2012 Chevrolet Volt consumer reviews

Wow. Chevrolet has built a car of the future at lease for now. Purchased a 2012 Chevrolet Volt back in December 2012 and has loved it since. My daily commute is between 43 ~ 44 miles each way. I am able to make it to the office from home with a full charge and with a 2 ~ 3 mile battery remaining before it is completely depleted. So far, I have driving over 1000 miles and I?m averaging between 220 to 250+ mile per gallon of gas since I had the car. Lived in South California and I drive a lot on the freeway. Well, for those that wonder how I can accomplish this kind of gas mileage. I usually drive with an average speed of 65 mph. It has been working well for me as a work commute car and a family car. Great car for the clean air Environment and minimum trips to gas stations. I am less oil/gas dependent now since I had the Volt. Now, every time that I drive by the gas station it put's a smile on my face. It?s like money back into my pockets. If you are in the market to purchase a Volt "buy it" is a great car to drive, great stereo system, Navigations Remote Keyless entry, smart phone car monitor status, 3 years onstar, and it is fun to drive, comfortable ride, quite inside with an electric motor running and it is very smooth on the road. I would rate this car with a scale of 10 being the best and I will give it a 9.5 The reason not to rate it with a 10 is because there is always room for improvement so therefore, I give it a 9.5 on my review.

I've had my Volt for about a month now. You really can't compare this to any other ICE vehicle out there today. The ride is superior in every way (acceleration , noise or lack thereof, stability...). There is a little learning curve to operate & utilize all the features are somewhat intuitive, charging being the most important and well thought out. Congratulations to the developers in creating a first generation winner, integrating a new technology into a product that is years ahead of its time. For me it's simple: No Gas+No Rush Hour Traffic+No Money To Foreign Auto/Oil=No Brainer

Technological marvel-Constantly surprises->50 miles per charge for past 6 months-Gas gen-48.3MPG-Total gas used incl eng maint-1 gal

I have now owned my Volt for 4 months and 6000 miles, enough time to have driven on a wide variety of terrain and conditions. While not without its peculiarities, the overall experience has been extremely positive. Any vehicle has some compromises and the Volt has a couple of them but are in my overall estimation not particularly important to me as a driver. There is the nagging scraping of the front air dam on many ground obstacles, the lack of power seats and a restricted view out of the car. However these are very minor annoyances compared to the overall performance and feel of the vehicle. The overall experience of driving the vehicle is outstanding. Quiet, smooth powerful, and fun are the words that come to mind. From the power-up to the smooth and virtually silent start of your drive it feels like a very solid and stable ride. It is so much like a normal driving experience and completely lacks the more herky-jerky engagement of the gas engine in a hybrid. There is no shifting, rather a seamless acceleration to the desired speed. This is especially apparent in mountainous terrain where standard autos frequently downshift, resulting in an uneven ride. Across driving conditions there is an extremely smooth and confident ride. It sounds more like riding in your living room than a car, but in a very good way. It is also very fun to drive as the handling, especially cornering is very stable and the car rides far better than other cars of its size I have driven. Fit and finish is very competent and the car feels solidly built. I have experienced no problems with any part of the vehicle as respects the quality of the materials or operation of components. Almost everyone who has stopped me to inquire about the car has commented on the appealing styling. Economy and charging are the areas where the expectations have really been exceeded. The first two months were done exclusively with 120 volt charging cable that is included with the car. There were no problems and the charging times were right on the estimates. For the first month (25 days) the electric bill went up $34.02. Subsequent months have stabilized at $42.00 per month increase and there is now a 240 volt Blink high-speed charger at my residence which tracks the daily charges and reports pricing. For the first 18 days of the current month total electric costs have been $23.93. and I have used no gasoline during the month for a cost per mile of driving of .0299 cents per mile. My previous car at 24 mpg would have cost approximately $133.17 to drive the same distance, a savings of $109.24. The 240 volt charger allows me to capture partial recharges during the day and extend the range of the car to well over 50 miles per day. While the high speed charger allows me to increase my electric bill, the gasoline bill now hovers near zero. Because of the moderate climate where I live, the daily range I get from the vehicle has always exceeded the 35 mile EPA estimate and averages very close to 50 miles every day. On 4 "out of electric range trips" (over 50 miles) the Volt has come close to 40 mpg (gasoline) often with more than 1 person in the car. Even if the battery needs replacement in several years, the savings of the fuel cost should allow me to recapture enough savings to afford a replacement. Service is another great source of savings. Scheduled maintenance is almost non-existent compared to a conventional car. Oil changes for me will be every 2 years, no tune-up of the engine in its lifespan, mostly just rotate tires and inspect systems. The brakes look like new after 5800 miles with virtually no wear detected. There have been no problems with the car to date. Reading other reviews lead me to believe that this overall experience is common. While longer term reliability is yet to be known, the overall experience has been well beyond expectations. I have no trouble understanding why owners have given the Volt the highest satisfaction ratings of any car. If you want to be electric as much as possible, the Volt offers a choice of extended range and convenience that is simply not available in any other vehicle at this time. Chevrolet is to be commended for its engineering skill in making an electric powered vehicle that removes range limitations from that segment of the marketplace. The combination of performance, economy, reliability, design and intangibles have given me the best feeling about vehicle ownership that I could have imagined. Ever.

