The Chevy Freeze;
The magazine has put about 2,500 miles on its Volt. It paid $48,700, including a $5,000 markup by a Chevy dealer.
Champion noted the Volt is about twice as expensive as a Prius.
He was said the five hour time to recharge the Volt was “annoying” and was also critical of the power of the Volt heating system.
“You have seat heaters, which keep your body warm, but your feet get cold and your hands get cold,” Champion said.
In related news…
* Those who have attempted a 300 mile trip in a ’65 Mustang at -30 know what I’m talking about.
Be happy you aren’t driving a Volkswagon Beetle, one hand on the steering wheel the other scraping frost in front of your face.
Yeah….but you could buy a whole lot of Beetles for the cost of one Volt. And the Beetles will still actually move on their own.
Yeah, at that time I could have bought about 20 used Mustangs for the price of one Volt today. Now, I wish I had….
The heater is the least of it. How much power storage does the battery have when the temp is -30? Enough for five miles? Maybe.
As for beetles – if the gas heater was working right it was easily the fastest car to warm up out there. If it was working. If it wasn’t well, you either had no heat or you were burned to a crisp when the unit pumped a steady stream of fuel out just above your left leg and then ignited it (and you and the gas tank which is mounted just forward of your lap). and Ralph Nader thought that the corvair was dangerous.
I used to have an old Chevy Malibu wagon. With a new heater core, it blew so hot you couldn’t hold your hand in front of the vent longer than 10 seconds. Passengers couldn’t get over how warm I could make it, regardless of frigid temps outside.
B..B..B..But no one but the police or military need to travel anywhere. Right?
I spoke with a Camry Hybrid owner, who claims the fuel savings in the summer are completely cancelled by winter driving. It never switches to battery power, below a certain temperature, and the extra weight of the batteries makes it less economical than a regular Camry.
I’ve made many 300+ mile trips in a Mustang, in the dead of winter, in Northern AB. The back seat is a bit chilly, but up front is fine. I used to drive 5 litre Mustangs, but my current model is a turbo 4 cylinder classic, from 1984. The fox body mustang was the most perfect design ever created.
coach – interesting re summer/winter hybrid
Rode my bike today, wind chill -36. After a while, I couldn’t change gears, and my freewheel froze. (Otherwise, a fairly pleasant ride).
I’m not sure I’d want to test the Volt extensively in these conditions.
Mine was a ’65 289 3 speed with virtually no heating vent system. A variety of mechanics tried to improve it with no success. It would keep some of the windshield clear at highway speed.
I have a rather nice ’64 Riviera. Heater works awesome… because its stuck in full-on position and the guy who had the car before me robbed all the heater controls out of it.
When I drive the Riv it reminds me how far we’ve come in the car world. The Buick Riviera was arguably the nicest car Detroit made in 1963-65, it had power everything, a huge engine, gigantic brakes, beautiful interior, every bell and whistle imaginable.
These days my cheapie Dodge pickup handles better, stops better, gets better mileage (13 mpg!), rides nicer, and is quieter.
Obama would like us to return to the days of the Austin Mini. Tiny, leaky, rattly semi-Soviet cars that don’t go, don’t stop and don’t turn, rust away in three years and have no room for the kids plus groceries. And no heater. And no AC. (Austin fans, I know you love your little cars, and I know they can be made to go fast, but stock from the factory they are ridiculous things to have in Canada.)
The Chevy Volt is Obama’s People’s Car. In a few years you’ll be able to pick one up for two grand. I might just do that, so the grand kids can be reminded of how badly things can go wrong.
The (Engineered?) insanity of our times in full display; join the dots:
How does OPEC oil mafia cartel wants to control price of energy?:…Buys off world leaders and media…Creates faux environmental concerns = Al Gore and all…Creates movements again’st energy exploration/exploitation right at home…
The Volt is just a biproduct of this insanity created by greed.
Energy is required to recharge these poisonous batteries. Energy that will likely come from a coal fired power plant that pollutes more than what comes out of a regular car’s tailpipe that already equipped with a catalytic converter.
