I need to go look at one in person, but... How would a 35lb dog feel about riding in the hatch area? I feel like the rear window's too low and the sill too high. Our little lab/shar-pei, Ada, likes the WRX fine, but it's more of the normal short-wagon hatch, with windows she can easily see out of when she sits up (though honestly she does seem to mostly lie down or look forward into the passenger area).
I'm worried that the Volt's cargo area is more like a bin under a low window; a bit too much like putting the dog in the trunk...
I found some reports from a Volt owners' forum about folks happily transporting significantly larger dogs in their Volts, but I wanted to check with a group I consider to be relatively trustworthy and sane. 
Even if there are only a few Volt owners/lessees here...
Talked with the other half of the household last night and came perilously close to heading for VW and a TDI Sportwagen (today-ish), then went back to tdiclub and found the high pressure fuel pump thing still dragging on... Our 2015 planned replacement of the WRX coincides with the probable new model Sportwagen, and if the HPFP gives me an ulcer, buying a first-year VW would probably just give me an aneurysm on the spot as I signed the papers...
take your dog to the dealership.... they shouldn't mind... When I sold cars for Honda I had a lady bring two 90lb black Labs to see if they fit in an Insight. We had no problem letting her try it out. Another thing we would do is let people take the car home and try it there if they'd like.
Can't answer your question, but both guys I know who have Volts say that they love their cars.
every dog that we've ever had got to have free reign over the back seat when we were tooling down the road... but that was a simpler, more innocent time when kids didn't need to be in car seats until they were 6 feet tall and weighed 150 pounds and they were also allowed free reign of the back seat of the car along with the dog..
They're great for parrots. That probably doesn't help much.
are we talking about back seats up or down? With the back seats up, theres plenty of room in the wayback for a 35-pounder, but the passthrough area is relatively short. With the back seats down,there's tons of room back there. Like, small wagon room. The seats fold nice and flat, and while the floor is a little high because of the batteries, it's a nice, big, square area back there.
jg
Thanks, guys!
I'm talking about with the back seats up; while she could probably have the whole back to herself much of the time, it's important to be able to put a couple of friends in there as well and go to the coast or something...
It does look from the Volt forum like the hatch sill is high enough that people seem to prefer getting their dogs in by folding one rear seat to let them into the hatch area, which does sound like kind of a pain...
J.G., When you say the passthrough area is short, are you referring about the vertical gap from rear seats to roof?
for what it is worth, I transported my mom's bischon in my old Hyundai Tiburon's hatch. The dog had plenty of room, but with the very small hatch cover removed, it could peek it's head up to see what was going on
Regardless of what you do you should at least use a harness on your dog and a tether to a seat belt anchor or tie down. Autoweek did a great article years ago about Ellie the Pet Projectile. No laughing matter when your dog gets tossed around in a crash. We use crates in the Astro, and harnesses in the Jetta wagon.
Oh yeah--keep em out of the front seat too!
And/or off your lap. I shake my head at the thought of "Muffy" on an owners lap during an airbag deployment.
ransom wrote:
Thanks, guys!
I'm talking about with the back seats up; while she could probably have the whole back to herself much of the time, it's important to be able to put a couple of friends in there as well and go to the coast or something...
It does look from the Volt forum like the hatch sill is high enough that people seem to prefer getting their dogs in by folding one rear seat to let them into the hatch area, which does sound like kind of a pain...
J.G., When you say the passthrough area is short, are you referring about the vertical gap from rear seats to roof?
Yeah, the vertical gap isn't small enough to block vision, but the way it's situated it could be difficult to gain access to the wayback with the seats up.
And, yeah, that hatch sill is pretty high.
jg
