[Turbo2]

For anyone looking to buy a Volt for it's great economy. RUN AWAY it's all a hoax if you live in a colder climate. I bought my 2014 Volt on Halloween this year and it is stored inside a heated garage. When I first got it a full charge would show 38 miles for electric only and a full tank of gas would show a range of 340 miles. After a few weeks the electric full charge kept dropping every couple of days and now is to the point a full charge is only good for 23 miles (shouldn't it still be 38 until I back it out of the heated garage where it then senses that it is cold and not warm and then adjust down?). To make matters worse I don't actually get the 23 miles because it's been about 35 - 40 degrees F outside. And it gets worse, I went from an all gas engine usage range of 340 miles to now where a full tank range is only worth 160 miles! That's right folks.........17 MPG. My Cadillac with a V8 in the city gets better MPG than my Volt. Think that's as bad as it gets? Wrong, the more I drive it, the lower the gas mileage goes. By the time we hit late January and get down to 0 F or even into the negative temperatures I should need a gas tanker following me just to get back and forth to work. 2 dealers have told me that if there are no warning lights on then the car is running fine and it is what it is. If I wanted to have this kind of MPG I would have held on to my 1974 Cadillac with the 472 big block. If this nightmare isn't enough I also have to deal with the smell of burning rubber every time the engine is used, the lane departure system turns itself on and off at highway speeds when it rains out, the park assist system will sometimes shut down when going forward from a stop or parking, and the infotainment system will lock up at various times with no way to change anything (lovely going down the road and having the rear camera showing you everywhere you have been) I brought it to the dealer once for this already and was told they found nothing wrong and didn't smell anything burning. What a surprise, but I bet they will find everything that's wrong once my warranty is up.

 

[llninja]

Burning rubber, low gas mileage... are you sure you're not driving like Jeff Gordon with tractoin control off?

Just hang onto the volt until Spring and Summer. Then you can complain all you want about how the volt is getting 45-50 miles of EV range (how dare GM exceed the EPA estimates).

So, some things to check:
- was this new or used?
- are the wheels stock wheels or did a previous owner install custom wheels? Heavier wheels can steal EV miles
- what brand and model of tires are on the car? My Yokohama Avid Ascends and 18" rims dropped my range by about 5 miles
- what's the tire pressure?
- does your normal commute include highways? How fast do you drive? How far?
- after a long drive, touch all 4 of your tires and wheels (be careful, it might be hot - don't burn yourself). if any wheels are hot, you might have a stuck caliper. this can happen to any car, not just volts. This can explain the horrible range and burnt rubber smell.

I can't believe this diagnosis was suspected on two separate cars today. Alas, this is the best I can do over a web forum. If the dealership didn't check the brake calipers based on your symptoms, you need to find a new dealership for service.

BTW, my car is getting 72 MPG lifetime... I have a 65 mile per day commute with no charging at work. it's not a hoax, no Prius can touch this.

 

[Neromanceres]

I live in Canada. It was 0F this morning when I first started out (warmed up to about 5F in the picture below). Still got better fuel economy than any gas powered car (including hybrids). I loved my 2013 Volt. I love my 2017 Volt even more. If I pushed my 2013 hard with high heater use 23 miles was not unusual in the winter. Setting the engine assist heat to very cold meant that the gas engine didn't run that much in the winter.

 

[gojira]

I bought a used 2013 Volt in September and never get that low mpg. I drove the car from NH to MI for Christmas without the ability to charge along the way and got 40mpg overall for the trip there and back.

I drive 110 miles round-trip a day from central NH to the Upper Valley (along the VT border); I have cold weather, mountains, back roads and cold, cannot charge at the work end, and got 50mpg yesterday. When it was warmer out I was getting around 62mpg. Oh and I'm currently running Blizzak snows -1 (16" tires) on third party alloy wheels and it's made very little difference to my mpg.

