Archive for the ‘The Volt Experience’ Category
First 30 days with our Chevy Volt! 1,700 miles and VERY little gas burned…


Well it has been one full month now with our new Chevy Volt and so far the experience has been first rate! The biggest thing about owning this car of course is fuel efficiency and it’s a star on that front! We’ve driven the car exactly 1,700 miles in these 30 days, 1,248 of those miles on pure battery power. “Burning electrons” I like to say. To cover the other 452 miles we burned 11.9 gallons of gasoline. So, depending on how you prefer to calculate your MPG we are averaging over 140MPG overall or roughly 38MPG during those times we were actually burning gas. Not bad at all on either front I would say!
The cost to run this car doesn’t stop with gasoline usage of course, after all you do plug it in and recharge that big battery every night. But charging up the 16.5kwh battery in this car isn’t as expensive as you might think. Based on our electric power rates I estimate that a full charge on the battery would cost us about $1.25. That’s pocket change! And that pocket change can take us 45-50 miles and more! Remember too that it doesn’t need a “full from empty” charge every single night. Based on our use over the last month it looks like it will cost about $25-$30 each month for the power to keep this car charged. If our utility company offered special “Time of Use” rates as many others do, our cost for charging would be even lower.
So, our electric bill will go up a bit but when you compare that to how much our gasoline bill will go down the benefit is obvious. Comparing to what we would have spent driving the car we replaced with this Volt (2002 Nissan Maxima) it looks like we saved more than $200 in fuel costs this month! I like that. Read more
Chevy Volt gives 50+ miles on a charge. How to beat EPA estimates (38).


“How far can you go on a full charge with your Chevy Volt?”
Good question, and one I have already been asked numerous times since we took delivery. The EPA estimates the answer to be 38 miles but even in normal driving around town I’ve found that is a remarkable underestimation of the car’s capabilities. So yesterday morning I had a prime opportunity to see what it could do. After using the Volt to take my boys to school and run a couple of quick errands I drove on to see just how far it would go.
What you see above is the 7″ screen which is part of the center console in the cockpit of this car. What it’s showing is the Volt’s tally for what happened since the last time it was fully charged (overnight). As you can see it shows that I was able to travel a total 52.7 miles on pure electric power! This trip started at my home and ended there as well, so any gains from going downhill were equally offset by the same rise in elevation to complete the trip. If you ask me, that is incredible! Read more
Dressing up the bowtie on our Chevy Volt, it had to be blue!


Straight from the factory our new Chevy Volt was not well dressed, it really wasn’t! It came to us with bowties both front and back, but both of them were bicycle reflector gold. Not a good look and I know we can do better. So it was up to me…
Now as you see above we are now sporting a nice blue bowtie emblem on the Volt and I think it compliments the Blue Topaz Metallic color very nicely. Oh and there is a bonus too, the bowties are now reflective at night!
Here is a before and after comparison of the bowtie emblem on the tail end of the Volt. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course but I like it a lot better. Bit by bit we are getting closer to the well dressed Chevy Volt I’ve had in mind since we placed the order. All that’s left now is to add some tint to the glass, coming soon!
Here is a little sample of what the bowtie emblem looks like at night, lit up and reflective (normal next to illuminated). I like this touch on top of the color match, like icing on the cake!
If you are interested in just how I did this little modification, read on… Read more