Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?

[mxs]

A driverless car is, to me, a car that I still own and never leaves my possession, but I just get in and it takes me to point B on it's own.

A shared car is basically...well, the modern day ZipCar or a taxi - a car that I don't own but I pay a fee whenever I might need it, which depending on where I live, might be very seldom and for short periods.

Mixing the two is a long way off - what I picture you are envisioning is a world where there's just countless driverless "drone" cars out there sitting and waiting for someone to press a button on their cellphone at which point it zips around the corner and picks you up.

Any new car will be driver-less in let say 10 years time (L5 autonomy) for argument's sake. Whether it will be a car you privately own (pundits like Tony Seba doubts that) or hire as a service is a totally different question. But yes, we will have that choice to be made if we are still around then and looking to hire/purchase a vehicle.

 

[slowbird]

So last night I'm in my Volt and the Tire Pressure warning pops up. It's a smart system. The center display shows you which tire is low and what the air pressure is at in real time so I could watch the air pressure click down slowly. Too bad it's in kPa.

So I pull over the first chance I get and I can hear the air pissing out of the tire. I easily spot the nail. So I pop out the tire kit in the hatch. The connector for the 12v is wonky cause it's been sitting in a kinked position for so long but I got it working. Filled the tire with that ****** glue stuff and started to make my way home. The warning still on but I could see the pressure steady at around 200kPa.

I get home and the leak has stopped but the glue is Everywhere! All over the wheel well too ugh!



Small price to pay I guess to get you where you need to go.

24hr garage in TO put 2 plugs in from the outside and had me on my way.

I'm really impressed with the Tire Pressure Monitoring system in the Volt. Pretty dope.

 

[mimico_polak]

So last night I'm in my Volt and the Tire Pressure warning pops up. It's a smart system. The center display shows you which tire is low and what the air pressure is at in real time so I could watch the air pressure click down slowly. Too bad it's in kPa.

So I pull over the first chance I get and I can hear the air pissing out of the tire. I easily spot the nail. So I pop out the tire kit in the hatch. The connector for the 12v is wonky cause it's been sitting in a kinked position for so long but I got it working. Filled the tire with that ****** glue stuff and started to make my way home. The warning still on but I could see the pressure steady at around 200kPa.

I get home and the leak has stopped but the glue is Everywhere! All over the wheel well too ugh!



Small price to pay I guess to get you where you need to go.

24hr garage in TO put 2 plugs in from the outside and had me on my way.

I'm really impressed with the Tire Pressure Monitoring system in the Volt. Pretty dope.

This is why I'm looking for a spare tire that I can purchase and put into the car....not a big fan of no spares in a car. Simply for time, and the weight 'penalty' is worth it in my mind. Glad to hear it worked out for you....good luck to whoever takes that tire off to swap!

 

[nobbie48]

So last night I'm in my Volt and the Tire Pressure warning pops up. It's a smart system. The center display shows you which tire is low and what the air pressure is at in real time so I could watch the air pressure click down slowly. Too bad it's in kPa.

So I pull over the first chance I get and I can hear the air pissing out of the tire. I easily spot the nail. So I pop out the tire kit in the hatch. The connector for the 12v is wonky cause it's been sitting in a kinked position for so long but I got it working. Filled the tire with that ****** glue stuff and started to make my way home. The warning still on but I could see the pressure steady at around 200kPa.

I get home and the leak has stopped but the glue is Everywhere! All over the wheel well too ugh!



Small price to pay I guess to get you where you need to go.

24hr garage in TO put 2 plugs in from the outside and had me on my way.

I'm really impressed with the Tire Pressure Monitoring system in the Volt. Pretty dope.

I can't find the source but somewhere on one of my go to forums a guy used tire goop and a plug. When he pulled the tire off sometime later he could see that the plug was working its way out. The implication was that the sealant acted as a lube for the plug.

I have no problem with a plug in a car tire but if it was sealed as well I'd replace it ASAP.

Added doom and gloom. I had one of the cheapie 12 volt tire pumps from IIRC Canadian Tire and after years went to use it getting noise but no output.

Turns out that the big nylon gear had stress cracked and no longer meshed with the smaller gear. I'm assuming the nylon was recycled and not stress relieved or both. Get what you pay for.

