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I can't speak for others but I had a 2012 Volt and my assessment overall is meh. I'd say that the Volt nails average, its not great at anything and its not ter

I can't speak for others but I had a 2012 Volt and my assessment overall is meh. I'd say that the Volt nails average, its not great at anything and its not terrible at much. I loved driving electric, no shifting, just smooth power. The gas engine how ever would vibrate the car much more than a normal gas car does. Everything in the Volt is lightened - I think the roof might even be plastic. The rear view mirror would vibrate out of place when the gas engine was running. The gas engine is mostly used like a generator in the Volt, meaning it runs at higher RPM most of the time to charge the batteries. I can't tell you how many times I was at a stop light with someone in the crosswalk right in front of the car when the engine decided to start and run at 3500-4000 RPM. You get surprised looks when pedestrians think you are revving up for them. My advice, skip the hybrid and just go electric.

js2 6y ago
We like our second generation Volt. We bought it knowing that it's 55 mile electric range would be sufficient for 95% of my wife's driving, but we also wanted something she could use for occasional road trips of several hundred miles without range anxiety or needing to find an EV charger. Tesla was out of our price range at the time, but even now, level-2 chargers, much less superchargers, are still not as widespread as gas stations especially to the places she sometimes road trips. The gas engine is somewhat whiny, but I don't find that it vibrates the vehicle. We're at 62K miles, of which 54K have been all electric. I've had to change the oil once. Visits to the gas station are maybe six times a year. I think it's worked out to about 2000 miles per tank of gas. Put new tires on it around 50K. As to build quality, yeah, it's an econobox with a very fancy drive train. Nothing rattles in it though besides all the random crap my wife keeps in the car. She's been very happy with it. Per usual, it depends on your use case and your mileage may vary.
- annoyingnoob 6y ago
  I live in CA. Driving the 2012 Volt over the Grapevine would cause the electronics to overheat and the car would slow down - it couldn't maintain 65 for the duration of the climb. Honestly, I got tired of adjusting the rear-view mirror. I ended up with about 35K miles on that car, about 65% of them on electric drive.

js2 6y ago

We like our second generation Volt. We bought it knowing that it's 55 mile electric range would be sufficient for 95% of my wife's driving, but we also wanted something she could use for occasional road trips of several hundred miles without range anxiety or needing to find an EV charger. Tesla was out of our price range at the time, but even now, level-2 chargers, much less superchargers, are still not as widespread as gas stations especially to the places she sometimes road trips. The gas engine is somewhat whiny, but I don't find that it vibrates the vehicle. We're at 62K miles, of which 54K have been all electric. I've had to change the oil once. Visits to the gas station are maybe six times a year. I think it's worked out to about 2000 miles per tank of gas. Put new tires on it around 50K. As to build quality, yeah, it's an econobox with a very fancy drive train. Nothing rattles in it though besides all the random crap my wife keeps in the car. She's been very happy with it. Per usual, it depends on your use case and your mileage may vary.

annoyingnoob 6y ago
I live in CA. Driving the 2012 Volt over the Grapevine would cause the electronics to overheat and the car would slow down - it couldn't maintain 65 for the duration of the climb. Honestly, I got tired of adjusting the rear-view mirror. I ended up with about 35K miles on that car, about 65% of them on electric drive.