I've got my eye on a 2014 Premium with 70k miles for $10,500. That's pretty cheap for what you get.
I've got my eye on a 2014 Premium with 70k miles for $10,500. That's pretty cheap for what you get.
Don't forget that they're also pretty decent places to spend time from a comfort and quietness standpoint. They're not inspiring automotive poetry, but few high mileage commuters are.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
That might be a blessing and the killer reason for not getting one at the same time. I do spend a fair amount of time if appliances when traveling for work already. Flying home and then sitting in another penalty box isn’t really that great an idea.
What about the fancy Prius? The ct200h?
In reply to BoxheadTim :
They're phenomenally good at being a car. We just crossed 46k miles in two years. Had kid#2 and I not corded the tires autocrossing the extent of maintenance would be a single oil change in that time. You unplug the car, drive, plug it back in. Buy gas every 1000 miles or so. It's so cheap to drive that it pays for itself which is why we put 500 miles a week on it. I kind of hope it catches on fire or something, otherwise we're going to own it for a very long time.
BoxheadTim said:In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
That might be a blessing and the killer reason for not getting one at the same time. I do spend a fair amount of time if appliances when traveling for work already. Flying home and then sitting in another penalty box isn’t really that great an idea.
I've not driven a Volt specifically, but for PHEVs and electric vehicles in general, the lack of noise and NVH make them standout from other "penalty boxes". They're not tinny, rattle traps that sound strained just doing ordinary tasks. Smooth, effortless, quiet movement is a luxury. You'll see these attributes touted as "refinement" in luxury marketing and they go to great lengths and great expense at companies like Rolls Royce and Bentley to reduce NVH. You can experience some of that in a vehicle that costs 10% of the fancy stuff.
If you want to enjoy every drive, then it might not be the right choice, but it's pretty nice to jump in the car and silently leave my house first thing in the morning, or climb in after a 12hr day at work and just drive in peace and quiet for 20 minutes to escape the hustle and bustle and decompress.
I’ve had my 2018 Volt since October of 2017, so I’m just coming out of my second winter with the car. I’m completely happy with this car as a very capable commuter. In the dead of winter here in Ottawa (where we frequently get -30* Celsius weather) I can still get around 60 kilometres of range on electrons only. In the spring and summer my range goes to 100 km.
I found out via the Volt forums that the 110v charge controller that comes with the car is actually capable of dual voltage. So I made a simple adapter and charge from home during off-peak times. I have a 30A 220v plug with a welding style of outlet. My car will charge in about 4.5 hours overnight. During the summer I only need to buy gas when I’m taking a trip out of town, otherwise I can do all my commuting on electric only. During the winter I will need to fill it up once every 5 to 6 weeks. My usual commute is around 75 kilometres round-trip.
STM317 said:If you want to enjoy every drive, then it might not be the right choice, but it's pretty nice to jump in the car and silently leave my house first thing in the morning, or climb in after a 12hr day at work and just drive in peace and quiet for 20 minutes to escape the hustle and bustle and decompress.
I hear you, and sometimes I think it would be nice to quietly pull away. OTOH most of the time I positively enjoy firing up the car after a long day and it sounds like a muted version of the trumpets of Jericho. I lucked out rental car wise last week, ended up with a Dodge Charger R/T and had to keep reminding myself that doing a burnout in the client's parking lot before leaving might be frowned upon 
.
I do have some nice driving roads between here and Dulles, so something that's enjoyable to drive would win over miserly fuel consumption.
In reply to eastpark :
Thanks for the real world numbers, much appreciated.
Since there are 1000s of these out there , is there a chart on how much the battery degrades over time ?
And how much to replace the battery pack when it gets to worn out ?
Turboeric said:For the kind of use you're proposing, why not look at a used Volt?
Mainly because I want something with a warranty, the longer the better. Plus, if the dealer advertising on Cargurus is to be believed, I can find a new or dealer demo car in a 200 mile radius for the same or a little more money than a used 2017/18 car. Add to that that Chevy is throwing in 0% financing for people with good credit and it's likely the same cost or cheaper to buy a new leftover.