Nothing is worth less than a second rate piece of emergency equipment.

 

[slowbird]

I can't find the source but somewhere on one of my go to forums a guy used tire goop and a plug. When he pulled the tire off sometime later he could see that the plug was working its way out. The implication was that the sealant acted as a lube for the plug.

Hmmmm....to me that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. The whole point of the glue is to seal around a puncture. If it acted as a lubricant it would do the same for a nail/screw/foreign object which would negate its purpose.
...and the very little I got on my hands was very tacky and wasn't easy to wipe off.

Now having said that I'm not particularly pleased with an outside tire plug anyways so the plan was when I swap to my winters I'll take the tire someplace to get it patched from the inside. However I have read that tire plugs have come along way and are quite good now and should outlast the tire.

Added doom and gloom. I had one of the cheapie 12 volt tire pumps from IIRC Canadian Tire and after years went to use it getting noise but no output.

Turns out that the big nylon gear had stress cracked and no longer meshed with the smaller gear. I'm assuming the nylon was recycled and not stress relieved or both. Get what you pay for.

Nothing is worth less than a second rate piece of emergency equipment.

I think the electric pumps are hit and miss. I used a small 12v electric pump from crappy tire for many many years without issue. I still have it and it still works.
My dad uses the one that came with his RX-8 exclusively and has no issues.
My brother has one exactly like mine and it failed after much less time than I've had mine.

 

[nobbie48]

The Quantino

https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/quantino/first-drive

Fill it up with salt water and go........sorta?

Smoke and mirrors? Gold from lead?

 

[Robbo]

Anyone can own a hybrid...

All you need is a black Sharpie pen like this guy I saw earlier tonight at the mall

Owner didn't bother to park in the empty "Hybrid Parking Spot". He/she decided that this one was closest to the mall entrance

#speechless

 

[Brian P]

Here's the only way you'll get drivers of non-electric cars to stop parking in EV charging spots ...

 

[GreyGhost]

I'll park in hybrid spots any day. They are just greenwashing spots anyway.

I wouldn't block a charging station, it's mainly greenwashing, but at least it has a useful purpose. It looks like the neighbouring spot is a normal hybrid spot. This guy looks like he is ****** that special spots exist so he is sticking it to the man.

 

[Robbo]

Would like to see the driver's reaction if/when some quick-thinking individual takes a black Sharpie and changes it to read "Not A Hybrid".

 

[nobbie48]

I'll park in hybrid spots any day. They are just greenwashing spots anyway.

I wouldn't block a charging station, it's mainly greenwashing, but at least it has a useful purpose. It looks like the neighbouring spot is a normal hybrid spot. This guy looks like he is ****** that special spots exist so he is sticking it to the man.

It's getting hard to find normal people parking spots at HD.

Handicap are legit

Preggers

Rental Fleet

Contractors

Ev's

Some US stores have veterans parking

Normal is becoming a special interest group.

 

[Rick CH]

I'll park in hybrid spots any day. They are just greenwashing spots anyway.

Especially when it's a hybrid like this:

 

[nobbie48]

To be honest this thread and the Bolt has me thinking about an EV. Unfortunately we are in a holding pattern with some lifestyle changes.

 

[PrivatePilot]

To be honest this thread and the Bolt has me thinking about an EV. Unfortunately we are in a holding pattern with some lifestyle changes.

I keep trying to make the math work on a Bolt, but the purchase/lease prices are still pretty steep.

- If we bought a Bolt, I would take over our current Volt..and all my driving is totally within electric range so the fuel consumption would go to zero.

- Right now given the high mileage my wife drives every month, electric costs aside she's averaging about $150/month in gas...which in the grand scheme of things is about $250.00/month less then what she was burning with her old 300.

- I'm burning about $125/month in gas in the Magnum, down from over $200/month before we got the Volt when we used to drive the Magnum more, but we've now shifted our mileage heavily towards driving the Volt whenever possible.

Eliminating both we have a potential savings in gas of $275/month in gas if we were driving 100% electric, not including the cost of electricity altenrately, but we'd still be >$200/month in savings easily.

