Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle? | Page 111 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?

shanekingsley said:
A coworker friend of mine who has been driving the EV's for what feels like 10 years said she had placed her order for and was due to receive her Bolt in June. When I was at the dealership today the sales guy said the Bolt was about 9 months away from customers taking delivery, so if I ordered one today it would come near the end of the year. Are they really that far behind on orders?
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Yes and no. Up here in Canada, you're in for a long wait because the numbers allocated by GM remain low. In ZEV credit states, especially California, dealerships get bigger allocations and some regularly have stock sitting. On top of that, GM's allocating 5000 for S. Korea this year. So, right now it doesn't look like the number of Bolts that will be sent to Canada will be significantly different than the 2100 that were sold for all of 2017 up here.

So, the salesman telling you the wait could be 9 months wasn't completely off the mark. The wait could be shorter because people ahead of you in line may drop out, their allocations may come sooner than expected, and the dealership might get more cars allocated to them. On the Canadian owner's group over on FB, it seems like most people waited 6-7 months for their orders last year. Some took about 9 months, and some got the car a lot sooner by jumping on any last minute cancellations (that's what I did).
 
Welcome to buying an EV in Canada experience .... Picking a car you want is one thing, picking the car up to drive is whole different bag of non-sense due to the compliance cars, ZEV credits etc. ... in another words, all OEM's (with exception to Tesla and sort of Nissan) so far has been playing the game. Even they say they are all in, they are not .... Just ask yourself these questions and the answer is very obvious .... 1) How many cars does a given manufacturer plan to build a year? (If it's 30000 or less worldwide .. it means good luck waiting) .... 3) Will the car be available everywhere, including my province? ...... your plan can fall apart really quickly, if you are not willing to wait and wait and wait. I was not willing to wait, nor did I need a range of 60kWh pack .... hence me driving Soul within a week of signing purchase agreement. Even though I compromised, honestly, the experience has been great. I guess me not buying a car I liked the most, is overshadowed by the whole driving experience and given cost savings to run the car(s) (because I use less my second ICE car. I basically stopped using it for anything other than hwy)

This time around, it was about getting my foot into the EV game on a short and harmless lease, just to see what's to like and what's not to like, batteries behavior in our climate etc. The next time around, it will be a different buying experience, I am sure, or rather I hope ....
 
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Anyone interested in a Bolt should join the Canada Chevy Bolt Owners group on FB. Several dealers and other people post on there when there is a car immediately available. If you are looking to skip the wait and are less picky about options you can get a Bolt a lot faster that way.
 
Usually at least 2-5 Bolts listed at any point listed on Trader.ca as well in a 1-2 hour radius of Toronto.

They can be had, you just need to be willing to maybe travel a bit, and hope the one on the lot is optioned the way you’d like.
 
Not always, at least at the time I was looking .. I called few times on posted Autotrader stuff to find out no availability. Lots of outdated stuff left there ... just to get you on the phone to talk opportunity to sell you a car. Any car ... LOL

But, I definitely know people who had their luck buying remote cars from dealers, just not EV's.
 
I wouldn't waste my time on the ones posted on trader or dealer websites, they're almost always not really available. The ones I have seen posted on FB are not posted anywhere else and the couple I called were legit. I nearly jumped on one when I was waiting for mine, but I didn't want a premier and mine showed up right around the same time.
 
Any must have options for the new Volt?
I'll get the better sound system and so far that's it. I would get the premier package, but I don't want leather seats. There are some things like the blind spot indicators is be interested in, but you have to get leather seats to get those other things. Anything else?
 
A joke, my wife just told me and, I thought was related to our discussion of later .... What has having a baby in common with purchasing an EV in Canada? ... Nine months waiting period. I thought that was funny and certainly almost true for quite cars ... LOL
 
shanekingsley said:
Any must have options for the new Volt?
I'll get the better sound system and so far that's it. I would get the premier package, but I don't want leather seats. There are some things like the blind spot indicators is be interested in, but you have to get leather seats to get those other things. Anything else?
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I got the leather seats as the only option they heat well, any reason you dont want the leather.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
shanekingsley said:
Any must have options for the new Volt?
I'll get the better sound system and so far that's it. I would get the premier package, but I don't want leather seats. There are some things like the blind spot indicators is be interested in, but you have to get leather seats to get those other things. Anything else?
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Heated seats are absolutely a must-have on an EV IMHO, they allow you to stay comfortable in the dead of winter without needing to crank the heat to infinity.

