We named her Ruby. Came home just after noon today. Initial reaction is 100% positive. Took a 30 mile drive with my wife. A snappy vehicle, lots of guts.
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Bolt No ICE
- Thread starter jebatty
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Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
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So glad it wasn't more serious and that you are here to tell the story. Bummer about the Camry. It sounds like you take good care of your cars.
Better #6 - The other guy's insurance will pay for a rental car and medical. Might not be a bad idea to have a neck xray done and this is an opportunity to rent a new car that you may have been interested in, but only to try it out? Be patient finding a replacement car.
Better #7. If possible try to keep your wrecked Camry at least long enough to swap out good parts (tires?) if you get the 2009 Camry.
Better #6 - The other guy's insurance will pay for a rental car and medical. Might not be a bad idea to have a neck xray done and this is an opportunity to rent a new car that you may have been interested in, but only to try it out? Be patient finding a replacement car.
Better #7. If possible try to keep your wrecked Camry at least long enough to swap out good parts (tires?) if you get the 2009 Camry.
You don’t? Is that just because you don’t drive in the winter? The pugest sound region is heavily salted these days. I frequently wash cars just to rinse the salt off. Luckily we thaw out between cold weather systems to allow rinsing.
Your area is colder than the immediate Puget Sound area. The Puget Sound often keeps temps 5-10º warmer here than the foothills. They've sanded the local roads here once this winter so far and only at a few dangerous hills, no salt and no snow other than a light dusting. If they are using it a lot in your community it's a good idea to rinse it off as soon as is reasonable.
In general around Puget Sound most jurisdictions try to keep salt usage low to protect the environment. At least that's what they're telling us.
Salt and Sand
We continuously evaluate new products, equipment, and techniques for combating snow and ice. Salt (sodium chloride, ordinary table salt) is a very safe and effective snow and ice fighting tool when used properly. When used at high concentrations for long periods of time, chloride compounds are potentially harmful to the environment and are corrosive to metals. But typical Pierce County winters aren't harsh enough to require salt use at the high volumes that cause significant environmental harm or corrosion.
In general around Puget Sound most jurisdictions try to keep salt usage low to protect the environment. At least that's what they're telling us.
Salt and Sand
We continuously evaluate new products, equipment, and techniques for combating snow and ice. Salt (sodium chloride, ordinary table salt) is a very safe and effective snow and ice fighting tool when used properly. When used at high concentrations for long periods of time, chloride compounds are potentially harmful to the environment and are corrosive to metals. But typical Pierce County winters aren't harsh enough to require salt use at the high volumes that cause significant environmental harm or corrosion.
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The 2009 we looked at, not acceptable. Found out other driver's insurance was canceled. Proceeding with a claim on my insurance policy. As for parts? ... I do want the winter tires/wheels and spare off the 2007. Everything under the hood likely is unusable by me.
I remain thankfully amazed at how well the airbags and shoulder/seat belt protected by body. This could have been much, much worse. And at this point I don't think I reasonably could have done anything to have avoided the accident. Except stay home.
Glad you are ok after that accident, Jim.
The new car looks really nice. Congratulations.
At times there's nothing you can do. The only accident I have been in was while I was stopped in line at a red light. That was in a new 1988 Camry wagon. I was rear-ended by a drunk driver in a Ford F150 at a high enough speed to lift my car's rear end up and to shove the nose under the Honda in front of me. I walked away without injury. The cop said I was lucky that I didn't snap my neck. Most cases he had seen ended up in a neck fracture. The car did what it should do and protected me, crumpling to take the impact. That's always impressed me.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Jebatty, I’m joining the conversation late, and did not read all six pages of responses, but I’m wondering about your decision to rely on now-seldomly used ICE cars for long road trips. Sounds like a recipe for some ruined vacations. Wouldn’t it make more sense to sell one or both ICEs, and just rent for the odd long-haul trip?
Circus
Feeling the Heat
Glade your OK. Don't skimp when replacing your Camry. You might know, but others often don't know, how to care for a vehicle. I would never buy vehicle with 200,000 miles on it. Brother just gave me his Sienna for free because the old transmission fluid fried the transmission. Guess how many miles are on it.
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Where2
Feeling the Heat
Indeed we are all glad Jebatty is OK. We'd miss his interaction, stories about the new Bolt, and the solar projects in MN if something happened to him.
My daily driver presently has 230k, I picked it up with 165k on it, and it still gets 40mpg. My wife's daily has 161k on it.
Took Ruby the Bolt for a 140 mile ride yesterday, mostly on highways. Fully charged battery. Ruby reported 32kw of the 60kw battery capacity used. Outside temp was 22F at start and 42F at end three hours later. Trip was in dayIight, no use of head lights, drove conservatively, kept highway speed at 55 mph on the cruise control, except for an eleven mile interstate segment when I moved the cruise speed to 60 mph. Gentle accelerations. Slow downs before stops or slowing to take advantage of regeneration. I also turned off seat and steering wheel warming, kept cabin temp set at 61F, fan on low and directed to the windshield to prevent fogging. Traffic was very light.
My energy usage was considerably less than and range considerably greater than initially estimated by the energy system. Range estimate changed as the trip progressed to better match what actually was occurring.
Observations:
1) cruise control is amazingly smooth, on flat segments and both up and down hills. Not a quiver of slop in over or under running the set speed, only surges when resuming after a slow down, then rapid acceleration. To avoid that I manually accelerated to set speed before resuming.
2) Pushed the acceleration just a couple of times. Expected result of very rapid acceleration is correct.
3) Visibility is very good. Especially appreciate the sensor display on the side mirrors that light up when a vehicle passes on the right or left. They cover the small blind spot area very well.
