So I have been looking a little at Chevrolet Volts recently. I'm starting to think that a Gen 1 (2011-2015) Volt is one of the riskiest used car buys, here's why:
- They didn't make many of them, so there's not a ton of junkyard parts out there. Also, not a lot of knowledge on how to fix them.
- The battery is really expensive to replace - around $6-10k for a "refurbished" one.
- There is no new battery available, and the refurbished options only offer a short warranty.
- The health of the battery is hard to tell from a test drive, most of the 1st gens may be getting close to the end of battery life, but is that six years or six weeks away?
- They aren't that cheap. The bottom of the market seems like it's $5-6k for the oldest, highest mileage gen 1s and close to $15k for the newest models in this generation.