Review your current ride!

My first GM, the first year 2011 Chevy Volt was the most I ever paid for a car, Chip. Prior cars have been low miles, used and not domestic. It was my first new car, as well as my first GM.

The Volt test drive felt like living in a Jetson's future. The car is an EV with a gas powered electric generator, no need to stop at charge stations on long trips. That's one of the huge pluses, zero range anxiety, zero worry about long trips. It's also been the most reliable car prior to the Bolt EV. Maintenance has been minimal. 10 years, less than $1000. The one issue is long term battery upkeep. There are simply no new battery modules, sections or packs. So now that we are in the 10-12 year old range, this will be an increasing issue. The car is still in like new condition, but battery maintenance/replacements will become the thing that dead-ends the car. There are some options to replace the battery with used batteries, but it's in the $6k to 10k range with a 1-3 year warranty. That's why the Ultium platform is so attractive to me. It addresses the after warranty battery maintenance issue, but at what price we don't know.

Our other is a 2017 Bolt EV. Based on our very positive Volt experience we bought the Bolt EV in 2017. It's fun to drive and the range is very good. Easy to park, and our estimated miles comes in at 300-320 during summer, 200-220 winter. Some don't like the styling, I do. YMMV. Some may complain about the need for the battery being replaced due to the couple of flame-on events, but I saw GM stepping up and addressing the issue. I got a new battery, more range, a new warranty. Others complained that it took months and during that time the car needed to be parked outside and not charged beyond 80% or so. Oh well, I must be a bit more understanding or patient.

2012 volt, bought in 2015 by happenstance and luck after prior cars burned in a house fire. I'd followed the development of the Volt with quite a bit of interest in the early days because I was a bid of a nerd about EVs in the early 1990s, when all you could get was conversions: AC Propulsion motors and a trunk full of Optima yellow-tops. But when the Volt was announced at $40k+ when it had been planned as a $25k car ($40k was a year's salary), it soured.

But in 2015, when I desperately needed a car, there it sat, in the lot at a Ford dealership, with a $17,495 sticker price on, and 26,000 miles. Since 2015, I've put about 50k miles on the car, replaced slightly more than Steverino has*, and basically see the writing on the wall: The Volt is dead end, model-specific batteries are a dead end, and I don't ever want to have to replace a whole one out of my own pocket all at once. I am here for Ultium, in the smallest, cheapest vehicle I can manage with better safety features that a decade of development can devise. So it's a race against the calendar and on one side, the Volt is performing roughly as well as it has all along (though 10% of the battery capacity wandered away in the dark), and on the other, I'm keeping an eye on Cell Group 13 because that's the one that runs out of charge first, every time. Blissful ignorance is not an option. Would I have bought this car knowing then what I know now? Absolutely. Would I buy it today, for even half the price I paid then? Absolutely not; the end is TOOOO near, and the fact that could survive without a car is all that's keeping me in this one.

* tires and aux batteries don't count, but I've had to have a shift handle replaced, had the HPCM2 cleared and updated more times than I care to, and the telematics module that supplies compass, GPS, OnStar and handsfree Bluetooth connectivity replaced about 12 months before the CDMA tower shutdown killed the OnStar access forever.

I currently own a 2016 Second Gen. Ford FWD Ti. Edge with a 3.5 non direct injection V-6 which also does not have the auto-engine off feature. Since I am now retired its use is mainly for hauling the dog around and towing my canoe to the local rivers in the area so it has very low miles given its age. I had previously owned a 1995 Chevy S-10 Blazer 4X4 (with limited slip rear diff) for 20 years so the Edge was like a real luxury vehicle by comparison.

Likes: Perfect size for my needs. Good power with the V-6 without the downsides of a direct injected turbo 4 cyl. Nice looks. Pretty nice ride quality. I am pleased with overall quality both inside and out.Has a very quiet ride. I am pleased that it still has a CD player which I believe was not available the next model year.
It is worth mentioning that the previous model year (2015) was plagued with early production vehicles having water intrusion issues due to a problem with the equipment laying down lines of sealant during assembly which was a real mess for those owners. Ford bought back a fair number of those vehicles as field repairs did not work well. By 2016 this was not an issue thankfully.

Dislikes / Potential problems: The 3.5 V-6 is notorious for a failing internal water pump. Mostly happening at higher mileage, but if not caught would / will lead to catastrophic engine failure. The headlights are very poor and make night driving somewhat difficult. Some owners complain about the horn not being loud enough.(not an issue for me) The so called Sony 12 speaker "premium" sound system is not very good. (to my ears) No real issues yet.