This is my boss's car, #538, and the second one in Orange County. He bought it for his dad a few weeks ago, but his dad died recently.
Here is my review and thoughts.
I must say right off the bat, Chevy has hit a grand slam with this car.
Exterior:
The lines of the car flow well. I was next to a Prius on the Freeway today and the Prius just looks so dated compared to the Volt. Unlike other Chevy and GM models, the outside doesn't look cheap even when you are up close looking at it. The exterior is built very well. The red paint really pops nicely in the sun.
Interior:
The first thing I noticed before I even got in was how much leg room there was for the driver. I am 6'5" and I had to move the seat slightly forward. The second thing I noticed was the quality of of the leather and over all build quality of the interior components. Nothing was really over looked, even above where your arm rest is on the door, there is a painted section. Nothing rattled or made noise on the inside. Again, it's hard to describe the interior without seeing it for yourself. It's leaps and bounds better than any other GM interior I have sat in or seen.
The car really does have everything. Bluetooth which was used a lot today, it worked great. Only negative thing was the car has to be stopped to be able to setup the Bluetooth connection to your phone. Figured that out after I was stopped in traffic. Under the center arm rest there is a 12 volt outlet and next to it is a USB connection. iPhone was plugged in and all the songs were accessible via the center navigation screen on the Volt. Bluetooth worked great even when listening to the iPhone. The song paused when calls were being made.
The screen in between the steering wheel and the navigation screen above the center console, the display can be overwhelming. There is a TON of info at your disposal. One screen brings up the local weather, another is GPS, another is music, another is the rear view camera, the list goes on and on.
As you can seen from the following pic, there is a lot of info going on between the steering wheel. Yes, you are reading that correctly, 1429.1 miles and only 13.6 gallons of gas was used in that time giving the Volt an average of 104.9 mpg. If you look at the left you can see it shows a gas tank signaling I am running the generator and have 101 miles until empty. Before we got back to the office we filled up the Volt. Took 7.2 gallons.
Driving:
I was a bit nervous the car wasn't going to drive like a normal car. I was wrong. Pressing the "Start" button with your foot on the brake is weird because the "motor" never makes noise. It just turns on like a household appliance. The parking brake is a button which was kind of weird. I had about 15 miles of battery left. The car is dead silent. Once I got on the freeway I figured I would have had some road noise. It was non-existent. At one point I turned off the radio just to hear the road and I honestly could not hear it.
The car does have a short wheelbase so I figured it would have handled like any other short wheel base car. The Volt was VERY smooth. The steering was very tight. A few times I had to step on it to pass to make lane changes and the pick-up is better than my parent's 2008 Civic. I put the Volt into "Sport" mode and you could feel it instantly. Throttle response was much improved over the already great throttle response. The handling was superb. I figured since it was an electric car it would feel heavy, I was wrong again. Brakes were very firm and responsive, definitely not like the typical soft brake pedal found on a lot of Chevy vehicles. The brakes were actually one of the things that impressed me the most, believe it or not.
On the way back from LA the battery was empty and the generator turned on. The only time I could hear it was at 40-45mph. It was very quiet, made a slight buzzing noise. When we stopped to get Tommy's Burger in LA I turned the car off but the gps was still on and music was playing. It was hard to know the car was off because, again, you can't hear the motor and nothing really tells you it's off.
Besides all that, the Volt drove like any other car I have driven.
Dislikes:
I do have some dislikes. I don't like how the rear hatch is like the Prius. It has a bar going across the middle of the rear view mirror which is very annoying. I understand the glass below the line allows better viewing to see if a small child of the like is behind the car, but that bar is annoying. Plus the Volt has a rear view camera and backup sensors.
I also didn't like the placement of the 12 volt outlet on the top of the dash. To use it you have to flip open the door. The notch in the door to run the cord powering whatever you are using while having the door closed at the same time is at the top. I think it would be better if it was at the bottom.
Overall thoughts:
Build quaility, drive-ability, everything about the car really impressed me and was way better that I was expecting. If I had the money, I would be buying one. I liked it that much.
