I bought a 2017 Volt in early July, put about 700 miles on it making sure to use the ICE, then hit the road on August 11 for what turned out to be a 3858.9-mile trip from Los Angeles CA to Northern California, Idaho, Yellowstone, Casper WY, Alliance NE (for the total solar eclipse), Denver CO, Santa Fe NM, and Sedona AZ.
The Volt was the best road car I've ever driven! The competition isn't keen, though: a Toyota pickup, a Honda Element, and a Uhaul Truck.
The Volt exceeded my expectations for both smoothness of the ride and power. I knew that the Volt's top speed was around 100 mph, but what made my jaw drop was how quickly and smoothly it would get there... or thereabouts, I should say. I had to remind my wife and co-driver a few times, "Honey, you're going 94...." Getting up to those speeds while passing was so effortless and quick that we had to look at the speedometer to realize just how fast we were going--as fast as 99 once ("Honey....")
The Michelin Energy Savers hugged the road admirably and seemed reasonably quiet, but again, I can't claim much experience with passenger cars on interstate highways. Twice, a certain road surface resulted in a whine like a jet plane taking off, alarming me the first time it occurred as I worried that some component was failing catastrophically or that we were about to be transported into the future, but the car kept going and as soon as we hit a different kind of pavement the sound vanished.
We spent most of the trip, by far, in ICE mode. I charged up only twice, both times in Northern California. Once was at the Placerville Transit Station, at a free L2 charger. This station was relatively convenient as we were going to the Farmer's Market a short walk away. Charged for about 90 minutes. The second charge was at our relatives' house at 110 overnight.
I didn't have any other convenient charging opportunities. By convenient I mean... REALLY convenient. I wasn't going to use PlugShare to find a station and plug in and hoof it five blocks to my hotel. None of the motels we stayed at had L2 stations or outside 110 plugs near our room. I asked a time or two but no one had a clue. We stayed in a cabin at a place called "Hibernation Station" in West Yellowstone but there were no outside plug-ins; a block away, at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, there was a bank of eight Tesla stations--and no Teslas.
In fact, once we left the Los Angeles metropolitan area where EVs are common, I only remember seeing one EV on the whole trip, at a hotel in Sedona NV--a Tesla.
There was a ChargePoint L2 station outside the Petrified Forest in Arizona. We were stopping at the Visitor Center for lunch so I decided to plug in. I pulled out my ChargePoint card, which I'd used twice and which should have had $15 or more available balance, but the station told me that my card was only good at free stations. I called the 800 number for help and was told that I was #5 in the queue. I blew it off.
As we approached Yellowstone, at about the 2000-mile mark (overall mileage), the Check Engine Light came on. I called Onstar but couldn't connect after four tries. When I finally connected in West Yellowstone, they basically recited the paragraph from the manual that we'd already read for ourselves. I asked for a service code but they just read that paragraph about it being an "emission problem" and advised me to take the car in within 7 days. After a little research on this forum and elsewhere, I decided to let the problem ride. The next day, and about 50 miles later, the light went out on its own.
I'm suspecting some cheap gas I bought in Lovelock, Nevada, at a gas station that was the model for every small town horror story ever written. After that unnerving experience (the CEL light, I mean, although stopping at Lovelock was pretty unnerving in itself) I bought only name brand gas and, when in doubt, went for 88 and, at one particularly dodgy station, 91 octane. The CEL never reappeared.
I seemed to stop for gas pretty often, but then again, I only let it drop to one bar once. Generally I added gas when we stopped to switch drivers at the halfway-full mark or better.
There were only two of us on this trip, and frankly I don't see how any more passengers and their luggage would have fit once you add the requisite cooler and snacks and then accumulate ropes of red chiles and such.
We used my iPhone for navigation, linked through CarPlay to the infotainment center. That and the music interface worked fine with only a couple of glitches on the navigation. I highly recommend paper maps as back-ups!
Air conditioning kept us cool even as outside temps hit 119 outside the ironically-named town of Blythe in California's Mojave Desert (STATE PRISON FACILITY, DO NOT PICK UP HITCHHIKERS warns one sign). Overall gas mileage was 37.8 mpg.