The adaptive cruise control that's available on the Gen2 volts is VERY highly regarded by those that have it, but I guess it depends on how much you drive longer distances if it's worth it or not, and I think it's part of a bigger safety package something or other. What I do know is that our trucks at work that have the adaptive cruise control are awesome and I do wish I had it on our cars.
 
Thanks.
I did somewhat want the adaptive cruise, and the blind spot assist, but those two are only sold with the leather seats for some reason. I can live without them as I always use my mirrors and rarely use cruise control, despite having it on every car I've had for the last 25 years.

On the 2018, heated front seats are standard, even on the LT version. The car comes with a surprising amount of stuff standard so I feel like I don't need much else unless someone points something out I'm overlooking.

I did put a deposit down today, but they are having mild trouble locating a car - hopefully they can pull one from another dealership. I don't even really care about the colour of the car.
Otherwise to order one it's 8 weeks:(
 
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I'm looking forward to it:)
I had originally taken a test drive at the EV centre which was good for a no pressure drive, but it was a little short on tech details and little nuances of the car. The guy who took me on the test drive from the dealership spent over an hour with me in the car showing me all the neat stuff the car can do and monitor. It's a very interesting car and well worth the price.
 
shanekingsley said:
The guy who took me on the test drive from the dealership spent over an hour with me in the car showing me all the neat stuff the car can do and monitor. It's a very interesting car and well worth the price.
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Awesome to hear - sadly the usual dealership experience tends to go like this:

- Show up and find the car dead because nobody could be bothered to actually plug it in, even when they knew someone was coming to see it.

- Make up excuse for the dead battery saying "it has an engine ya' know, you can just do the test drive on that!".

- End up knowing vastly more than the salesperson because EV consumers tend to do their homework ahead of time.

- At end of test drive salesperson drags you over to the pavement princess SUV's instead hoping to make easy big fat $$$ commission there instead.

ALL of the above happened to us when we were looking at BOTH (!) of our Volts, short of trying to sell us an SUV instead, but that indeed happens to many.
 
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shanekingsley said:
Thanks.
I did somewhat want the adaptive cruise, and the blind spot assist, but those two are only sold with the leather seats for some reason. I can live without them as I always use my mirrors and rarely use cruise control, despite having it on every car I've had for the last 25 years.

On the 2018, heated front seats are standard, even on the LT version. The car comes with a surprising amount of stuff standard so I feel like I don't need much else unless someone points something out I'm overlooking.

I did put a deposit down today, but they are having mild trouble locating a car - hopefully they can pull one from another dealership. I don't even really care about the colour of the car.
Otherwise to order one it's 8 weeks:(
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Call the insurance company and see if there is a difference in your annual premium price between premier and LT. Sometimes you get a significant insurance break by having the electronic nannies, so much so that over the long term you actually save money over the initial premium to buy the car.
 
Now, I need $50K rebate from Wynn, to buy the iPace ... Looking at the options, you know what make it $60K .... :)
 
shanekingsley said:
Thanks.
I did somewhat want the adaptive cruise, and the blind spot assist, but those two are only sold with the leather seats for some reason. I can live without them as I always use my mirrors and rarely use cruise control, despite having it on every car I've had for the last 25 years.

On the 2018, heated front seats are standard, even on the LT version. The car comes with a surprising amount of stuff standard so I feel like I don't need much else unless someone points something out I'm overlooking.

I did put a deposit down today, but they are having mild trouble locating a car - hopefully they can pull one from another dealership. I don't even really care about the colour of the car.
Otherwise to order one it's 8 weeks:(
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Congrats ...... but,8 weeks is not too bad. Just get what you like ... you know what they say. The moment you drive away, it's all about payments you remember for long time. Get something you will like, even though you will have to wait a bit. As long as they can guarantee you 8 weeks delivery ... not 8, becoming 12, becoming 16 ....
 
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Plant_W said:
Call the insurance company and see if there is a difference in your annual premium price between premier and LT. Sometimes you get a significant insurance break by having the electronic nannies, so much so that over the long term you actually save money over the initial premium to buy the car.
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Thanks, but it's not about money saved.

For waiting the 8 weeks - as long as the car has the better sound system and cloth seats, colour and other stuff don't matter much to me. This car already comes standard with everything else I would want!
 
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