[Ladogaboy]

So I got my Bolt EV... I got tired of waiting for my car to arrive (apparently, it's still in Mira Loma???), so I switched my reservation over to a Bolt whose reservation holder backed out. It's the same package (loaded LT); the only difference is the color. My reservation was for the Summit White, and the car I actually got is Nightfall Gray Metallic. Actually, I feel pretty lucky because, after seeing the Bolts in person, Nightfall just looks better... And Asimov!

Anyway, I won't go into a whole lot of detail, but here are some of my impressions.

Seats
To me, they aren't bad at all. I tried to recreate other people's experience with the hard plastic lip, and I just couldn't. I am aware of its presence if I push my legs outward against the seat bolstering, but I'd have to try very hard, for a very long time, to make it uncomfortable. And I always thought I was the princess in the pea story.

Also, after driving the car for about 45 minutes, I came to really like the back support. I've just driven a C-Max for about 5,000 miles, and the Bolt's seats are definitely more comfortable. To me, anyway.

Efficiency
Good lord, people. This car is actually very efficient. Most of my driving was at ~67 MPH on the freeway; 55-60 F temperatures; and wet pavement/slight drizzle. Even with the ~2 kWh of juice that went into powering the electronics, my estimated range was within a few miles of the EPA's estimated range of 238 miles. More to come on that, but the worry about highway efficiency seems to be much ado about nothing.

Interior
"Cheap plastic" it might be, but it doesn't seem that way to me. If anything, it's what I expect out of a modern car. I own a Gen 1 Volt Premier, and other than the leather seats (my Bolt EV has cloth), the quality of the interior is comparable. In fact, I actually prefer the look of the "woven" plastic accent pieces in the Bolt EV; and they feel high quality.

Space
This is a bit weird, but I can't quite explain the space in the Bolt EV. Having a direct comparison with the C-Max, I can tell that it is a bit shorter, which explains the smaller amount of cargo volume behind the rear seats. But the passenger area of the Bolt EV feels much more spacious.


Also, the Bolt EV is giving me an excuse to start a short Vlog series, so people can see what they are getting into (or what they can expect). I am planning to put together some ways to test the Bolt's mettle, so stay tuned. Please, any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[Loboc]

Cool post. Any driving impressions? Different than Volt?

 

[llninja]

Congrats on your new bolt, and for being first to own one on this forum.

A request, can you get some footage of the cargo area and see if you can fit 4 carry-on bags of luggage in the back (it might change my mind as I'm currently not that interested in buying a bolt)? Also, real world charging miles per hour would be useful, both with an L2 and with L3.

 

[Ladogaboy]

Cool post. Any driving impressions? Different than Volt?

Thanks! And thank you for reminding me. I didn't push it too hard because of new tires and wet pavement, but going up 6-7% grades at 67 MPH was only using about 45 kW, so it's got some legs. Definitely more powerful than the Volt with a better power to weight ratio, but the responsiveness feels about the same. Oddly, the regen feels much more powerful (maybe due to the lighter weight?). I was coming to a full stop 10-15 feet from intersections that I would have rolled up to in the Volt in L.

Congrats on your new bolt, and for being first to own one on this forum.

A request, can you get some footage of the cargo area and see if you can fit 4 carry-on bags of luggage in the back? Also, real world charging miles per hour would be useful, both with an L2 and with L3.

Will do. I need to make sure I can access the charge rate as it's happening. ChargePoint will let me do that from the app, but I don't know about EVgo.

 

[llninja]

Thanks! And thank you for reminding me. I didn't push it too hard because of new tires and wet pavement, but going up 6-7% grades at 67 MPH was only using about 45 kW, so it's got some legs. Definitely more powerful than the Volt with a better power to weight ratio, but the responsiveness feels about the same. Oddly, the regen feels much more powerful (maybe due to the lighter weight?). I was coming to a full stop 10-15 feet from intersections that I would have rolled up to in the Volt in L.



Will do. I need to make sure I can access the charge rate as it's happening. ChargePoint will let me do that from the app, but I don't know about EVgo.

Even rough guidelines like looking at the guessometer after and hour would be useful.

 

[Ladogaboy]

Even rough guidelines like looking at the guessometer after and hour would be useful.

True. I think most people are concerned with miles of range per hour of charging, so I'll try to look at it from all angles.

 

[cfspeakman]

Congratulations on receiving your Bolt. Still waiting here on the east coast. Gonna go play golf today and forget about it for a while.

 

[Qinsp]

Congrats!

The same thing happened with our 2016 Volt. We ordered, but didn't want to wait, and picked one off a lot.

I really wish GM would treat buyers like their customers instead of dealers, but they do not. Special Order often means you get your car late, not early.

 

[Billtphotoman]

Congratulations on the Bolt and thanks for sharing. It will probably be a while before they become available here in Austin but I suspect they will sell very well here. How do you find the front and rear visibility? That and the low seating position are my wife's big hang up with my Volt.

 

[Ladogaboy]

Congratulations on the Bolt and thanks for sharing. It will probably be a while before they become available here in Austin but I suspect they will sell very well here. How do you find the front and rear visibility? That and the low seating position are my wife's big hang up with my Volt.

