What items should I be checking for when buying a used Volt 2014 from a dealer? I am in no rush and can be very choosy. I've watched a number of videos and read a bit on the forums here.
Side note: I ride an eBike to work when it's not too hot (5 miles, 20 minutes one-way), so I know a bit about battery-based propulsion. The Tesla 3 announcement got me looking the current state of EV/Hybrids. I arrived here after evaluating the Nissan Leaf and finding that battery-only electric is just not going to work for me as this will be using this for my "luxury" vehicle used by my wife and I for vacationing and I have too much battery range anxiety.
Here is my current inspection check-list:
Also, what about GM financing on these 3-year old Volts? GM has 2.9%APR for a bunch of used models, but not the Volt. All my other vehicles I have bought second or third hand for cash - I don't like payments, but I understand I may need 3 years of payments to afford an EV/Hybrid. I will not buy new or do a lease - too much equity loss driving off the lot. I hate financing a car and haven't done so in 17 years. I'm half tempted to just keep saving and buy a used 2016 Volt for cash in 2019. My wife and I each have identical credit scores of 822. Right now it is lower than normal (840-850 is normal for us) as we have two "dings" right now, one for having cards opened too recently and one for having balances on all of our cards. Last year (~Aug'16) CitiBank took over as the Costco credit card (ditching AMEX) and a BankAmerica card was opened (Feb'17) to take advantage of a 12-month 0% financing deal with $200 cash back if we spent $1K in 3 months (challenge accepted - we used it exclusively for purchases for a month), plus we just got done with booking a few flights and rental cars a few months ago, so all of our cards have balances. We are scheduled to pay off the BankAmerica card in October, 2 months before the 12-month 0% financing deal is up, and the CitiBank and another card is always paid off in full each month, but always having a balance hurts us a little FICO-wise. We have the cash to pay the 0% BofA card off early, but would be tapping into savings, and we'd rather have liquid cash on hand, and we can not use any other credit cards for a month after we zero them out to max out our FICO - we just like using credit cards to max out our rewards. Point is, we can wait a few months or even a year and we'll be up in the 830-840 range if that matters (I don't think it matters much once above 800, until you hit 850).
Clearly having a Volt sooner than later would be nice, especially with the big California gas tax-hike coming taking us from $0.18/gal to $0.30/gal in tax Nov, 2017, and then $0.473/gal in tax Jul, 2019.
Side note: I ride an eBike to work when it's not too hot (5 miles, 20 minutes one-way), so I know a bit about battery-based propulsion. The Tesla 3 announcement got me looking the current state of EV/Hybrids. I arrived here after evaluating the Nissan Leaf and finding that battery-only electric is just not going to work for me as this will be using this for my "luxury" vehicle used by my wife and I for vacationing and I have too much battery range anxiety.
Here is my current inspection check-list:
- Front air dam condition
- Charging cord in trunk
- Mileage and comparing gasoline vs. electric usage
- Average MPG (were they a hard driver?)
- Starting the car and opening the hood to listen to the gas motor
- Cargo cover (would be nice, but I see I can buy them for like $50)
Also, what about GM financing on these 3-year old Volts? GM has 2.9%APR for a bunch of used models, but not the Volt. All my other vehicles I have bought second or third hand for cash - I don't like payments, but I understand I may need 3 years of payments to afford an EV/Hybrid. I will not buy new or do a lease - too much equity loss driving off the lot. I hate financing a car and haven't done so in 17 years. I'm half tempted to just keep saving and buy a used 2016 Volt for cash in 2019. My wife and I each have identical credit scores of 822. Right now it is lower than normal (840-850 is normal for us) as we have two "dings" right now, one for having cards opened too recently and one for having balances on all of our cards. Last year (~Aug'16) CitiBank took over as the Costco credit card (ditching AMEX) and a BankAmerica card was opened (Feb'17) to take advantage of a 12-month 0% financing deal with $200 cash back if we spent $1K in 3 months (challenge accepted - we used it exclusively for purchases for a month), plus we just got done with booking a few flights and rental cars a few months ago, so all of our cards have balances. We are scheduled to pay off the BankAmerica card in October, 2 months before the 12-month 0% financing deal is up, and the CitiBank and another card is always paid off in full each month, but always having a balance hurts us a little FICO-wise. We have the cash to pay the 0% BofA card off early, but would be tapping into savings, and we'd rather have liquid cash on hand, and we can not use any other credit cards for a month after we zero them out to max out our FICO - we just like using credit cards to max out our rewards. Point is, we can wait a few months or even a year and we'll be up in the 830-840 range if that matters (I don't think it matters much once above 800, until you hit 850).
Clearly having a Volt sooner than later would be nice, especially with the big California gas tax-hike coming taking us from $0.18/gal to $0.30/gal in tax Nov, 2017, and then $0.473/gal in tax Jul, 2019.