I'd say something is wrong with your car and the brakes seem to be a place to look. I have an old Jeep that the calipers lock up on every so often (it doesn't get driven a lot) and you'll get burnt brake smell. One of the times it was the caliper piston being slightly oblong and the piston did not always retract fully; that was an ugly one to find as it didn't always happen. Maybe you have something similar?

 

[ianjay]

Such vitriol! What a disaster! Wall the car up immediately! #it had no effect on the election - unbearable!
The Volt doesn't care if it is kept in a warm garage. It calculates range based on the way you drive and yes, ambient temperature has an effect. What you used to get is irrelevant. The range is an estimate, not a guarantee. Do you remember how the automatic choke affected fuel economy when the 472 encountered cold weather?
On the other hand, you, like the President-elect, don't seem to be too concerned with facts since your mind is already made up. You might as well ditch the Volt and get something else you won't be happy with. #run away screaming

 

[sduck]

I'm calling bull****. If you're really getting 17 mpg with the ICE you've got to have all kinds of warning lights going off. No way is Massachusetts cold enough to cause that low mileage. When I'm up in the northern east coast sometimes my ICE mileage drops to 37 at the worst. Take the car to a reputable dealer and tell them to FIX IT, and don't dick around, don't accept "it's fine" as an answer.

 

[Loboc]

First anonymous post. Nothing to see here.

My 1972 Eldo got 9mpg average. Do you know how to calculate mpg? Do you even own either of these cars?

 

[don shaw]

have you contacted your Volt advisor? Do so

 

[BAZINGA]

Can I suggest to sign up and register your car on VoltStats.net, twice a day VoltStats will use OnStar to poll your car and download all sorts of battery, fuel mileage info and then display your numbers as compared to thousands of other Volt owners.

BTW I have owned 3 Volts since March 2012 driven over 50K miles in temps as low as -16 degrees and I can tell you my fuel mileage (While worse in the winter) was still better than 90% of similarly sized cars.


I have to question your facts.

 

[llninja]

BtW 23 miles of range in cold is normal. I'm lucky if I get anything over 26 nowadays. 16 MPG does not seem normal. Are you sure your numbers are right?

 

[Prohidium]

If you start the Volt in extreme cold, and only go a mile or two, and also let it idle for a bit, you can certainly get low mpg readings. Driving a few more miles would very quickly improve mpg. This is in no way shape or form a legitimate mpg rating. You could drive any ICE vehicle and achieve the same distortion of mpg.

The rest of your car issues should be brought up with your dealer.

 

[jeff_h]

Can I suggest to sign up and register your car on VoltStats.org. Twice a day VoltStats will use OnStar to poll your car and download all sorts of battery, fuel mileage info and then display your numbers as compared to thousands of other Volt owners.

Slight correction - its voltstats.net

 

[Turbo2]

Such vitriol! What a disaster! Wall the car up immediately! #it had no effect on the election - unbearable!
The Volt doesn't care if it is kept in a warm garage. It calculates range based on the way you drive and yes, ambient temperature has an effect. What you used to get is irrelevant. The range is an estimate, not a guarantee. Do you remember how the automatic choke affected fuel economy when the 472 encountered cold weather?
On the other hand, you, like the President-elect, don't seem to be too concerned with facts since your mind is already made up. You might as well ditch the Volt and get something else you won't be happy with. #run away screaming

Thanks, that was so helpful...........not.

 

[Turbo2]

have you contacted your Volt advisor? Do so

I tried using the chat link on my Volt and it comes up server unavailable all the time. Can I talk to one through Onstar?

 

[mr_raider]

I'm calling bull****. If you're really getting 17 mpg with the ICE you've got to have all kinds of warning lights going off. No way is Massachusetts cold enough to cause that low mileage. When I'm up in the northern east coast sometimes my ICE mileage drops to 37 at the worst. Take the car to a reputable dealer and tell them to FIX IT, and don't dick around, don't accept "it's fine" as an answer.

