Saturday, May 28, 2011
First Wash
I used my (apparently now discontinued) Mr. Clean car wash device to wash up the Volt this afternoon. Took the opportunity to snap a few pix.
Bob Drives Volt For First Time
Had to go over to OSH this morning so Bob got his first chance to drive the Volt. He likes to drive less efficiently than I do. He even put the car in performance mode... yikes! I've never tried that. It's not easy for him to get in and out of the car on the driver's side, so he probably won't drive it routinely. But he does like driving it. I agree that once you are seated behind the wheel it's fine. Getting in and out is harder on us bigger folk.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Estimate In!
Well, the estimate is a bit higher than I expected, but still quite doable if I am understanding everything.
The current program SPX is offering includes a free Coulomb charger... relatively ugly but it doesn't need to be a work of art I guess. Along with that the DOE is kicking in $1200 towards the cost of installation. So, estimated price for the package is: $3534.54 - $1200 DOE Reimbursement = $2334.54. I will have to pay the $2334.54 out of pocket, but then the LADWP has a rebate of up to $2000 in addition to the other incentives. So the net cost would only be $334.54.
On another note, I've been trying to figure out how to get traffic on my nav system and when the VoltAdvisor described how to do it, and I didn't have the menu items she was referring to, I decided to call XM and ask if they knew anything, since they provide the traffic data through XMNavTraffic. Turns out it was not turned on for my car. So, they turned it back on for me and all appears to be well. Will check it out on the drive to work this morning.
On another note, I've been trying to figure out how to get traffic on my nav system and when the VoltAdvisor described how to do it, and I didn't have the menu items she was referring to, I decided to call XM and ask if they knew anything, since they provide the traffic data through XMNavTraffic. Turns out it was not turned on for my car. So, they turned it back on for me and all appears to be well. Will check it out on the drive to work this morning.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Update...
So the contractor, Scott Bryden showed up and turns out my appointment ended up in a 3 pm slot due to some extra special magic of his smart phone. Having experienced that sort of magic myself, I can certainly believe it. Anyway, he was here, he confirmed my location for parking is fine, the box mounting locations are all good, whichever one I choose, and he figures this is a fairly typical TOU installation. So maybe it will fall into the higher end price range of what SPX lists as typical, which I think was $1k to $1600. If so, my out of pocket may only be $400 and DWP might reimburse me for that once I apply.
Scott's company is IBROX Electric, www.ibroxelectric.com
Looking at the chargers and incentives on the SPX site, it looks like the ECOtality Blink is the charger I will be getting, which looks pretty cool.
Scott's company is IBROX Electric, www.ibroxelectric.com
Looking at the chargers and incentives on the SPX site, it looks like the ECOtality Blink is the charger I will be getting, which looks pretty cool.
LADWP and SPX Visits
Yesterday, 5/24, the LADWP man came by the house and looked at the area near the main meter where the EV meter will go. Interestingly, they want a very large area of free space around it so even though there is a good bit of room between the main meter and the first window going towards the front of the house, they want to place it forward of that window and before the bathroom window that comes next going towards the font of the house.
Apparently he found no issues that would prevent this service from being added. We had the main upgraded to 100 amp service 11 years ago when we put in the air conditioning and just last year DWP upgraded the transformers in our area, so I figured we would be in reasonably good shape. The guy's drawing was basic, but serves to show where the contractor should put the meter. I added a couple of embellishments, including the location on the other side of the house where I park the Volt, ungaraged - yes, ungaraged. Someday far in the future, the proud owner of Historical Vehicle Chevrolet Volt #3179 will not be happy that the first operator of his car was so callous. But there it is.
So today I am waiting on the SPX guy to come by and tell me what they can do and how much it will cost. So far he is late for his appointment!
