2012 Chevrolet Volt Driven Review

GM's Chevrolet Volt has been hijacked by conversations involving monthly sales volume, government incentives, and the all-electric Nissan Leaf. Some of this is Chevrolet's own fault. Much of the Canadian marketing is aspirational but vague. General Motors has ignored the Volt's hatchback practicality. And dealer inventory is so weak that the car has been virtually invisible, a surefire way of turning hype into publicity suppression.

But if you are considering a new car purchase, does it matter how many dozen Volts have been sold? If you live in a jurisdiction where hybrid tax breaks aren't offered, don't you know better than to force wishful thinking? Surely you're not about to be controlled by the power, or the lack of power, in a car commercial... right?

Why can't the Chevrolet Volt simply be judged on its merits as a Chevrolet Volt? As a $41,545 car that could potentially save hundreds or even thousands of dollars at the fuel pump compared with, say, a $39,990 Mercedes-Benz C250 4Matic, is the Chevy Volt viable? Car ownership is about more than the Leaf's headroom, it's about more than the Volt's lack of obvious visual environmentalism, it's about more than philosophical differences between an ICE-powered car or an electric car or a car that combines the two. That stuff is secondary and mostly subjective. First and foremost, the Chevrolet Volt must be a car you'll want to drive on a daily basis. 

To discover the plug-in's on-road feel, I met up with Carolyn McLelan, a Volt expert across the harbour at McPhee Chevrolet in Dartmouth. As she told me more about the technical side of the Volt and what it's like to sell the car in this somewhat traditional and very cautious market, I drove the car to an oil refinery, partly because the route would offer us a multitude of different driving scenarios; partly because an electric car with a range extending powerplant would pose nicely for pictures when parked alongside an oil tank farm. 

The Mi'kmaq call the harbour in Halifax Chebookt. The Imperial Oil refinery sits along the shore in Woodside, not far from where the Shubenacadie Canal empties into Chebookt. Before John Wentworth had it turned into a canal, the cross-province waterway was vital to Mi'kmaq commerce. This was going on hundreds of years before the refinery devastated the beautiful local landscape in 1918. For more than one reason, Imperial Oil is attempting to sell or, more likely, shut down the refinery as operating the facilitity no longer makes good business sense. Let's not exaggerate: Big Oil didn't choose to shutter the Dartmouth refinery in response to the Chevrolet Volt. But it sure does feel good to cruise down Pleasant Street in pure electric mode while the only petrol worth mentioning is being produced on the other side of the fence, rather than being consumed on the road.

The result of driving a 2012 Chevrolet Volt to the refinery? This review, which starts in earnest after the jump.

A typical customer will spend a few minutes exploring a car before they anxiously set off. This is when the Volt's spacious seats-down cargo area impresses, but it's also when you experience what it's like to remove yourself from the rear seat. There's a decent amount of space back there, but the seat back is angled just right for guys who used to drive their '92 Civics in permanently reclined fashion. Removing yourself from that position is awkward, especially when it comes to feet extraction. Up front, the control stack is attractive, so much so that your dismay over the inevitably filthy white surround will be all the worse. Elbow room is sufficient enough to provide a buffer zone from the passenger one seat over. The two main screens will take some time to learn but use big text to help eyes as bad as mine. Overall, things feel nice, from the wheel to the shifter to the cloth seats. Maybe not $41,000 nice. But nice.

Many aspects of the Volt take the hybrid concept to the extreme. This sounds obvious, but I'm not referring to the powertrain engineering. From a noise, vibration, and harshness perspective, the Volt is especially eerily electric. In so many ways, when driving the Volt, nothing happens. Nothing ever happens. 

Turn the car on, nothing happens. Flatten the throttle pedal, nothing happens. Press a button on the dash, nothing happens. 

Initially, lights come on inside and out, but there's no sound. And then the car accelerates, quite nicely, but it's hard to sense speed without watching the scenery disappear out the side window. There's certainly nothing to hear. There's no increase in vibration. And those dashboard buttons are hard for the driver to locate when on the move. As often as not, this means you'll press nothing, no button at all. So nothing happens. At least the buttons look good, as does the glossy white surround.

At its very core, the Chevrolet Volt is weirdly wonderful. The absence of traditional ignition is sheer bliss. The way all 273 silent torques come alive and flow together in one constant stream is enveloping. This torque will make you want to drive the Volt fast. You will give in to this urge, because, why not? At this moment you're not using a drop of gasoline. During a suburban commute, one filled with opportunities for braking (which also recharges the battery to assist the true charger, the 1.4L engine), you may never require fuel. 