4) Experienced no discomfort in the seat, firm, did not notice any particular pressure points.
5) Small car with short wheel base, result in more car movement up and down in uneven pavement areas. In other words, ride is not like the smoothness of our much bigger and cushier Avalon.
6) Interior was quiet, minimal wind noise.
7) Need more driving time to become familiar with all the controls, the MyChevy app, bluetooth and Onstar operation. Basic driving is very simple, just like an ICE car: put it in gear and go. But placement of many controls is different from my now dead 2007 Camry.
8) As expected and also useful are the displays and info on battery charge, energy usage, energy efficiency, etc.
Enjoyed the first distance trip in the Bolt, and I look forward to the Bolt achieving my objective of covering nearly all local driving requirements, which max out at about 175 miles round trip. If conservative driving comfortably allows a trip from our home to the homes of our children, all about 185 miles away, then I will be very pleased. Will need to have charging available at their homes, or locate nearby charge stations.
My energy usage was considerably less than and range considerably greater than initially estimated by the energy system. Range estimate changed as the trip progressed to better match what actually was occurring.
Observations:
1) cruise control is amazingly smooth, on flat segments and both up and down hills. Not a quiver of slop in over or under running the set speed, only surges when resuming after a slow down, then rapid acceleration. To avoid that I manually accelerated to set speed before resuming.
2) Pushed the acceleration just a couple of times. Expected result of very rapid acceleration is correct.
3) Visibility is very good. Especially appreciate the sensor display on the side mirrors that light up when a vehicle passes on the right or left. They cover the small blind spot area very well.
4) Experienced no discomfort in the seat, firm, did not notice any particular pressure points.
5) Small car with short wheel base, result in more car movement up and down in uneven pavement areas. In other words, ride is not like the smoothness of our much bigger and cushier Avalon.
6) Interior was quiet, minimal wind noise.
7) Need more driving time to become familiar with all the controls, the MyChevy app, bluetooth and Onstar operation. Basic driving is very simple, just like an ICE car: put it in gear and go. But placement of many controls is different from my now dead 2007 Camry.
8) As expected and also useful are the displays and info on battery charge, energy usage, energy efficiency, etc.
Enjoyed the first distance trip in the Bolt, and I look forward to the Bolt achieving my objective of covering nearly all local driving requirements, which max out at about 175 miles round trip. If conservative driving comfortably allows a trip from our home to the homes of our children, all about 185 miles away, then I will be very pleased. Will need to have charging available at their homes, or locate nearby charge stations.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Sounds just marginally more comfortable than Paul Revere’s midnight ride, and a heck of a lot less enjoyable.
maple1
Minister of Fire
Where2 is in South Florida. We will never be able to match that mileage in our hilly and mountainous location.
Circus
Feeling the Heat
Mine has high mileage too.
Always wondered about the heating. Years ago we garaged the car to keep the engine from freezing, now it's to keep the people from freezing.
Instead of having a second ICE car for longer trips just get a super small trailer with a generator in it to pull behind the bolt and a extension cord and a couple gas tanks... Hmm. maybe not.
Lucky you weren't hurt Jim, could of been a lot worse.
Lucky you weren't hurt Jim, could of been a lot worse.
I actually thought of doing that for an electric Ranger truck I was considering buying, but no need for the trailer.
Range sucks in the winter with heat on. My Ford Focus Electric goes from 120 miles of range down to 85, even 75 in the sub-15F crap... so annoying.
I have never run out of juice but, once in 15F weather coming back home from Baltimore with 55% batt I made the call to go out of my way to spend 20min at a free DC fast charge station so I could drive home with full heat w/o worrying.
(Love the free charging we have around Baltimore and soon to be more spots around MD. Thanks MD taxpayers!)
I have never run out of juice but, once in 15F weather coming back home from Baltimore with 55% batt I made the call to go out of my way to spend 20min at a free DC fast charge station so I could drive home with full heat w/o worrying.
(Love the free charging we have around Baltimore and soon to be more spots around MD. Thanks MD taxpayers!)
Circus
Feeling the Heat
Do they attempt to salvage any waste heat from the motor etc? Lets say a 85% efficient 10 hp motor. Wouldn't it put out 15% of the total wattage as heat?
The Focus Electric "can" but rarely does because the target temp for heating (120F) is often higher than the MECT (motor coolant loop) temp even after a long highway drive (105F, in 30F weather). If the heater wasn't running for a while I think it combines the loops via mixing valve to kickstart that. Same with the battery coolant loop, although that is regulated to no higher than 77F from what I've seen.
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TonyVideo
Feeling the Heat
Maybe the range estimator went out to conserve power. 
Probably went out to not get complaints that it was not accurate down to feet.
Probably went out to not get complaints that it was not accurate down to feet. 
DuaeGuttae
Minister of Fire
Maybe the range estimator went out to conserve power.
Probably went out because I had been climbing major hills and was pretty close to what gets referred to as “the turtle of doom,” and Nissan engineers wanted to make it pretty clear that I should cease driving. Thankfully no one in my family has ever met that turtle.
The range estimator on the Nissan seems to get little love because it really just makes estimates on how many miles you can drive if you keep driving under the same conditions. I don’t mind that it jumps around and varies. I think it’s interesting to see it lose few miles when I go away from home (downhill), and then it drops miles like crazy on the climb back home. You can always know the charge level. I was just too unfamiliar with the controls to check that my first time driving it, and I had never read about it going completely blank, so that did produce some anxiety for me that first time.
Jebatty, thanks for the detailed follow-up post about the Volt. It does say something about your range needs that you consider a 175 mile round trip “local.” I consider that going out of town.
How long would it take fully to recharge at a child’s house if you were limited to 120V?
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