Overall the Volt proved to be an excellent road car! It never struggled for power when driving up hills or when passing or when passing while going uphill (on a divided highway, of course). I'm so happy to have a car that does it all.
The Volt was the best road car I've ever driven! The competition isn't keen, though: a Toyota pickup, a Honda Element, and a Uhaul Truck.
The Volt exceeded my expectations for both smoothness of the ride and power. I knew that the Volt's top speed was around 100 mph, but what made my jaw drop was how quickly and smoothly it would get there... or thereabouts, I should say. I had to remind my wife and co-driver a few times, "Honey, you're going 94...." Getting up to those speeds while passing was so effortless and quick that we had to look at the speedometer to realize just how fast we were going--as fast as 99 once ("Honey....")
The Michelin Energy Savers hugged the road admirably and seemed reasonably quiet, but again, I can't claim much experience with passenger cars on interstate highways. Twice, a certain road surface resulted in a whine like a jet plane taking off, alarming me the first time it occurred as I worried that some component was failing catastrophically or that we were about to be transported into the future, but the car kept going and as soon as we hit a different kind of pavement the sound vanished.
We spent most of the trip, by far, in ICE mode. I charged up only twice, both times in Northern California. Once was at the Placerville Transit Station, at a free L2 charger. This station was relatively convenient as we were going to the Farmer's Market a short walk away. Charged for about 90 minutes. The second charge was at our relatives' house at 110 overnight.
I didn't have any other convenient charging opportunities. By convenient I mean... REALLY convenient. I wasn't going to use PlugShare to find a station and plug in and hoof it five blocks to my hotel. None of the motels we stayed at had L2 stations or outside 110 plugs near our room. I asked a time or two but no one had a clue. We stayed in a cabin at a place called "Hibernation Station" in West Yellowstone but there were no outside plug-ins; a block away, at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, there was a bank of eight Tesla stations--and no Teslas.
In fact, once we left the Los Angeles metropolitan area where EVs are common, I only remember seeing one EV on the whole trip, at a hotel in Sedona NV--a Tesla.
There was a ChargePoint L2 station outside the Petrified Forest in Arizona. We were stopping at the Visitor Center for lunch so I decided to plug in. I pulled out my ChargePoint card, which I'd used twice and which should have had $15 or more available balance, but the station told me that my card was only good at free stations. I called the 800 number for help and was told that I was #5 in the queue. I blew it off.
As we approached Yellowstone, at about the 2000-mile mark (overall mileage), the Check Engine Light came on. I called Onstar but couldn't connect after four tries. When I finally connected in West Yellowstone, they basically recited the paragraph from the manual that we'd already read for ourselves. I asked for a service code but they just read that paragraph about it being an "emission problem" and advised me to take the car in within 7 days. After a little research on this forum and elsewhere, I decided to let the problem ride. The next day, and about 50 miles later, the light went out on its own.
I'm suspecting some cheap gas I bought in Lovelock, Nevada, at a gas station that was the model for every small town horror story ever written. After that unnerving experience (the CEL light, I mean, although stopping at Lovelock was pretty unnerving in itself) I bought only name brand gas and, when in doubt, went for 88 and, at one particularly dodgy station, 91 octane. The CEL never reappeared.
I seemed to stop for gas pretty often, but then again, I only let it drop to one bar once. Generally I added gas when we stopped to switch drivers at the halfway-full mark or better.
There were only two of us on this trip, and frankly I don't see how any more passengers and their luggage would have fit once you add the requisite cooler and snacks and then accumulate ropes of red chiles and such.
We used my iPhone for navigation, linked through CarPlay to the infotainment center. That and the music interface worked fine with only a couple of glitches on the navigation. I highly recommend paper maps as back-ups!
Air conditioning kept us cool even as outside temps hit 119 outside the ironically-named town of Blythe in California's Mojave Desert (STATE PRISON FACILITY, DO NOT PICK UP HITCHHIKERS warns one sign). Overall gas mileage was 37.8 mpg.
Overall the Volt proved to be an excellent road car! It never struggled for power when driving up hills or when passing or when passing while going uphill (on a divided highway, of course). I'm so happy to have a car that does it all.
