Chevrolet Volt Purchase

[CatamaranSailor]

Our youngest son is heading to school...and taking my wife's Toyota with him. On Tuesday we bought a 1 owner 2014 Volt with less than 100K for $8900. This was at a no haggle dealer, however they did not have the charging cord, so we agreed on a $270 deduction. On top of that, the car qualifies for a 30% tax credit of $2,670. All in, we are at $5,960 (not including tax & registration).

[Chris Pascale]

Very cool. You may have some adjustments on long drives, but the infrastructure is in place now, and, honestly, if it takes an hour to charge you up to the next stop, that's probably a good thing. After all, getting up to pump gas, get another coffee after you pee out the last one, and take a lap around the snack aisle isn't optimal for a body.

[LD_TAndK]

Nice, that's some cheap, efficient transportation. Congrats

[SmashYourSmartPhone]

Very cool. You may have some adjustments on long drives...

No.

The Volt is a plug in hybrid with about 30-35 miles on the Gen1, and a gas engine for long distance travel.  It doesn't have fast charging.

[Miss Piggy]

Congrats! I still love my 2014 Ford plug-in hybrid 10 years later!

Out of curiosity, how's your Volt's electric range today? Looks like they originally had around 38 miles, and I'm wondering how much the range has degraded over 10 years. Mine started out with about 28 miles of electric range, but today, I might be able to get 18 out of it on a good day. Hoping it will bump back up a bit in the summer, but it will never be what it was back then. I still plan to keep it 'til the wheels fall off.

[CatamaranSailor]

Congrats! I still love my 2014 Ford plug-in hybrid 10 years later!

Out of curiosity, how's your Volt's electric range today? Looks like they originally had around 38 miles, and I'm wondering how much the range has degraded over 10 years. Mine started out with about 28 miles of electric range, but today, I might be able to get 18 out of it on a good day. Hoping it will bump back up a bit in the summer, but it will never be what it was back then. I still plan to keep it 'til the wheels fall off.

After having had the car for a couple of weeks, I feel safe saying the range has not degraded at all. Last Saturday, my wife ran her usual errands plus a run out to a specialty store way east of us. She started with a full charge and it hit at least 38 miles before the engine kicked on. This was stop and go city, plus some highway driving and the weather was cold.

One of the reasons we went with the Volt was because of the battery management system. Say what you will about Chevy's quality now, but they did it right in the Volt. It's got active cooling and the charging system doesn't allow it to drain completely.

There is a well known Volt that has done over 477,000 miles. The owner thought the battery had finally dies but it turns out it was something else and the battery is fine.

https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/sparkie-lives-on.331191/

Cautiously optimistic about the purchase!

[Miss Piggy]

That's fantastic!

[AnotherEngineer]

Good for you. I've found Syonyk's take compelling: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/i-bought-a-used-chevy-volt-and-you-probably-should-too!/

I have been looking at a Volt for awhile as we are ideal use cases: currently only a 195k 2007 Odyssey and do lots of road trips, but too many short in town trips. A Volt would help us save the van's mileage for trips, reduce cost/emissions of in-town miles, and make about $12/hour in mileage reimbursement when I need to travel for work (currently rent a car). The only drawbacks are 1) not sure if the middle rear "seat" could fit our youngest when needed (and we have to get a more expensive Gen2 at closer to $14k) and 2) we are cash flowing grad school and a remodel right now, so probably cant buy one cash and rates are silly. Total costs wouldn't actually change that much per my model with higher insurance, etc, but it would burn less gas and delay the death of the van.

I've never owned a domestic car, but Chevy did the Volt right...until they killed it. The battery is very well managed for longevity, but there are two specific often faulty items on the Gen 2s so check to see if those are replaced and/or get one with a bit of warranty left.

[secondcor521]

My son has a 2014 Volt and has been very happy with it.  He bought it used in fall 2022 so didn't get the tax credit, and he did have to have some moderately expensive work done on the battery charging system, but all in all I think he's still glad he bought the car.

It's a bit of a mystery to me why Chevy killed the Volt.  It seems like a really well engineered car that will probably last a long time and have a low cost of ownership.

I think he's still getting 35-ish pure electric.  It does go down in the winter but recovers in the summer.  He's been a perfect use case for it because he lives about 8 miles from work so on a typical day he's all electric.  He's twice taken it on several hour road trips, and it seamlessly switches to gas and gets maybe 350 miles of range that way.  Plugs it in at home overnight, and there's a ChargePoint station in his employer's parking lot if he wants to use that.

When he was stressing about the repairs, I offered to fill up his tank with gas.  It turns out that wasn't even a beneficial offer to him because he uses so little that he was worried that the gas would go bad before he'd use it.  I think he decided that 2 gallons was a good idea, so that set me back like $6 back in, uh, October?

[Just Joe]

I've long wondered why they killed the Volt too. Seems like a good hybrid system to put in cars, small SUVs, and even a Maverick sized truck.