Buying a 2013 Volt

Yeah, this one doesn't have the backup camera or rear sensors. Those would be nice to have, no doubt.

I just looked up the car at Garbing online. It looks to be similarly equipped as this one with lower miles. They are asking $14k, so I suppose the final price could be close to the local one. On the other hand, this one includes a 220v charger (about a $500 value, no?), it's 2 hours closer to my home (each way), and I met the original owner, and can see maintenance records. He's also including the charger, two sets of winter mats, brand new tires, and see that he was a fastidious owner. He said he got the factory winter mats at first but didn't feel they were big enough and he was getting salt on the carpets so he replace them with a set of Weathertech floor liners. Nice and picky, just the type of guy I want to buy a used car from. Personally, I don't like buying used cars from dealers. One has no idea about the previous ownership history and pays a premium for no particular value in return. I also know that the car doesn't smell funny (no pets or smoking) and is really clean.

A local dealer has a 2015 Volt on their lot. Despite being two years newer it has about the same miles and they are asking about $16k for it. However, I went to drive it and even after the dealer's detailing the interior looked to have seen quite a bit of abuse and the paint looked like it saw nothing but free car washes with plastic brushes.

Oh, and the seller sent me his last couple of OnStar monthly usage summaries on his car. He was about 99% electric and he was actually surprised to see the 4 miles of gasoline usage on the report. Our whole town is only about 12 miles from end to end so I'll similarly run mostly electric most of the time with some occasional farther trips for my son's baseball tournaments and the like.

I met the owner at the local Chevy store and had a PPI inspection done. He was the original buyer of the car. The service manager confirmed the Voltec warranty is good through June of 2021, so just about three more years and another 50k Miles. I assume this means the traction motor, engine, batteries, transmission, etc. are all covered?


There haven’t even been any warranty repairs of note on the car, no remaining software updates, or recalls. Tires are new, brakes are fine and wear and tear almost nonexistent. And I say this as a classic car collector who has looked at many cars for sale over the years. My philosophy is that when one buys a used car he is buying the prior owner as much as the vehicle itself. This is type of owner I like to see when I buy a car. He kept allmof the records, his garage was spotless and organized, his other car was in similar condition, as was the boat parked in the third stall. This is the key reason I don’t like to buy cars from dealers.

I thought by 2013 they had done away with the remote opening charge door and it now just had the push-to-open type? Aren’t these a lot less problematic than the earlier design?

The car did come with both the level 1 charger and the GE Level 2 unit. The GE charger is set up to plug into a dryer-type outlet. The breaker box in my house is in the basement which is actually below the garage. There is space in the box to add an additional 40 amp circuit but there is some extra work required to get through some walls. The electrician quoted me $480 for the work.

I am debating... the $480 seems fair but isn’t entirely a necessary expenditure. It will be particularly nice in the winter but isn’t critical for my use of the Car. On the other hand, having 240v in the garage isn’t a bad thing for future resale and I have a feeling I am going to get hooked on driving a plug-in car, so I could still use it in the future.

As for the car, so far I am loving it. It is so quiet and relaxing. My 9 year old has already mastered the infotainment system and thinks the remote climate preconditioning is pretty cool.

Lifetime MPG on the screen says 108 mpg, for anyone interested.

I did speak to OnStar and they gave me a 90-day free trial period for their service. Afterwards, the cost for the service that allows me to remote monitor the battery charge and preconditioning is $15/month. We’ll see, but that seems awefully pricey. Also, the chargers at work are ChargePoint and their app allows me to see the state of charge, as well.

I do wonder what the take rate is on the paid OnStar subscription after the trial period. Pretty low, I would guess?