[JuneBug]

I mostly love the car, but there are some super annoying caveats. Please let me know if there are any work-arounds to these annoyances.

The door lock buttons! Been there, done that. Usually pulling into the drive through at the bank. Shift into Park, and the door unlock. Here I am dealing with cash and all the doors are unlocked? I use my arm to push the button down and it bites me! Hate that.

I keep my iPhone in a holster on my belt. I've seen too many family members with cracked screens from keeping the phone in their pockets. Somebody gave me a fancy phone mount thingy for Christmas last year. It's still in the package. Siri via BlueTooth does everything I need without looking at the phone.

The parking brake works very well for me. Engages and disengages in 1 second. And you don't even have to disengage it--just start driving, and it disengages automatically.

Last week, I got into the Volt, and tried to shift into reverse, and the shift lever was locked. I pushed harder on the brake pedal to no avail. My heart sunk until I realized that I had never pushed the blue power button! I was in pre-conditioning mode, and the A/C was blowing, so that faked me out!

I used to store my laptop (in a black case) behind the driver's seat. With the all-black interior, it was nearly invisible.

The reason you found the windows rolled down is because someone or something held down the unlock button on the fob. Same with the charge port door. Never had a problem with this on my 2015.

I mostly listen to XM radio, unless the signal is blocked in a parking garage or underpass--then I go to CD or USB. BlueTooth works well for me, but I never use it for music streaming, just phone calls and texts.

Your 2013 came with a free 5-year subscription to the OnStar remote fob commands. When I bought my 2015, I pushed the blue button and OnStar gave me a free 90-day subscription to everything. When that expired, I had to call and remind them about the 5-year remote fob thing that is outlined in the owner's manual. So they reactivated that. I love being able to precondition from my phone. I also still get a monthly diagnostic report from OnStar via email, as well as charging notices via text message.

 

[JuneBug]

As for the pinching door lock knobs, you could always just replace them with some of these old school knobs:

https://www.amazon.com/1968-1977-Inner-Knobs-Ribbed-Chrome/dp/B01MU6U2GQ

 

[JuneBug]

I found the automatic roll down feature very annoying when I first bought my 2013 Volt, i.e coming back to the car in the rain and finding all the windows rolled down. However, it is a setting that can be changed. The dealer was able to disable the feature, but I do not think the setting is accessible through the user console.

It is. It's buried in the car configuration menu.

Only in the 2016-2019 models. The Gen1 setting can only be done with dealer tools.

 

[JuneBug]

Right you are! 2011 thru 2013, you press a release button on the door (below the fuel door release) and the charge port door swings open.

And there's also a release button for the charge door located on the remote fob, which is what confused the OP.