28th Dec 2019, 04:31

Does the car on mountainous terrain also run a heater? Or in Stop and Go commuter traffic, do you run the air conditioner a lot. Or do you sweat or freeze, keeping the heater off to go further? In stop and go traffic, is it realistically only 150k miles of wear? Anyway, wonder how much MPG drop you have running even a heater. I truly hate electric cars and especially shutting off the engine mode at every light. If I have to work an extra hour to pay for 2 tanks of gas, it’s completely worth it. No wires and nonsense to plug in.

31st Dec 2019, 16:55

The Prius we owned prior to the Volt was at over 260,000 miles, basically double the miles of the Volt as it sits and I never had to take the car in for any repairs. This was on a 2001 vintage car when the battery technology and hybrid systems were still relatively newer to cars in general. One of the reasons the car had no problems was that Toyota actually released the car in small numbers in the domestic Japanese market in 1997. They worked out the bugs and then brought the cars to international markets.

So far this car has cost me over $2500 in what amounts to really small bugs... a few sensors. Anything beyond that would cost a fortune, meaning it has the potential to become a giant paperweight come anything actually major.

GM should have put more effort into fully testing and working out the bugs on these cars. It was their "halo" project, back when they went bankrupt and had lost the public's trust. Yes - the cars were very expensive to develop and manufacture and I believe they lost money on each one sold. There were a lot of people who bought these cars who had never owned a GM product. Many, like me were former Prius owners. So the bar was high as far as expectations and GM should have known this better. Your current customers become your future evangelists for your brand. The expectations of former Prius owners is to have a vehicle that without a doubt will last for 200,000+ miles without hardly a hiccup. Toyota isn't famous for making exciting cars. They are famous for making long-lasting, reliable cars. If Toyota can do it, anyone can do it. Including GM.

And thus my expectations were not met and so I'm probably not going to be recommending the car to others moving forward. That's too bad for GM. It's clear to me they have still not shed their bean counting culture and are still cutting some corners here and there, and in the end those kinds of decisions have consequences.

31st Dec 2019, 21:19

As an opinion, your fault lies with only one GM model, not all. It’s doubtful it seems you will spend a great deal more for a far greater GM model. And we have had decades of quality V6 and V8 models. GM has been in existence for over 100 years. We had 3-5 GMs for decades. So as a diehard Toyota guy, why not only buy Toyota from now on. They are not exciting, but that works for you.

There’s thousands of people with Toyota issues of late. Oil consumption, engine failures etc. And they can say the same. And never again. I think your longevity issue is on the far end for most. Most are not driving 275,000 miles. By then interior components are worn, torn, faded and components can go at any moment even your beloved Toyota’s. Your dad had one, you had one many years. It’s like my side of the family Mopar only. Not one other car to be considered; it’s like sacrilege to them. That includes trucks and other types. My side of the family will buy more GMs in our household to more than cover your drop in business. So buy what works for you. We will buy what works exceptional for us. And maybe not hang onto for so long. When you have plenty of disposable funds for nice cars, no mortgage and the like, why not? We do want cars that are fun to drive and offer excitement. Bigger engines have an easier life. Maybe your 4 cylinders are better for you. Good luck! Our family does not share your views and commutes daily as well. Loving what they drive. Especially the new Hemi ones. Or the new GM bigger gas ones.

1st Jan 2020, 23:14

I have to wonder about such complaining. I own a 2013 Volt (Reviewed Here: http://www.carsurvey.org/review_143239.html). Had it now 3.5 years and have seen the expected degradation in battery capacity (down to 37 from 40). But over the 49 years of owning over 25 different vehicles, reliability has significantly improved and no single example makes trends. My personal experience is Audi is the worst brand I've owned. My daughter owns a 2007 Prius touring bought used in 2010 with 81,000 miles on it. At 151,230 the red triangle of death appeared, Hybrid Battery failure. Tried two times to replace individual bad cells ($1,800+) only to repeat the failure in about 6-9 months. So, replaced the whole unit with new. Now, the car is consuming about 1 quart of oil in about 700 miles. So, if I were to judge Prius by this example I wouldn't think too highly of them. But, its the fleet's overall performance that tells the tail. Objectively what does the car score as a group? Check these links...

https://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/volt/2018/consumer-reviews/

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/chevrolet-volt.html

https://www.cars.com/research/chevrolet-volt-2018/consumer-reviews/

2nd Jan 2020, 16:54

Look - All I did was merely add to my ongoing review of this car. In the end what matters is whether or not I as the consumer was satisfied with the ownership experience of this product, and hence why I leave my experiences with it here.

Sure - I have no doubt some people have had great luck with products made by GM. But OTOH I have run into far more people who own GM cars and trucks versus Toyotas and Hondas who have had a lot of problems with theirs. The fact remains that GM is pretty much right in the middle of the reliability and in particular - the long term reliability charts. They aren't the worst, they aren't the best, they're just so so. If you look across their model lineup, the overall picture is really hit and miss.

And exactly what besides the Corvette does GM make these days that's "Exciting"? They decided to stop making cars almost entirely. They killed off the only somewhat decent passenger car they had - the Malibu - and then the Cruz, Impala, Volt, and a few Buick and Cadillac models. Heck... The Buick brand is sort of a joke now: GM simply re-badged a bunch of Opels and exported them from Germany. It's hardly an actual "American" brand anymore.

So like I said: I gave GM a chance. My expectations were not met.