I've gotten as low as 33mpg on sustained 70 mph drives, in cold temps. Then again my other car gets 22mpg under those conditions, with a 3L I6 turbo in it.

 

[Qinsp]

First anonymous post. Nothing to see here.

My 1972 Eldo got 9mpg average. Do you know how to calculate mpg? Do you even own either of these cars?

That's what I was thinking. The worst was '74-77. Big ass engine, very low compression, heavy car, quadra-junk carb, no-lock converter. Very, very thirsty. Fuel economy actually went down before it went up. Those were the worst years. Modern SuperB motorhomes get better economy, even in the city.

 

[Turbo2]

First, to of all of you that actually tried to help, Thank you.

My Volt is a used 2014 with about 45,000 miles and all stock equipment (tires, wheels, etc.). The brake calipers are not sticking and tire pressures are at 38 psi. There are no warnings on the cars display and my Onstar report shows everything is ok. I have to travel about 15 miles to work and when I fist got it I could make the round trip with no gas usage. Now I can only do about 20 miles if I'm lucky before I have to start using gas. I have been driving easy to try to coax more MPG but nothing helps, both battery life and gas range continue to fall. The dealer I bought the car from said they couldn't smell anything burning and checked out the battery and other systems and said everything is fine. I called another dealer and they said the MPG drops in the winter time and that 17 mpg would be about right. They also said if I brought it to them and they find nothing wrong that I would be charged diagnostic fees even though it is a GM certified car still under full warranty. So you can see that I've about had it with GM service. I'm stuck bringing it back to the dealer I bought it from next week but their attitude is that if no lights are flashing, then there is no problem. I could bring it to them with smoke pouring out of the car and as long as the car computer tells them everything is ok, then everything is ok.

 

[viking79]

16 MPG is pretty normal from ICE in single digit temps with heat set to fan only for short trips. However, there is a huge caveat here and that is it is not counting the electricity being put back in the battery. If I count that it is closer to 25 MPG, which is really good in those temps. If you really have a problem with this there is a way to disable ERDTT to prevent gas engine from running.

20170107_073912 by Eric Tastad, on Flickr

Note the poor gas running mileage based on those figures, but also note my electricity usage is very low, so I am really getting better gas mileage than simply dividing gas miles by gallons used.

Even Voltstats shows this, looking at my ICE MPG (MPGcs) it is just over 14 MPG in January: http://www.voltstats.net/Stats/Details/5724
However, due to surplus electricity generated in this mode, my actual MPG discounting wall electricity is still reasonable.

 

[llninja]

That's what I was thinking. The worst was '74-77. Big ass engine, very low compression, heavy car, quadra-junk carb, no-lock converter. Very, very thirsty. Fuel economy actually went down before it went up. Those were the worst years. Modern SuperB motorhomes get better economy, even in the city.

My dad had a 1970 Coupe Deville with a 500 cu in engine and doors that you wouldn't be able to open if parked in today's compact parking spots next to anybody as they were easily 5 feet long. You put the car into D, let go of the brakes, and at idle you can achieve 30 MPH. Bonus, the car also had fins. I think Caddy should go back to fins, rather than faking it with vertical LEDs.

 

[Crimson Volt]

18 EV, 38 on Fuel before it hit LOW at 23 using 0.7, Trip B 25.7 at (34.9 MPG) Odometer 31,223.

Just in case I was able to charge my car to 24 EV, 1.4 gal, Trip B 51.6 miles (36 MPG)
Odometer 31,248 that's 25 from the above note.

I didn't get the fuel to completely empty after over my 23 miles round trip so when it came to refueling I was able to get 8 gallons in the tank having me to believe I still have 1 gallon on LOW fuel. Still average 36 mpg at 32 degrees here in Georgia.

Shout out to the Silver Volt heading South 75/85 to Union City that was behind me yesterday. Maybe it's same one on my trip to work on 314.