OFFICIAL CANADIAN VOLT THREAD

[mbepic]

Hello all,

It's been awhile since I logged on, but thought to check in and see how everyone is doing. I wasn't able to read all posts, it's quite a busy forum, but I am delighted to see that there are loads more volt owners out there.

For myself, I have brought the car in to have that retrofit done, a month or so ago. At the time, they had chargers on back order. When I got the call to go get mine, I was told I had to exchange my perfectly good charge cord for the new one. I have decided not to do this. I can't bring myself to waste a working charge cord.

We have a big trip coming up soon and I applied for a green tag for my car (passed along my regular E-Z Pass tag to my folks). Imagine my shock and dismay when I was told my brand new electric car does not qualify for the green pass. Apparently, my 5th position VIN "A" is not as clean as the "E", "F", "G" and "H" that do qualify for the green tag.

I called a GM-Volt Advisor. She was very nice and tried to be helpful, but could only offer to escalate my concern to the engineers. I have mentioned that I don’t want to throw away a perfectly good charging cord so they can take the money they are saving by not giving me a new one and put it into to retrofitting my car with a secondary air injection pump to the catalytic converter. Which is, according to someone on the gm-volt forum, how those later Volts satisfied California emission tests.

I still can't believe that NY/NJ does not consider my car, a green car. I thought those of you with the earlier VIN's might like to know, if you don't already.

Happy driving!!

K

I, like WOT strongly urge you to get your charge cord replaced as GM is suggesting; there have been problems with the unit supplied with other Volts and you don't want to take a chance.........they'll probably send it back and have it retrofitted with new guts, so it may not be a waste.

Also, you are located in Ottawa, so I would assume that you are trying to get 'greenie' plates for your Volt; if that is the case, there is no reason why you cannot obtain Ontario 'green vehicle' plates............I have them and a number of others do as well.
Maybe, I have misunderstood your circumstances on this?

[VoltChick]

Thanks folks for your concern. However, I have been using my charge cord for 7 months, outside, through a frigid Canadian winter and I haven't had a single issue with it. When I pressed for what improvements were made to the charge cord, I was told it now has a thicker cable. I can only barely roll up the current cable as it doesn't do it's neat little wrap around like it did when I first got it. I'd rather keep this cord and get the generator upgrade so that the NY/NJ port authority will recognize my car as a green car.

I already have the green license plates...took awhile to get as my dealership stuck regular plates on my car, even though I asked twice during the order and production phases for the green plates. Back in September, when I drove myself over to the licensing office, they had already promised their last one to another office. After waiting 5 months for the dealership, I organized to put the GV plates on my car myself despite the dealership's promise to correct their oversight. Ah well, I guess they are too busy selling more volts.

Anyway, it's the Green E-Z Pass transponder I am after. It was only when I called to follow up on my application of a month ago that I learned that NY/NJ doesn't not consider the earlier versions of the volt to be green, despite my current lifetime 65mpg (daily commute, plus side trips to New York and northern Michigan). So I will continue to use my regular E-Z Pass until my car gets upgraded or NY/NJ modifies their list of qualifying vehicles.

[mbepic]

Thanks folks for your concern. However, I have been using my charge cord for 7 months, outside, through a frigid Canadian winter and I haven't had a single issue with it. When I pressed for what improvements were made to the charge cord, I was told it now has a thicker cable. I can only barely roll up the current cable as it doesn't do it's neat little wrap around like it did when I first got it. I'd rather keep this cord and get the generator upgrade so that the NY/NJ port authority will recognize my car as a green car.

I have had my charge unit since last October and never had an issue until last night, complete coincidence since we are discussing this topic; we moved to another house and temporarily, last night I got lazy, placed the unit in a garage cupboard that was the nearest outlet to plug into my Volt. In the evening, I heard my alarm going off out in the garage and realized that my Volt was no longer charging.......in fact the breaker switch had 'tripped'. I picked up the charge unit and it was quite warm.....not hot but really warm. I realized that the unit wasn't getting any ventilation inside the cupboard so that wasn't going to work.

