Hi everyone, Im a Volt Virgin, meaning I do not possess one (yet), but I am seduced and tempted to make the big move. Immediately after test driving a Volt, I was under its charm. Since my GM sale rep had somewhat limited knowledge of the car, as he kept on saying I had good questions but he couldnt answer all of them, I downloaded the pdf format owners manual online and was able to get most of my questions answered. However, here are a couple that only Volt owners could reply to (when you answer, take into consideration that I live in Québec, Canada, where winter temperatures are cold). Please feel free to only answer one or two questions, as I realize I have a lot: 1. Since you bought your Volt, besides regular planned maintenance, have you had to get your vehicle fixed on many occasions? I am and have been a Toyota owner for the last 20 years and never had to go to a garage other for regular upkeep, will I need to change my approach with a Volt and consider normal to be visiting my dealer for glitches on a regular basis? 2. I test drove a Volt when it was minus 10 Celsius (+14 F), and noticed that even if the battery was full, the gas engine turned on. The rep said it was normal as it was cold outside. From your experience, how badly does that impact your fuel consumption? I tried to cut all confort in the car (heating and venting) to limit energy demand, but the gas engine would still run. 3. I read in the owners manual that you can remotely pre-start the car up to 20 minutes before leaving which will use up the power from the umbilical to warm up the car instead of the battery, does that system work well? And will it limit the gas engine usage as presented in my question 2? 4. I noticed that the brake pedal feeling was very different than any other car I have ever driven, I found the responses sketchy, presumably it is due to the re-energizing system when braking, but have you ever had problems related to that or ever felt like the brakes could be better? 5. I am a big pro-environment fan and a big bicycle lover ( I cycle 50km or 37 miles to work when I can weather permitting and not in winter), I know that the owners manual of the Volt mentions that it does not have towing abilities, but is it easy to get a hitch installed (the purpose of the hitch would be to put my bike rack on, not to tow anything). 6. I dont have a closed garage, I would need to recharge in my yard that is exposed to the elements. Is it possible to safely recharge under heavy rain or snow? 7. Is there a locking mechanism that prevents anyone from removing your charging connector (the electric mobile nuzzle)? I know the Nissan Leaf does, but from what I saw, anyone could just unhook the Volt and take off with the cable. (I believe that the only system is an alarm noise that is set off, but nothing prevent the thief to take off with the cable). 8. Silly question, but my rep couldnt answer, it there anything available to hide the content of the hatchback trunk (like a sliding black blind-style cover) so that people cannot see and be tempted to smash and grab the content of the trunk? 9. If you only had 25km (18 miles) one way to work, would you favor the Toyota Prius plug-in version over the Volt? Ill stop here, this is plenty for now. Feel free to answer only one or two questions, just put the number of the question before your answer. A GREAT big thanks in advance to anyone who will take some time to answer me, it will help a Volt Virgin to decide to commit or not. :)
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 18:48:35 +0000
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