[pgallant]

Well, Volt Day finally came on October 1, 2011 and I headed up to Ottawa (around 160 km / 100 miles) north of where I live in Kingston, Ontario to pick up Crystal Red Volt C2864. Driving the Volt has been nothing short of amazing - enough so that I've decided to start this thread - a "journal" of sorts for Volt C2864.

Not sure if any of my random thoughts will make any sense (no guarantees folks!), or how often I'll get back here to post updates, but here goes...

Journal Entry #1 - Why I Bought a Volt

Well, that's a no-brainer...I was getting tired of seeing this (almost weekly) from my 5.7 litre, V8 SUV...

So I bought one of these (stock photo, not my Volt, but mine is Crystal Red)...

And now I see quite a few Zeros (like 0.0 litres of fuel - note to US readers - zero litres also equals zero gallons of fuel)...

More later,
Peter and Volt C2864

 

[Mike-o-Matic]

Looking forward to seeing your experiences. Enjoy your new Volt, congratulations!

 

[pgallant]

My Most Annoying Volt Habit

Every time I've purchased a new (or used) car, I seem to develop some new driving habit - and it's no different with the Volt.

My most annoying Volt habit so far (as voted by my family) is that as I approach a downhill stretch of road, I involuntarily say "Regen", often more than once. For the first few days, I also did the "swoosh" with my right hand, mimicing the animated green line moving from the generator back to the battery.

I'm working on this issue - plus a few others, like:
- gas anxiety - I don't have range anxiety, but I'm there with gas anxiety
- big smile on my face when I pull into the garage after a long weekend and still see 0.0 litres of fuel used

With the possible exception of the regen-swooshing-thing, I know I'm not alone with the other 2 habits listed above...

Peter and Volt C2864

 

[pgallant]

Looking forward to seeing your experiences. Enjoy your new Volt, congratulations!

Thanks Mike-o-Matic. I definitely credit the gm-volt forums with giving me the information and confidence that I needed to order my Volt site-unseen (though I did drive one on two occasions in the US after ordering but before I took delivery). The information and support here is incredible!

 

[volt3490]

I can understand.

Believe it or not, but having driven 100% electric all of September, I kind of felt the urge to feel the CS Mode again. Sort of missing an old friend. So I let the battery drain out over the weekend and enjoyed the utter quiet display of the CS mode kicking in seamlessly. Drove 5 miles like that till I got to work and lost no time in charging it back full. I guess it will be another long gap before I see the CS Mode again.

After reading the recent reports from our Colorado buyers, I am wondering if I should do a long trip myself!

-Venky

 

[pgallant]

Recent Long Trip...report to follow...

Volt and I did a fairly long (750km) trip over 2 days last week, with flawless performance and great comfort. I find the lack of engine noise to definitely lower the "fatigue factor" on these longer trips!

I'll post more details and a pic or two later...

Peter

 

[pgallant]

MIL Came On But No Codes...plus Great Support

Yesterday I had the Malfunction Indicator Light (MIL, aka the Check Engine Light) stay lit after the standard startup sequence in my Volt, and it's still on now. Hit the OnStar button, asked for and received a remote diagnostic, but no DTC codes were set. No issues with performance or drivability. The OnStar operator mentioned that they were getting numerous diagnostic requests from Volt owners with the MIL set, but no codes.

Any ideas what would cause the MIL to illuminate with no code accessible?

The only anomaly the night before the MIL came on was several charge interruptions (one by me and one due to the power momentarily browning out during a windstorm) - I wonder if charging anomalies can cause some issues...

Anyway, part 2 of the story is an example of the great service I have been receiving...I drove the Volt today (despite the MIL being on) from Kingston about 200km to Syracuse NY to catch a flight. Enroute I called OnStar and asked to speak to my Volt advisor - my regular advisor was away but was immediately connected to another advisor and we discussed the MIL issue. I had an hour or so before my flight and my Volt advisor was able to arrange for a Volt-qualified dealer in Syracuse to see me immediately, and OnStar sent directions to the dealership directly to my Nav system. I received immediate assistance when I arrived at the dealer and they got me right in. GM's diagnostic website was down - no fault of the dealer - so still no answer on the lack of DTCs with the MIL on, but an example of the great level of service that I have been receiving from the Volt advisors and OnStar.