Apparently he found no issues that would prevent this service from being added. We had the main upgraded to 100 amp service 11 years ago when we put in the air conditioning and just last year DWP upgraded the transformers in our area, so I figured we would be in reasonably good shape. The guy's drawing was basic, but serves to show where the contractor should put the meter. I added a couple of embellishments, including the location on the other side of the house where I park the Volt, ungaraged - yes, ungaraged. Someday far in the future, the proud owner of Historical Vehicle Chevrolet Volt #3179 will not be happy that the first operator of his car was so callous. But there it is.
So today I am waiting on the SPX guy to come by and tell me what they can do and how much it will cost. So far he is late for his appointment!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Second Day
Another day without any gasoline being used...
It was a little chilly this morning so I used the heated seat. Parked on P2.
LADWP contacted me first thing this morning. The guy who does the evaluations for EV is coming by tomorrow to do the initial eval for where the meter should go, etc. I think he said between 10 am and 1 pm.
SPX also contacted me, only by email. They are planning to come out on Wednesday morning between 8 am and 10 am. I should have a very good view of the feasibility of this idea for the 240 volt charger after he leaves on Wednesday. I really hope we can do it.
It was a little chilly this morning so I used the heated seat. Parked on P2.
LADWP contacted me first thing this morning. The guy who does the evaluations for EV is coming by tomorrow to do the initial eval for where the meter should go, etc. I think he said between 10 am and 1 pm.
SPX also contacted me, only by email. They are planning to come out on Wednesday morning between 8 am and 10 am. I should have a very good view of the feasibility of this idea for the 240 volt charger after he leaves on Wednesday. I really hope we can do it.
Friday, May 20, 2011
First Drive To Work
This morning I drove from home, took the 5 freeway, then the 134 freeway to Pasadena and work. Traffic was fairly average. Parked on P1. Then tonight I drove from work, took the 134 all the way to Cahuenga and on to home in North Hollywood. Both ways I had the climate set to ECO. When I stopped in my driveway I still had 14 miles of electric driving range. I had driven about 33 miles.
Not one drop of gasoline was used on today's commute. :-)
Not one drop of gasoline was used on today's commute. :-)
SPX
Talked to SPX, the company that Chevrolet contracts with to do their 240 volt charging stations today.
I can get the charging station itself for free and $1200 toward the cost of the installation. And LADWP offers $2000 towards installation as well. Then I can get a special rate on the electricity used. They have a Time of Use meter that tells them when you used the electricity as well. I'm thinking I want to look into it further.
Here's an interesting link with info about what an average installation might cost.
I can get the charging station itself for free and $1200 toward the cost of the installation. And LADWP offers $2000 towards installation as well. Then I can get a special rate on the electricity used. They have a Time of Use meter that tells them when you used the electricity as well. I'm thinking I want to look into it further.
Here's an interesting link with info about what an average installation might cost.
- https://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp014296.pdf Charger rebate form
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Charged!
Here's the new girl, charged up and ready to go.
Meanwhile... copying MP3s to the car's internal hard drive via a memory stick and I discovered that the system doesn't like files nested more that two folders deep. (The root being one folder.) So copying my music library all to the root of the memory stick. Pretty easy. You plug the stick into the USB port (hidden in the center console stowage bin) and the system switches the source to USB. Then press the REC button on the center stack and it prompts to just copy the file now playing or all songs. Select your choice and the system copies it/them over.
I used the tire inflater that comes with the car because two tires were a bit low. Hmmm... that inflater is pretty cheesy. But it did the job. Oh and the electrical outlets all seem to shut off with the car.
Meanwhile... copying MP3s to the car's internal hard drive via a memory stick and I discovered that the system doesn't like files nested more that two folders deep. (The root being one folder.) So copying my music library all to the root of the memory stick. Pretty easy. You plug the stick into the USB port (hidden in the center console stowage bin) and the system switches the source to USB. Then press the REC button on the center stack and it prompts to just copy the file now playing or all songs. Select your choice and the system copies it/them over.
