cwerdna
Well-known member
1st Bolt delivery was in Dec 2016, but yes, in the US, until mid Feb 2019, it was the only game in town for 200+ mile EPA range rating BEV for under $40K actually available to buy or lease.OrientExpress said:When the Bolt was introduced in 2017, it was absolutely the darling of the BEV scene because it set a new standard in range for an under $40K vehicle. That shine wore off as soon as everyone grew tired of its dreadful ergonomics and everything else with the car. Good difference with the LEAF, who has excellent reliability and, does everything very well, but nothing really outstanding. The Bolt does range very well, but everything else is just mediocre.
I wouldn't say the ergonomics of the Bolt are dreadful. They're fine to me but the '17 Bolt seats do suck and even the '19's seats are not great. And, the interior's cheap. I was at a local auto show on Friday and to me, even the current Volt and Chevy Cruze have better quality interiors.
About the only two other ergonomic gripes I have are the sun visors aren't tall enough. Also, on the '17 Bolt, the visor wasn't long enough nor was there an extender nor was it a slide-on-rod visor (like what you find on '18 Leaf). I don't know when they fixed the latter part but my '19 has on slide-on-rod visors. I know the '17 Bolt I rented definitely didn't.
I'm not sure if I can count the inlet placement on the left fender as an "ergonomic" issue but I can say it's definitely inferior to the nose for reasons I mentioned already.
In 2017, reliability ratings on the 1st model year ('17) bolt were very good (esp for GM) being above average and being Chevy's most reliable vehicle (https://electrek.co/2017/10/20/bolt-reliable-chevy/ and https://web.archive.org/web/20171101200928/https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/car-brands-reliability-how-they-stack-up/) .
One will need a CR online subscription (I have one) to see these but Leaf CR reliability ratings have been a bit of a mixed bag:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/nissan/leaf/2019/reliability?pagestop
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/chevrolet/bolt/2019/reliability?pagestop
Their marks have different 5 icons representing worst to best. Let's call the worst a 1 and best 5. Right now, '11, '13, and '17 Leaf receive a 5 for overall reliability verdict. '12 and '18 get a 3. '14 and '15 get 4. '16 for some reason gets a 1. Trouble spots on '16 are drive system (worst mark), climate system and brakes.
For Bolt, they only have ratings for '17 and '18. '17 gets 3 (was better in Oct 2017 and I'm pretty sure the same rating was published in the April 2018 auto issue) and '18 gets a 5.
These will change in about 6 months to a year from now, I think closer to the latter.