24th Dec 2019, 22:54
56,000 on my wife’s Buick LaCrosse, all highway. Tires, oil changes, new battery. That’s it. Average 28 MPG. Not garbage; in fact I own one too with 27,000 miles on mine. No issues on mine either. Fluids and air filter. Cheap and no down time. Why not just buy a brand new car or a bigger car that has minimal issues? And have a loaner car while under warranty. Our cars are so quiet and smooth that you don’t hear them running. I almost left my car running a couple times thinking it was off. How old were your parents cars? I hope it’s not citations. Keep cars too long and expect issues. And then you get old and never enjoy fun cars from before.
25th Dec 2019, 15:25
Ever wonder why the last guy traded their car in? No idea how it was maintained. Buying used all the time, you take a chance. The savings you receive off new, it shouldn’t even bother someone if they have to open their wallet once in a while to fix it.
25th Dec 2019, 17:25
I find this comment fascinating... If, in nine years of ownership and over 150,000 miles you've only encountered these you're doing good. Yes(!), the heater core is a big pain. I have a 91 Volvo 780 Bertone and, as you say, the part cost $41, labor $980. My mechanic said it's the worst job ever. As for the tail lights, I agree, I own a 2013 Volt and again, a pain. But, if you've spent even $3,000 on repairs in the last five years, that's an average of $50 a month. Try replacing it for that coat... The Li-Ion battery is a degrading element, it deteriorates over time. The current estimates show ~ 2.3 - 3% per year. In 9 years a 39 mile range goes to 32... You are right in line with that rate of deterioration. @ 29 you can expect the computer to flag a battery replacement. That should occur at the current rate in 4 more years. @ ~210,000 miles at your current rate. If you get 13 years and 200,000 out of the car you should not complain. Replacing the batteries (2) will cost ~ $3,500 to $4,000. But again, the overall cost of ownership is much lower than leasing/buying every 3-5 years...
25th Dec 2019, 22:43
No thanks. I gave GM a chance. Maybe this car was a fluke. But I'm not going to place another multi-thousand bet on a company that still seems to have real hits and misses.
Good on GM for actually doing something different. 10 years on, and still hardly any other automaker has anything close. But it begs the question as to why. My guess is the cars are massively expensive to produce and costs were pruned to bare minimums for way too many non-critical components. GM has had a long and storied history of bean counting. And it shows in places on my Volt. A lot of the interior components are barely above recyclable plastic level of cheapness. The floor mats and carpet are wearing at a surprising rate. The door panels scratch very easily.
That and the car is a massive hodge podge of parts from Japan, Korea, Italy, Austria, Germany, China, Mexico, the US and so on. All sorts of chances for a while slew of quality variations per factory.
Totally different experience I've had with the Toyota products I've owned. Sure. They too have plastic interiors but I also don't feel like I'm about to snap any of the panels in my hand. That and again - they just run and run. No fuss. No worry. It does its job like the good appliances people accuse them of being.
I still want to keep this thing going long enough for there to be more available plugin hybrid or long-range EVs. I was able to clear the codes and found no faults. But if in the end I wind up having to constantly fix it? It's getting traded in on a Honda Clarity.
25th Dec 2019, 23:04
That's pretty amazing that you see a ton of the first generation Priuses. I guess wherever you reside people hold on to them. I see about one every 3 months. The rest are the second to current generation dust-buster looking.
26th Dec 2019, 18:23
Why trade it in? The dealership is going to give you very little money for it.
Why not just keep it. Not sure what state you live in, but here in California you can drop the insurance... put a non-operational on it which is about $22 dollars and park it in the driveway. It cannot be on the streets. Go out and buy your new Honda hybrid and be happy. You will come back to that Volt later. Maybe going to the shopping mall parking lot wars or those close parking spots at the movie theater. Also I would think the Volt would be a great short distance vehicle or around the town vehicle.
You probably already know this, but a hybrid is a terrible investment. It's a small market vehicle and drops like a rock when it comes to re-sale or trade in value. But if that's what you want, I can't blame you.
26th Dec 2019, 19:12
There’s no guarantee jumping ship, that you will do any better on any other car at 150,000 miles. We are the complete opposite of you buying cars. I’ve had Honda, Nissan and Toyota too. You may encounter high oil consumption, poor A/C, and even sunroof failures. Best place to look is to type any of these manufacturers under consumer affairs complaints by owners. Still maintain you hold onto used vehicles out the gate to very high mileage and act surprised. This is the ultimate in squeezing out every dime of a product. And then are flabbergasted that one year there’s some repairs. And likely wanting to do it yourself before letting anyone else charge you something. The reality today is repairs on a high mileage late model can be expensive. So why not trade sooner and get a fresh piece that’s got a warranty. Sone people do hang onto vehicles a bit longer. But know when it’s time to sell too.
26th Dec 2019, 20:28
In your original review you highly praise the interior at a luxury car level. Now you're saying it's recycled plastic. Also the carpeting and floor mats are going to wear out on any car that you put 130,000 miles on within 5 years.
As far as repair labor costs; you are going to face that on any modern car where the engine is pretty much shoe-horned under the hood. I personally would never own one of these, but IMO you are being a little too harsh just because of minor CEL codes.
27th Dec 2019, 17:25
"I find this comment fascinating... If, in nine years of ownership and over 150,000 miles you've only encountered these you're doing good. Yes(!), the heater core is a big pain..."
Fair enough. Yes - the car has for all practical sense of the term been "OK". Meaning no, it's not been perfect, but it also hasn't left us stranded... yet. We've also changed the way the car is used. For years all it was used for was going back and forth to work. Mostly freeway and almost entirely on the battery with the engine being used on some occasions. But for the past 2 years it's been doing double-duty as the weekend getaway car. Often going into big mountain ranges all over the Sierras. I can say with some certainty that these cars were NOT really engineered to do that kind of driving. Once the battery is drained, the engine has to kick in to charge the battery. If it's relatively flat or otherwise typical American roads then it's fine. But getting into steep terrain means the engine has to perform double duty, both charging the battery AND kicking in to directly drive the transmission because at that point the battery will completely drain and be taken out of the equation. As a result the engine will have some 70 horsepower to work with... on a car that weighs around 3500 pounds. There is a mountain mode that will cause the engine to work more with the transmission and also slowly build reserve power in the battery. But all of this means the drivetrain is working pretty hard.
I was able to get a diagnostic tool to bring up the ECU. It showed a backfire which I cleared. I will try to replace the tail light lens in the next week. I simply want the car to last until a replacement that has the technology we want is available. As seen by the amount of money all of the automakers are pouring into electrification, I'd say that in 5 years or less there will be MANY options to choose from.
24th Dec 2019, 15:55
Reading your review, its title and earlier comments that followed; it looks like you spoke way too soon. That's why it's logical to post at least 5 years into ownership. Anything can happen or go wrong. This includes the Toyota's and Honda's that are supposed to be so good.