In reply to californiamilleghia :
It’s been a while but last I checked the batteries tend to last more than a decade. My neighbor’s hasn’t lost any range since he bought it in 2013. Apparently Chevy doesn’t charge the battery to 100% because it helps the battery last.
I saw his youngest getting his first driving lesson last week. But I understand that won’t happen until his oldest graduates from college in June. Then the oldest gets a new car ( he’s thinking a Tesla) and the Volt goes to the youngest.
In reply to californiamilleghia :
Mine is a 2012 with 142k miles and regularly gets the same 40 electric miles that it did when we bought it at slightly less than 100k. Based on antectotal internet speak, I don't expect to ever need to replace the battery during my ownership.
In reply to californiamilleghia :
Real world experience is that barring a few very rare failures that show up long before the warrantee is up, there isn't much degradation over time. GM went hyper-conservative on battery management with these things, so they seem to last longer than the cars that they're in. (see the link to the high mileage Volt in my earlier post). Nissan cheaped out on battery thermal management (air cooled) on the early Leafs, which caused some significant battery degradation, but GM's overkill thermal management seems to make them last the life of the car (or more).
Mine's a 2012 and the battery capacity and range is unchanged from new.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
Wow, the market where you are is radically different that what I see in western Canada.
In reply to Turboeric :
It does require a bit of searching, but apparently car sales (as opposed to CUV/SUV/Truck sales) really went down the toilet last year. Right now I seem to be able to find last year's cars (ie 2018 models) for pretty much any car I'd be interested at reasonable to steep discounts within a 500 mile radius and a 200 mile radius for the more pedestrian stuff like a Volt or a Challenger. This is also pretty new for me, especially when you find used cars that are sometimes more expensive than their new brethren.
All that said, I'm also very conscious that some of the these deal may represent the bait part of a bait and switch - get you in the door with a super discount and then sell you something else or a ton of E36 M3 on top of the car that they forgot to mention in the ad.
Oh, and the part that really makes the decision hard is that I can find the cars that the heart really wants in slightly used (and sometimes even new) fashion when I extend the search to MA and CT. There might be a fly and drive in my future.
Are some year Volts four seaters and later five seats?
This topic is extremely relevant for me. I'm a courier considering a Volt I spend my days in Vancouver, Richmond and the North Shore. I won't buy before May 1 because then I'll have $5000 provincial rebate, $5000 federal rebate but no Scrap It for $6000. I'm thinking there's room for a deal as I have a list 30 deep of Volts on the lot for 180+ days.
In reply to GTwannaB :
First gen Volts seat four and second seat five.
On battery life, does anyone know the cost to replace the batteries? A "rebuilt" Prius battery pack can be had for less than a grand installed in your driveway. Unless the VOLT battery packs are warrantied by GM for life cost to replace should be considered when buying a used one.
Every time we have a Volt thread, I want one. I typically commute 0 miles a day. Sometimes I go a week or more without leaving the yard. When I do drive for work it is a 25 mile drive to the airport and back some days later. Other than that I do the usual around town errands. A Volt would be perfect for me.
Cargurus is showing me that in a 200 mile radius, new ones are about $7-9k more than similar year used ones. Cheapest new one I see is $26.4k.
T.J. said:Cargurus is showing me that in a 200 mile radius, new ones are about $7-9k more than similar year used ones. Cheapest new one I see is $26.4k.
New ones should be eligible for Federal EV tax credits of some sort (it looks like it was just cut in half to $3750 for eligible GMs ), and possibly state/local as well. A used one would not qualify for those credits. That should close that gap a bit.
porschenut said:On battery life, does anyone know the cost to replace the batteries? A "rebuilt" Prius battery pack can be had for less than a grand installed in your driveway. Unless the VOLT battery packs are warrantied by GM for life cost to replace should be considered when buying a used one.
The problem with that is they don't get replaced. Outside of the few warranty cases the batteries don't appear to have needed replacement at all. That makes it hard to price.
The extension of this is "well, they probably won't go to 500k so it will be important eventually" and that is true because these cars have to end up somewhere in 30 years. I don't think a normal purchaser should worry about the cost of replacing the battery any more than a combustion engine purchaser would worry about the cost of engine replacement.
In reply to STM317 :
Agreed. For a few grand, I would buy new.
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