[MrEnergyCzar]

2016 vs. 2012, First Impressions....UPDATED

2016 is faster, lighter, quieter and better in almost every way.

Here are some differences:
When you floor it, it makes a blade runner type sound inside the car. Not very loud but noticeable.
When driving in a parking lot, 20 mph or less, it does make a pedestrian constant electric whine that you can only hear if outside.
The quality and workmanship appears better than Gen 1.
There are purple black light strips along the top half of each front door. Think Tron when night driving.
Leather seats are half perforated and half solid leather.
The front doesn't scrape the ground as easily in Gen 1.
There are still no front seat grab bars to help get in and out of the car.
There are mini mud flaps of some sort just "before" the rear wheels, not after.
You can display 3 rows of favorite pre-set stations or 15 total.
The sound system is about 15% better, seems to have more powerful bass.
If using Lane Departure Alert, it may nudge the car back in your lane when drifting.
Range is easily over the 53 miles (45F) with aggressive driving.
To be clear, there are officially now two levels of regen. When in L and when in L and you use the paddle.
The volume control is oddly behind the right side of the steering wheel with a Braille type of labeling. (Raised bubble or collapsed)
The front windshield pillar appears about 20% less distracting.
The headlights at night are brighter.
The navigation maps or the songs you are listening to are also shown behind the steering wheel.
There are 4 ways to set-up the speedometer screen instead of 2 on Gen 1.
You can swipe the main 8" screen like an Ipad.
You can leave the energy screen on to show the current and lifetime MPG instead of MPGe.
The MPG is capped at 250+. Experts here can explain why they wouldn't make it 500 or 999?.
The air compressor is totally different, a square box.
The side mirrors are smaller than Gen 1.
There is no homelink option.
The side mirrors no longer blink when using turn signal.
A beep and bright red stream of lights, lights up the windshield if you are eminently going to hit someone ahead.
When the engine comes on it appears to be 50% quieter and revs a lot lower when pushing on highway.
The optional LED charge port shuts off after a full charge.
The charge level indicator has 5 different meanings depending on how high the charge level is.
It now flashes while charging like most plug-in devices. Solid when done. Charge port flashes in-sync as well.

 

[Volt Dolt]

Thanks so much for the detailed list. As a 2012 owner anxious to get a 2016, this just adds fuel to my fire. All good (except deletion of Home link, which is not huge deal, but has me wondering what GM was thinking). 3rd party licensing too expensive? Some liability concern?

Thanks again!

 

[MrEnergyCzar]

Thanks so much for the detailed list. As a 2012 owner anxious to get a 2016, this just adds fuel to my fire. All good (except deletion of Home link, which is not huge deal, but has me wondering what GM was thinking). 3rd party licensing too expensive? Some liability concern?

Thanks again!

It has been said that our 2012 Volts were the best made model year of Gen 1 but you'll be very impressed when you drive the 2016.
MrEnergyCzar

 

[linkim]

It has been said that our 2012 Volts were the best made model year of Gen 1 but you'll be very impressed when you drive the 2016.
MrEnergyCzar

Thanks for your list of the differences between Gen 1 and Gen 2. Have you found any difference in entering and exiting the two Gens? Compared to my LEAF, the 2016 Volt is more difficult to enter. The roof line is lower so that may be part of the problem. Not a big deal for me.

 

[MrEnergyCzar]

Thanks for your list of the differences between Gen 1 and Gen 2. Have you found any difference in entering and exiting the two Gens? Compared to my LEAF, the 2016 Volt is more difficult to enter. The roof line is lower so that may be part of the problem. Not a big deal for me.

No difference noticed for me but I'm only 5' 9".

 

[imanjunk1963]

Do you notice the electric heat using less or the same amount of the battery?
Do you notice if the heated steering wheel using any neglible amount too as someone posted they thought it used a bit?
Is there less road noise particularly from the rear seating/hatch area or maybe they insulated better?
How much regen does the pattles cause then L alone? And can you use the paddles alone without it in L and if so what rate of regen would that be of L alone, L with Pattles and Pattles alone if there is such a 3rd option.

 

[Ladogaboy]

Thanks for the rundown.

