Chevy Volt - Is it a good car? Buy or lease?
Hello BPN readers anyone have a Chevy Volt or thinking of buying one? If you have one, what do you like about it? And what don't you like?
If you are looking at Volts what are your thoughts?
I'm from the era when American cars were horrible. My parents had a Chevy's and I remember it being cheap, and having all kinds of problems. As a result I've never even considered purchasing a Chevy or American made car. But apparently GM is the only one making an plug-in hybrid electric car. After seeing the long line of Tesla's waiting to get charged at the mall there's no way we would even considering buying an all electric car. Volt is supposed to be the next best thing.
I've received quotes from four dealerships and they all seem to be selling Volts for the same price. Looks like there are no deals to be had on Volts.
For the financing dealers were all offering the same deal which worked out to be about $600/month for purchase or lease. But one dealer offered a lease with $350/month payments for 36 months with about a 50% buyout option at the end of the lease. Trying to figure out if that's a good deal. For a gas powered car I know it would not be. But apparently this is what everyone is doing with the Volts and it's a "really" good deal as the car at the end of the lease is worth a lot less.
We were considering used Volts but from what I've read the batteries wear out and cost too much to replace making the car worthless. If we financed a used Volt, the payments work out to be the same a new Volt.
It's looking like cars are like cell phones. The technology is changing so fast it just doesn't make sense to keep a car for more than 3 maybe 4 years especially if it uses batteries for power.
Wondering what others are doing?
Thanks
Parent Replies
We bought a Chevy Volt at the end of August. We wanted a high mileage car. We ruled out the Tesla based on price, and not being able to wait. The other plug-ins all had much smaller electric ranges than the Volt. We tested the Prius, but preferred the Volt.
Things I like about the Volt:
Things that I don't so much like about the Volt:
My husband called around to many dealers. He played them off each other, and got a good deal. We paid cash. As for batteries wearing out, it depends. My parents' Prius battery is going strong 8 years in, but the battery on our previous car, a Honda Civic Hybrid failed under warranty, and had to be replaced. The Volt battery has a 8 year/100,000 mile warranty.Feel free to contact me if you want more details.karenzukor [at] gmail.com
I never ever thought I would buy a Chevy and I gave up my 99 Subaru Outback and bought a Volt in October.
The advice that I got is that leasing only makes financial sense if you really can't afford to buy. When I heard that, I didn't consider leasing and decided to buy. We were able to get the best financing deal through our credit union. The dealer was also offering $1500 and went slightly below the price listed on their website, so we ended up out the door with taxes and fees paying less than the MSRP.The real deals are in the rebates and tax refunds. We got $1500 back from California and will receive a $7500 tax refund (plus the expense of installing a charging station) on our federal taxes. Because of that and because of the upgrades in the newer models, it didn't make sense for us to consider one that was used.
We love how quiet it is, we love not buying gas, we love lessening our ecological impact. It is fun to drive, it felt like driving a hovercraft when we first got it and our Outback feels like a tank now.
The fifth seat, in the center of the back is not a practical or comfortable seat. It is only good for a small child or maybe 3 very slender adults or medium sized children could sit back there, but probably not for long trips. The cargo space is also very limited. It is our only car, although we do have a van that we can borrow for camping and trips. It would be tough to camp in this without a roofrack. I was able to do it by putting the back seat down on one side, but it was tight.
The bottom is very low and even though I know it is not the car itself that scrapes all the time, but some sort of plastic thing, it is still annoying.
The electric only range varies depending on how and where you drive. We tend to drive on the freeway and in hills more often, which uses more battery per mile, so our car is learning that we have a lower range than the advertised 56 miles. We are at about 50. You can also get more miles out of it if you drive slower on the freeway and more gently in city conditions (slower stops and starts, more coasting). So you use up a ton of the miles getting to the tunnel, for example, but then none coming back through.
We did a diy charging station by having a higher powered outlet installed in our garage and buying a portable station from Clipper Creek. Less than $1K and it is safe on our otherwise old electrical system to charge up completely in less than 5 hours, without it, it was 16 hours! We also switched to a EV plan with PG&E and charge it at night.
One of the things that I like about Volts is that they are trying to expand the life of the car and the batteries. The batteries are warrantied for 8 years. We hope we can keep it at least that long. We were told that they only do major upgrades on car models every 6 years at the earliest and the last major upgrade was 2016, so we felt like the car would hold onto most of its value until at least 2022. The timing was right for us to need a reliable car that met as many of our family's needs as possible, and so far, we are very pleased with it.
If you buy it at FH Dailey in San Leandro I recommend Jim Moran, he has a Volt and he answered questions we didn't know we had.
I--I have a 2014 Volt and have been very happy with it. Fun to drive--great pick-up, good handling, and QUIET!!! I mostly drive around the East Bay so use only the battery, but occasionally visit family on the Peninsula and Santa Cruz, so I love that the car just switches over to gas and I don't have to hunt up a plug....I charge at my home (mostly overnight using my household electricity service--I didn't bother to get a fast charger/separate panel--but am on an old Time of Use electricity rate). I had your same concerns about American cars, but in fact the Volt has been pretty solid--and the electric motor/drive is lower long term maintenance than gas powered internal combustion engines.
I would probably get a new model rather than used because the new models have batteries with substantially longer range than the earlier cars (NOT because the older batteries are failing--just improved tech)--my 2014 is somewhere around 34 to 40 miles on a full charge. However, if you regularly drive relatively short distances, I would guess you could get a really good price on a used Volt.
Two negatives--there is a substantial rear blind spot--I would check that out on test drive, plus get a back-up camera option. Also, on the 2014 the user interface/touch screen is pretty poor for all the controls--but I've been told that the new models are much better. But on the balance, I've been really pleased with the car