Hi,
Sorry for the late reply, I haven't logged in for a bit. At this stage we're still tossing up whether or not we'll sell the car. The extended warranty is still current for another 3+ years yet, and we've still got a couple of years on the battery warranty as well. Looking at the Volt stats, there's people with far greater mileage than what we have still on the current battery. We were thinking of waiting until the Australian price of the tesla model 3 and the upgraded Leaf come out, and whether or not there will be any fast charging infrastructure built over the next 12 months nearer to where we live. We could do EV only, but the 5th seat is what we were really after. For example, the wife and kids went to see a movie with one of the girls friends and her mum yesterday, but they all had to pile into their car instead of ours, since we only have 4 seats. That sort of situation is popping up more regularly now, so it may be the case that we just wait until the LEAF/Model 3 come out, look at what they offer and then make the decision.
While the car is still under warranty and is so cheap to run, it's still going to be the better option than getting a new car. We might just bail on it when there's a year on the electrical warranty left so there would be some incentive for a new buyer, and then make a move on something else. I just wish that they'd brought the Bolt or the second Volt out, and I'm hoping that the new Leaf or the Tesla 3 aren't ridiculously priced so they could at least be an option.
As for you, I know they sold a few Volts in NZ, so there must be at least one service centre there that still works on them, which sounds like Schofield. You're right about getting parts and doing some of the work yourself. It would just be better if we all knew how much the battery bank would be to be replace out here as this is the great unknown, and the ongoing concern of being gouged or put into a no-win scenario and having to walk away from the car if the price was excessive is always lingering in the background.
We love our car as well. It's just a shame it wasn't better supported or marketed appropriately out here. From memory the price of the Volt in NZ was ridiculously high. They don't come up very often for sale here either, but when they do they sell fast from what I've seen.
The only thing that I would draw comfort from is the fact that the cars seem to be really well built and, at least my experience has been, that not much if anything goes wrong with it. Apart from some dodgy tyre monitors that are now fixed, it hasn't had a spanner on it in 5 years and 136,000km's. But you're right, there's always the possibility and that's what we keep thinking about too. Like I said, fortunately we have the warranty still, but I'd say for sure it'll be sold before that expires.
Thinking seriously about it, if that Auckland dealership doesn't service the cars anymore, you'll be screwed. That's a pretty big gamble, and we're facing that as well as the dealership we use is the only one in range for us, and if they stop working on the cars we'll be in a bad situation. And as much as we like our car, there's newer more modern alternatives coming onto the market, so there will be choices to make in due course. You could bring that car out though and have trouble free motoring for ages. Realistically it's about $25,000 AUD all up to bring it to NZ so that would still be a cheap car if you got one with low miles on it.
It's a tough choice. If the cars were newer I'd probably so go for it, but if you're getting to the end of the battery warranty, it would be a big call.
