VW Vortex - Volkswagen Forum banner

Volt Pic Post.........High VOLTage or Low? Post pictures and stories/experiences of your Volt or someone's you know or have driven.

168K views 971 replies 143 participants last post by  tngdesi 
#1 · (Edited)
Let's see pictures and hear stories of owner's experiences of Volts. (or of owner's you know)

I'll start with a Real Estate Appraiser in Eugene, Oregon.

Meet Frank Calciano of Calciano Associates in Eugene (also part time musician in a local band)



Put in his order two years ago and just took delivery a week ago Friday. First actual Volt to be sold in Eugene (not a demo or brought in from out of state and sold as used)

First experience? Dealer did NOT charge the car at time of delivery so he drives it home on gas.

:(

Background on Frank's preparation. At his home in Southwest Hills (Eugene), he's got 110 voltage connection in the garage plus a 220 volt set up for quicker charging.

At his office in Eugene, he has another 220 volt charging area set up to extend his range as he has quit an area to cover for appraisals (Corvallis to Roseburg)

He's approached this over the past two years in a serious manner and has done his homework.

Flash forward to the first evening. Car is stored in garage and plugged in........charging commences.

Well, not really. On the dash, there is a light that is supposed to be solid green when charging.

He gets amber. :(

Go to owner's manual "possible utility interruption by OnSTAR"



No charging happens.

turns out this was a one time problem and all that was needed was a reboot. Onstar communication was just a sideshow at that moment
**comments from Frank as of 10/17:

I like the posting of the Volt. Aparrentlly the On Star was not fully setup in the first couple of days having do with registration and password setup. Anyway it works now. Have driven 233 miles of 266 total miles on electricity.

Thanks
Frank
In the morning, move the car outside under gas power and establish phone linkup.

**edit.... realize now that ON Star is simply a cell signal. He has really poor cell reception at his house... so moving the car gained just enough signal to make the hookup to talk to the onstar people.


On star people are ticked that the dealer didn't charge the car. Tells Frank to reboot the whole car and start over. (just like a computer)

Charging happens over the next 4 hours.

:thumbup:
:p


**The crutches. Frank is also a gungho baseball player. Slide into 3rd base (or home, I can't recall) and broke his fibula a couple weeks before the car arrived....:eek: Doesn't keep him out of the driver's seat, though)




Fran Calciano and son Dennis size up to the realization that there isn't much trunk space. (She remarks how she's glad she has her Honda Odyssey :D)


Frank let me take it for a spin out thru the wine country of Eugene with 4 of us onboard.

Car is low to the ground.... handles well (wide profile tires and suspension is well damped).

Quiet..............

......really quiet at speed

Lots of torque and hill climbing around Eugene is effortless on battery power.



Charged up in about 5 hours on 220

****update on the whole onstar thing****


you don't need onstar to charge the car.

I'll try to explain what happened.

Frank hadn't really set up the onstar yet since he just got the car. This and somehow the car locked onto "no charge status"

When the charging didn't happen, one of the explanations in the owner's manual was that onstar was delaying the charging "utility interruption was the way they put it" to wait for a more economical time. Something about getting the best charging rates from the local utilities.

But mostly this was two fold. Once the onstar connection was made and he talked to them and the reboot occured the next day, charging was good to go. All very strange indeed for the first time out.

So, no... you can charge without onstar being on ( it was just confusing that night to figure out why no charging and he wasn't able to contact onstar for questions.)

Since then, charging has been occuring without a hitch and certainly no more indications of "possible utility interruptions" from the light display of solid amber.

Solid green all the way

 
See less See more
7
#2 ·
God I love everything about this car.
Both gas & electric. The looks with the low belt line, the interior & configuration of the seats.

Dont know anyone that owns one yet but I like to walk over and stare at them when I spot them in a parking lot. Only cause its a rare sight to see around here.

Hope to see more stories & pics of the volt!
 
#4 · (Edited)
That's what I thought, but it was certainly true that we couldn't get an OnStar linkup till we moved it out of the garage the next morning.

Seems awfully strange to me as well.