All Photo Credits: Timothy Cain
©www.GoodCarBadCar.net

Not unexpectedly, 435 pounds of battery makes the Volt feel like a heavy car, but it copes nicely and feels a bit Cruze-like, apart from the disconnected video game steering feel and the oh-so-connected electrified torque. I won't go so far as to say the Volt takes a corner like we hope the Chevrolet Code 130R will in the future. It handles like a good normal car and its ride - the way it copes with bumps and dips and potholes - is barely on the firm side of peaceful. 

Effectively, the Chevrolet Volt is thoroughly composed for a first-generation plug-in electric, a car we had high expectations for technically, but not so much dynamically.

Preconceived notions will have a bigger impact during your first Chevrolet Volt drive than on perhaps any other new car test. I expected the Volt to feel more like the painfully hybridized Chevrolet Tahoe than the smooth Chevrolet Cruze. Yet it won out and exceeded my expectations. I would never have believed, no matter what other reviewers said, that the Volt would be a riot to drive. Expecting to like the car because of the general concept and newfangled technology, I ended up enjoying it because the Volt is a sincerely good car to pilot and live with. And because electric torque may just be the best kind of torque. 

Appealing though the Chevrolet's fuel-saving nature may be, this becomes nothing more than pleasing background noise as its overarching regularity and its dearth of eccentricity take precedence. There's no doubt this eclectic Bowtie is an expensive way to save money. For those of some means who find it the least bit interesting, the 2012 Chevrolet Volt will likely prove irresistible.

THE GOOD Torque Gas station avoidance Silence Surprisingly practical

THE BAD Price of entry Awkward 2-seat rear Flush buttons

Thanks to Carolyn McLelan - @iTeedee on Twitter - for setting up a Volt drive in an area where the car remains very rare.

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Monthly & Yearly U.S. & Canadian Chevrolet Volt Sales Figures
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2011 Hyundai Sonata 2.0T Driven Review
Top 255 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - April 2012 YTD
Top 250 Best-Selling Vehicles In Canada - April 2012 YTD

Mercedes vs BMW vs Audi - 2012 Monthly And April Year-To-Date Sales

Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi are the next obvious candidates for inspection after yesterday's profile of the Japanese luxury sales battle in America, a battle Lexus repeatedly wins with ease.

Sans Sprinter, Mercedes-Benz USA is outselling BMW by 1245 units through the first four months of 2012. Audi trails BMW by 41,620 sales - at this stage last year Audi was 36,016 sales behind BMW. Their year-over-year percentage gains are all but identical, but that 16% bump equals 11,194 more sales for BMW; 5590 more for Audi. Mercedes-Benz USA, up 18% through the first four months of 2012, has found 13,805 more buyers than managed to at this point a year ago. Granted, 1331 of those extra sales have been Sprinter vans, the majority of which we can assume are commercial vehicles.

The best-selling premium German car in the United States is the best-selling premium car overall, regardless of the country or origin. BMW 3-Series sales are up 27% this year. Of the 34 nameplates sold by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi in 2012, 21 have recorded year-over-year increases.

Twenty, maybe even ten years ago, Audi wasn't nearly so deserving of being included in a Mercedes-Benz vs. BMW headline. The A4 still doesn't sell as well as the C-Class or 3-Series. The E-Class and 5-Series crush the A6, despite the fact that U.S. A6 sales have doubled this year. The Audi Q5 does, however, mix it up with the X3 and GLK. And the admittedly much-less expensive Audi A7 is 401 sales ahead of the CLS-Class through four months. All the year-to-date numbers for 34 Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, and Audis are visible after the jump. Together, the 33 non-Sprinter vehicles in the list account for 13% of the nameplates on sale in America and 4.6% of the American new vehicle market's volume.

Historical monthly and yearly sales figures for each and every model on sale in North America can be accessed through the first dropdown menu at GoodCarBadCar's Sales Stats home. Each and every manufacturer was ranked by April 2012 volume earlier in the month, just as they will be ranked by May volume on Friday, June 1. The 3-Series was the 43rd-best-selling vehicle in America in the first one-third of 2012, as you'll see when you scan this forever long list of 255 automobiles. Click the above chart for a larger view.