I used the tire inflater that comes with the car because two tires were a bit low. Hmmm... that inflater is pretty cheesy. But it did the job. Oh and the electrical outlets all seem to shut off with the car.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
New Volt!
Wow! I can hardly believe it yet, but I am an new Volt driver... I can't say "owner" because I'm leasing it. But I just got it delivered tonight...
It started a few weeks ago. I've always liked the idea of the Volt and electric cars in general. I remember looking at antique electric cars and wondering what it would have been like if we had adopted them instead of the oil baron's choice. Anyway, I found out that our local dealer in Burbank had a demonstrator we could test drive so Bob and I went over on a Saturday and took it for a spin. I felt very at-ease in the car, and it took about 5 seconds to feel confident driving it. But none were available for sale! The dealer said no more were being made for 2011 but they said a secret black one was going to show up later and if I wanted to put down a $1K deposit... Hahahaha! I sent out emails to other dealers in the area. No one had one. But on Tuesday, I got an email from a dealer in Glendale who said he just got a black one. I don't like black cars but I went and looked at it on Wednesday morning anyway, just to check it out. Yep, it was black. AND the dealer wanted $3K over MSRP. But that was only because I was an "Internet Customer". They were asking $5K over sticker for a walk-in customer. I left and drove on to work but in a short time I got a call from Oscar Gutierrez at Bunnin Chevrolet in Culver City saying he had a loaded red one that just came in! Now that's more like it. He was sticking to MSRP pricing too. Funny thing, the car had a higher sticker price than Glendale's, but the lease payments were a good bit less.
I've had a couple of pleasant buying experiences, but none as nice and non-invasive as this one. We never set foot in the dealership at all. Instead, a few phone calls, a form to fill out on the dealer's Web site and some email exchanges with insurance information, etc. I was able to go about my day with very little interruption and *he* did all the work. He even drove the car to our house from Culver City in weekday evening traffic and waived the normal delivery fee. Very pleasant experience and a very nice salesman. Oscar was enthusiastic without being phoney and very accommodating.
When Oscar was about to leave to bring the car, he gave me the info I needed to set up my OnStar account access both on the Web and on my iPhone. I was able to see that he had gassed up the tank (it went from 2% to 97% full) and I could see the miles he'd traveled so I knew when he was getting close. I could also see one of the tires was a tad low on air. (With the iPhone app, I'll be able to turn on the heat or A/C ahead of drive time, and all kinds of stuff.) When he arrived at the house, there were lease papers to sign, pairing of the iPhone via Bluetooth, testing the remote app on the iPhone, getting the demonstration of what does what, setting up the charging cord, etc., etc. After all that, I was really only able to drive it around the block and then back to the driveway to charge.
Initial impressions: The car seems to have good fit and finish. The leather seats are comfortable and the amount of leg room is really surprising. It has a tilt and telescope steering column, but it's not like the older GM style. This has a lever you unlock, then the whole column moves freely up and down rather than pivoting on a u-joint. The electric power steering is on as soon as you boot up the car, so it's odd to be able to turn the wheel easily while no engine is running. The so-called center stack seems very complicated to me. A lot of buttons that could be very distracting if you tried to adjust stuff while driving. Most of the environmental controls offer an automatic mode, and perhaps this will be where they will stay. There is a good bit of "plastic" used in the body panels. This makes sense given the need to save weight. I am not particularly interested in the body panels, I'm excited about the drive train and the electric operating mode. That and it's pretty cool to go to my iPhone and with the app I downloaded, be able to find out where I parked my car by zooming in on a map. The integration with smartphones is nice for a geeky type like me. The whole car is pretty geeky, but you can enjoy it as a car too since it provides a nice driving experience.
It comes with 5 years of OnStar!
Color: Crystal Red Metallic Tintcoat
Interior: Jet Black leather appointments with Dark accents
And I want to keep track of a bit of info on getting a spare charging cord.
