Should I avoid racking up too many miles?

[tedbe]

I've now had my Volt 30 days and I've gone 1700 miles. This reminded me that without altering my driving habits, I may put on upwards of 20K a year, as I did with the Camry Hybrid I traded, which had 133K when I bid it farewell.

How much of a problem is this going to be? There's the possible impact on residual value; plus, there's reliability to consider. My Toyota had zero problems and zero repairs in 6 years; the last time I owned an American car (35 years ago) reliability was non-existant. GM has gotten better, but I'm afraid maybe they are not up to the Toyota standard just yet. Part of my leap-of-faith in getting the Volt:-)

Maybe I need a second car like a low-milage used Matrix to off-load my "excess" miles?

[capitolvolt]

You mentioned the words residual value; did you lease ? Then you definitely need to plan something!

[tedbe]

Oh no, I wasn't dumb enough to lease with my driving habits:-)

[Slapshot28]

The Volt could change some conventional resale value paradigms, or at least make things interesting. EV miles (motor + battery) have different wear ramifications than CS miles (motor + engine). The historic driving pattern of the Volt may influence its resale value.

My Volt now has over 20K miles (54% EV due to several long road trips), and yet it still has 33% oil life. After 18 months of continuous use, I see no deterioration in EV range.

I can imagine easily a used Volt with lots of miles on it (perhaps mine some day) that never has had an oil change, and has an engine compartment and brake pads that seem almost new. (Incidentally, I always drive in Low to preserve my brake pads and minimize brake dust.) This should be fun...

[kickincanada]

The Volt is one of the best cars in the world. Drive it. It's meant to be driven. I HATE regular ICE cars now. I would go batty offloading any excess miles in a Matrix which doesn't hold a candle to the Volt. And as Slapshot points out - the Volt will wear far less than a typical vehicle, thereby increasing it residual value compared to an ICE with the same mileage.

[tboult]

After another month or so, or possibly already, you'll be so used to EV driving that a matrix or whatever would seem archaic and crude. The difference in residual will more likely be impacted by battery, for which are are all taking a leap of faith. But the battery's more likely impacted by age/temps than just miles.

Enjoy the EV, and if you buy green-power its better for the environment too. I've had my volt for nearly a year and have no problems. Of course build quality may not show up for a while, but its not like associated with miles, especially with EV miles.

[AmpOhm]

tedbe,

Our driving habits and purchase date are similar -- I purchased my Volt at end of March and I, too, drive about 1700 each month. My daily drive to work is 40 miles one way (90 miles total if I do any errands), so much of my return trip is on gas.

My other two cars are a 13-year-old Olds Silhouette minivan and a 12-year-old Saturn LS2 and have 300,000 and 150,000 on them. I am very pleased with the reliability of these other two cars. Yes, while all of these vehicles happen to be GM, I don’t consider myself someone who purchases “by brand”, I purchase what appeals to me – previous vehicles include Ford, Chrysler, Datsun, BMW, and Fiat. Now that we’ve purchased the Volt, we’ll be using it for our longer trips instead of the other two cars. With the minivan I was paying at least $300 in gas per month; with the Volt monthly I am paying just about $60 gas + an estimated $30 electric (@ 12 cents, just yesterday I went to time-of-day, so that will drop in half to 6 cents or $15/mo) – so $75 instead of $300 in fuel, I’m a very happy camper. Even though I did not expect to drive the Volt all-electric, but roughly half electric and half gas, it was the perfect car for me.

I believe that because the Volt is so new, I'm not sure if anyone can really answer your questions. In 4 to 6 years what will the resale value of the Volt be? We’ll just have to wait and see. What will happen to the battery when it hits 100,000 miles? GM has tested the batter well beyond 100,000 miles, I personally I’m “betting” that my Volt will run just fine when it hits 150,000 miles.

I’ve heard many, many times that people are crazy for purchasing the first-run of any vehicle (of any brand), yet my Volt is a 2011. Before sitting in my own Volt, I had never test drove a Volt before. So “Leap of faith” is absolutely how I would describe my purchase. I have faith that the battery will last well beyond 100,000 miles. I have faith that it will be a reliable car for 10 or so years (as my current cars are). Yes, it’s blind faith with nothing really “solid” to base it on, but I’m “guessing” that driving “excess” miles on my Volt won’t be a problem and that I’ll enjoy it for many years into the future.

I must admit that much of my “leap of faith” has been because of the comments on this wonderful forum. For probably close to a year before my purchase I’ve been reading others comments, learning from others about the Volt, and trying to separate fact from rumors. The answers to your questions I believe will appear on this forum just as soon as they are known.

[BAZINGA]

The Volt could change some conventional resale value paradigms, or at least make things interesting. EV miles (motor + battery) have different wear ramifications than CS miles (motor + engine). The historic driving pattern of the Volt may influence its resale value.

My Volt now has over 20K miles (54% EV due to several long road trips), and yet it still has 33% oil life. After 18 months of continuous use, I see no deterioration in EV range.

I can imagine easily a used Volt with lots of miles on it (perhaps mine some day) that never has had an oil change, and has an engine compartment and brake pads that seem almost new. (Incidentally, I always drive in Low to preserve my brake pads and minimize brake dust.) This should be fun...

I've always thought GM needs to track the ICE with a separate set of read outs, maybe a third odometer just for the ICE that records miles an can't be reset by the owner and or an hour meter to keep track of the hours the ICE runs.

[saghost]

I don't think anybody knows what residuals are going to be like on these cars - the way the price of oil changes, how quickly other electric cars come out, and what new technologies come along and when will likely all have a much bigger impact on your residuals than how many miles you drive it.

For the other side of it, I'm expecting excellant reliability. The electric drive motors are simpler than any engine - GM terminated testing after 600k miles on the motors (3 lifetimes) without failing them. The transmission torque/rev matches the clutches before engaging them, and is otherwise simpler than the typical automatic. Even the engine... The Volt coddles it, with MG A spinning it up to speed and getting oil pressure before it fires (this is where most engine wear occurs,) and a dedicated 30 second warmup cycle before it drives on it. The engine is also classic, well understood technology, nothing new or flashy to break due to lack of testing. The brakes will likely last forever, since the pads are generally only used to slow you from 6 mph (and the occasional panic stop, of course.)

The only imponderable is the battery - which GM treats more conservatively than anyone else in the industry, with a 65% charge window and complete thermal management system. We've heard informally that GM expects 12-15 years out of it, and even if that doesn't happen, they've chosen to subsidize it and will sell you a new one for $3k - hardly the end of the world.

I think GM is serious about making this car last. Residuals won't matter until you go to sell it anyway, and I doubt your going to want to in the first place...

[SharkVolt]

GM IS keeping track of your ICE miles, if you subscribed to Onstar. It is reported to them every day, which you can see on the Voltstats site. They even have put up a site that shows running stats.

http://www.chevrolet.com/volt-electric-car/

Unfortunately, it seems to have locked up now, at almost 64 million miles driven by Volts so far.
Hope that isn't a bad omen for the Volt software.