I probably should use something else for my lengthy road trips, but I am really loving this car. I am a long time BMW driver. LOVE the 3 series, especially on road trips. Balanced, sporty, always feel safe, and on a windy mountain road a joy to drive. Well, the Volt is the first car I have driven that approaches the 3 series. Not quite the balance of a 3 series, but the Volt is a capable mountain road warrior. On the long haul over 299 between Redding and Eureka, the Volt had no issues flying past other cars uphill, and going downhill in "L" made the twisting turns a piece of cake. The only car that could keep up was a new 325i, which stayed in my rear view mirror all the way to the McKinneyville rest area (sometimes just a thought in the distance). Not great gas mileage (36.9) by a number, but that was over 150 miles of racing through the mountains, all on gas! No Prius or Leaf could have done that. My point is that the Volt is a REAL car. It can compete with just about anything on the road, is a good hybrid, and for city commutes an incredible electric car that burns no gas. I have even put the back seats down and slept in it while it recharged for the trip home. This is an incredible car. The stearing, the handling, the acceleration all the way up to highway speeds, oh, and did I mention it can go 40+ miles on just electricity? To pick some minor complaints: The car is about 4 inches too short for a 6 foot person to sleep in the back, the touch "buttons" can be a pain, programmable buttons would be nice, as would the ability to run smartphone apps on the center console screen. Other than that, if chevy can get the car closer to 50/50 balance and a 200hp electric motor..... Oh... I have read complaints about the price. Well, if this was another Prius clone then yea, it seems on the high side. But this car is so much more, and I think you will find that your dealer will be like mine and work with you to get you into the car. Drive it. You will love it. You won't go back to a gasoline engine again.

Not enough platitudes can be said about this car which we have owned for about 7 weeks. Until we took a vacation to the beach we did not use a drop of gas. It is rated at 38 miles/charge but we get closer to 45-50 when AC is not used. We live in the suburbs and most round trips are less than 20 miles. We charge overnight for less than $1.50 for a full charge less for lesser charges. The car is comfortable for long trips but then you start using gas. In our case we were getting between 40-45 miles on the highway. It regens power when in stop and go traffic so if there is a pileup you get more mpg than if you go straight 65mph. The interior is luxurious and the infotainment center is amusing. I estimate we will save between $100-200/month in gas. Its not ideal for everyone, particularly if your commute is longer than 40 miles each way but it can still save money in those situations. This car has been great and has plenty of pickup on the highway.

I have been driving Mercedes Benz automobiles for the past 20 years because I like well built, smooth, quiet rides. You can't get any smoother than an electric motor, so that part I knew would be good. What surprised me most though was the ride. It matched my CLK and bested my wife's C Class. She and I both live and work in a small town so we can stay on electric all the time. Our 80 mile trip to the lake on weekends is now a one gallon each way drive. She will be trading in her Mercedes on a Volt very soon. There is just nothing about this car that I don't like. I hope these things catch on because after the lease is up I don't think I can comfortably go back to all gas power. As an American, I'm very proud of what Chevrolet has accomplished with this car. I wish other American car makers would adopt the battery/generator concept. I'd love to have a Jeep Wrangler with this technology.

I was looking for a car to save some gas on my 63 mile round trip commute. Previously was in a cadillac getting 20 MPG. I ran though some numbers and the Volt was on the list of lowest cost of ownership and #1 in least amount of out of pocket expense. I test drove it and that was all it took. I am averaging 50 miles on electric daily, and over 38 MPG on the gas. I have done 250 Mile commute one weekend and averaged 44 MPG on the highway with the air on. This car exceeds every expectation. My payment was about the same compared to the Caddy, but my gas expense has been cut by $240 a month. We are now going to buy Volt # 2 as the numbers play out for both of our comutes.

It was a surprisingly nice driving car. It seems well made and everything works well. You d have to be careful around the center dash buttons, the faintest touch and the button is pushed. Saying that it seems like a pretty mild complaint because everything else works well. Charging takes 10 hours and I get 45 - 47 miles on the charge. I am currently waiting for a 220 V charger and the charging will only take 4 hours. When the charge runs out the gasoline motor starts and you never notice the change over unless you look at the dash board. We have had the car for just under two months (about 1500 miles) and have only put gas in it once although it could need another tankful but I am not sure. It will warn me when I get low on gas. So far the car has been perfect. We are planning a trip from Houston to Washington Dc and a stop in Ohio before we head back home.

I've had the car just over 3 weeks and I absolutely love it. I've not been to the gas station since I got it and I don't plan on being there anytime soon. My "normal" work commute is about 30 miles round trip. I'm getting about 44-45 miles per charge and I'm not really driving much different than I did when I had my former car. I got the 240V charging station installed free thanks to the local power company so it charges very quickly. Everyone I show the car to is impressed with it and I always seem to get random people asking me about it at various places I go. I don't consider myself a "tree hugger" type person at all, I'm what you would consider you normal average type of guy. I was just sick of paying so much for gas. Now I'm paying about a $1.25 to charge that battery so it's a huge savings. I'm only leasing this vehicle as I didn't know if I'd really like it, but I must tell you that I don't ever want to go back to a gas burning car ever. I'm totally sold on the EREV (Extended Range Electric Vehicle). I can communte 99% of the time without ever using gas. If I have to make a long commute I know I always have the gas engine to back me up. It's just a great vehicle, did I mention that already.