It has been said that our 2012 Volts were the best made model year of Gen 1 but you'll be very impressed when you drive the 2016.
MrEnergyCzar

I'm curious about that opinion. Is it only because the MY2012 saw the greatest improvement over the previous MY of any Gen 1? Having owned both a MY2012 and MY2015, I can say that the MY2015 is far superior to the MY2012 in every way other than defaulting to 8A charging.

 

[imanjunk1963]

Nope 2014 was good too except you have a little more battery. I think 2013 was worst as it seems the most "FIXES"....dare I say recall.

 

[Ladogaboy]

Nope 2014 was good too except you have a little more battery. I think 2013 was worst as it seems the most "FIXES"....dare I say recall.

Yeah. I knew the 2013 had some major issues relative to the other years. The 2012 was solid, don't get me wrong, but I wonder if there is a bit of romanticizing as that was the first year people really started biting on the Volt (relatively speaking, hah!).

 

[ClarksonCote]

Nice synopsis. FYI, I made a video of the different driver display configurations that, as there's a fair amount of them now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC_2BQXWlH4

 

[miamialley]

Nice synopsis. FYI, I made a video of the different driver display configurations that, as there's a fair amount of them now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC_2BQXWlH4

Thanks, I was looking for that.

 

[radx4]

I test drove a 2016 Volt today. Mostly I agree with what others have said: quicker, more efficient, quieter, improved in most ways.

Gen2 is definitely quicker, but in Normal it didn't quite feel like Gen1 in Sport as some have described. Still, it has noticeably better acceleration.

Gen2 is noticeably quieter. Even driving in hold you pretty much couldn't tell the gas engine was running.

Somehow Gen2 felt bigger than Gen1, although on paper it isn't much different.

Visibility was worse than I had thought. You can't see out the back window as well due to removal of the lower plastic panel. Oddly, the rear view mirror still has the "bump" in the middle to see out the panel that no longer exists. The backup camera worked pretty well, although it seemed a bit low resolution. I still don't understand why they removed the turn signals from the side mirrors. You can't see the turn signal from the side of the car, and that's a safety issue. Not sure that saved that much in terms of cost.

The controls also didn't work quite as well as I had hoped. Mostly everything is analogous to Gen1. Yes, the displays have been prettied up, but functionally they're about the same. Even music playback still doesn't show track numbers. I don't understand why they didn't do this. Even my wife's Hyundai Elantra shows track numbers during music playback.

The main display is nicer than Gen1. The touchscreen works well. But it's at a much lower angle than the Gen1 display, which was basically vertical. This made it a bit awkward and produced some glare. Also, without a "Climate" screen, you could no longer tell when the heat or air conditioning were running.

I briefly ran the heat (even though it wasn't very cold today). It seemed to work fairly well. It got warm within 30 seconds (takes several minutes in my 2013). It still used 4-6 kW, but at lest it seemed effective.

Overall, the 2016 is a nice upgrade from the Gen1 Volt. Since I have a 2013, I won't be upgrading any time soon. Maybe in a few years (and some more improvements) it might be worth it.

 

[MrEnergyCzar]

Thanks for the rundown.



I'm curious about that opinion. Is it only because the MY2012 saw the greatest improvement over the previous MY of any Gen 1? Having owned both a MY2012 and MY2015, I can say that the MY2015 is far superior to the MY2012 in every way other than defaulting to 8A charging.

I think its because the removal of content started with the 13'. No more hard drive or pausing live radio and songs, some sort of deflector plate was removed under the car to save weight and things like that.... a row of buttons were removed from the center stack.

 

[MrEnergyCzar]

Do you notice the electric heat using less or the same amount of the battery?
Do you notice if the heated steering wheel using any neglible amount too as someone posted they thought it used a bit?
Is there less road noise particularly from the rear seating/hatch area or maybe they insulated better?
How much regen does the pattles cause then L alone? And can you use the paddles alone without it in L and if so what rate of regen would that be of L alone, L with Pattles and Pattles alone if there is such a 3rd option.