The Volt is Government Motors new Edsel…Unlike Ford’s 50’s folly though, the Volt fiasco will be payed by taxpayers.
Apparently, the Edsel almost bankrupted Ford at the time…I guess Ford, being the third largest Corp in the world back then, wasn’t big enough thus allowed to fail and so did not get a government bail out.
Of course Kenya had not produced our newest AntiChrist yet, so…
People dumb enough to purchase a Volt get what they deserve.
And this is Connecticut. Imagine Saskatoon!!
Early Civics and Corollas (70s) sucked in the winter, driving while peering through a porthole in the frost was the norm. It didn’t take long for the foreign manufacturers to adapt and test their cars in Canadian winters and come up with decent winter cars, many built in Canada. Now they can handle Canadian winters as good as the domestics.
Having said that, there are not many vehicles, domestic or foreign, that can drive across the prairies in -40 weather and keep the occupants comfortable. Remember a winter run in a 78 Dodge van (shaggin’ wagon era) from Edmonton to Winterpeg. It was so cold that the kids in the back could see their breath and the heaters were going full blast trying to keep the windshield clear. As the sun set the battle with the cold forced us to the closest prairie oasis for a warm room and a plug-in for the beast. Never underestimate mother nature in Canada, eh.
I must have been a masochist. My 63 Bug didn’t come with a gas heater so it was a good thing my girlfriend [now wife] was handy with a scraper and didn’t mind the battery acid scarred blanket.
But coldest/scariest ever was a New Year’s Day drive from Calgary to S’toon in my ’72 MGB at -40C. Couldn’t figure out why we kept losing power when cruising at 70mph. It finally died completely and we had to walk to a farmhouse somewhere outside of Hanna. The farmer towed us into his yard, fed the B some gas line antifreeze and us some hot soup, and did the math on just what kind of windchill that poor forsaken British vehicle was trying to cope with. Not exactly a drive through The Lake District.
I’ll stick with my Prius. I absolutely love it, except that the front window is a tad slow to defrost.
I’ll stick with my Prius.
No doubt you will.
I’ve read there isn’t much of a resale market for them.
I had a Black 1965 Mustang Convertible and never had a problem keeping warm.
Women that car picked up kept me hot and purring like a kitten.
Should I also mention it got 25 miles to the 25 cents a gallon.
penny a mile.
My first car was a 64 Pontiac Parisienne with a 283…It had a heater coil and ducts that went to the windshield and under dash but there was no blower fan. The heat would naturally move front to rear in the car by air movement during driving.
GM had some of the worst heating systems back then and many I remember had no blower.
Chrysler had good heaters but shitty transmissions…
I still preferred GM’s back then and for the longest time since…I’ve switched to Subaru in 2002 and have no regrets.
Every so often (i.e. every winter) there is news of “150 Vehicles Stuck In A Blinding Blizzard” etc etc. When everyone is driving an electric car, it will be news of “150 Drivers’ Bodies Recovered With Their Politically Correct Steering Wheels Clutched In Their Cold, Dead, Hands.”
Sadly, Consumer Reports wouldn’t know a good car if it ran over them. Most of their subscribers drive smugmobiles of Asian descent or other similar derivatives. An authentic auto rag nominated the Volt for their Car of the Year.
I subscribed to Consumer Reports for several years until recognizing the elitist bent of it’s subscription audience who also drive the outcome of the reviews. The final straw was a simple bicycle review where they recommended a department store one-off rather than any of a dozen manufacturers who turned out really superior bikes at a similar price. Ironically, I ended up riding my niece’s department store one-off 26 miles back to the trail head after the shifting mechanism stuck on the large sprocket. She rode my Ital-Jap Bianchi cyclo-cross back not being in shape enough to ride at one tough speed.
Renamed the Chevy Equator, it would sell well within 200 km of the equator, as that is as far as the warranty would cover.
Problem solved.
