New Volt owner, South Florida

Good evening all,

I picked up my 2017 Volt on 20Jul, Premier, Pepper Dust Metallic, black&brandy leather, Driver pkg 1 & 2, Navigation, floor mats. Have 917 miles on it so far. 36 mile round trip commute. Battery range started at 53 and has slowly krept up to 68 and has seemed to peak out there. Heavy AC use this time of year, flat Florida, no hills. When I get home from work there is 27-30 miles left. Have not run the battery "out" yet.

I have read that the ICE will occasionally run by itself but hasn't yet. This past Friday I decided to try the "hold mode" and could hardly tell the difference. I could feel a clutch going in and out occasionally. Watching the "Flow" screen, the Volt seems to start from a dead stop on battery power and goes to ICE power at about 16-18 mph. When I got home from work and plugged in, the charge light went solid green in a very short period, so obviously the ICE-gen was replacing battery usage for the entire trip.

This is my first new car in 12 years. Last new car was a 2005 VW Golf TDI, 113,000 miles, 35.8 mpg lifetime, most on surface street, stop and go driving, same commute. The electronics in the Volt is culture shock compared to the Golf, which basically had none. One feature the Golf had that I miss is the ability to raise all the windows with the key in the door, if you forget to raise a window before getting out of the car. Of course, the Volt doesn't use a key, but the remote can lower all the windows but cannot raise them. If I forget to raise the window before getting out, I have to get back in and turn everything on to raise the window. A very small item but I miss it. Is there any way to configure the remote or the outside lock button to raise all the windows if held for 5 seconds?

My Golf diesel had good low rpm torque, but the Volt has MUCH more. This is a fun car to drive.

Still learning to use all the Volt features and hope to learn tips from others through this forum.

Everyone be safe looking at the eclipse tomorrow.

M'header