Chevy Volt

[[JiF]Mike]

You might wanna wait til next year.

There be a volt under there!

Below shows the interior. Wow!

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

So where is the Aveo version for us poor people

[[JiF]Top321us]

Very nice
I like the Cadillac. It is a good looking car. Now just have to figure out what bank to rob.

[[JiF][AARP]Tissueman]

Think of how confusing it would be if it was a Chevy Watt instead of Chevy Volt?

Grimp: So what kind of car are you driving?

Mike: Watt.

Grimp: What?

Mike: That's right. Watt?

Grimp: What do you mean 'what'? I asked you first, but since you asked I'm going to buy a Soul.

Mike: You were born with a Soul you can't buy one. Unless you are making a deal with the devil.

Grimp: What?

Mike: We've already been through that.

Tissue: Ooooo. Look at the shiny cars!

Mike and Grimp simultaneously: WHAT?

Tissue: Exactly!

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

I got to drive the Soul base automatic today.
I have to say I was actually quite impressed. It exceeded everything I expected from it with the possible exception of the engine. The engine performed pretty much as I expected. Maybe just a tad better.

Remembering this is an economy car I found:
Height when driving is excellent. You feel like you are in a small SUV not a tiny hatch back.
Visibility is very good.
Braking seems really good. I did not try any hard stops, but the brakes felt strong and not under done.
I was very surprised at how stable and solid it felt even on the Interstate a 70MPH.
You sit upright just like I sit in my mini-van.
Getting in an out of it is very easy. I think four six foot 200LBS men would fit in it fine.
At highway speeds it was quieter than I expected. I was having a pretty low tone conversation with the salesman the whole time and never felt like I had to raise my voice or say "what?"
Sound system seemed pretty good to me. Lot's of connection toys, blue tooth, usb, yada yada. I was not really paying too much attention to that stuff though, but did sync my phone.
I really like the hatch on the back. I can just fit right under it for loading stuff without crouching.
1.6 liter engine 130HP ran like a 1.6 liter engine. I was not disappointed. I am sure the 2 liter is better.
The transmission did seem to take a long time shifting between reverse and drive. I need to pay more attention to that next drive.
I did not really notice the 6 speeds changing a lot. Which is probably a good thing. Need more drive time on that too.
Steering wheel had the cruise controls, phone controls, stereo controls.

Overall I felt pretty comfortable and safe in it. They even had a button just to the right of the steering wheel to toggle through the odometer displays rather than having to stick your hand through the wheel.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Unless you are making a deal with the devil.

That is what I am gonna have to do to get my wife to go along with the deal
I do think that once she tries it out she will go along. It's not what she expected it to be.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Back to the Volt I see it has a 1.4L gas engine that is only used as a generator.
Will it keep the car running indefinitely as long as you add gas? Eventually will the battery drain to the point where you have to shut it off or can it power the electric engine and charge the battery at the same time?

[[JiF]Mike]

As long as you have gas you can keep going. The generator is not designed to recharge the battery. It's meant to keep the car going after the battery is depleted. All the regenerative features will still work, and the battery will still be used at slower speeds to get going, or maintain speed. There's a lot of monitoring going on! When coasting or braking the regenerative features send a charge back to the battery, and if the engine is running it does too. There's a screen that shows all this and it's pretty interesting when the engine is running.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Cool. Must have a quad core

[[JiF]Lt Gav]

Uh Oh I hope it doesn't have Sat Nav as it will be liable to crash between map changes

[[JiF]Mike]

It does have some of the worst voice recognition I have ever used! lol

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

You just have not learned to speak car yet

[[JiF]Mike]

I pulled into a convenience store the other day in a small town, NH. I live just down the road in the neighboring town, but this store is closest to me for those quick trips for milk. I was there for about 20 minutes talking to people about the Volt lol. Besides the usual questions, I met a neighbor of mine. He works for a trash burning power plant that produces power for about 14,000 homes. The plant is about half an hour from us, so I was pretty excited and asked him if we are getting power from that plant. He was pretty certain our power was not from his plant. (bummer) How cool would it be to charge the Volt from power generated by burned trash? I may have to move!

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

[JiF][SPARK]Mike

[[JiF]Mike]

I have thought for some time I need a new name! I was thinking [JiF]Volt. but I'm open to suggestions. Mike is short for my real name, so not overly creative! lol