Supporting early adopters is what makes or breaks new product launches....

 

[pgallant]

Photo - Volt in Front of GM Canada HQ

Just like kickincanada, I couldn't resist stopping by GM HQ when I noticed driving by on the 401 that they had a huge Volt banner on the building.

Very cool.

There are also billboard ads in downtown Toronto promoting the Volt, plus TV ads, but the ads here aren't the funny gas station/bathroom ones as seen in the US, but rather vanilla ones instead...pity.

Also, here's a shot of my Volt happily charging in the valet (expensive!) parking area at the Sheraton Center in downtown Toronto. The basic $5 Chargepoint card that allows access to free charging stations worked just fine here.

Regards,
Peter

 

[pgallant]

MIL Light and Codes Update...

A quick update on the Malfunction Indicator Light (aka the Check Engine Light), which has been lit for about a week now. OnStar didn't show any codes when I called them (twice), but it didn't sit well with me to drive around with the MIL on, even though I haven't seen any effect on driveability.

So, I ran my Volt into my local dealer (whose senior tech has done most of the Volt courses in preparation for the dealership getting their first Volt allocations in the spring), and he was able to pull off the following codes: P1E00 and P0D26.

His explanation was consistent with WOT's posts on this forum for these codes. P1E00 is a generic code that sets the MIL, but P0D26 is an issue related to the Volt not passing a 10-second pre-charge test. Perhaps not coincidentallly, I had interrupted the charge manually twice the night before to run some power tools on the same circuit as my 120V EVSE, and also we had high winds later that evening that led to at least one brownout.

The tech reset the MIL and has asked me to charge it a couple of times to see if the MIL comes back on. If it does, there are some charging-related components that may get looked at in more detail.

I'll send updates as they happen...

Peter and Volt C2864

 

[pgallant]

Updates plus my first Volt in the Wild Sighting

A couple of quick Volt updates:

- the MIL illumination ended up being a non-event. Light was reset by the dealer and has not repeated itself.

- I may have another (minor) issue - not getting my OnStar diagnostic emails and when I had the MIL come on (see previous post), OnStar reported "no codes set" when there clearly were. I'm suspecting a problem with remote diagnostics on my Volt - reported it to my Volt advisor and she's checking into it.

- when I stopped into my local dealership (not completely Volt-qualified yet, but have the charger, the battery jack, and a technician who has completed most of the training), the Volt caused some commotion, and a picture ended up on the dealer's website. They don't have their demo model yet, so many of the staff haven't seen one yet.

- first Volt sighting in the Wild - 9:30am today (Nov 7) on Highway 401 - Eastbound - construction zone between Belleville, ON and Kingston, ON. It was a white one - I was zipping by Westbound. Was it you kickincanada?

Peter and Volt C2864

 

[pgallant]

Article in the Kingston Whig-Standard

On behalf of the local environmental/alternative energy group and the local college here in Kingston, I gave a talk and Volt demo to about 20 people here in Kingston last Saturday (Nov 5). It ended up on the front page of the local paper (the Kingston Whig-Standard). The reporter missed several key angles (alternative energy, solar/wind technician training programs, etc.) and made it sound like you needed a Ph.D. to buy a Volt, but I did get lots of positive comments and thank-yous from some sincerely interested people...

A cute picture of my son and I at least!

Article is attached.

Peter and Volt2864

View attachment PG Volt Article Whig Nov 7 2011.pdf

 

[mike1]

On behalf of the local environnmental/alternative energy group and the local college here in Kingston, I gave a talk and Volt demo to about 20 people here in Kingston last Saturday (Nov 5). It ended up on the front page of the local paper (the Kingston Whig-Standard). The reporter missed several key angles (alternative energy, solar/wind technician training programs, etc.) and made it sound like you needed a Ph.D. to buy a Volt, but I did get lots of positive comments and thank-yous from some sincerely interested people...

A cute picture of my son and I at least!

Article is attached.

Peter and Volt2864

View attachment 3795

Great article! Always nice to see positive articles like this One thing that caught my eye was the number of ads on that page...crazy!