Now, I have to say that if the new unit has a larger cord, it will be capable of taking on a higher electrical 'load' than your current one and this type of thing may not have occurred to me............it could have been a real fire risk if luck was not on my side.

Just sayin'.............it is not worth taking that chance.............you should have no loyalty to your 120v charge cord. When I get back to Ontario, in May, I will be getting myself a new unit.

I also understand that you are not in Ontario but in the U.S., thus the 'greenie' concern.

[ars]

So I test drove the Volt this past Saturday, it was pretty awesome, and I loved how smooth the ride was. Also, I think the rearview camera is pretty much a must have, so much easier to reverse with that thing.

I think I'll be ordering a 2013 model.

No need to change your commute, you'll be just fine with the commute you have in winter, and in summer you'll be laughing. Any chance of you plugging in at work?

Hey, sorry for the late reply, been busy the past few days, but unfortunately there's no way to charge it at work
I'm thinking of lobbying to the higher ups to install an EV charging station at work

[MIN FUEL]

10000.24 Miles EV as of today!
10000EV_miles_decal_thumb_medium200_196.jpg

So I finally hit the milestone. Even went to the Chevy EV Hall of Fame and registered, although there is no way to list the province since it appears to be american only.
http://www.chevroletvoltage.com/inde...l-of-fame.html


Hopefully they will change this as more of us reach the mark even if we do it in Kms! I have been dropping hints to any of the volt reps I talk to that it may be a good idea to have a Canadian Hall of EV fame, but nothing yet.

[PaulsVolt]

My Volt is in for the enhancements today concerning the side impact pole performance, it's being done at Laplante Chevrolet out in Casselman. They are a great dealer, unlike Myers Orleans where I bought the car, from which I haven't heard from in months, I guess they don't want my business. The tech in Casselman, Martin Clement, hold the Grand Master Gold title and he is also part of the Technicians Guild National Advisory Council, so it's in VERY good hands. I watched him work up until he removed the battery, it's huge! It was cool to see. I asked my service adviser if he could rent me a GM while the work was being done, and he got me a 2011 Malibu, it still feels like rubbish compared to the Volt, but it's better than some of the rental car horror stories I've read on here. So all the work should be done tonight and I should have my Volt back for tomorrow =)

[slyastro]

10000.24 Miles EV as of today!
Attachment 5383

So I finally hit the milestone. Even went to the Chevy EV Hall of Fame and registered, although there is no way to list the province since it appears to be american only.
http://www.chevroletvoltage.com/inde...l-of-fame.html


Hopefully they will change this as more of us reach the mark even if we do it in Kms! I have been dropping hints to any of the volt reps I talk to that it may be a good idea to have a Canadian Hall of EV fame, but nothing yet.

Hey COOL !! I'm almost at 10 000 EV KM ... so I should get my 10 000 EV Miles during the summer !!!

Congratulations !!

Sly

[slyastro]

My Volt is in for the enhancements today concerning the side impact pole performance, it's being done at Laplante Chevrolet out in Casselman. They are a great dealer, unlike Myers Orleans where I bought the car, from which I haven't heard from in months, I guess they don't want my business. The tech in Casselman, Martin Clement, hold the Grand Master Gold title and he is also part of the Technicians Guild National Advisory Council, so it's in VERY good hands. I watched him work up until he removed the battery, it's huge! It was cool to see. I asked my service adviser if he could rent me a GM while the work was being done, and he got me a 2011 Malibu, it still feels like rubbish compared to the Volt, but it's better than some of the rental car horror stories I've read on here. So all the work should be done tonight and I should have my Volt back for tomorrow =)

Hey Paul !!
Wow, nice picture !! You must be stressed that your «baby» is doing such an extensive «surgery» !
Hope everything will be going well ...

Malibu ... at least they could have loaned you a Camaro ?? That's what I will be requesting to my dealer !!! :-)

[CMMPro]

Got our Vin # today....how do you decode it to know what serial number it is?

[ericcarr]

the last five digits...