The brilliance of the Volt is how little different from any other well-performing small car. All the discussions of technique and tracking and "L" vs "D" and when to put on Hold mode actually make pretty insignificant differences in how well the car performs, how economically it runs, or how long it lasts. The car will cope just fine, so long as you've read the manual (available as PDFs from Chevy's site) and when it alerts you about something, you address it immediately.
As for what I did with it prior to purchase, it was one test drive with the sales dude in the back seat, including a trip from one freeway exit to another to get a feel for the pull. And that was enough. I didn't have a place to charge it (technically I was homeless at the time), I didn't have a routine, but it was obvious that the thing would cope with that -- if I didn't charge it, it would just be a hybrid. It worked for everything and it was more economical than the car(s) it was replacing no matter what.
It's a lovely road car, very stable and easy to drive even in 50 MPH crosswinds, and in better conditions I've gotten nearly 50 MPG out of it. Typical months are about 46 MPG. And coming from a turbocharged Chrysler that barely peeked over the 22 MPG line, that's a stunning improvement.