Ranking	Automaker	April 2012 YTD	April 2011 YTD	% Change
#1	Mercedes-Benz	88,951	75,146	+ 18.4%
#2	BMW	82,611	71,417	+ 15.7%
#3	Lexus	66,647	64,932	+ 2.6%
#4	Acura	42,980	42,972	+ 0.02%
#5	Audi	40,991	35,401	+ 15.8%
#6	Cadillac	40,817	53,639	- 23.9%
#7	Infiniti	33,349	34,597	- 3.6%
#8	Lincoln	27,144	27,243	- 0.4%
#9	Volvo	21,265	21,844	- 2.7%
#10	Land Rover	13,951	11,249	+ 24.0%
#11	Porsche	10,596	10,179	+ 4.1%
#12	Jaguar	4401	3750	+ 17.4%
#11	Maserati	834	702	+ 18.8%
#11	Bentley	653	439	+ 48.7%

Ranking	Vehicle	April 2012 YTD	April 2011 YTD	% Change
#1	BMW 3-Series	33,701	26,590	+ 26.7%
#2	Mercedes-Benz C-Class	24,531	20,425	+ 20.1%
#3	Mercedes-Benz E-Class	19,201	20,411	- 5.9%
#4	BMW 5-Series	16,275	16,721	- 2.7%
#5	Mercedes-Benz M-Class	14,537	9190	+ 58.2%
#6	BMW X5	12,236	10,054	+ 21.7%
#7	Audi A4	11,794	12,009	- 1.8%
#8	BMW X3	9132	7987	+ 14.3%
#9	Audi Q5	8432	7183	+ 17.4%
#10	Mercedes-Benz GLK	8095	7368	+ 9.9%
#11	Mercedes-Benz GL-Class	7922	6566	+ 20.7%
#12	Audi A6	5146	2573	+ 100%
#13	Audi A5	5131	5021	+ 2.2%
#14	Mercedes-Benz Sprinter	5095	3764	+ 35.4%
#15	BMW 7-Series	3896	3522	+ 10.6%
#16	Mercedes-Benz S-Class	3507	3521	- 0.4%
#17	Audi Q7	2842	3027	- 6.1%
#18	BMW 1-Series	2835	3580	- 20.8%
#19	Audi A7	2805	408	+ 588%
#20	Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class	2404	552	+ 336%
#21	Audi A3	2329	2277	+ 2.3%
#22	BMW 6-Series	2210	521	+ 324%
#23	Mercedes-Benz SLK	1558	689	+ 126%
#24	BMW X6	1438	1559	- 7.8%
#25	Audi A8	1423	1873	- 24.0%
#26	BMW Z4	888	883	+ 0.6%
#27	Audi TT	754	637	+ 18.4%
#28	Mercedes-Benz R-Class	568	870	- 34.7%
#29	Mercedes-Benz SL-Class	520	714	- 27.2%
#30	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG	390	309	+ 26.2%
#31	Mercedes-Benz G-Class	343	378	- 9.3%
#32	Audi R8	335	393	- 14.8%
#33	Mercedes-Benz CL-Class	273	387	- 29.5%
#34	Mercedes-Benz B-Class	7	2	+ 250%

Source: Manufacturers

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - April 2012
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2011 Year End
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Lexus vs. Acura vs. Infiniti: 2012 Monthly & Year-To-Date Sales

Lexus vs Acura vs Infiniti - 2012 Monthly And April Year-To-Date Sales

We'll be hearing about high U.S. sales volumes from most automakers when May sales data is released on Friday, June 1. Before those numbers are released, however, it's worth finding a bit of luxury automobile sales context from the data already released this year.

It's starting to seem like it's been a long time since "Japanese luxury" equated exclusively with the Toyota Cressida. Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti are well-known brands in North America and, particularly in the case of Lexus, becoming more famous across the globe. Toyota's luxury brand ranks as the third-best-selling premium brand in America so far this year, 23,667 sales ahead of Honda's premium division, Acura. Infiniti trails Acura by 9631 units, slotting in behind Audi and Cadillac, two brands which don't sell with quite the same frequency as Acura. 

Lexus sales are up less than 3% this year. Acura is up by just eight units. And Infiniti is down 3.6%. The overall new vehicle market has improved by 10.3%. It's not just mainstream brands that are reporting major gains. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Land Rover, Jaguar, Maserati, and Bentley have all seen sales improve better than 15%. 

The three most popular Japanese luxury vehicles - sales figures for which are posted after the jump - are down sharply this year. Of the 22 nameplates sold by Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti this year, 15 have recorded declining year-over-year sales. The Infiniti JX, of course, wasn't on sale at this time last year and thus has no previous year data with which 2012's 2619-unit four-month total can be compared.

