[yuppie scum]

Hey all! I agreed to a lease of a 2017 pepperdust LT with Bose and heated seats/wheel yesterday. Anyone in the Boston area, I can highly recommend Mirak Chevy in Arlington. Amazingly pleasant experience. (Polar opposite of Maui Chevy who were high pressure scumbags).

I am coming from a 2015 GTI which I did enjoy a lot, but unfortunately totaled at 22k miles in a flash flood in my city. Water ingestion to turbo, engine, exhaust, HID's plus various electric systems was enough to total a 2 year old car.

I had been looking for something with AWD or a high ground clearance to better deal with New England winters, but I was unable to find anything at intrigued me as much as the Volt. I ran a bunch of numbers on the state and fed tax incentives and my daily usage and it was not nearly as burdensome as I thought it could be. I also got a very glowing review of the PHEV lifestyle from a friend who has a Ford CMax PHEV.

I had been hoping to get a Model 3 or a Bolt as my next car in a few years, but the Volt offers me pretty much all the same functionality in a more attractive package. I love the idea of CarPlay and the remote start/preconditioning AC stuff too!

Can't wait to take delivery!

 

[yuppie scum]

Meant to write Muzi Chevy as the dealer to avoid. Damn you Autocorrect! I bet there is a Maui Chevy in Maui, and it's probably fine.

 

[DonC]

Normally I assume that someone getting a Volt will enjoy it. It's quick off the line and very comfortable. But while the extra weight of the battery pack should keep it stable, if there is one thing the Volt does not have is a high clearance! Keep us posted on how it works out for you. We have plenty of members from places like upstate NY, MA, and MI, so we know it works in the cold.

Also remember that range is highly temperature dependent, so when your range drops with the first real cold snap, that's normal. LOL The only real trick is that if you don't have enough range for the day, put the car in Hold when you first start out. That will kick in the ICE heater. Then switch to EV mode.

 

[yuppie scum]

Ground clearance can certainly cause issues, but my experience (15+ years driving in New England winters) has taught me that snow tires are the silver bullet for dealing with winter road conditions. Luckily I use public transit for my work commute, so I should generally be in a position to wait out the worst of a winter storm and/or take the wife's CRV instead.

Are the charge cables pretty weatherproof?

 

[SkepTeach]

Glad to see another person making the switch to domestic from European. I swapped a BMW M235i on mine, and while I'm sure I'll miss the ridiculous power that little car made, I will not miss buying gas for it!

How's the Bose? I have the standard stereo in mine and it's okay, but not as good as the standard stereo in the BMW or in our Macan.

 

[yuppie scum]

Glad to see another person making the switch to domestic from European. I swapped a BMW M235i on mine, and while I'm sure I'll miss the ridiculous power that little car made, I will not miss buying gas for it!

How's the Bose? I have the standard stereo in mine and it's okay, but not as good as the standard stereo in the BMW or in our Macan.

I'll report on the bose as soon as I pick the vehicle up tomorrow. I am a little past the days of bumping DMX at max bass in my car, but I still appreciate a quality system. I am excited to have a direct feed of Pandora to the system (vs thru bluetooth). My old GTI had the Fender upgrade which was pretty good.

I am a little surprised that my decision came down to Chevy vs. Ford as well. I'm also very excited that an American car was competetive with the imports. My last domestic was an Olds coup roughly 2003. It was competent but a snoozer. And an interior from hell.

 

[SkepTeach]

I am a little surprised that my decision came down to Chevy vs. Ford as well. I'm also very excited that an American car was competetive with the imports. My last domestic was an Olds coup roughly 2003. It was competent but a snoozer. And an interior from hell.

I hear ya. I have really not been a fan of domestic vehicles for a long time. Maybe it's because my first car back in high school was a '94 Ford Tempo that occasionally dropped gears out of its transmission....or that my second was a '97 Ford Ranger with almost enough power to go uphill.

And I have to admit, when I decided I wanted to finally go electric, the only car I considered initially was the i3.

But after crunching the numbers and realizing that didn't make sense (but would cost a whole bunch of cents!), I opened my mind a little and realized that American automotive products really have stepped up the game in terms of interior and exterior styling as well as quality. So far, I'm very happy with the car, and glad I didn't try to rationalize the much most expensive i3!

 

[yuppie scum]

I've had the chance to drive the vehicle for about 150 miles over the weekend. Liking it a lot so far. The Bose audio is definitely good in the front seats. Really good sound quality for itunes-quality music. However, I guess due to the speaker placement it is not nearly as audible in the back. I had to the driver to balance the sound way back for me to hear the football game we were trying to listen to.

I am going to really appreciate the phone app remote start. Am I correct that the free basic onstar plan is all I need to use that?

Apple Maps isn't as good as Google Maps, but I think I'll be able to live with it. CarPlay in general is solid, although I wish it would just print my texts somewhere for me to read. I'm not sure that having to listen to them is that much safer than being able to quickly read them.

Getting a comfortable seating position took me a little while, but I figured it out. Definitely have to sit much further back than I used to in my VW, due to the lower slung seat.

Not sure I'd want to spend 8 hours in the back seat of this thing either.