Back in University days, I carpooled with my neighbour who had one of the aforementioned VW Bugs with no gas heater. He would scrape the driver side of the window and I would scrape the passenger side, while wrapped in, as Kate says in the title, a sleeping bag.
One day on the commute to the U, he lost control, nailed the divider on the highway, and ended up in the opposite lane. Once we realized that the oncoming Semi was going to miss us, we let out a cheer on the thought that we wouldn’t have to carpool in the Bug any longer.
Shifting gears.
More cuts to Liberal Iggy’s Arts.
Giving AGW the gears.
More, please.
“Meanwhile, environmental-program expenditures are expected to drop 14.1 per cent, a decline that includes a nearly $1-billion cut to the budget of Natural Resources Canada and a $222-million cut at Environment Canada.”
“The Harper government is on pace to spend roughly $10 billion less than last year, the first time in a decade that federal spending has been projected to drop, documents tabled in Parliament show.”
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Federal+spending+drop+this+year/4366503/story.html
Leave it GM to build a car that costs twice as much as it’s Japanese competitor and and doesn’t work as well. No wonder a bailout was the only way to keep them afloat.
I drove VWs for many years but more contemporary models than the old Beetle so I never had that gas heater problem, but I did, in my student days, drive a ’70 Olds Delta 88 that liked to overheat in hot weather – especially in traffic jams. I remember one afternoon crawling along on the 401 with the heater turned up high and the fan on full speed. I nearly melted but it kept the engine cool enough to continue on…
Hey Some good news . . . if the GOP can defund the IPCC stupidity, so can we ! Defunding usless Environment spending is a big step forward.
“OTTAWA — Federal government expenditures are set to fall next fiscal year by $16.5-billion, or 6.2%, with big cuts to regional development and environment programs, according to documents tabled Tuesday.”
http://tinyurl.com/6kha3gc
A lot of these stories are rooted in a $5 dollar part called an engine thermostat.
Just saying….
d
“I’ll stick with my Prius.
No doubt you will.
I’ve read there isn’t much of a resale market for them.”
Oz…
Never heard about that. Do you have proof?
Never heard about that. Do you have proof?
~leeky
I believe we had a thread on it here last year.
Wow.
I guess I’ll have to run it into the ground then *L*
soooooo if low temperatures are a bad thing for electric cars, howcum a certain segment of society (within which you find some of said Volt owners) is against global warming?
also, could the Volt situation be this redux?
imdb dot com/title/tt0489037/
clever bunch in the GM marketeering division.
Don’t worry about it, leeky, he’s lying to ya. The prius made the top-10 resale value cars in 2008. Their resale value took a hit because of the supposed problems with brakes in toyota vehicles. Their resale value/market is still favorable when compared to most american-made vehicles, and you can expect a future rebound in the market.
Thermostat is most often the culprit, true. Mine was in fact a plugged old heater core. But a little old Toyota we had just didn’t have enough coolant flowing into that tiny heater core to produce much heat. That sucker was COLD.
Thanks for the memories, Jeff, Jethro, catch22; good, bad and otherwise.
Mine was a ’62 Bug, no gas heater, drove AB to SK for Christmas 68. After 200 miles, the windshield cleared up for the first time that winter. But then, young, stupid and up too late the night before, dozed off. Woke up with a start driving in the snow in one of those flat SK ditches, the rear engine of the VW was great for traction so got out OK, but that was it for the clear windshield.
My 1st car was a 70′ GTO. Why in the hell I ever sold it is beyond me.
,
Nothing wrong with having no heater. The homesteaders of a hundred years ago made good use of hides and furs and sometimes the luxury of hot rocks or charcoal.
Next innovation will be to replace the electric battery and motor with an even more environmentally friendly horse that also replaces GPS guidance.
The future is now….
and it does not include electric cars
http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/
Chevy Volt…car of the year….please
I’ve been writing comments about poor heaters in electric cars for years. The batteries can’t power a 2500 watt heater, the motor doesn’t produce enough heat, nor to the batteries.
What next? A Honda 3500W power plant in the trunk! Works great if you have to charge the batteries where there are no outlets.
