Service Required

13028 miles and I had about 82% oil life left but apparently GM thinks if you haven't changed your oil in two years, you should get it changed even if you have plenty of oil life left! So I have an appointment to visit Community Chevrolet on this coming Tuesday. Estimated cost = $49.

I also am supposed to get my tires rotated and I mentioned the charge door which still occasionally thinks it's open when it isn't. So...

I thought I would not need to get an oil change in the time I had the car, but looks like I was wrong. I found Community's web site a bit of a mess... I couldn't directly create an account with them until I scheduled service through the web site. Then at the end it invites you to create an account with the info you've just entered. Then they get back to you after matching existing service records with your new account. Only thing is, they now have my Volt in twice... once with historical data and once with my new appointment and no historical data... each a unique car tab in my list of cars. No way I can merge them myself. Also, they still have my old GMC Sierra pick up and I don't own that any longer so I want to delete it... no, can't delete a vehicle. Somebody should show their webmaster how to design web sites. :-(

April OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics report

OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics from my Chevrolet Volt as of 04/08/2013

March OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics report

OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics from my Chevrolet Volt as of 03/09/2013

Only 2 miles on gas this month. Below is a detail of the energy efficiency:

The Efficiency report seems to differ on the number of miles driven but there is about a commute and a half's difference in the coverage of this report, which is taken from the MyVolt web site, vs the one in my OnStar email. 

No issues with the car. It just hums along fine. 

Don't Leave Your Lights On!!!

Read about the guy who found his Volt 100% dead in his driveway!

https://plus.google.com/u/0/112583261026864358671/posts/SHk2aDBvgFK

February plug-in sales report

The Volt is still the best-selling electric car, with February deliveries at 1,626 units, according to Green Car Reports. January's sales were at 1,140 by comparison. Last year in February, Chevrolet sold 1,023 Volts.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

The weather has been fantastic here this weekend and I was out doing a few things in the garage and cleaning both cars to enjoy it as much as possible. I tried out a new Meguiars waterless wash product this week and it worked very well. It's much easier to buff clear that the AQUANIL-X product I usually use but that tells me it's also possibly not going to protect as well. It also has a very strong fragrance to it, pleasant enough but I really prefer a non-scented cleaner. They say a bottle will do about 4 washes but I got two done with a tad left over. I tend to use a lot of product and plenty of towels to avoid any scratching. At $14 a bottle, the Meguiars cleaner is a bit more expensive than the AQUANIL-X, only because I buy it in gallon bottles and I cut it by a bit more than half with water. It seems way too strong right out of the jug to me, even though they consider it ready to use. The Meguiars does seem to do a great job though. If I found a deal on it I wouldn't hesitate to use it again. A waterless wash with either product goes very fast and really looks great.

February OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics report

OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics from my Chevrolet Volt as of 02/08/2013

No gas used this month. Below is a detail of the energy efficiency:

Click to enlarge

Getting close to that twelve-thousand mile mark. No worries about driving too many miles for my lease limits though. Here is where it would be ideal if I ended up buying the car at the end of the lease. It will be a very low-mileage car. Actually we are considering this as a car for Bob. He will be turning in his ActiveE and will need a car, but since he drives so little, something fancy or expensive isn't really in the cards. Yet he needs a car that works for him and he likes EVs. We'll have to see.