I drove a Volt tonight.....

My wife and I drive a Volt tonight. It is truely a unique driving exerience. Of course, it was loaded. So, it was plenty refined and luxurious.

So, who else has driven one and what were your impressions?

Matt

Did you check to see how easily we can strip the batteries out of it once we secure one that is totalled? How many cells? Total voltage?

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I love endless sphere.

Won't take long for em to start appearing in the junkyard. Put in your order for the first one that appears now with your buddy there.

John in CR said:

Did you check to see how easily we can strip the batteries out of it once we secure one that is totalled? How many cells? Total voltage?

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Oh, man, I was totally not thinking. I gotta go back with my tool box.

"Honestly, I know what I am doing, I build electric bikes.

Matt

recumpence said:

My wife and I drive a Volt tonight. It is truely a unique driving exerience. Of course, it was loaded. So, it was plenty refined and luxurious.

...

Matt

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What do you mean?

recumpence said:

My wife and I drive a Volt tonight. It is truely a unique driving exerience. Of course, it was loaded. So, it was plenty refined and luxurious.

So, who else has driven one and what were your impressions?

Matt

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Is the takeoff from a dead stop much better than an ICE, like it ought to be?

Cameron

I haven't driven one yet, as they aren't available here in Australia yet.
i have decided that my next car will be a volt though.

they go on sale here in 2012 some time.

Jason.

recumpence said:

John in CR said:

Did you check to see how easily we can strip the batteries out of it once we secure one that is totalled? How many cells? Total voltage?

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Oh, man, I was totally not thinking. I gotta go back with my tool box.

"Honestly, I know what I am doing, I build electric bikes.

Matt

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+1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ROFLOL!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

recumpence said:

John in CR said:

Did you check to see how easily we can strip the batteries out of it once we secure one that is totalled? How many cells? Total voltage?

Click to expand...

Oh, man, I was totally not thinking. I gotta go back with my tool box.

"Honestly, I know what I am doing, I build electric bikes.

Matt

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Please don't forget the camera, because no telling when one will make its way down here.

recumpence said:

My wife and I drive a Volt tonight. It is truely a unique driving exerience. Of course, it was loaded. So, it was plenty refined and luxurious.

So, who else has driven one and what were your impressions?

Matt

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My wife and I drove a Leaf last month. We were also impressed with the car. You could hardly tell it was electric. I expect to take delivery of a new Leaf on 11-28-11. I'm thinking of selling the batteries on ES and buying two Leaf's.

Barry

Barry said:

You could hardly tell it was electric.

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That sounds like a bad thing, to me. :?

amberwolf said:

Barry said:

You could hardly tell it was electric.

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That sounds like a bad thing, to me. :?

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I'm sure he means that it has good power and equivalent power to a gas car.

My experience with the Volt was overall very negative. Its WELL overpriced, underpowered, and only achieves about 30 miles with realistic everyday use. The gasoline engine is not important to me, I would strongly prefer something that has 100+ Mile range and is more powerful. In this price range, spring for the VASTLY superior Tesla Model S.

I have never driven a Leaf, but its a lot faster, and quite a bit cheaper as well. Might be a feasible option if you can get a hefty amount back in your state. Still a bit spendy, but not a bad car, and its faster than your average super cheap car, which is never bad.

Overall I do look forward to being able to purchase a cheap electric car capable of a few hundred miles, but it ABSOLUTELY MUST be faster than your average 10 second to 60 ecobox. That kind of low performance should not be tolerated, even for a daily driver. Something like 6-8 seconds to 60 is acceptable, and so long as it can hit 100 MPH, thats enough. What I like most is the lack of a transmission clunking through gears, or a manual that can be tiresome in heavy traffic. Throw in the fact that you can slam it WOT right after you turn it on, have the A/C or heat cranked with the thing in your garage, and a decent smartphone app allowing me to cool/heat the cabin remotely, and its a winner.

ZOMGVTEK said:

My experience with the Volt was overall very negative. Its WELL overpriced, underpowered, and only achieves about 30 miles with realistic everyday use. The gasoline engine is not important to me, I would strongly prefer something that has 100+ Mile range and is more powerful. In this price range, spring for the VASTLY superior Tesla Model S.