If you have any questions, shoot.
Here is my review and thoughts.
I must say right off the bat, Chevy has hit a grand slam with this car.
Exterior:
The lines of the car flow well. I was next to a Prius on the Freeway today and the Prius just looks so dated compared to the Volt. Unlike other Chevy and GM models, the outside doesn't look cheap even when you are up close looking at it. The exterior is built very well. The red paint really pops nicely in the sun.
Interior:
The first thing I noticed before I even got in was how much leg room there was for the driver. I am 6'5" and I had to move the seat slightly forward. The second thing I noticed was the quality of of the leather and over all build quality of the interior components. Nothing was really over looked, even above where your arm rest is on the door, there is a painted section. Nothing rattled or made noise on the inside. Again, it's hard to describe the interior without seeing it for yourself. It's leaps and bounds better than any other GM interior I have sat in or seen.
The car really does have everything. Bluetooth which was used a lot today, it worked great. Only negative thing was the car has to be stopped to be able to setup the Bluetooth connection to your phone. Figured that out after I was stopped in traffic. Under the center arm rest there is a 12 volt outlet and next to it is a USB connection. iPhone was plugged in and all the songs were accessible via the center navigation screen on the Volt. Bluetooth worked great even when listening to the iPhone. The song paused when calls were being made.
The screen in between the steering wheel and the navigation screen above the center console, the display can be overwhelming. There is a TON of info at your disposal. One screen brings up the local weather, another is GPS, another is music, another is the rear view camera, the list goes on and on.
As you can seen from the following pic, there is a lot of info going on between the steering wheel. Yes, you are reading that correctly, 1429.1 miles and only 13.6 gallons of gas was used in that time giving the Volt an average of 104.9 mpg. If you look at the left you can see it shows a gas tank signaling I am running the generator and have 101 miles until empty. Before we got back to the office we filled up the Volt. Took 7.2 gallons.
Driving:
I was a bit nervous the car wasn't going to drive like a normal car. I was wrong. Pressing the "Start" button with your foot on the brake is weird because the "motor" never makes noise. It just turns on like a household appliance. The parking brake is a button which was kind of weird. I had about 15 miles of battery left. The car is dead silent. Once I got on the freeway I figured I would have had some road noise. It was non-existent. At one point I turned off the radio just to hear the road and I honestly could not hear it.
The car does have a short wheelbase so I figured it would have handled like any other short wheel base car. The Volt was VERY smooth. The steering was very tight. A few times I had to step on it to pass to make lane changes and the pick-up is better than my parent's 2008 Civic. I put the Volt into "Sport" mode and you could feel it instantly. Throttle response was much improved over the already great throttle response. The handling was superb. I figured since it was an electric car it would feel heavy, I was wrong again. Brakes were very firm and responsive, definitely not like the typical soft brake pedal found on a lot of Chevy vehicles. The brakes were actually one of the things that impressed me the most, believe it or not.
On the way back from LA the battery was empty and the generator turned on. The only time I could hear it was at 40-45mph. It was very quiet, made a slight buzzing noise. When we stopped to get Tommy's Burger in LA I turned the car off but the gps was still on and music was playing. It was hard to know the car was off because, again, you can't hear the motor and nothing really tells you it's off.
Besides all that, the Volt drove like any other car I have driven.
Dislikes:
I do have some dislikes. I don't like how the rear hatch is like the Prius. It has a bar going across the middle of the rear view mirror which is very annoying. I understand the glass below the line allows better viewing to see if a small child of the like is behind the car, but that bar is annoying. Plus the Volt has a rear view camera and backup sensors.
I also didn't like the placement of the 12 volt outlet on the top of the dash. To use it you have to flip open the door. The notch in the door to run the cord powering whatever you are using while having the door closed at the same time is at the top. I think it would be better if it was at the bottom.
Overall thoughts:
Build quaility, drive-ability, everything about the car really impressed me and was way better that I was expecting. If I had the money, I would be buying one. I liked it that much.
If you have any questions, shoot.
