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2012 Chevrolet Volt Pros and Cons at TrueDelta: Junk is the best way to descibe it by ReVolted

ReVolted

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Introduction

Honestly I wanted to love my 2012 Chevrolet volt, I wanted the car to be a halo of american design and to show that American manufacturers knew how to make a quality long lasting appliance like a Toyota or Honda. Lets start with the good.. The design was sleek, sporty, and was a techies wet dream.. the electronic features and gauges made driving it feel like it was a video game, with bonus points on getter more out of a kw of electricity.. It handled like it was on rails and it was whisper quiet, the interior feel and fit and finish looked and felt well crafted, frankly better than any GM I had been in before or since. The seats up front were comfortable and the low end torque was amazing.. a real blast to drive.. The Bad.. That same plastic body was made of a resin that shrinks when it's cold, the panel gaps get wider in the winter than the summer, the electronics over time get insanely expensive to replace and they break so often that owning one of these is like going to the bank and telling them to just randomly weekly give away your money in your account, the transmission is junk, eas replaced twice in the first 15k miles of ownership, the head gasket went at 18k miles, the charge system got a surge from the main line and fried the charge port and melted my home breaker box, the exhaust prematurely failed and fell off the car, the presurized gas tank sensor failed and wouldn't let you fill it, the steering column failed and on the highway decided to disconnect completely (there was actually a class action lawsuit on this) The airbag sensor died and caused a christmas tree of lights on the dashboard to appear, the door sensor failed, this caused the open door chime to randomly go off ehile driving, the ignition module failed while the car was running so you couldn't turn it off, the car was in the shop 64 times in the 18 months I owned it..

Reviewed: 2012 Chevrolet Volt

4dr Hatch 149-horsepower Electric + Gas CVT FWD

Why the 2012 Chevrolet Volt?

Quietness

When it worked it was like driving in a cocoon away from all the vibration and noise..

Front seat support & comfort

The front seats offer very good support and the seat bottoms are designed for tall drivers..

Why Not the 2012 Chevrolet Volt?

Fuel economy

It's an electric car with a gas generator.. The electric range in the summer is amazing getting close to 30mi on full quiet comfort electric.. The winter MPG is horrible.. The design required the gas engine in cold weather to run the heat, it also required it to keep the batteries warm.. as a result combining the cost of electric and gas made my average around 6.8mpg in the harsh snow belt winters.

Reliability & durability

I visited the dealership in 18 months of driving over 60 times.. it was constantly broken..

Warranty, maintenance cost

All stealership warranties are garbage, but GM didn't train the techs to actually fix these cars till years after they were on the road.. which was told to me by a dealership.

Depreciation

The book value sinks faster than the titanic.. If you buy one offer 5.00 anything more you are getting ripped off

Insurance cost

due to the complexity of these cars the insurance for them is higher than owning a Honda civic at 18.

Conclusion

If you are thinking of buying one, let me know and we can get together and just light your money on fire.. it will be far less stressful..

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Response from Elewpier5

2:16 am January 26, 2019

I was thinking of jumping on a gently-used 2015 with only 20K, asking 16K, but after anecdotal knowlege from folks like you over the last few months, I think I'll pass. To me this car is like a BMW...nice for various purposes, but a lease car, and expensive toy to keep once the warranty runs out. That Chevy is killing it so soon tells me volumes. Nice idea depending on where you live and how you drive, but too complex to be reliable over time even for the manufacturer. In Jan 2019 I even checked out a 2017 Premium with only 3K miles, asking 24K out the door taxes fees and tags, but the all-black interior just looked so cheap, I moved along. Too bad about the Volt, it had such promise.

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