2015 (1st Gen) Chevy Volt - Frustrations 4 a Geek!

[kohnen]

So, I'm a long-time BITOGer. Last April, I bought a Chevy Volt. For those who don't know how it works, here's a summary:

The car has a crazy-large electric motor, and a not so large battery. So, for the first 45 miles or so, you're driving an all electric car. The gas engine never even starts up. And, as long as you charge the car before the battery is drained flat, the engine won't start up.

After the battery is drained "flat," then the engine starts up. The engine drives a generator putting power into the battery, and the electric motor takes power out of the battery and runs the wheels.

(This is the short & sweet explanation - there's more to it than this - engine maintenance mode, fuel maintenance mode, and sometimes the engine directly drives the wheels.)

All the while, the Oil Life Monitor is watching the engine (and the calendar) to determine when to change the oil. And, that's the problem. I use the engine so infrequently that I only get to change oil once every two years. This is because I only put a few thousand miles on the engine - I don't put enough miles on the engine to use up oil life, the OLM changes the oil at least every two years no matter how few miles the engine runs.

Since it's a GM car, it uses dexos1 5w30 oil. It's really hard for me to get my BITOG geek going, trying this oil and that oil and this filter and that filter when I only get to change oil every 2 years. And, it's worse because I have to constrain myself to the dexos1 selection of oil.

So, any of my fellow BITOG folks: Don't buy a Chevy Volt. There isn't enough to do with the car to satisfy your desires to play in the oil.

PS - If you have any questions about the car, fire away & I'll do my best to answer them. I was an electrical engineer in my previous life, so I fancy myself to be "smarter than the average bear."

 

[AZjeff]

How about your overall impression of the car? Lots of haters, be nice to hear from an owner.

 

[A_Harman]

Do you ever get tired of plugging it in?

Do you get nervous about plugging it in if it's raining? (You know, water and electricity aren't the best of friends.)

Do you overly obsess about not running the engine? You know, burning gasoline is not evil, despite what the sociocultural wizards of smart try to tell everybody.

 

[kohnen]

Originally Posted By: AZjeff
How about your overall impression of the car? Lots of haters, be nice to hear from an owner.


I love the power train - it's never given me a lick of trouble. It feels nice to drive - more powerful than a Prius, and the continuous torque from 0 to top speed is really nice!

But, the electronics of the car are quirky. There's one volume control and power switch for the "infotainment" console. This includes the GPS, the climate control, information about power flow and energy use, radio, CD, playing music off of a USB stick or off of your phone. So, you really can't turn the radio off because then you lose the ability to use GPS or change the temperature. This is really counter-intuitive.

The infotainment console has rebooted about 3 times since I bought the car - sometimes it gets lost in itself and has to start over.

The GPS takes a while to initialize sometimes when I start the car. And, if I start driving before the GPS has initialized, it won't ever get a lock onto the satellites and it will never start working. Which is kind of silly - the car should simply memorize where it was when you turned it off and use that to initialize the GPS. My Prius did that and initialized immediately, all the time.

Every time the car starts up, if you're listening to music on the USB memory, it takes about 30 seconds to initialize (it displays "indexing") before you can change the music. It keeps playing what you had on when you turned the car off. I'd like to think that the car could simply check to see that you didn't remove the USB while the car was off.

About 3 times now when I've gone to turn the car off, it will say it can't find my remote (it's in my pocket the whole time) and will refuse to shut off. Putting the keys in the upper center storage box fixes this - that's where the backup key sensor is. Not a big deal.

It's clear to me that GM really put the effort into making sure the drive train worked flawlessly. The electronics of the car are, however, a bit unpolished and wonky.

Overall am I happy with the car? Yes! But I wish they took the effort to polish the design better. Maybe the second generation Volt is better in this regard.

 

[SatinSilver]

They sure look nice esp the second gen. My neighbor leaves his outside and plugs it in during blizzards.

 

[kohnen]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Do you ever get tired of plugging it in?


No. I installed an EVSE (what normal people call a charger) in my garage where I park the car. So it's always convenient. I found that I would forget to charge it, so I made a beeper that if it sees the car in the garage but the charging handle is still in the wall holder, it beeps at me. This has quite effectively made it so that I don't forget to charge it.

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Do you get nervous about plugging it in if it's raining? (You know, water and electricity aren't the best of friends.)


Nope. I'm not worried in the least. First, I charge it in a garage. But, the charger protocol is that the car and the EVSE (charger) communicate back and forth on a low voltage signal to confirm that everything is attached and ready to go. Only then is the high voltage applied. I could submerge the charger plug in a bucket of salt water and there wouldn't be a problem. They thought that through really well.

