, she said "no, I want to keep our savings safe".
So "Thewifestolemyvolt" disease is still on at home and I impatiently a await for both prices to decrease and towing capacity to be added to new EV models.
.
 
#4 ·
My wife stole my ipad, but she hasn't stolen my Volt yet, but I t's only a matter of time...
 
#6 ·
Might as well give in. The only cure for "Thewifestolemyvolt" disease is another EV-capable vehicle, like a Volt. After she had been driving mine for a while, and seeing how it performed when she hit a deer, my wife was convinced she wanted one of her own. Happy wife, happy life.
 
#7 ·
My wife & I alternate weeks with the Volt for commuting. This was my week but it was in the shop getting the stator bearing fix, so I had to drive the BMW M3, which I still enjoy immensely for entirely different reasons!
 
#10 · (Edited)
It's actually a fairly common problem on the forum - and a testament to what a great car the Volt is, I suppose.

I'm still amazed that EVs aren't selling better given how quickly they convert the people who drive them for a while and how low the TCOs are getting (surely most people can see past the initial price to the total ownership cost, right?)
 
#11 ·
My wife won't take the Volt because of my obsession with not using gas. I have called her up before and got mad at her because it wasn't plugged in. Oh man she hates the OnStar app. when she's got the car I am constantly checking battery status.

Plus she can only get about 24-28 miles out of battery. I can get 40-45 miles on a normal day.

I think on two of her trips that she has made she has burned close to 1/4 of my total gas usage. For the 5 months I have had the car.
 
#12 ·
Sounds like me and my wife. From time to time I would check myvolt and see that it was not plugged in, so I'd call her and go "You're at home? Why didn't you plug the Volt in then????".

I think the wife's all time (low) record for EV miles on a full charge is 17. That made me sad.
 
#13 ·
Yup, my wife decided that the Volt was MUCH nicer than our other car. This was after having no prior interest in the Volt, and no desire to test drive it. Fat forward two afters after the Volt is ours and she says we need to replace our other car with another Volt, lol.
 
#14 ·
I take my wife's 5-series when I travel because I don't like to let the Volt sit at the airport unplugged for days at a time when it's cold. I'm a little surprised she hasn't asked to make the swap more permanent, as the Volt is fun to drive and she never has to take it to a gas station. I'm sure a big part of it is the lack of a steering wheel heater.
 
#17 ·
LMAO it was just the opposite with us, the 2011 was her volt and I had to beg her to drive it. Finally I just got fed up and sold my CTS-V and ordered my own.
 

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#18 ·
We solved that by buying a second volt. Now we're both happy as larks.
 
#20 ·
I actually get mad at my wife for not driving the Volt on errands. She will often run into town and drive our older truck or van, rather than take the Volt. Each trip costs us $5 in gas versus around 50 cents of electricity for the Volt. After a year and half of Volt ownership, she is starting to understand.
 
#22 ·
Happened exactly the opposite in my house. We got a Leaf first... then we were fighting over who gets to drive it. I suggested another Leaf but the wife said we needed at least one car that could take roadtrips.. So next came the Volt. Now I'm driving the Volt.
 
#24 ·
We are a boating family, and don't live on a lake. So we have to have a tow vehicle. Wife drives the Expedition, I drive the Volt. My secret is simple - never, ever, ever, ever talk about the volt being easy to learn to drive. Never, ever, ever put the HVAC on... she has to understand that comfort is one of the things you give up with an EV. And always always always drive like you're in a BEV on its last kWh. She LOVES her Expedition.
 
#27 ·
Two Volts and One Tahoe Hybrid. Tahoe Hybrid sits undercover virtually all of the time. Its primary duty is to haul one of our Volts to our second home. It is always there for backup and occasionally sees duty when more passenger room is needed. Our second Volt came, after 3 months, from loving the first one sooooo much. And when you have two Volts, you learn how much you LOVE electric driving. My wife HATES when the ICE kicks in. It appears our next vehicle change will be when the Model X comes out. It will, most likely, NOT be able to tow a Volt and therefore, one Volt will remain at the second home, battery disconnected, in the off season. Third, larger vehicle will then get LOTS of use and we will not have to watch something just sit in the driveway and depreciate while it supports our two Volt 'habit'. Yes, the Volt is a gateway drug.
 
#31 ·
When we moved from CA to TX, I gave my wife my Volt to drive to work. She has a 14 mile round trip, so she never has to go to the gas station. I took her Toyota Matrix, as my new job requires me to carry around lots of parts in cardboard boxes. The Matrix with the back seats down has more cargo room than the Volt, and if I was driving my Volt, I'd be putting tons of miles on it and burning lots of gas, so I don't mind the swap.

I still burn lots of gas in the Matrix, but that's the price of not having a Matrix-sized EV with plenty of Superchargers for my occasional over 200 miles a day driving for work.
 
#33 ·
Long time reader, first time poster... saw this linked from Clean Technica and had to share. I'm the wife that got her own Volt...

I work in the EV charging industry and my husband came with me to an industry event a couple of years ago. He's a bit of a car nut, so he spent the whole show talking to the GM engineers in the next booth over, and test drove the Volt at a ride n drive.

As soon as we got back, he put a lease deal together for a Black 2012 Volt, while I figured out the financials - and I agreed it made great money sense for him and his commute. A week later, he offered it up for me to drive for a day. I fell in love with the "quick-quiet" and techie experience, and couldn't bear to drive another mile in my ICE "mom car" (I had given up my 'fun car' when the kids came along 5 years earlier). We were just done with strollers and baby car seats, so we had no major space issues. However, by about the 2017 model, GM is going to have to design more room in the back seat for my son's ever-growing legs.

Anyway, we did a cross-state search so I could get the Viridian Joule, and now we're both 18 months into our leases, and I'm still in love with my Volt - and the hubs for bringing it into my life ;-)

Then, the affliction spead to my 75 year old father, who bought himself a red Volt last summer (he just wants to stick it to the oil companies and still have the range to take it to Packer games). Our driveway gets serious rubbernecking when he's visiting.
 
#37 · (Edited)
Love that story, Heather! Next time your dad visits, please take a picture of the three Volts and share it.

In my case, my wife had a longer (25 mile RT) commute, so she got to drive the Volt most of the time. Then I got tired of driving her older mom-wagon (enough room in the back for strollers and such, but since daughter is now 9, no longer needed). So my solution was to by the Spark EV. Lovin' its #QuicknQuiet mode. Now to get away from this keyboard, and continue the garage project to add another 240-volt circuit!
 
#34 ·
#35 ·
I saw that - the previous poster came to us from cleantechnica, and mentioned it in her post. I'm really not sure why this particular one got picked up by the wider web - we've had a thread like this every few months for three years now:

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?23545-missing-the-volt

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?10773-Lost-My-Volt

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?16391-Families-with-Two-Volts-(or-more!)

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?11112-My-Volt-Family

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?70761-New-to-this-forum

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?7185-Feeling-Kinda-Guilty-But-Did-It-Anyway

I'm pretty sure there are a few more my search didn't pick up. There was even a front page blog article about a Volt+Leaf family with a plug converted Prius, too:

http://gm-volt.com/2011/01/31/lucky-family-first-to-get-a-volt-a-leaf/
 
#36 ·
I, too, have been struggling with this ailment. As a result, the house we're building has three 50-amp runs to the garage, in preparation for her Volt, or maybe a Tesla Model E...but whatever she gets next, WILL have a plug.
 
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