The front visibility is better than the Volt. Keep in mind, I'm fresh out of a C-Max, so that is affecting my perceptions. But the Bolt's forward visibility is every bit as good as the C-Max. I need a little more time with it to make a solid assessment of the rear visibility. One of the interesting additions is the collision indicator that flashes on the side-view mirrors when a vehicle is in your blind spot. People should be looking over their shoulders, but hey, I guess it's a nice additional safety feature. It could also be useful if the Bolt is loaded to the point it affects visibility.

In terms of the seats, you do sit higher in the Bolt than you do in the Volt. My mother has the same concern with the Volt. I raised the seat a bit for her (more than I'm comfortable with), but I haven't heard whether that was enough for her. From my butt dial, I'd estimate that the Bolt's seating height is about the same as the C-Max. I'd have to guess that your wife would be better with the Bolt seats.

 

[Geohec]

Congrats on your Bolt. Same thing happened with me and my volt with regards to waiting for my ordered to my volt to arrive. Picked another one off the lot with both sfety packages. Looking back, I was glad i did it because of the limited visibility in the back if the volt.

If i were buying a Bolt today, I'd get a nightfall gray also. It's a great color and would look nice next to my kinetic blue G2 volt.

Looking forward to your vlog.

 

[cab]

Would love to hear your take on:

- Acceleration on the freeway
- Road noise and wind noise level at freeway speeds over a variety of surfaces (i.e. smooth blacktop is quiet in most cars, but grooved concrete.., etc)
- Ride quality at low speeds over somewhat bumpier roads (i.e. is a lot of bounce / head toss transferreed to the occupants as in the BMW i3 with its short wheelbase)
- Any weirdness with windshield reflections, glare, screen viewing, etc.

Obviously, this assessment will take some time, but given the amount of miles you drive, I suspect you will have a feel for tese items pretty quick.

Thanks and congrats!!!

 

[Ladogaboy]

Congrats on your Bolt. Same thing happened with me and my volt with regards to waiting for my ordered to my volt to arrive. Picked another one off the lot with both sfety packages. Looking back, I was glad i did it because of the limited visibility in the back if the volt.

If i were buying a Bolt today, I'd get a nightfall gray also. It's a great color and would look nice next to my kinetic blue G2 volt.

Looking forward to your vlog.

Thanks! After seeing the Summit White in person, I thought it made the car look too stumpy. Something about the color and the hood just makes the car look way too short.

Would love to hear your take on:

- Acceleration on the freeway
- Road noise and wind noise level at freeway speeds over a variety of surfaces (i.e. smooth blacktop is quiet in most cars, but grooved concrete.., etc)
- Ride quality at low speeds over somewhat bumpier roads (i.e. is a lot of bounce / head toss transferreed to the occupants as in the BMW i3 with its short wheelbase)
- Any weirdness with windshield reflections, glare, screen viewing, etc.

Obviously, this assessment will take some time, but given the amount of miles you drive, I suspect you will have a feel for tese items pretty quick.

Thanks and congrats!!!

Thanks! I can already speak to a couple of these points.

In terms of acceleration, it is competent. I refuse to refer to any car with a 0-60 MPH time slower than 5 seconds as a performance car. Maybe 10 years ago, but not in this day and age. That being said, it pulls hard up to 70 MPH, even up a grade. For those familiar with Southern California/San Fernando Valley, I got on the 118 freeway (westbound) at DeSoto. That is a hairpin on ramp onto a freeway with an immediate ~5% grade. I was up to 70 MPH before the on ramp lane had fully merged into the freeway.

As for road noise... it's weird. The Bolt is definitely quieter than the C-Max and the Volt on ICE power, but it might be similar to the Volt on electricity. To your point about smooth surfaces, the tires themselves are very quiet, but it does transfer some road noise. The reason I say the noise is weird is that I can tell exactly where all of the noise is coming from. You hear some of the road through the tires, and the rest of the noise comes from the air around the side view mirrors. That being said... it's not a lot of noise. The radio station started to break up, so I turned it off (rather than try to fiddle with new systems while on the road). With the radio off, the cabin gets very quiet.

PS: About the acceleration. I'm going to let a friend who's driven a lot of different sports cars (he prefers his VWs and BMWs) drive it next week, so he might be able to give a more objective take on the acceleration.

 

[SoCalSam]

Great news on the new Bolt!

Congrats on being one of the first Bolt owners! I'm still waiting for a call from my sales rep at Community Chevy in Burbank that a car with my chosen options is there. He told me that the ones scheduled for first delivery were base LT models - all black. I have a gen 2 Volt with the blind spot warning light on the rearview mirrors and I have found it to be one of the best performing safety features I've ever had. I still look but only to spot a car in another lane close to me moving into the lane I want to go to at the same moment.

 

[TSquare]

We need pictures, or it didn't happen.

 

[Jim Fallston Md.]

We need pictures, or it didn't happen.

Ditto, Lots of pictures inside and out.

 

[etz]

Does the Bolt come with a spare tire?

 

[Jim Fallston Md.]

Does the Bolt come with a spare tire?

No, It comes with self sealing Michelin All Season tires.

 

[Ladogaboy]

Does the Bolt come with a spare tire?

It's porky... but not that porky.

Fine, fine... pictures coming... will be a busy day.

 

[llninja]

It's porky... but not that porky.

Fine, fine... pictures coming... will be a busy day.

You could just do a video walk around the outside And a spin around on the inside.