It started a few weeks ago. I've always liked the idea of the Volt and electric cars in general. I remember looking at antique electric cars and wondering what it would have been like if we had adopted them instead of the oil baron's choice. Anyway, I found out that our local dealer in Burbank had a demonstrator we could test drive so Bob and I went over on a Saturday and took it for a spin. I felt very at-ease in the car, and it took about 5 seconds to feel confident driving it. But none were available for sale! The dealer said no more were being made for 2011 but they said a secret black one was going to show up later and if I wanted to put down a $1K deposit... Hahahaha! I sent out emails to other dealers in the area. No one had one. But on Tuesday, I got an email from a dealer in Glendale who said he just got a black one. I don't like black cars but I went and looked at it on Wednesday morning anyway, just to check it out. Yep, it was black. AND the dealer wanted $3K over MSRP. But that was only because I was an "Internet Customer". They were asking $5K over sticker for a walk-in customer. I left and drove on to work but in a short time I got a call from Oscar Gutierrez at Bunnin Chevrolet in Culver City saying he had a loaded red one that just came in! Now that's more like it. He was sticking to MSRP pricing too. Funny thing, the car had a higher sticker price than Glendale's, but the lease payments were a good bit less.
I've had a couple of pleasant buying experiences, but none as nice and non-invasive as this one. We never set foot in the dealership at all. Instead, a few phone calls, a form to fill out on the dealer's Web site and some email exchanges with insurance information, etc. I was able to go about my day with very little interruption and *he* did all the work. He even drove the car to our house from Culver City in weekday evening traffic and waived the normal delivery fee. Very pleasant experience and a very nice salesman. Oscar was enthusiastic without being phoney and very accommodating.
When Oscar was about to leave to bring the car, he gave me the info I needed to set up my OnStar account access both on the Web and on my iPhone. I was able to see that he had gassed up the tank (it went from 2% to 97% full) and I could see the miles he'd traveled so I knew when he was getting close. I could also see one of the tires was a tad low on air. (With the iPhone app, I'll be able to turn on the heat or A/C ahead of drive time, and all kinds of stuff.) When he arrived at the house, there were lease papers to sign, pairing of the iPhone via Bluetooth, testing the remote app on the iPhone, getting the demonstration of what does what, setting up the charging cord, etc., etc. After all that, I was really only able to drive it around the block and then back to the driveway to charge.
Initial impressions: The car seems to have good fit and finish. The leather seats are comfortable and the amount of leg room is really surprising. It has a tilt and telescope steering column, but it's not like the older GM style. This has a lever you unlock, then the whole column moves freely up and down rather than pivoting on a u-joint. The electric power steering is on as soon as you boot up the car, so it's odd to be able to turn the wheel easily while no engine is running. The so-called center stack seems very complicated to me. A lot of buttons that could be very distracting if you tried to adjust stuff while driving. Most of the environmental controls offer an automatic mode, and perhaps this will be where they will stay. There is a good bit of "plastic" used in the body panels. This makes sense given the need to save weight. I am not particularly interested in the body panels, I'm excited about the drive train and the electric operating mode. That and it's pretty cool to go to my iPhone and with the app I downloaded, be able to find out where I parked my car by zooming in on a map. The integration with smartphones is nice for a geeky type like me. The whole car is pretty geeky, but you can enjoy it as a car too since it provides a nice driving experience.
It comes with 5 years of OnStar!
Color: Crystal Red Metallic Tintcoat
Interior: Jet Black leather appointments with Dark accents
And I want to keep track of a bit of info on getting a spare charging cord.
GM PART # 22781210
CATEGORY: All
PACK QTY: 1
CORE CHARGE: $0.00
List Price: $450.00
Price: $315.00
You Save: $135.00 (30%)
DESCRIPTION: CABLE
http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/results.cfm
(although there is some trickery as they want $75 for S&H !]
Volt #3179 : delivered 5/18/2011
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