[paxfam]

In market for car for daughter, she will get free charging at various places on her new college campus, plus the city (Kansas City) is probs the most EV friendly (?) in US, and we will have about 8 more free stations within 6 blocks or our new place there (I am moving also). Just test drove a 2015 Premium with the leather/suede, over-priced at 17,900, not certified. There is a 2015 certified at another dealer but not premium, would want to add the back-up camera. BUT I just noted a 2012 with 121K miles (2 owners, NJ then FL) for $7300. I obviously like the $7300 price much better, but have no information on what one would expect of the battery life at this age (annual and miles driven/charged). And I would love information on the range extender engine at this age. (I have been driving Toyota for the past two decades, so not sure about reliability from Chevy drivetrains past 100K miles.)

Had thought about the Leaf, which I can definitely pick up cheaper and the ones in KC seem to have better battery SOH than in Florida, but LOVE the crash worthiness of the VOLT, as well as the range extender: just makes more sense to me.


Any thoughts, opinions, research, personal experience with an older/higher miles VOLT, etc. would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[leppard3]

Here is the experience with my 2011 premium. I bought it about 4 years ago, certified pre owned. Only two repairs in my four years of ownership, the dreaded coolant level sensor failure causing the "service high voltage system" message, repaired under CPO warranty. And the position indicator for the fuel door, always showed as open, just under $200 repair.
The car had about 70,000 miles when I got it, mostly engine miles. It currently has 120,000 miles. Nearly ALL of mine are electric miles. On nice weather days, I am still getting the 35 mile range as was advertised when it was sold as new back in 2010. Now today here in Arizona where it was 112 degrees, I used 25 miles of "estimated" range on a 21 mile drive, but obviously the air conditioning was working pretty hard.
So, from my experience only, I would have no problem with a 120,000 miles on a 2012.

 

[paxfam]

Thanks, leppard3, and glad the Volt is treating you well even in the high heat. I haven't seen the car yet, but am guessing the lifetime mpg feature should give me some guess as to how much electric versus ICE use the car has seen.

 

[wizard_of-ahs]

Agreed. go with a CPO.......that way your covered and there is still some Voltec warranty left.
I bought a Premium 2014 CPO last year with all the bells and whistles with just over 27.000 miles for $16000 out the door

 

[ericc]

Don't be afraid to negotiate on price. Some dealers might budge, some may hold out for someone to hit them on their price.

Unclear on the mileage of the examples but I saw a range of prices when I was shopping last year. I got my 15 with about 38k miles for under 16k in CT with cpo. I has leather, nav, backup camera but missing the fancier tech package. Saw dealers asking for much more.

Might be worth considering a wider search and potentially having it shipped.

 

[saltsman]

I live in Texas and have put 110,000+ miles on our 2014. Rock solid and extremely reliable. Still feels new. My daughter is also in college and I'd have no issues whatsoever with her taking the Volt to campus if it had charging infrastructure (It doesn't).

GM did a excellent job with the thermal management on the battery in the Volt. Rage loss due to battery desecration is simply not an issue in a Volt where as a Leaf will have significant loss over time.

As for this specific car, the 2012 didn't have Hold mode but it you are driving 90% electric that wouldn't matter much anyway. I think the price is fair, but you should be able to negotiate it down a bit more since demand is still low with lower gas prices and most people purchasing a 100K+ car would be a bit uninformed about the Volt .

If you are looking for any Volt, I think the general consensus is the Gen 1 (2011-2015) is more reliable than Gen 2 (2016+) simply because Men 1 was released in the Bankruptcy days and GM saw the Volt as a halo car. They erred on the side of caution and it produced a very reliable result.

IMO, the Volt is the perfect college car. Easy and fun the drive. Low cost to no cost in fuel and maintenance. The Hatchback can swallow a ton of cargo, and it is reliable to a fault.

Go for it!