2011 Chevy Volt: Discovering Quirks
- Touchy touch-screen: The Volt has a capacitive-touch center console, like the new MyFord Touch. When selecting a button — say, the navigation system — we’d often rest our other fingers on the console and inadvertently hit the Info button or some other button. That led to some amusing and unintended consequences.
- Visibility issues: The Volt is a four-door hatchback, but it’s on the smaller side. There’s plenty of room in the front row for driver and passenger, but the B-pillar is awfully far forward. A couple of times, I had to lean back and look out behind the B-pillar to see if I could complete a lane change. In addition, the split rear window makes rear visibility worse than it should be, a la the Toyota Prius.
- Meep-meep: The Volt comes with sensors, front and back, that warn you when the low-to-the-ground car is getting close to objects. However, it’s extremely sensitive, and loud. The dealer who walked us through the car pointed out the button that controls the beeping; it didn’t take us five minutes to turn it off.
