Wow, I forgot to turn off my car when I went to work

[faz]

Yep, it happened. I never thought I would be that dumb to do such a thing (maybe the other Volt driver but no, not ME) but I did. This morning I pulled into our local Harris Teeter parking lot where there is a stop for the Express Bus down to Tysons Corner, VA and rushed to get out of the car because the bus was pulling up. I remember locking the door but thinking I forgot something else, such a weird feeling, but I got on the bus and forgot about it. Coming back in the afternoon, about 8 hours later, I noticed that my lights were still on. The first thought I had was that I sat on the key and accidentally started the car but I dismissed that as nearly impossible the way the key fob is designed. I walked up and lo and behold, the car was still on! Stupid me! So for all of you interested, I left the car this morning with 29 miles of range, it was about 35 degrees, and I left the radio and lights on. When I got back in the car, 17 miles of range was left! I guess not too bad for being on ALL DAY! Hopefully I didn't screw anything else up by doing that, but it drove fine afterwards!

[hodginator]

LOL, I almost did that the other day. I guess you don't have to have the FOB present to keep the car running.

[dayhu]

Done that with my Camry Hybrid a few times You have to be careful

[Koz]

I wonder if the car can notify the owner in such a situation, e.g. send alert afterx time of being started but not moving.

[supafrovolt]

I wonder if the car can notify the owner in such a situation, e.g. send alert afterx time of being started but not moving.

This would be fantastic or I'd at least think it would time out after an hour or so...

[bookdabook]

I've noticed a high pitched ring if I exit the car, close the door and leave it on. The open door "dong dong dong" also sounds when you open the door with the car still on. (This was one of my first "Observations from an Early Adopter", i.e. the title of a thread I started almost simultaneous to this one -shameless plug see http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread....-Early-Adopter). Maybe you were stressing too much about making your bus to hear these things. My son says "Get used to hitting the power button before you leave the car." I wonder how many people just circled your car listening to the ring and thinking "Should I call somebody? Naaah, I gotta go to work."

[Michael]

I wonder if the car can notify the owner in such a situation, e.g. send alert afterx time of being started but not moving.

I agree that this would be a great addition for OnStar to alert via MyLink and allow remote shutoff. I cringed when I read this as I couldn't help but picture folks deciding not to buy a Volt if it was so easy to foget to shut it off and then too late to do anything about it.

I wonder if the 'Cancel Start' button on MyLink would shut off the car, or what MyLink displays if you check it while the car is running?

[honoreitiscom]

I wonder if the 'Cancel Start' button on MyLink would shut off the car, or what MyLink displays if you check it while the car is running?

Nice idea, but no luck. I tried it and it failed, "could not cancel remote start", probably because there was no remote start, there was a standard in-car button-push start.

At least after I started the car and then walked away from it, the doors did auto-lock!

I wonder if OnStar could turn the car off remotely after leaving it on, in park...

[petefoss]

I did it once for 2 hours while I went to dinner with a conventional car. A Cadillac DTS idleing in Downtown (Greektown) Detroit and it was still there when I got back to it. Interior was still nice and cool on a hot summer night <grin>.

[Clintonfitz]

I'm sure that they probably could turn it off. Can the OnStar app for Droid/iPhone turn the car on and off? Or can it only do horn/lights/lock/unlock? Also, can someone answer the following question:
Does the Volt have a ignition? Can you turn the volt on by unlocking your car and pressing the power button in the inside? or do you have to turn a key? This is one of the few things that I still don't know. When I got into my first volt, I never looked to see if it had an ignition.