Hit 222,222 miles today and thought I'd post some kind of long term review.
The car was bought new from the dealer at the end of September 2014. I had just moved to the mountain north of LA and my commute had become 110 miles one way ~ (220 miles / day) and obviously needed a better mileage vehicle than my pickup.
On paper I was supposed to telecommute a few days a week, which never really happened. I was allowed to recharge the car at work (at that happened) giving me consistently about 95-100 miles of electric per day (more on that below). I was able to shift my hours to "mid-morning" / "late night" to avoid traffic which worked pretty well (4 hours commute per day on good days)
Living up the mountain, mornings would yield typically 60 miles of electric thanks to about 75 minutes of mostly downhill driving. At night, LA is pretty flat up until the Santa Clarita area but by then I have already exceeded the ~ 40 miles range.
For probably 2 and a half years, I steadily did 95-100 miles of electric off a 220 miles commute which isn't too bad, spending about $10-$12 day on gas.
About 1 year ago, I started noticing a little bit of degradation in my electric range. And after looking and doing a little bit of "testing" I found that on a typical flat drive, 72F ambient, no A/C I would do a little less than I used to 35 miles, and more recently 33. Not too bad IMO considering the warranty on the battery was blown within 18 months. Speaking of "testing", nothing special here, my benchmark is -terrible- Friday night which I like for this excellent consistency. As far as driving is concerned, every time I am on the freeway with decent traffic I set the cruise speed to 72 mph, always. no exception.
In these 222,222 miles I had 2 minor accidents: a truck tire bouncing from lane to lane which I could not avoid; it damaged the front left bumper area, no big deal. The second one was a 3-car accident (I was the middle one), some guy couldn't stop and hit my rear pushing me to the vehicle in front of me. While there was no apparent damage (really the cars all looked fine), they did some internal repairs; and after a few months I brought it back to the shop because of a noise; As it turns out 2 of the motor mounts were half broken making these weird noises when braking and accelerating (no noise in cruise). They fixed it and it went fine.
As far as general maintenance, I brought it to the dealer every 30,000 miles (every 6 months) for oil change (that's how long the oil would last before giving me the notice for service) and tire rotation. Once in a while some other stuff would be due, mostly various fluids/filters. Tires are replaced every 60,000 miles (every 12 months). And that is it! Brakes haven't been touched yet which is amazing but I guess the generative braking system does help a lot there.
that's about it... >220K miles in less than 4 years sure is a lot but I am sure there must be a few more crazier folks around that have done more in depth reviews. But if you guys have any question, feel free to ask.
Also it could be some other factor as well. Obviously all batteries degrade to some extent. However there are a lot of factors outside the battery that can also effect range. Maybe a wheel bearing is wearing out or some other mechanical component that is starting to generate added friction.
Thank you for taking the time to do this. That is a long daily commute!
I purchased my 2014 in February, 2017 with 20k on it. It now has 25k. My commute is 52 miles total and that is too much for this old, two years away from retirement, guy.
Cheers,
Scott
2014 Volt Premium - Safety pkg 1 and 2, Navigation
Thanks for the review. I love seeing these types of posts!
My round trip is about 80 miles per day. Just hit 94k and still feels new. Just ordered a front wheel bearing, but I'm guessing that was caused by a 10" deep pot hole at 75 mph early one morning.
Thank you for the post. I bought my Volt used, so the fact that depreciation is so high was a big factor in why I bought. Good to know I can drive it a lot longer without worrying about it breaking down
TO werdup:
I bought my 2011 almost three years ago sight unseen. I am in Phoenix and the car was for sale at a dealership outside Chicago. I saw it online, fully loaded for a 2011, 70,000 miles sold as certified used so it had the one year bumper to bumper warranty. I had them send pictures and walk around the car while we were on the phone. Had it shipped to my house, now nearly three years later, over 106,000 miles with no problems except for one sensor needing replaced, about $150. Hope you enjoy your Volt for years to come.
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