cwerdna
Well-known member
I knew about the Intellibeam button on the left stalk and experimented w/turning that on/off. From glancing at the '17 Bolt manual, the seems to only control whether the car drives with high beams on most of the time above certain speeds unless certain conditions are met (e.g. taillights, oncoming headlights, etc.)GetOffYourGas said:LeftieBiker said:The Bolt app does have a SOC display
I was going to bring this up too. The app is available through CarPlay, so you can get to it through the main screen while driving. Although you do have to connect your app to the car, and I don't know how easy this is for a rental. The nice thing about the app is that it continues to show % SoC when the battery is very low. When the car gets below 10%, the dash display just starts flashing, just like my 2012 Leaf used to do. Right when you need SoC the most, it is taken away from you. The app gives it back.
cwerdna said:I'm worried about all the extra cycles the car seems to put on the HID headlights. I didn't see a way of disabling the auto-headlight behavior and how much it likes turning on the headlights by itself. Will need to dig into that if I buy.
You can. There is a button on the headlight stalk to turn the intellibeam feature on/off. If you owned the car, a brief search of the owner's manual would tell you where it is.
I'm talking about the cycles from me unlocking the car and it wanting to turn on the HID headlights, all the exterior lights and even the white backup lights (I hate that on other GM cars in parking lots, is confusing). I wish I could disable most/all of that or at least the HIDs. I'd rather not have extra cycles on HIDs.
I didn't know which app I would've needed to get. I may not have had access anyway, esp. if it was thru OnStar. I didn't have the owner's credentials.
I did use CarPlay (was weird I had to go to a Projection menu item to enable). Was very cool on such a big screen.
I'm still very torn. I feel like if I'm buying a Bolt, I'm getting a less refined EV. GM reliability is generally not good. However, when CR had only the 1st model year reliability info for Bolt, it was very good (very surprising for GM). That year, it was Chevy's most reliable vehicle. Now, the '17 has fallen to average reliability while '18 is very good (even better than '18 Leaf). However, this will always change year to year over time.
GM's capacity warranty clause (guide at https://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/chevrolet/na/us/english/index/owners/warranty/02-pdfs/2018-chevrolet-limited-warranty-and-owner-assistance-information.pdf, they don't seem to have '19 online yet) on page 14 is very vague. It talks about 10% to up to 40% capacity loss during the warranty period but doesn't really explicitly say that it hits 41% (== defect) or whatever, that they'll replace. I found https://www.chevybolt.org/forum/9-2017-chevy-bolt-ev-general-discussion-forum/30777-bolt-battery-warranty-repair-replacement-16-250-battery-replacement-cost.html but to me, it's not definitive. On the + side, a bunch of EV system stuff including the motor are warranted for 8 years/100K miles, longer than Leaf.
I'm not clear how much degradation data we have on Bolt. (Yes, I saw the guy's video thinking he had 8% loss at 70K miles.) We certainly have no idea on the Leaf e+. Seems like GM w/thermal management and previous battery LG Chem chemistries (and others like A123) don't have big probs w/capacity loss over time, esp. compared to Leaf but Bolt is different. And, the car doesn't even have a user visible capacity indicator, AFAIK.
One BIG good point on the Bolt is UI on the '19 let you adjust when charging stops. It seems to let you select 40% to 100% in 5% increments. This is AWESOME compared to no limiter on any '14+ US Leafs (and needing futz w/timers or terminating charge early manually). I doubt it will come back on the '19 Leaf e+.
At the same time, I doubt Nissan would heavily discount the e+ when it comes out in Spring 2019 (never got a good since of how much '19 Leaf SL are really selling for now). Why would they? The effective price on a Bolt will be $3750 higher on April 1st (tax credit on GM EVs/PHEVs cut in 1/2) and another $1875 higher on Oct 1, 2019 (GM tax credit going to 1/4). and so on. If I buy Bolt now w/the heavy discounting, I'm guessing I'll be paying ~$3400 to $5500 less than an e+ SL (after tax credits) for a Premier with infotainment package, driver confidence II package and DC FC inlet.
Will I rack up enough repair bills to make up the difference? Will the car become a pain in the butt due to repairs needed? How will battery degradation be between the two over the long term? Degradation warranty on Bolt seems fuzzy and is also fuzzy on Leaf (due to just bars in the warranty).