PS: They could supply every new Volt with a mickey of Captain Morgan’s under the seat!
All you young whipper snappers driving post-1960 cars! My first car was a 1953 Meteor and the heater had no problem as long as the heater core was kept clean. Oh, and the purple lights under the dashboard and the fringe around the windshield kept enough females interested to help keep the cabin warm.
Since I have owned and/or operated about 30 cars and trucks over the years I’ve seen it all when it comes to the good the bad and the ugly.
One lesson learned is that no vehicle needs to be uncomfortable to drive… I won’t put up with weak heaters or A/C … that sh!t is for people who don’t know any better.
I’m currently dickering over a used Audi Quatro …. the salesman tried to tell me that Audis do not need block heaters … because they are built for cold weather… sure bud.
One of the weather maps gives a temp of -9 for Saskatoon. My local temp is -23. Are those global warming maps? It has to-days date but I am fairly certain it never saw -9 to-day.
Never mind..Fahrenheit.
The Volt will make the Edsel seem like a Futuristic car before Obama stole any idea of advancement.
Has made it a swear word in fact.
JMO
right honourable terry tory.
I know its a little late , but sliding all three of the slider bars on that 64 pontiac to the right should have engaged the fan.mine was a 63 snd even GM tended to move forwards not backwards.
Coach… I have an ’89 Mustang 5.0 with a Kenne Bell blower.. Don’t have A/C, and the car has no venting, so it gets a bit warm, when it sometimes gets hot here in Lotusland.
http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/
Zero emissions
Domestic fuel
Helps slow increase in greenhouse gases
Nice looking car, BUT…
Hydrogen does have zero emissions (water) but where do you get the hydrogen? You have to extract it, and that process uses more energy than the resultant hydrogen contains. Where do you get the energy for that process? Fossil fuels perhaps?
That sounds like an increase in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. But the gullible will bite.
A highschool buddy’s favourite vehicle was a 1950 Chevy pickup with a 216 inline 6. Started first time everytime. (it had to or the old 6V battery died). If you kept a piece of cardboard in front of the rad the heater could clear the windshield at -40 but the hole in floor kept your feet cold. Oh well the cold air at the top speed of 40 MPH made sure you were always dressed for the weather. Not that it ever broke down mind you. It must have been the non existent oil pump that helped. Little scoops on the crankshaft kept engine oiled real good. lol
If you are serious about emissions and foreign oil-dependency and (if you drive lots) want to save money, this is the car to buy:
http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-gx/
Not sure if it can be had up here in Canada, but it is the real way forward.
Forget heat – I can remember when keeping the windshield fairly clear was tricky. Everyone piled their mitts over the windshield vent on the passenger side to force the ‘warm’ air to the driver’s side. Even then, the driver often had to scrunch down in the seat to peer out the small area of clear glass.
Yet another “unexpected” problem with supposedly more modern technologies. Waste heat from a vehicles engine is very welcome in the winter and I too have fond memories of scraping the inside of the windshield while driving in -40 temperatures. I’m sure what we did on those cold mornings would be illegal now; heading down to the hospital parkade where we parked in med school and starting our vehicles 30-45 minutes before we left so that it was possible to drive without shivering uncontrollably during the initial part of the drive.
The best solution to such problems is to insist that every planned vehicle design be tested in Northern Alberta during the coldest part of the year. Batteries don’t hold very much charge in the cold either. Hydrogen powered vehicles are far more practical as they too produce large amounts of waste heat, but the problem there is the low energy density of metal hydrides and the tendency of liquid H2 fueled vehicles to do Hindenberg imitations which can be distracting to nearby drivers.
Until a power source is found with the energy density of gasoline, or greater, and lesser weight for the containment device/power plant, then conventional internal combustion engines will continue to be the best means of getting around. I’d love to have a fusion powered electric vehicle that can also fly, but I don’t think I’ll see one in the next decade or so. Similarly transfer booths don’t seem to be on the event horizon any time soon.