|
2013 volt
Well I did it, Traded in my 2011 BMW 128 Convertible for a Volt. My Job has changed and I will be commuting into LA. For me the volt added the ability to use the carpool lanes by myself so it will save me about 40min a day on my already too long commute (non of my coworkers live down this way). The volt has changed for 2013 making it a better commuting car. The battery back is increased in size and the car now has a "hold" mode added to the driving mode button. Prior to 2013 the car would exhaust its battery pack then switch over to the motor. The hold mode allows you to control when the car will use its battery power. So you now have 40 miles of electric to use however you want. A recent trip to the San Diego airport for me went like this. I started on electric and got the car up to speed on the interstate for a few miles then I changed to hold hybrid mode. In this mode the car uses the engine along with the battery uphill or in high demand, it uses the engine on flat and it uses battery regen on downhill sections. after the battery builds up a little it will switch to battery only operation for driving short periods of time and for stop and go traffic. As I approached the airport I switched back to electric "normal" mode and used electricity for to move around town and the airport. i did the same on the return trip trying to use about 20 miles of electric each way. the result was 66mpg round trip. Driving normally. Short trips are purely battery so I average in the upper 80's for everything. The handling on the car is very good with good road feel and suspension (OK, its not a BMW but it does feel more German than American) and the power is a lot more than you would expect. Fit and finish are excellent and the seats are very supportive. and the wow factor from the dash is awesome. In truth it is an exceptional car. In terms of price, a lot of the things you hear are not true. My car was 43K, I got 5K off of sticker and 1500 back from California, I get a 7500 tax credit and a discount on my electricity, and 0 percent financing for 60 months. so I am around 29K, That's normal car territory. I wanted to add it to the garage here so I can keep data on it but cant seem to do it (my two old cars are there and i retired them) when I figure it out I will start posting the fuel economy.
__________________
|
Linear Mode