**just checked. The ONstar uses cell phone repeaters just like your mobile phone, so it should have worked. However, due to the fact that Frank's house has poor cell reception and is spotty at best, the Onstar would have had difficulty getting a signal (just like the signal outage that is common for his cell phone there)

So.... yes correction. Onstar non communication wasn't due to the garage like I thought. We just had to move the car a little bit to get better signal.

from another forum

OnStar uses cell towers for vehicle communication which will work just fine in most covered areas. Hell, in some of the Boston tunnels I think they have cell repeaters down there.
 
#13 · (Edited)
no..... you don't need onstar to charge the car.

I'll try to explain what happened.

Frank hadn't really set up the onstar yet since he just got the car. This and somehow the car locked onto "no charge status"

When the charging didn't happen, one of the explanations in the owner's manual was that onstar was delaying the charging "utility interruption was the way they put it" to wait for a more economical time. Something about getting the best charging rates from the local utilities.

But mostly this was two fold. Once the onstar connection was made and he talked to them and the reboot occured the next day, charging was good to go. All very strange indeed for the first time out.

So, no... you can charge without onstar being on ( it was just confusing that night to figure out why no charging and he wasn't able to contact onstar for questions.)

Since then, charging has been occuring without a hitch and certainly no more indications of "possible utility interruptions" from the light display of solid amber.

Solid green all the way

:p

 
#11 ·
A neighbor has one, I think his was one of the very first to be sold in the east and has only had to fill up twice since he got it.

All his driving is less than the electric range so all he uses is electricity and no gas for about 4 months now. :thumbup::thumbup:

Love the Volt and would love to own one but it's too pricey at the moment and my commute is more than 100 miles.
 
#16 ·
Carey Bailey.... first volt owner in Oregon




Bailey's experience with the volt?

Carey Bailey, who drives 30 miles each day to work in Sutherlin in northern Douglas County, said he was unimpressed with electric cars that were so compact that they made him feel claustrophobic.

Bailey, who has been driving a Chevrolet Volt since January, described the financial benefits of his new car. He commutes daily to Sutherlin and said he swapped a $500 monthly gas bill for a $30 increase in his electricity bill.

“The car is making its own payment by me not having to buy gas,” he said.
 
#17 ·
I just want to take a moment and say -

**** YOU TOYOTA.


**** YOU.


Seriously. Thank you ****ing god damn much for making the first gen Prius in that god damn shape so now every hydrive/eco car will have to resemble that because people are stupid.

:facepalm:

This is what the car of tomorrow should have looked like.



not a updated god damn previa.
 
#20 ·
interesting trip stats for this one down in Florida





owner's comments below

This summer we took the Volt on a 3,318 mile road trip from Miami, FL to Albany, NY - and back. I started the trip with a lifetime MPG average of 74.3, and ended it with 57.6.

I had pre-reserved my hotel rooms on the route, and for each call I had requested the ability to plug-in. Only in NC did they not remember this conversation, but they were able to accommodate me anyways.
 
#27 ·
"Carey Bailey, who drives 30 miles each day to work in Sutherlin in northern Douglas County, said he was unimpressed with electric cars that were so compact that they made him feel claustrophobic.

Bailey, who has been driving a Chevrolet Volt since January, described the financial benefits of his new car. He commutes daily to Sutherlin and said he swapped a $500 monthly gas bill for a $30 increase in his electricity bill."

Really? 30 miles to work, 30 miles home = 60 miles. With 23 working days per month, figure 1380 miles.

At $3.50 per gallon that is 142 gallons of fuel. So he USED to burn 142 gallons of fuel to go 1380 miles? That's a whopping 9.7mpg. I call total horsecrap on that.
 
#33 ·
new jersey owner talks about it



"The lease is a really great deal for two reasons. First, I am only paying $337 a month and second, it is kind of like an extended beta test," said DiPisa. "I wanted to take a three-year lease, see where the development of the next model of Volt goes and take it from there when the lease is up. Given the homerun they hit with the first version, I'm sure I will be financing the second version when my lease is up."


"I get up in the morning, remote start the car for about five minutes to get the temperature nice, drive to work and then drive home at the end of the day. Just plug it in overnight and you're good to go the next day," said DiPisa. "The beauty of it is, even if you forget to plug it in, or if you drive further than the electric range, there is no worrying because you can keep going on the gas if you have to. I've gotten into a routine, just like plugging in my cell phone every night."
comments were made in april

Mike DiPisa had been behind the wheel of a 2004 Chevy TrailBlazer, which averaged about 14 city and 19 highway miles per gallon. He dumped in about $100 a month to get where he needed, including his 26-mile round trip work commute to Hackensack where he is a web content and community manager for Slingo.com.
DiPisa said he was given the car with eight gallons of gas in December and still has four in the tank.
 
