Overall my Chevy Volt has been great for the last five and a half months, but is isn't perfect by any means. This week has been a challenge, in fact the last three weeks have really been odd.
In previous posts, I talked about the issues with valet parking and auto charging when the alarm is set and the auto lock feature is on. If you valet and autolock the car, they can't even get to the charger after the key is hung in the key rack.
That is just one annoyance. We also discovered that if you send an address to turn by turn, cancel before it loads and try and send it to the "in dash Nav" it locks up the whole system. I figured out how to fix it, but I am not giving that secret away. Chevrolet says this bug will be fixed next time it is at the dealer for a software update. Why can't the Volt by like my iPhone and update while I am asleep?
Speaking of the iPhone, upgrading to iOS 7 changed how the Volt and the iPhone get along. The feature that allowed me to play music over bluetooth no longer works. Pluggin in with a USB cable which didn't work before, now works brilliantly but my phone won't work on handsfree when the iPod mode is active via USB. What didn't work works and what did work doesn't.
Another interesting issue that has popped up is related to the clock. For whatever reason it can't keep time. Each week it is almost a full minute off. Why doesn't a GPS equipped car use satellite time?
This leads right to the next question. How come a GPS equipped car can't tell if I am plugged in at home on an electric schedule or away and commercial chargers? I shouldn't have to tell the car I am at home so it should charge between 12 and 6 or I am at a parking garage and paying to charge so it should charge now should I? I paid for 4 hours at a blink charger only to find out I left the car in delay mode and didn't charge it at all. $4.00 down the drain. I don't know who was being more stupid, me or the car.
The single most annoying system in the Volt so far is the "anti collision" system. There is a button on the steering wheel to turn it on or off. I think it is a placebo. With the system off, when you exit the freeway, it sees that you aren't following the lines and starts yelling at you. Once on the offramp and in between the lines again it is fine. Even with the system off, it will turn off the cruise control automatically. While this doesn't sound like much, I have learned that I can get three to five more miles out of the battery in "L" instead of "D". The problem is when the cruise control turns off and you are in "L" you are already in the first level of regenerative breaking.
On the highway, the guy behind catches up awfully quick for no reason.
Cruising on the freeway about once every 15 miles the car will "see" a potential collision and turn off the cruise control. Most of the time I have no idea what it "sees". Tonight I was in the second lane, with no cars on either side or in front of me for at least a quarter mile, and it beeped and flashed and turned off the cruise control as if I was about to hit another car. All I can figure was fog on the camera lens as I got closer to the beach?
I can't imagine what the "big brothers" at Progressive are seeing if they get the data from a car like mine. They must think Volt Drivers are high risk idiots trying to hit another car every 15 miles or so. Thankfully I have USAA, and they don't try to raise my rates based on phantoms that the car thinks I am going to hit.
The single most annoying system in the Volt so far is the "anti collision" system. There is a button on the steering wheel to turn it on or off. I think it is a placebo. With the system off, when you exit the freeway, it sees that you aren't following the lines and starts yelling at you. Once on the offramp and in between the lines again it is fine. Even with the system off, it will turn off the cruise control automatically. While this doesn't sound like much, I have learned that I can get three to five more miles out of the battery in "L" instead of "D". The problem is when the cruise control turns off and you are in "L" you are already in the first level of regenerative breaking.
On the highway, the guy behind catches up awfully quick for no reason.
Cruising on the freeway about once every 15 miles the car will "see" a potential collision and turn off the cruise control. Most of the time I have no idea what it "sees". Tonight I was in the second lane, with no cars on either side or in front of me for at least a quarter mile, and it beeped and flashed and turned off the cruise control as if I was about to hit another car. All I can figure was fog on the camera lens as I got closer to the beach?
I can't imagine what the "big brothers" at Progressive are seeing if they get the data from a car like mine. They must think Volt Drivers are high risk idiots trying to hit another car every 15 miles or so. Thankfully I have USAA, and they don't try to raise my rates based on phantoms that the car thinks I am going to hit.
The last funny bug this week has to do with the lights. The car has a new habit of going into night mode when I go through tunnels and not going back to day mode for well over a minute when we get back into the sunshine. More than once I couldn't see a turn on the NAV screen because it was still dimmed into the night mode. Sadly I am a GPS cripple, which means I can't find my way home from the corner without my magenta line and the checkered flag on the screen. I turned the voice off because it interrupted my music.
Another funny bug, the tire pressure monitor will come on with a different tire each time I add air. It will show that they all have 31 psi for example but one will be yellow. Even when they warm up and all show 33 or 35 PSI it stays Yellow. When I pump up to 36 they all turn green. Within a week, usually in the morning, one will be yellow. Over the last four weeks, each tire has turned yellow at least once.
I wonder if the guys at GM are laughing their butts off, or think I don't care for my car and am trying to hit everything in site?
Another funny bug, the tire pressure monitor will come on with a different tire each time I add air. It will show that they all have 31 psi for example but one will be yellow. Even when they warm up and all show 33 or 35 PSI it stays Yellow. When I pump up to 36 they all turn green. Within a week, usually in the morning, one will be yellow. Over the last four weeks, each tire has turned yellow at least once.
I wonder if the guys at GM are laughing their butts off, or think I don't care for my car and am trying to hit everything in site?
So how is your Volt doing? Don't worry Chevrolet, we still want another one. Slate Grey if you have a spare sitting around.
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Thank you for your insights.