I have never driven a Leaf, but its a lot faster, and quite a bit cheaper as well. Might be a feasible option if you can get a hefty amount back in your state. Still a bit spendy, but not a bad car, and its faster than your average super cheap car, which is never bad.

Overall I do look forward to being able to purchase a cheap electric car capable of a few hundred miles, but it ABSOLUTELY MUST be faster than your average 10 second to 60 ecobox. That kind of low performance should not be tolerated, even for a daily driver. Something like 6-8 seconds to 60 is acceptable, and so long as it can hit 100 MPH, thats enough. What I like most is the lack of a transmission clunking through gears, or a manual that can be tiresome in heavy traffic. Throw in the fact that you can slam it WOT right after you turn it on, have the A/C or heat cranked with the thing in your garage, and a decent smartphone app allowing me to cool/heat the cabin remotely, and its a winner.

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Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.........

First off, the Volt runs 0 to 60 in 8 seconds. It is 149 hp and 273 ft pounds of torque. Not exactly a slouch.

Bear in mind, there are a few modes the car can be set for. The car you drove may have been in slower mode. Also, it is rate as the same performance as the Leaf and is a far more luxurious car.

I agree it is overpriced, though. You may have noticed I did not buy one. I just drove one for about 7 or 8 miles.

Matt

Hi,

Matt said:

So, who else has driven one and what were your impressions?

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My wife pulled into a parking lot next to one and started talking to the owner. He loves it. He commutes 50 mostly fwy miles each way. Drives almost 40 miles each way in EV mode. Charges at home and at work (his employer is paying for 40% of his commute drive. He's used something like (I forget exactly) two tanks of gas in two months.

ZOMGVTEK said:

My experience with the Volt was overall very negative. Its WELL overpriced, underpowered, and only achieves about 30 miles with realistic everyday use.

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I'd also prefer a 100% EV and I think for me its overpriced. I also think the guy my wife talked to would be better off with a Leaf. Our neighbors sister with a similar commute has a Leaf and also loves it. But IMO you are overstating the Volt shortcomings.

OTOH I think a few years of battery improvements (a Leaf with 2x the range) will be the end of the Volt (if its high price doesn't kill it before then ).

ZOMGVTEK said:

In this price range, spring for the VASTLY superior Tesla Model S.

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If you like how paypal takes care of its customers thats a great plan . Buying a 50k car from a company run by Elon Musk seems like a REALLY bad idea to me.

The Volt just feels cheap and poorly designed to me. It's not horrific, and not a bad first attempt. However, its not something I would enjoy driving, and the price is quite a bit higher than I would expect, especially for a Chevy. It's almost as if they priced it high so they would not sell well, and they can ditch the project yet again.

The Tesla Model S is $50K assuming you get the maximum tax rebate possible, so its not exactly cheap. This is coming from an exotic car manufacturer who makes a few thousand cars a year, not a big company like Chevy. One would assume Chevy would have several key advantages from already making a whole lot of vehicles for many years.

To put it simply, most people want electric vehicles to save money on gas. These options will not save the average consumer money over buying a brand new cheap car, such as a Civic. Do something absolutely CRAZY and drive efficiently and logically, you can save 20-40% right away.

ZOMGVTEK said:

To put it simply, most people want electric vehicles to save money on gas. These options will not save the average consumer money over buying a brand new cheap car, such as a Civic. Do something absolutely CRAZY and drive efficiently and logically, you can save 20-40% right away.

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Right on.
Buy a basic level Civic or Focus for 15k, and spend $1500 on a nice ebike. You have the utlimate in efficiency, cost savings, and freedom to go anywhere.