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Do you overly obsess about not running the engine? You know, burning gasoline is not evil, despite what the sociocultural wizards of smart try to tell everybody.


For a person with OCD like myself? Yes, it's hard not to want to burn gas. It's hard not to want it always fully charged. But, after a year or so and the luster wears off, it's becoming OK to just burn gas when it's convenient. Because I'm in So. Cal., my marginal cost of power is 31¢/kWh, so gas is at times cheaper than electricity. About 10% of the miles on the car are gas powered. That's nice because when I finally get rid of the car, it will probably still be on the initial air filter, initial brake pads, initial coolant, initial spark plugs and the like because the engine will only have ~20,000 miles or so on it.

When the battery does go flat, the transfer to engine power is completely seamless, and you just keep driving. The engine is powerful enough that it can keep up with whatever power demands you make* so you can just keep driving. It works out just fine for road trips.

* If you're in the mountains, you set it to mountain mode. This keeps about 40%-50% of your battery charge in reserve so that if you need the FULL power for an extended period of time, the engine and the battery work together to provide power. This is because the engine is only a 1.4 Liter, 84 hp, plenty for cruising on flat ground, but not quite enough for long stretches of uphill. If you're using the main battery, you get a total of 149 hp out of the car, which is plenty for mountains.

 

[oldoak2000]

I hope you're running Stabil in the gas - if it goes that long without running. How OLD is the gas by the time it does start?

 

[Nick1994]

You know, you CAN change the oil more often.

How noticeable is it on your electric bill?

 

[Sunnyinhollister]

Originally Posted By: kohnen


About 3 times now when I've gone to turn the car off, it will say it can't find my remote (it's in my pocket the whole time) and will refuse to shut off. Putting the keys in the upper center storage box fixes this - that's where the backup key sensor is. Not a big deal.


Change the battery in the remote. This happens when the battery in the remote goes low.

 

[kohnen]

Originally Posted By: oldoak2000
I hope you're running Stabil in the gas - if it goes that long without running. How OLD is the gas by the time it does start?


Not running Stabil in the gas. The car has what it calls a "Fuel Maintenance Mode." It watches how much gas you burn, and how much gas you put in. When it computes, based on these observations, that your gas is in danger of going stale, it will tell you that it's going into Fuel Maintenance Mode, and then, like it or not, when you drive, you're using gasoline. I believe that it takes a year for the gas to go stale enough for this to occur - I've never seen it on my car - I guess I use enough gas.

If you did put Stabil in the gas, the computer would still do the exact same thing - it can't tell that you put it in.

The car does seal and pressurize the gas tank. When you go to add fuel, you have to push a button to tell the car to depressurize the gas tank & let you open it. Only then can you put gas in it.

 

[kohnen]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
You know, you CAN change the oil more often.

How noticeable is it on your electric bill?


It's about $70 per month more. Not a big hit. It's hard to make a comparison because I bought the car & retired about the same time.

Yes, I did change the oil after 1 year and about 1,300 engine miles.

 

[kohnen]

Originally Posted By: Sunnyinhollister
Change the battery in the remote. This happens when the battery in the remote goes low.


Nope. Battery's fine. I still have about 100 foot range, battery tests fine on the voltage, and it only happens once in a blue moon, then it's fine for months.

BTW, the car will tell you on the display when the remote battery is low.

 

[Sunnyinhollister]

Originally Posted By: kohnen
Originally Posted By: Sunnyinhollister
Change the battery in the remote. This happens when the battery in the remote goes low.


Nope. Battery's fine. I still have about 100 foot range, battery tests fine on the voltage, and it only happens once in a blue moon, then it's fine for months.

BTW, the car will tell you on the display when the remote battery is low.


Interesting,

We were getting the same error and changing the battery worked for us but it was happening much more frequent for us.

 

[kohnen]

Originally Posted By: Sunnyinhollister
Interesting,

We were getting the same error and changing the battery worked for us but it was happening much more frequent for us.


Well, if I can change oil after only one year, I can certainly afford to change the battery after only one year. The remote battery that is. The 12 volt battery, not so much. The 17.1 kWh battery? Nope. That'll have to wait quite a while longer.

 

[Alfred_B]

I want to buy a Volt as well. I drive an Audi and a BMW so I'm not sure I'll like the way a Chevy will handle compared to my current cars.

 

[kohnen]

Originally Posted By: Alfred_B
I want to buy a Volt as well. I drive an Audi and a BMW so I'm not sure I'll like the way a Chevy will handle compared to my current cars.

Test drive one! Call a dealership & ask them to fully charge a Volt so you can test drive one. They're more fun in all electric mode, and this will also tell you if the dealer is serious about the Volt. If you show up and there isn't a charged Volt to try, walk. That dealer isn't serious about selling the Volt.