2012 Chevy Volt Philadelphia PA

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2012 Chevy Volt Overview

The story on the Chevrolet Volt is bigger than the machine itself. The Chevrolet Volt is an impressive engineering achievement and we are impressed with the car. We think the story about the fires has been overblown and incompletely told. Not so overblown are the government subsidies, which irk many taxpayers. But as machines go, the Volt is quite good.

A four-seat hatchback, the Volt is a very good all-purpose automobile, with very low operating costs. It's electric-powered, but it carries its own gas-powered generator so when it runs out of juice it can continue for hundreds of miles. It won't leave you on the side of the road, wishing for an extension cord.

For 2012, Chevrolet has added structural enhancements to the Volt to reduce the risk of battery damage or coolant leakage in an impact. The changes followed news reports that the batteries in a couple of Volts had caught fire after government crash tests. Seldom mentioned is that the fires occurred two days or more after the Volts were crashed, and after the cars had been left sitting without the post-crash storage steps recommended by Chevrolet.

2012 Chevy Volt Lineup

The Chevrolet Volt hatchback is now available in all 50 U.S. states and Canada. Its base price has declined 3 percent for 2012, even with a handful of new standard features. The Volt qualifies for a federal tax credit up to $7,500, with additional credits in some states.

Safety features include eight airbags: front-impact, front- and rear-passenger side impact, and full cabin head-protection curtains. The Volt also gets GM's Stabilitrak electronic stability control (ESC), anti-lock brakes (ABS), a tire-pressure monitor and daytime running lights. The Volt has been named a Top Safety Pick by the insurance industry's Institute for Highway Safety, and earned five of five stars in four of five U.S. government crash tests.

For 2012, Chevrolet has added structural enhancements to the Volt to reduce the risk that the battery can be damaged in a severe impact. These include additional reinforcement to the existing steel structure around the battery to protect it and minimize coolant leakage.

Interior of the 2012 Chevy Volt

The Volt is as modern and different on the inside as it is on the outside. On cloth-seat base models, the door panels and other trim are metallic, but if the premium package is ordered, those panels become wildly graphic, including the dashtop. Either way, the interior looks very modern, the materials and graining are very well done, and there is plenty of light coming into the car from the large windows.

Volt seats just four people. The layout is for two up front in bucket seats, two in the rear on the bench seat, and the buckets are modern looking and very comfortable.

There are two large display screens, one directly in front of the driver, and one at the top center of the instrument panel, and between the two screens, there is every kind of technical information about the operation of the car, plus navigation and entertainment on the center screen. The very large speedometer numbers dominate the driver's screen, with the normal gauges arrayed around the corners, a battery depletion gauge on the left, and a floating virtual Earth on the right-hand side, the idea being to keep the Earth centered at all times for best battery life and best energy usage, functionally similar to the growing-leaf display in the Ford Fusion hybrid.

Driving Impressions of the 2012 Chevy Volt

Like some of the existing hybrids, the Volt is always trying to help the driver achieve better battery performance, better overall efficiency and better fuel mileage, through the various instruments and displays on the instrument panel. It's very easy to stay on top of all that information by scrolling through the menus as you drive, trying to keep the battery stack icon as tall as possible.

But, eventually, the battery will deplete, after 48 miles in our case, and then the engine starts noiselessly and stays quietly in the background even at high throttle settings. Chevrolet said the Volt will run from 0 to 60 mph on battery power in less than 9 seconds, and reach a top speed of 100 mph.

The chassis underneath the unibody Volt is almost all composed of the same parts used on the Chevrolet Cruze sedan and some German Opel models, with the exception of the ABS brakes, which are connected to the car's electrical system and recharge the battery every time the car is braked or the accelerator pedal is released. Everything about the steering, braking and handling of the Volt reflects the Cruze, a highly competent compact. There is nothing weird about it. The steering is relatively quick and nicely weighted, the brakes work extremely well crawling through traffic or even hauling down from highway speeds, and the suspension absorbs big bumps and deep potholes with ease. The ride is taut and smooth, but well short of luxury-car plushness

Summary

The electric Chevrolet Volt should be a pleasant surprise to most drivers for its smooth, quiet operation, its good acceleration, its excellent ride-handling balance and its ongoing economy of operation. The Volt is expensive compared to conventionally powered compacts, especially before government tax credits, but it's an engineering marvel that's nice looking and functional. We think it's a more rational alternative to the plug-in-only electric cars that are sprouting in the market place. With the Volt, you'll never be left on the side of the road without a charge. Learn more about this car at the official 2012 Chevrolet Volt website .

Some information for this review was obtained from NewCarTestDrive.com