Or in my case, drive a $3000 14 yr old civic, at most once a week, maybe 100 miles a month, with 300 miles a month on the ebike. I can still drive across the country at 38mpg with my car packed. People have no real connection to efficiency. EVs will change that, perhaps. If you want to learn efficiency, get a road bike and pedal that as fast as you can all over. You will instantly despise traffic, stop signs, lights, hills and wind. Welcome to how I grew up! :lol:

What ticks me off to no end is gas mileage in general

A friend of mine had a 86 Civic DX hatch-back that was stick shift. IT got 64 miles to the gallon. Yes, that is correct, 64 miles per gallon! I borrowed it for a while. It is indeed true. Now, bear in mind, it also only went a bit over 60mph. This was the slowest car I ever drove. But, you cannot complain about that for a very innexpensive car that got stupidly high mileage.

Heck, my father's 55 Belair ran 24miles per gallon on a cross country trip.

Something is NOT right with our current ICE car offerings. Technology continues to advance, and gas mileage has gone WAY down over the years. A Taho hybrid gets 17mpg. But, a 87 standard Taho also got 17mph. What is going on? And do not tell me it is emissions that is killing mileage. That cannon be the case, when we can get 1,000hp cars to pass emission tests. There has got to be something else going on.

This is why I am so adamant about electric cars (electric transportation in general).

Matt

recumpence said:

. What is going on? And do not tell me it is emissions that is killing mileage. That cannon be the case, when we can get 1,000hp cars to pass emission tests. There has got to be something else going on.

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I've noticed the same thing. Cars are heavier with much more powerful engines. Is highway mpg being measured at 75mph now instead of 55mph?

Modern cars are much heavier than cars from only 10 years or so. Few day ago I went for a test drive in a brand new Opel Meriva with 1.4 Turbo engine (20hp and 25Nm more than my 1.6 Astra), and to my dissapointment acelleration felt even worse than my 13 year old Astra.

Weight is definitely killer for economy (and performance) in modern cars.

Weight increases caused by side crash safety, front crumple zones and the addition of more creature comforts is one. Also I share the emissions concern, but part of it is technically true. I drove a 97 Honda Civic HX, the lean burn one, for about 100,000 miles from the 100K to 200K mark. With the BIG moose in that stick shift, I regularly got 44 mpg commuting to a contractors plant 200 miles away. My wife is lucky to hit 33 mpg in her stick 2 door 2009 Civic these days.

The technical issue was the HX was 400 lbs lighter and a lean burn engine. When running 22/1 AFR it get about 15% better brake specific fuel consumption than at stoichiometric. My wife's 3 way catalyst that kills CO THC and NOx requires the AFR to "dither" around stoich. So there is a 15% inherent penalty to kill the NOx.

Ok, lets bring weight into it;

Car and Driver did a test on the Taho hybrid. They mentioned that the hybrid system added 500 pounds to the vehicle. So, GM shaved 350 pounds off the rest of the vehicle to help offset that as much as possible. They asked that very question; "What kind of mileage would a standard Taho get without the 350 pounds they removed?" That is a very good question. Why not just lighten vehicles a bit.

However, that being said, taking 10% of the weight off a car will not net a 10% increase in mileage. That is because weight is not the major problem with fuel consumption, it is friction, both aerodynamic and mechanical. A 100 pound car pushing X amount of air will get nearly identical mileage on the highway with no stop and go as a 500 pound car pushing the same X amount of air. So, weight is only a big deal with stop and go. That is why hybrids get such good mileage around town. The regen helps level the paying field as far as stop and go is concerned.

One thing I have done for all of my driving career is add 5 pounds of additional air pressure to my tires. I see 5% better mileage on my service vehicles when I do that. I also coast whenever possible.

Oh, as a side note, I have had people tell me my tires will wear out faster this way. Not true. My tires last just as long (maybe a bit longer) with a touch more air in them. There is a limit to this, however. You cannot add a huge amount of air to the tires. But 5 pounds is fine on the tires and helps mileage enough to make it worth while.

Matt

Being perfectly honest, with the experience I now have from my own experiments etc, I would prefer to build an electric car rather than buy one. You could probably build twice the car for the same money.

John in CR said:

Did you check to see how easily we can strip the batteries out of it once we secure one that is totalled? How many cells? Total voltage?

Click to expand...

I must admit, this one had me lmao(laughing my a** off).