Anyhow, on another note...I finally got the second Volt tonight. Mine's the clean one - thought about washing my wifes for the pic, but pointless considering the weather on the way.
For those interested, I said I'd post about the saga buying this one. It was somewhat smoother than the disaster that was our first purchase, but still far worse than it should have been, especially since we bought it from a GM dealer as well.
It's a bit of a trainwreck.
See car pop up on Trader.ca last Monday morning afternoon. Price is very attractive and it's loaded to the hilt. Interested. I call the dealer and inquire, ask for pics. Pics come back about 20 minutes later and it looks nice...decide to hop in the car and go see it the next morning.
Arrive at dealer at 9AM prompt..and that was the -20c morning. It was actually -22 there.
Car is parked...and the drive battery is
flat...freakin....dead. Memories of our first Volt purchase where it took 3 days to finally get it charged for a test drive.
Now, I didn't exactly have a lot to do as I'm still off work with my shoulder recovery, so I decide to hang out. Car starts on engine but goes into reduced propulsion mode immediately because the battery is cold soaked - expected that. Drive it over to the charging station and plug it in...battery takes about 25 minutes of warming before it even starts charging. Let it charge for an hour or so to get at least 15-20KM in it for a test drive. Mill around dealer, drink coffee, kill time. Kinda frustrated already as they knew I was coming - why can dealers not charge EV's for people??!
Spend some time looking at the car, trying not to freeze. Notice that the previous owner cleaned it out - the charger was gone, the tire inflator was gone, even the floormats were gone. Brought that up to the salesman who calls the previous owner (it had been a trade-in for a 2017 Volt) and he claims his new one didn't come with a charger so he kept his old one. Bunk, but whatever, not my problem - I figure I can use it as a price negotiation tool as I didn't really need a second L1 charger anyways. Tire inflator would need to be replaced for it to pass safety however I learned.
Finally go test drive car, drives nice..everything works...except the heated seats.
On return, I mention that, along with the fact that I'm seriously interested in the car and would be interested in making an offer. They decide to pull the car into the shop (it's now 11AM) to see what it needs to repair things, and certify. They say they'll have an answer for me by 12:30 at the latest.
Drink more coffee, mill around some more. 1PM comes and goes...2PM comes and goes. Eventually I'm out of time, I had an appointment and needed to leave, so I told them to call or email me, and I leave, a bit frustrated, but I guess the shop was taking longer than they expected to diagnose the seats.
Get an email with a brief story that it needs rear brakes (same issue as our original Volt, far from worn out, but too rusty) and they will fix the seats, but they don't anticipate that's a big thing.
I offer $1000 less than asking, telling them that I don't need the EVSE...which of course they'd have to replace for any other buyer.
Emails go back and forth, pushed off to the next day as it needs sales manager approval. Thursday morning we work out a deal on the price and he says the car can probably be ready Friday or Saturday. I ask for a bill of sale showing the total due so I can get a bank draft together.
And this is where things start to go sideways.
The bill of sale arrives and suddenly $750 of the $1000 I negotiated off the price has mysteriously reappeared in the form of a bunch of junk I didn't want - window etching, some anti-theft thing, and a huge "administration fee". All of that would have been illegal under OMVIC rules had I paid sticker price.
I send a terse but polite email back to the dealer on the topic and don't get a response for 6 or 8 hours.
Long story short we finally hash out about $700 off original asking price....and apparently news arrived from the shop that the car needed an as of yet undetermined $1000 module to fix the heated seats...and it won't arrive until Tuesday or Wednesday.
Played email tag with the salesman for the last few days, responses are short and kinda terse - I think I've irked a few people...but whatever, I am not a typical sheep consumer when it comes to these sorts of things, I will and DO stand up for myself.
Get email this morning that the car is ready, they send a shuttle - awesome.
Get there, car is plugged in, but plates are not on it yet and it's not gassed up. Ugh, but whatever, I need to do paperwork. Get shuffled off to another office for that, then get told I have to go see the salesman again. He's with someone else and doesn't seem particularly excited to see me. About 20-30 minutes passes of me just standing around before he comes out and gives me the second keyfob and says that's it, have a good day.
I go out to the car..and there's no floor mats in it. I noticed that when I test drove it and commented on it.
I go back in and talk to salesman who immediately sends me to the sales manager who is in the middle of about 250 things it seems and says "We'll get you some!". Stand around for another 15 minutes before someone comes and gets me and takes me to the parts desk.
Another long story ensues, but suffice to say I'm getting a $300 set of nice WeatherTec's but I have to go back to get them some time next week. Will throw a set of my old rubber pantsavers in it for the meantime.
Finally...get in car and start heading home.
Car performs admirably, exceeded rated battery capacity by over 10KM on the way home so that's good, even in -2c temps.
So...it's home. The dual EV ownership experience begins.
BTW, versus my Magnum, I saved about $13 in gas on just this trip home from the dealer.
