Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Chevy Volt

General Motors has a thing for employees called the Ambassador Program.
This program allows employees to connect with teh vehicles and become better ambassadors for the vehicles.

When I have one of these vehicles I can give test rides! Just ask!

So far I have had 2 Corvettes, a Camaro, an Escalade and most recently a Volt.

It is so funny how many people are afraid to drive the Corvette.



This weekend I had the Chevrolet Volt to have the experience of driving one and see what the hype is about.



Well First I got this really cool 'Primium" Red Color.  They call it Crystal Red

The Volt comes in 8 colors: Black, White, Red Acouple Blues and a few greys.

When you get in the volt there is sleek styling and I love the council. 


No buttons, all touch sensitive and a touch screen.



It was also more roomy than I thought it would be.

When I got the car it had 11 miles of charge on the battery.  I live a little farther than that so I had about 5 miles on the gas engine.  I did not even realize it switched over.

Makes me wonder about other electric vehicles.  What if you run out on your way home?  Makes you really think about where you are going before you take it out and no big side trips and how you do not get stuck in traffic.

The Cheverolet Volt gets around 35 - 40 miles per charge and 300 + miles on a full tank of gas with the gas engine.

I had the car for the weekend and only used .1 gallons of gas for the 5 miles on the way home.  Otherwise I has it pulged in and charging.  How great is that?

This is what the charger looks like:


It takes 10 hours for a full charge on 110Vs or 4 Hours on 220V

It costs about $1.50 a day to charge.  Way better than $4 a gallon for gas.

The car will tell you when you plug it in exactly when it will be fully charged.


You will find yourself looking at the diplay and watching the batter status.


For all the Geeks like me I'm adding a picture of the battery.


More Technology-

The volt is the first GM car with My Link.

You can add an app to your smart phone and see battery status, Schedule service or be like the girl in the commercial that starts, stops and locks unlocks doors for where ever you are. 

Oh, and there is also a find car option to mark where your car is in the parking lot and GPS helps you find it when forgot where it was.



My favorite thing about this car?

It was sooooo quiet.  Can't tell if it is on or not.  Also it does not shake like cars with engines.

Would I buy this car?  


Hmmm.  It is Around $40K nicely equiped. 

Right now I drive a Chevy Silverado. 

So I get about 16 - 17 MPG if I am lucky. 

I drive about 11 miles to work each way so that means one charge a day or 2 gallons of gas.  $4 x 2 = $8(gas) - $1.5 (Charge)  $6.50 savings / dayx 220 days a year to work =$1430 a year saving on just driving to work. 

BUT ...

My big problem is I have 3 children - mith my hubby 5 people can not fit in this car.  There are 4 bucket seats.

It is a nice car, I may go for it if I hade a smaller family or my children were bigger.



This is a spacious cute car.  That is very tree hugger and fun to drive!




***** I did not recieve anything in exchange for this review.  I just wanted share.  But yes I get my paycheck from General Motors and I take pride in my work so I may be a little biased but all opinions are my own. ****