In which I ponder a pointless consumer decision

[Ghoulish Delight]

GM is making it difficult for me to ignore the Volt.

Once we finished paying off our last car, I was pondering replacing my 10 year old Mazda 3. Still a serviceable car, with very low mileage for its age. But it's still at an age where I will shortly have to start putting money into it.

In examining my driving habits, and wanting to jump on the clean-air bandwagon, the Volt appears to be my best option. Most of my driving is local, well within its ~40 mile pure battery range, but I do occasionally need to make trips 120+ mile trips in a day for work.

The Prius plugin is the other option, and in a lot of ways they are a toss up (with each having advantages in some areas, disadvantages in others). But the general consensus is that the Volt is a higher quality vehicle.

All that had been idle window shopping, I have no good reason to spend the money.

Then GM sends an offer that puts the lease price at $200/month.

Damnit.

Now I've got to start doing the math. Gas savings over my standard driving + if we switch a lot of the family driving from the CRV to the Volt = ~$80/month. Score. Volt still qualifies for a carpool sticker. I can probably put an arbitrary value of around $15/month on that. Suddenly it's only costing $100/month. Then there's the state kickback that I think still exists of $1500.

Throw in the continued depreciation of continuing to own my car and it's starting to look stupid not to do this.

But then things get annoying. How much is it going to cost to plug this thing in? If we just plug it into the wall as-is, it's not a great deal. Would be close to paying a gallon's worth of gas price for a gallon's worth of driving distance. Of course, that driving distance is beyond what my current car does, so it's still better, but not much.

There's the "EV" plan from Edison that gives discount rates for off-peak electricity usage. Problem is, I work from home, CP stays home - we'd be boned as the on-peak rates are WORSE and we wouldn't be able to shift much of our usage.

The other option is to install a separate circuit and meter for charging. Would save on the charging, but do I want to spend the installation money and go through possible permitting hassle? To save how much, exactly? To even calculate the difference would be a PITA.

That's the biggest frustration at this point. I don't even KNOW if it's a good idea or not. It may be an awesome deal where I'm essentially getting the car for free once I calculate all the savings. Or it may screw me where I might as well have purchased a luxury car due to extra costs.

Most likely, somewhere in the middle it seems. It's not going to be miraculously cheap, but it would be a GREAT deal for a brand new car. But I don't need a brand new car.

But I WANT a brand new car.

Hmmmm....

[Kevy Baby]

Get a Tesla: they're pretty

[Alex]

I sat in a Volt today at Test Track in Epcot. Was not particularly impressed with its interior.

[Morrigoon]

If it's about clean air, don't forget to take into account the current local sources for our electricity. Are we nuclear? wind? coal? (I think we're a mixture, but specifically what I'm not sure)

[€uroMeinke]

Mostly Natural Gas - which burns cleaner than gasoline

[Ghoulish Delight]

And centralizing the burning of fuels, rather than distributing combustion across millions of small engines buys efficiency.

If the interior is cheap, that would likely be a deal breaker.

[lashbear]

Plug it into next-door.

[Snowflake]

Well, I typically drive Prius here in SF (city car share), love it. Holds a lot, roomy comfort and efficient.

[katiesue]

Are there any groups/message boards of current Volt owners where you could get some information on what people are seeing as their actual charging costs?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Are there any groups/message boards of current Volt owners where you could get some information on what people are seeing as their actual charging costs?

Yeah, I've looked around. I have a good idea of how much electricity it takes. The complicated part is in what that amount of electricity costs as it's a function of time-of-year/time-of-day/location/rate plan/overall household usage. There's no "this is what it costs to charge" answer, the only thing for it is to sit and do the math, recalculating past bills against the various rate plan options, and then getting an estimate on what it would cost to install the 2nd meter.

That's the point where I decide my time isn't worth that and just accept the default "Slightly cheaper than gas but not as cheap as it could be if I optimized my rate plan etc." option. Which puts a bit of a dent in the overall savings.

[Moonliner]

At $200/Month it sounds hard to resist. I know when I was looking at a new car I just missed a similar deal I might have jumped on. Of course then I would have ended up in suburban snoozeville rather than driving a land rocket that makes me smile every day.

[3894]

There are sources of information regarding what kilowatts of electricity would cost, and long ago when I thought of getting a a Volt or Prius, I checked with Consumer's Report and found out that the savings with a plug-in over gas-powered is enormous unless you live in an area where the cost of electricity is high.

If you almost never drive the Volt more than 40 miles per day, and plug it in every night for six hours with the more expensive charger, you will save money for sure. If you take a 150 mile trip, the extra mileage beyond the 40, say 110 or so, gets 38 mpgallon, which is also a good savings.

I'd get the Volt, or at least try it for a couple of months as a rental, and see how you like it and if the savings is that great.Remember you CAN find out what the cost of the charge every night is going to be, and I recall that it is very little, so don't let that dissuade you

[cirquelover]

Also make sure the deal is real because they always advertise a great rate but usually there is more to it. We just got a Honda because they were advertising 199 a month lease. It ended up being quite a bit more and to buy it was only 30 more for two years, we bought it instead of leasing.

Have you driven one yet? That would be my first suggestion, take a test drive.

[Ghoulish Delight]

unless you live in an area where the cost of electricity is high. *raises hand*

Electricity rates are high here. Not outrageous, but high. By default, the cost to charge the thing would just barely eek out the cost of running it on its hybrid motor alone (~$3/40mi. vs. ~#3.70/40mi).

By doing a little shuffling of our rate plan, I MIGHT be able to cut that charging cost in half. But I'm not sure until I sit and do the rather complex math, because it has to do with how much electricity I'm using, what times of day, and different tiers based on going over baseline thresholds. I don't even know if I have access to the time-of-day breakdown of our current usage, so it may not actually be possible to calculate what our bill would look like on one of the alternate plans.

Of course, even the default with no extra savings is around twice as efficient as my current 20mpg option.

Have you driven one yet? That would be my first suggestion, take a test drive.

Yes, that's a given.

[Moonliner]

Any charging stations at/near work?
How much do they charge?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Well, work is home. So....yes?

[Strangler Lewis]

The offers in my neighborhood are 3 years at 269/mo for 36000 miles with a 2700 buy down. That's $13,000 out of pocket over three years--more, potentially, if you exceed the mileage. Then, after three years, you get to do it again or buy your used Volt.

I don't think you can factor in savings, because the law of nature says that all such savings will get eaten up on something you don't really need. The Car Talk guys always said that most old cars are cheaper to fix than replace. I've had repairs on our ten year-old Passat wagon from time to time, but it hasn't come close to what I'd be spending on a new car that would eventually also need repairs.

Pass. Wistfully, perhaps, but pass.

[Strangler Lewis]

I did also note that you can lease a Camaro for $229/mo. So, I mean, if that's what's really going on here . . .

[Snowflake]

I did also note that you can lease a Camaro for $229/mo. So, I mean, if that's what's really going on here . . .

Theo would love a fully tricked out Camero, I am sure!

[Promo-Man]

I own a Ford C-Max Energy and love it.
I have been attending the AltCar Expo in Santa Monica for several years now and have driven most of the plug in cars.
None of them get the mileage they say they will get.
The big things for me was finding a vehicle that I fit in with the Volt my shoulder was against the doorjamb other than that it was a nice car.
On the charging station it will run you just under $2000 to have one installed with permits in Anaheim they offer a $1500 rebate so check what your power company will do for you.

[RStar]

Any charging stations at/near work?
How much do they charge?

If you use credit, you can charge the charge charge!