I have a 60,000 mile ELR/Volt. I've owned it 2 years, no issues besides replacing the 12 volt battery. I'm taking a 1000 mile trip in July, love my car, but wonder if because of age and the mileage the reliability has dropped enough to justify renting a car. Anyone have a car with similar or more miles that have made long trips with or without problems?
1000 mile round trip question.
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Just check the tire pressure and tire condition. Do you carry a spare? Check the oil level, and the coolant level in each of the 3 overflow tanks. Visually inspect the brake fluid reservoir with a flashlight, reservoir should be full. Top off the washer fluid. Check for any signs of leaks. Inspect the wiper blades.
Why would you even think of renting a car when you can drive the truly wonderful ELR? It's brand new at 66K unless you're still on the original tires. If that is 1000 mi RT, that SB a piece of cake. I echo Smarti's feelings re carrying a full-size spare. Enjoy the trip.
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Ditto jcanoe's good advice. I drove my '14 w/ 53k miles 1600 miles in September, and had no problems whatsoever. If you keep up on maintenance and take reasonable precautions, you should have no problems. I did the trip with no spare tire, but I have recent Michelin tires. When highway driving, be particularly careful to avoid road debris, and do not tailgate semi trucks because they hide the large debris until it is too late to avoid. The Volt is a delight to drive at highway speeds, in part because of low wind resistance, so it is not buffetted by x-winds or large trucks.
I would consider renting a car, but not out of worry for the Volt.
Rental Car companies are so desperate for business now and gas is so cheap, you may find a rental car is less expensive than the depreciation/wear-'n-tear on your Volt plus what remote charging would cost you.
Rental Car companies are so desperate for business now and gas is so cheap, you may find a rental car is less expensive than the depreciation/wear-'n-tear on your Volt plus what remote charging would cost you.
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I have a friend who always rents a car on a road trip. His logic is that if anything goes wrong... car accident, mechanical failure, etc then he just calls the rental company and gets another car. If it's his car, it probably ruins the whole trip. So it's a bit like trip insurance.
I don't do this, though, I like to drive my own car, that's why I bought it. Different strokes for different folks...
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I drove from Salt Lake to Cheyenne, Wyoming, in January. That's about 900 miles round trip. I have a 2016 Volt. I started with a full charge and the rest was by gas. I made the whole trip in one day. It wasn't easy. The Volt performed flawlessly. I did have to stop in Evanston to get a new wiper. The weather was horrible. From Salt Lake to Evanstan the roads were snow packed. From Ralston to Laramie there were gusting winds with drifting snow. Sometimes they have to close I-80 in Wyoming because of the winds but luckily it was open on that day. On the way back the roads were good. Since the wind was from the south, the snow drifts didn't make it across the eastbound lanes to the westbound lanes. Not fun.
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Take your ELR and enjoy the trip. I'd do things like check the oil level and OLM (<30% get an oil change before you go), tire treads, coolant levels, etc. before going, but those types of checks should be done on any vehicle before heading out on the road.
I've had a number of cars over the years and have driven some of them with over 100,000 miles on several 2000+ mile round trips with very few issues. That include a 1996 ford Contour (drove till 9 years old and 180K), A 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP (drove to 170K and 16 years old) and a 2001 Chevy Impala (drove to 150K and 18 years old). I'm very anal retentive with my cars so these were all very well maintained.
The 1998 Grand Prix left me stranded once while under warranty at 20K with a failed alternator and once at 100K with a seized idler pully (now I replace them on my cars at 70-80K as a preventative.) both within 150 miles of my home. The contour only ever left me stranded when I had a cooling hose burst at 120K within a few miles of home. Arguably I should have replaced that sooner but chose not to because they were a few hundred dollars to replace because of the design and since many on the forums were choosing not to replace them I decided to push it. The Impala had an issue on a road trip at 60K where the catalytic converter got clogged up and the car lost power. That was a known issue that was fixed by a dealership on the trip under warranty.
So two issues were warranty failures that could happen with a rental as well and two were because I missed a maintenance issue either knowingly or with the idler pully I learned something new about that. So providing that all maintenance is up to date (which you should be doing anyways) I would take that car on the trip without a second thought.
The 1998 Grand Prix left me stranded once while under warranty at 20K with a failed alternator and once at 100K with a seized idler pully (now I replace them on my cars at 70-80K as a preventative.) both within 150 miles of my home. The contour only ever left me stranded when I had a cooling hose burst at 120K within a few miles of home. Arguably I should have replaced that sooner but chose not to because they were a few hundred dollars to replace because of the design and since many on the forums were choosing not to replace them I decided to push it. The Impala had an issue on a road trip at 60K where the catalytic converter got clogged up and the car lost power. That was a known issue that was fixed by a dealership on the trip under warranty.
So two issues were warranty failures that could happen with a rental as well and two were because I missed a maintenance issue either knowingly or with the idler pully I learned something new about that. So providing that all maintenance is up to date (which you should be doing anyways) I would take that car on the trip without a second thought.
I do this all the time with our 2014 Volt with 160K miles (and a big reason it has 160K miles). Never even blink an eye. Super reliable.
With that said - rental companies are practically paying you to take their vehicles right now so you might want to get a few quotes.
IMO, I've rarely had a rental I enjoy as much as driving my own vehicle. An ELR with those seats would an awesome road trip vehicle for 2 people.
With that said - rental companies are practically paying you to take their vehicles right now so you might want to get a few quotes.
IMO, I've rarely had a rental I enjoy as much as driving my own vehicle. An ELR with those seats would an awesome road trip vehicle for 2 people.
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We drove our 2016 G2 Volt on a 4K round trip across much of the country to visit national parks last summer. Car had about 40K miles when we started and didn't have any problems. Most nights we were also able to plug in and have 60 EV miles again for the next day.
60K is no big deal. If your tires and oil life are good, you state no issues, why are you concerned about reliability ? The only reason I can see to rent is whether a two seat car meets your space needs on the trip.
If fee charging away from home isn't economical, don't charge. That's what is great about Voltech. It gives one the choice.
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This is a car question rather than an ELR/Volt specific question.
A car with 60k miles is fine for a road trip. Whether you want to put extra wear and tear on your prize possession is where the debate comes in about using a rental. For 1000 miles, I'd take the ELR, but YMMV.
A car with 60k miles is fine for a road trip. Whether you want to put extra wear and tear on your prize possession is where the debate comes in about using a rental. For 1000 miles, I'd take the ELR, but YMMV.
Thank you all for the encouragement. The comments about renting a car being inexpensive trip insurance are true, but I agree that there's no more comfortable car than my ELR. We're staying at an AirBNB so we can charge every night. We're road tripping and arriving in style.
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I would totally do the ELR. These cars beg to be driven. Mileage of Volts and ELRs are almost irrelevant between the generator and the motor. They are incredible machines. It is a pleasure to enjoy your ELR everytime your push the POWER button. Hahaha.
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Go for it! We took ours to Montreal Valentines weekend and put at least that on the car in frigid temps and snow. It was a great opportunity to check out the new X-Ice's. My only complaint was an annoying rattle coming from the driver's seat that I still haven't fixed since the wife isn't complaining. I even found a charging station in a parking garage up there, so it had electric some of the way.
I did similar trips with no problems
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I do the same. I feel the depreciation on my car is more than the cheap rates the car companies have.
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I have 48K miles on my 2017 volt and i have owned it for four years. for the past 4 years I take an annual trip from Long Island NY to Colorado 1500-1800 miles. I put it on hold and use gas for the whole trip. Had a minor service issued fixed at local dealer in Denver.
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