#38 ·
Up in Saline, Michigan



Mark Hildebrandt developed a fondness for solar energy back in the 1970s. Over the years, it became his vocation. So, it's fitting that he counts on the sun to charge his Chevrolet Volt, right? Hildebrandt, owner of Sunventrix Solar in Saline, MI, says that:

I made the switch to renewable energy a while ago, and thus with solar energy, I can power my house, charge my Volt and pump energy back into the grid, which I get credit for. As more Volts are sold, I believe the demand for solar charging stations will increase. I have spoken to a handful of Volt owners in Michigan that are really interested in charging their Volts from solar energy.
Hildebrandt is not the only one that's harnessing the sun's energy to charge his Volt. ZD Wines' chief executive officer, Robert deLeuze, has counted on the sun to power his California-based winery since 2007. Now, deLeuza's Volt is often plugged into the winery's photovoltaic system. DeLeuza's claims that:

Solar power generation makes sense, and I think the Volt will help generate more interest in home installations. ZD Wines has had a solar power station for the past three years and purchasing my Volt was a driving factor in installing a solar photovoltaic system at my house.
Of course, even General Motors relies on the power of the sun to charge Volts at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant before the vehicles are hauled away to dealerships.
 
#40 ·
it's all been built in to the programs.

If you don't burn enough of it, the car takes over and burns the gas before it goes stale

The Volt’s computer system is monitoring this activity—keeping track when the gas door opens and closes, how much time has passed, and how many EV miles you’ve driven since the gas engine was last called into action. If you open the gas door, but don’t put in any gas, the Volt knows. The car’s system is double-checking to make sure that new fuel has been added, because old stale gasoline is potentially bad for the system and bad for emissions. An outside temperature sensor is even keeping track of hot days to determine if the fuel might be cooking.

If you haven’t burned fuel for a while, the dashboard display will encourage you to burn some gas, by driving the vehicle beyond its 40 miles battery-supplied power. You can ignore the call to action, but after two warnings about the need to drive using some gasoline, the car will take matters into its own hands. The Volt will then start up the gas engine in order to burn off stale gasoline, circulate engine oil, and pressurize the engine system.

When the car completes this “engine and fuel maintenance mode,” it shuts down again, giving the reins solely back to the electric motor. At that point—for drivers who stay close to home—the gasoline is again left in reserve for days, weeks or months, until your next rare and infrequent trip to the pumps.
http://www.plugincars.com/putting-thought-putting-gas-chevy-volt-69473.html

 
#41 ·


Nathan Pinsley 26... first time car buyer.

has it in New York city. Plugs into his underground garage.

What’s your favorite Volt feature?

Aside from the obvious (low-emission driving and freedom from oil dependence), my favorite feature is the "L" gear which makes stop and go driving in NYC much more tolerable because I can use the Volt's regenerative braking for "one pedal driving" instead of constantly switching back and forth to the brake pedal. Truly an under advertized feature.
 
#42 ·
im going to try hard as hell to convince my dad to get one of these as his next car. his company gets him a car every 5 years or 100k miles and hes been driving an acadia, 7 passenger and 16mpg, to work and back every day by himself for the past few years. :banghead:

hes convinced that our family needs a big car for long trips, with 2 kids in college and last summer myself and my sister living in dc and richmond doing internships, he only had my mom and little brother to drive around. i think its time for him to abandon the 90s love for cheap fuel and oversized cars.
 
#47 ·
Write up on Merit Herman's car




Herman, an executive with a Santa Cruz-based food nutritionals company, agrees with the accolades. He says the car’s performance has exceeded his expectations.

Buying an electric car probably isn’t a stretch for the 45-year-old married father of twins. After all, the roof of his two-story home is covered with solar panels. But the self-professed “solar geek” says he’s not a tree-hugging environmentalist, he’s just a practical spender who was also committed to buying an American car.
 
#48 ·
I could see my family having a Chevy Volt on one side of the garage, and a Tesla Model S on the other...:thumbup:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top