The whole inside of the car seems equally quieter. As far as the paddle, if you drive in D, pulling the paddle would be like temporarily putting it in L regen mode. If driving in L, the paddle roughly doubles the L regen level. The paddle when in L is a pretty strong regen pullback on the car....

 

[miamialley]

I test drove a 2016 Volt today. Mostly I agree with what others have said: quicker, more efficient, quieter, improved in most ways.

Gen2 is definitely quicker, but in Normal it didn't quite feel like Gen1 in Sport as some have described. Still, it has noticeably better acceleration.

Gen2 is noticeably quieter. Even driving in hold you pretty much couldn't tell the gas engine was running.

Somehow Gen2 felt bigger than Gen1, although on paper it isn't much different.

Visibility was worse than I had thought. You can't see out the back window as well due to removal of the lower plastic panel. Oddly, the rear view mirror still has the "bump" in the middle to see out the panel that no longer exists. The backup camera worked pretty well, although it seemed a bit low resolution. I still don't understand why they removed the turn signals from the side mirrors. You can't see the turn signal from the side of the car, and that's a safety issue. Not sure that saved that much in terms of cost.

The controls also didn't work quite as well as I had hoped. Mostly everything is analogous to Gen1. Yes, the displays have been prettied up, but functionally they're about the same. Even music playback still doesn't show track numbers. I don't understand why they didn't do this. Even my wife's Hyundai Elantra shows track numbers during music playback.

The main display is nicer than Gen1. The touchscreen works well. But it's at a much lower angle than the Gen1 display, which was basically vertical. This made it a bit awkward and produced some glare. Also, without a "Climate" screen, you could no longer tell when the heat or air conditioning were running.

I briefly ran the heat (even though it wasn't very cold today). It seemed to work fairly well. It got warm within 30 seconds (takes several minutes in my 2013). It still used 4-6 kW, but at lest it seemed effective.

Overall, the 2016 is a nice upgrade from the Gen1 Volt. Since I have a 2013, I won't be upgrading any time soon. Maybe in a few years (and some more improvements) it might be worth it.

Track numbers? Are you actually playing a CD?

 

[VoltCrazee]

Are grip assist handle present for the driver and front passenger? Gen 1 does not have them and I consider that a significant negative considering just about every other new car has them. It's been a problem for me when entering and exiting either seat due to some physical limitations I have.

 

[Raechris]

Do you notice the electric heat using less or the same amount of the battery?
Do you notice if the heated steering wheel using any neglible amount too as someone posted they thought it used a bit?
Is there less road noise particularly from the rear seating/hatch area or maybe they insulated better?
How much regen does the pattles cause then L alone? And can you use the paddles alone without it in L and if so what rate of regen would that be of L alone, L with Pattles and Pattles alone if there is such a 3rd option.

Heated steering wheel does not use a lot of power. I watch it go to same 0.5 at rest. It is the best feature of the car when cold outside.

Pedestrian sound can be heard inside the car. Not obtrusive but easily heard when you know the sound and radio off and outside noise low.

Regen paddle is awesome and can vary overall affect by combining with regen brakes at same time.

ICE is clearly audible and loud imho. Buzzes and easily felt at all rpm thru steering wheel. MPG on ICE poor so far at 36.5 although colder, on winter blend and have to drive fast on MA hwys not to get killed by others.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wws]

Are grip assist handle present for the driver and front passenger? Gen 1 does not have them and I consider that a significant negative considering just about every other new car has them. It's been a problem for me when entering and exiting either seat due to some physical limitations I have.

No - and I find it annoying too. They are present for the rear seat passengers.

 

[vic18t]

Range is easily over the 53 miles (45F) with aggressive driving.

I can't get mine above 50 miles on all-electric full charge in California. Not sure what's going on - makes me think there's something wrong with my car when everyone is saying they are getting above 50 mile range in less than ideal conditions.

My estimated gas range is also 290 miles on a full tank and not the 370 miles for average driving.

What do you mean by aggressive driving? Hard acceleration? Do you ever go above 50mph?

 

[MrEnergyCzar]

Upon further review, if you use the paddle when in D, it regens at the very high amount of -47kw. When in L only, you get about -27kw. When in L and use paddle you get -47kw.