Lexus vs. Acura vs. Infiniti isn't a battle mentioned that often, mainly because Mercedes-Benz and BMW are far more formidable foes for the Lexus brand. Nevertheless, 26 years after Honda established Acura, the success of these three brands in comparison with one another is routinely similar. Lexus easily beats Acura. Acura easily beats Infiniti.

Sales figures for any premium Japanese car and for any other vehicle currently on sale in North America can be accessed through the dropdown menu at the top right of this page. A complete rundown of every brand's April 2012 sales can be viewed here. And every one of the 255 vehicles acquired at least once in America is ranked by year-to-date volume here. Click the above chart for a larger view.

Ranking	Automaker	April 2012 YTD	April 2011 YTD	% Change
#1	Mercedes-Benz	88,951	75,146	+ 18.4%
#2	BMW	82,611	71,417	+ 15.7%
#3	Lexus	66,647	64,932	+ 2.6%
#4	Acura	42,980	42,972	+ 0.02%
#5	Audi	40,991	35,401	+ 15.8%
#6	Cadillac	40,817	53,639	- 23.9%
#7	Infiniti	33,349	34,597	- 3.6%
#8	Lincoln	27,144	27,243	- 0.4%
#9	Volvo	21,265	21,844	- 2.7%
#10	Land Rover	13,951	11,249	+ 24.0%
#11	Porsche	10,596	10,179	+ 4.1%
#12	Jaguar	4401	3750	+ 17.4%
#11	Maserati	834	702	+ 18.8%
#11	Bentley	653	439	+ 48.7%

Ranking	Vehicle	April 2012 YTD	April 2011 YTD	% Change
#1	Lexus RX	24,729	28,850	- 14.3%
#2	Infiniti G	18,278	20,680	- 11.6%
#3	Acura MDX	14,151	14,997	- 5.6%
#4	Acura TSX	12,132	10,650	+ 13.9%
#5	Lexus ES350	11,548	12,038	- 4.1%
#6	Acura TL	11,414	10,921	+ 4.5%
#7	Lexus IS	8966	9669	- 7.3%
#8	Lexus GS	7054	1488	+ 374%
#9	Lexus CT200h	6510	3074	+ 112%
#10	Acura RDX	4882	4977	- 1.9%
#11	Infiniti QX56	4431	4015	+ 10.4%
#12	Infiniti FX	3525	3770	- 6.5%
#13	Lexus GX460	3272	4443	- 26.4%
#14	Infiniti M	3260	4101	- 20.5%
#15	Infiniti JX35	2619	-----	-----
#16	Lexus LS	2101	3157	- 33.4%
#17	Lexus LX570	1855	1199	+ 54.7%
#18	Infiniti EX35	1236	2031	- 39.1%
#19	Lexus HS250h	591	978	- 39.6%
#20	Acura ZDX	269	719	- 62.6%
#21	Acura RL	132	708	- 81.4%
#22	Lexus LFA	19	22	- 13.6%

Source: Manufacturers

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - April 2012
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2011 Year End
Luxury Auto Brand Market Share In America - April 2012
Mercedes-Benz vs. BMW vs. Audi - 2012 Monthly & YTD Sales

Chrysler Town & Country Cancelled - Will The Grand Caravan Pick Up The Slack?

Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne has decided that Chrysler and Dodge don't need two nearly identical minivans competing with one another. The minivan that will cease to exist in 2014 will be the slightly higher-end Chrysler Town & Country, the second-best-selling minivan in the United States this year and the second-best-selling minivan in Canada in April.

The Dodge Grand Caravan Will Live On After 2014. 
The Chrysler Brand Is Done With The Town & Country Minivan. 
The T&C Nameplate May Live On As The Chrysler Brand Plans 
To Sell A Large Crossover Instead Of A Grand Caravan Clone.

On the surface, this sounds like the equivalent of Nissan deciding to cancel the Altima, America's second-ranked midsize car or Mercedes-Benz determining that the C-Class, America's second-best-selling premium car, is failing. 

But remember, the Chrysler Town & Country is a Dodge Grand Caravan. The grille is different. Some interior textures have been altered. But this is very much a Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra situation here; so much more than even a Hyundai Sonata/Kia Optima cooperative. The Altima and C-Class, on the other hand, are twinless.

This minivan cancellation isn't a Chrysler first. The Plymouth Voyager ran its course as a minivan between 1984 and 2000, at which point the Plymouth brand disappeared. One can assume the Lancia Voyager that Chrysler's Fiat bosses created for European consumption won't last long, either. This Town & Country cancellation is a whole 'nuther matter. The Chrysler Group's headline brand will no longer sell a minivan.