But in the end, those savings don't come close to fully offsetting the costs, so we'd effectively be left with a car payment still. The 3 year lease on a Bolt, after the full eligible tax credit is still $673/month tax in for the premiere model, with $0 down. Even with a small downpayment (whatever my Magnum is worth when I'm done with it), say.... $650/month.

$650-$200 in gas savings = $400/month net cost of ownership.

In the end when, for us, driving electric is all about saving money, the math still doesn't work....so in the short term it'll likely be another Volt next spring for a few years until lower priced Bolts hit the market.

And in reality given our high mileage driving, a lease likely wouldn't work anyways. The math on financing is even less attractive unless we go on a never-never plan when we're still making payments on the car 90 years later...which I will not do.

 

[Lunatic]

The math works out differently for everybody. For us, we will be saving over $500/mth in gas with the Bolt. The CTS-V we just sold was a double whammy being both inefficient and requiring premium fuel. Add on the ongoing maintenance costs of a 12 yr old car and the case for the Bolt got even easier. We'll be saving a lot of wear and tear on the Colorado since we'll use the Bolt for almost everything outside my wife's commute and the occasional trip that requires the truck.

 

[nobbie48]

Of course there will always be the total leech that says "Let's take your car because then WE save by not having to buy gas".

Yeah, right EV's don't wear out tires or brakes, need insurance, don't depreciate.

Have there been any repair cost estimates for what are typical expected repairs?

 

[PrivatePilot]

The math works out differently for everybody. For us, we will be saving over $500/mth in gas with the Bolt. The CTS-V we just sold was a double whammy being both inefficient and requiring premium fuel.

For sure it works out far better in your situation. If I added the $250/month in gas we are already saving vs her old car (as mentioned above) to those numbers our net cost of ownership on a Bolt would be $150/month, but it's not fair to compare 2 cars ago to our current car.

If I had a longer commute and was using more gas on the Magnum (which is a fuel pig as it has the Hemi engine, so it gets basically pickup-truck fuel economy) the math could quickly swing to a near wash for us, but at this point work is only about a 9KM commute for me.

Have there been any repair cost estimates for what are typical expected repairs?

Most common work on a Volt is oil changes (as little as once every 2 years, but ours was last changed in May or June and is still sitting at 68%, so it'll be probably next spring for us) and aside from that, not a whole lot.

The most common maintenance on a Chevy Bolt, as per the manual, is tire rotations. The dealers are really going to hate those things - little to no followup $$$.

Full disclosure - ours IS going into the shop this morning for some warranty work on the Voltec system - we have an intermittent code coming up. I'll post more details later.

 

[slowbird]

Most common work on a Volt is oil changes (as little as once every 2 years, but ours was last changed in May or June and is still sitting at 68%, so it'll be probably next spring for us) and aside from that, not a whole lot.

My oil was changed about 5 months & 10,000kms ago and it says around 80% oil life left for me. That might take a heavy dive when the weather gets colder.

Full disclosure - ours IS going into the shop this morning for some warranty work on the Voltec system - we have an intermittent code coming up. I'll post more details later.

Interesting. Please keep us updated.

I wonder if it's the Low coolant sensor issue.

Was it a SERVICE HIGH VOLTAGE CHARGING SYSTEM (SHVCS) message?

 

[LBV]

Have there been any repair cost estimates for what are typical expected repairs?

Only thing besides oil changes in 3 yrs & 3 months of ownership since new has been an issue when I couldn't get cabin heat. That turned out to be a pump as i recall that was covered under warranty. I can't see brakes costing any more than the Chevy Cruise upon which the Volt is platformed on. The car's been dead reliable and I'd buy another one in a second (in fact plan on when this one is ready to part ways with me, which could be still a long ways off).

 

[slowbird]

I serviced my brakes a couple months back. Pulled off the wheels to do them myself and After I took off one caliper and took a look I put it back on and took it to a mechanic I trust. Looked as if they hadn't been serviced since new. I wasn't gonna spend the day in my visitors parking lot with sand paper and a file cleaning the brackets, and hoping cdn tire had hardware kits in stock.

The calipers and brackets were rusty as **** but everything still worked. Tech spent half the day cleaning it all up. Pads are factory and still lots of meat left. Over 100k on the car. Looking good.