[robmich]

My Bolt is now a week old and all I can say is... You Gotta get one of these!!!

Here are my thoughts...

General:

Nice tight build, no rattles, good seams, excellent paint. Thought I would not like the shape but it grows on you. Amazing room in the interior. The seats are not bad to me. They are pretty firm, but I like that. The infotainment center, while not as feature laden as my Volt works well, touchscreen is responsive, the Premier Radio is equal to my Volt but with better bass. Android Auto works but has screen sizing issues. It is obvious that the infotainment system was designed with AA and AP in mind. Waze will be a great addition (hopefully this month).

Good strong HID headlights, nice taillights. The suspension is tight and well tuned. It actually feels very similar to the touring level of suspension on my C5 Corvette. I like road feel and it is very flat in corners with good snap back of the steering. Acceleration is far above what I expected. Some torque steer, especially if you punch it while rolling in sport mode. The re-map is aggressive. No freeway issues, plenty of passing power.

The regen is far stronger than the Volt. Even while the regen icon is "gray", it still gives 53-55 KW of regen and 70 when green. I'm not sure if I have used the brake pedal more than 10 times.... It has uphill hillholder, and depending on the conditions, the EPB comes on as a hillholder while in low and using one pedal driving.

Personally, I love the electronic shifter. It is better than what I had in my old Prius, and took all of 2 minutes to understand it. It is hard not to know what gear you are in as it is indicated in a big letter on the dash. Moving between D and L is intuitive and effortless. (Does it sound like I like the car)....

The truth is that I could nitpick small items but I purchased it with my eyes open and accepted them before purchase. There have been no surprises and it is all working as expected. My Bolt and Volt are the perfect as we will use little if any gas but always have the option if we plan a long trip. My next stop this weekend is to test a fast charger and get some window tint quotes. Now that there are a few Bolts out there, it's time to stop arguing about what it should be and we should work at thinking of cool options to make a great car even better.

Rob

 

[llninja]

Most importantly, is scarlet still in business with a BoltShelf?

 

[SharkVolt]

I agree on all your points, and would add that the headlights are roughly between the 35 watt Morimoto HID amd 55 watt version for brightness, excellent!

First car I have bought in 60 years where I didn't feel like I had to upgrade them right away.

 

[Steverino]

My Bolt and Volt are the perfect as we will use little if any gas but always have the option if we plan a long trip.

Thanks for the update and feedback, Rob!

This is what I am planning as well for our two car family. The Volt frees me for any long road trip to...anywhere, while the Bolt has enough extra range for any extended Chicago metro area trips, even in winter. I suspect that most of the gas I'll be using will be for FMM given the Volt will then be used mostly for trips under 40 miles.

 

[bro1999]

Most importantly, is scarlet still in business with a BoltShelf?

Yep! The factory privacy screen is a glorified Volt loin cloth.

 

[cfspeakman]

My Summit White Premier is being delivered by Ed, the truck driver, tomorrow. Have window tinting scheduled in a week, and looks like going to need to do some experimenting with LED interior lights. No interior incadescents in my Volts, replaced them all with LED. Never paid any attention to whether the lights dim properly or not though. Have you had a chance to play with LED's yet, Bro???

 

[dumluk2002]

Nice review! makes me definitely want to test and buy one. Nitpick away. To some it is a nitpick to others its a real issue. Well done

 

[dutch husky]

Great to hear from another enthusiastic, satisfied Bolt owner! Can't wait to test drive one, though it isn't likely to be until this fall here in Michigan...

Interesting to hear about the aggressive re-map in Sport mode. I don't ever drive my '16 Volt in Sport mode; the difference to me is very modest, and the car is so enjoyable to drive in normal mode anyway, that I don't bother. Even when I'm showing off to a passenger, I might floor it in which case the response is essentially the same in either mode.

I would be curious to know what your nit-pick items are, too. If nothing else, seeing how insignificant these things are reinforces how good the rest of it is.

Congrats!

 

[Ladogaboy]

I agree on all your points, and would add that the headlights are roughly between the 35 watt Morimoto HID amd 55 watt version for brightness, excellent!

First car I have bought in 60 years where I didn't feel like I had to upgrade them right away.

I agree. I was very impressed with the headlights. I think it might also be a result of the headlight color. IIRC, certain color headlights improve visibility better than others at equivalent lumen levels.

 

[robmich]

So, here are my first nits.....

As reported, the AA display issue... We need a list of the actual commands used by the infotainment center, interior lights should be LED, more color combos and customization options for the 10.2 screen, a boltshelf...., a lighted charge port (heard that would be released later as an addon), and thats about it for now... Here is a funnys story...

So I activated KeyPass and turned on the "welcome lighting" option. When you get close to your Bolt with your phone, the headlights, etc. turn on to welcome you. I'm sitting in the house and my wife tells me that the headlights just turned on.. Before I get here, they are back off. Later, they turned on again, and now I'm thinking "SkyNet"... Actually, everytime I got near enough to my parked Bolt, the KeyPass bluetooth sensed me and popped on the lights!! Got a good laugh out of that one.....