Not that it matters from a showroom perspective. Canadians have long been acquainted with the notion of joint Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealers (which now often include Fiat), and Americans are now accustomed to seeing Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat stores. So if a customer can walk into the very same showroom, trade in their old Town & Country, and buy a new Dodge Grand Caravan, is there any reason to believe that the Italian-run bosses in Auburn Hills will be disappointed by their 2014 minivan volume?

Canada provides a good example of how thoroughly the Grand Caravan can dominate the minivan market with little help from the Town & Country. 60% of the minivans sold in Canada during the first four months of 2012 have been Grand Caravans and Town & Countrys. But even as Grand Caravan sales have slid 10% and Town & Country sales jumped 12%, the Grand Caravan's market share alone stood at 55.2%. Yes, absent the Town & Country, Chrysler Canada still owns more than half the minivan market. The best-selling non-Chrysler minivan, Toyota's Sienna, owns just 11.2% of the Canadian minivan market so far this year.

18,442 Grand Caravans and Town & Countrys were acquired in Canada between January and April 2012. It's reasonable to assume that some of the 1485 Town & Country clients aren't willing to slum it in a plebeian Grand Caravan, but it's just as reasonable to assume that, if the Town & Country wasn't for sale at the very same dealership, some Town & Country buyers would be interested in the Grand Caravan. They're not all going to flock to a Sienna XLE.

For the record, 2011 ended with the Chrysler and Dodge owning 61.4% of the Canadian minivan market, the Dodge outselling the Chrysler 12-to-1. In 2010, the two combined for 62.9% market share in the segment, the Dodge alone grabbed 58.5% of all minivan sales. The Grand Caravan was the fourth-best-selling vehicle in Canada in 2011 but, had each and every Town & Country buyer been directed to the Grand Caravan, it would have ranked third, ahead of the Honda Civic.

That's what Chrysler can accomplish when the Town & Country is a bit player. Move south of the border, however, and the Grand Caravan's 2011 finish slotted it in at the 32nd position, as the second-best-selling minivan, behind the Toyota Sienna. But unlike the Canadian strategy, Chrysler USA emphasizes the Town & Country and it therefore sells in large numbers, as well. Together, the Chrysler/Dodge pair would have ranked 14th.

In market share terms, the Grand Caravan and Town & Country ended 2011 with 41.8% of the minivan segment, the Dodge a little more than three percentage points ahead of the Chrysler. That's down from 2010 when the Town & Country was America's best-selling minivan and the two combined for 45.3% of the market and the Chrysler was two percentage points ahead of the Dodge.

Even if Dodge doesn't manage to conquer each and every potential Town & Country customer once the Town & Country departs, there will be some manufacturing and marketing savings provided by its cancellation. Volume is not the only key to profitability. 

What about the minivan segment as a whole? Are minivans really a dying breed? General Motors ignores the category in the U.S. and only offers Canada a quasi-minivan, the Orlando. Ford's Transit Connect is not the successor to the family's old Aerostar. Will Volkswagen build the small Bulli, and will the Chrysler-based Routan be cancelled along with the Town & Country when the new models come out in 2014? There's no Mercury Villager. The Mazda 5 is small and fading. The Kia Rondo is no longer built for U.S. consumption. The Kia Sedona is going on what we believe will be nothing more than temporary leave. Given its seat count and powertrain configurations, the Ford C-Max will be more of a Toyota Prius V rival than a potential Sienna competitor. 

Minivan sales in America improved 3.4% from 2010 to 2011. But the market improved far more significantly year-over-year. Minivans accounted for 4.1% of all vehicles sold in 2010, a figure which fell to 3.9% in 2011. Only 3.8% of all new vehicles sold in America during the first four months of 2012 have been minivans.

Meanwhile, north of the border, minivan volume slid 0.2% from 2010 to 2011 as the market grew 1.9%. Minivans accounted for 6.1% of all new vehicle sales in Canada in 2010, 5.94% in 2011, and 5.90% in the first four months of 2012.

Source: Automotive News

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Historical Monthly & Yearly Chrysler Town & Country Sales Figures
Historical Monthly & Yearly Dodge Grand Caravan Sales Figures
Top 255 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - April 2012 YTD - Every Vehicle Ranked
Top 250 Best-Selling Vehicles In Canada - April 2012 YTD - Every Vehicle Ranked
U.S. Monthly Minivan Sales
Canada Monthly Minivan Sales