First, the lease term - it's a '14 with leather and the DC fast charge provisions. ~$1800 total down, ~$215/mo including tax, 12k miles/year. Got the car from Connell Chevy in Costa Mesa. All the staff were helpful and friendly - I have no complaints whatsoever. They let my wife and I test drive the car without a salesperson escort. My wife and I have test driven many cars over the years and only one other time has a dealer been that accommodating - thumbs up to them for that. The car impressed on the test drive.
The ownership experience started with a drive home that was a little disconcerting. Had approx 55 freeway miles to go on approx 75 miles of indicated range. Made it home with about 20 miles to spare in range. After my first commute, here are my thoughts.
Interior
- Radio not as bad as I've read here. It's not great, but not horrible.
- This car needs a telescoping steering wheel bad. I'm 6' tall and I fit everywhere except for the fact that my legs are splayed if I move close enough to the steering wheel to reach it comfortably. In this splayed driving position my right knee ends up close to the HVAC controls when trying to get comfortable.
- Seats are cushy, yet the leatherette is weirdly sticky.
- A/C works well. I tried the remote start today and a few minutes later it was pretty nice inside.
- Only one armrest? Why!?
- Quiet!, of course.
- Needs one more USB port - one for music and one for charging a phone. This would prevent you from carrying a big clunky car charger.
- It would have been awesome if GM would have designed a flat spot of significant size on the stereo bezel as a mounting point for a suction cup phone mount. The little side window looks like it might be good.
Driving
- Fairly comfortable ride
- It's fast! As mentioned everywhere, it lags a bit off the line, but I tried sport mode for a bit and I think "sport" should be renamed "linear". It's a more natural process off the line. Flooring it at anything more than 10MPH is a blast up to 60. Since there's little engine noise when flooring it you hear the tires make a sand paper-like sound as they pull the vehicle forward in the face of all the torque. When cruising on surface streets, the instant pull from a stab at the gas pedal lets you take advantage of gaps in traffic as if everyone else is asleep at the wheel. The car also pulls pretty well on the freeway. Not quite as ridiculously as it does on surface streets, but pretty darn good.
- cornering is a little awkward and yes the tires are crap, but it's mostly OK for generic commuting. I have yet to test the braking. It will be the braking performance that determines if better tires are a safety necessity.
- Still figuring out the best method for regen braking. I drive exclusively in L. Energy regen spikes when you depress the brake pedal a bit, but I don't know if it's better to coast-regen for longer, or pedal-regen at the higher rate for less time. Either way, GM should consider updating the car's firmware to activate the brake lights when in L and using regen to coast to a stop. You decelerate at a pretty significant rate and people behind you see no indication that you are slowing.
- As described in reviews, the car does indeed have a weird decrease in braking force as you come to a stop as the car transitions to the mechanical brakes. You have to plan for a little extra room between you and the next car when stopping.
I've got a number of ideas for things to do to the car. Being a lease, I'll have to be mindful of having to return it to stock later, but I think there's some fun little things I can pull off.
The ownership experience started with a drive home that was a little disconcerting. Had approx 55 freeway miles to go on approx 75 miles of indicated range. Made it home with about 20 miles to spare in range. After my first commute, here are my thoughts.
Interior
- Radio not as bad as I've read here. It's not great, but not horrible.
- This car needs a telescoping steering wheel bad. I'm 6' tall and I fit everywhere except for the fact that my legs are splayed if I move close enough to the steering wheel to reach it comfortably. In this splayed driving position my right knee ends up close to the HVAC controls when trying to get comfortable.
- Seats are cushy, yet the leatherette is weirdly sticky.
- A/C works well. I tried the remote start today and a few minutes later it was pretty nice inside.
- Only one armrest? Why!?
- Quiet!, of course.
- Needs one more USB port - one for music and one for charging a phone. This would prevent you from carrying a big clunky car charger.
- It would have been awesome if GM would have designed a flat spot of significant size on the stereo bezel as a mounting point for a suction cup phone mount. The little side window looks like it might be good.
Driving
- Fairly comfortable ride
- It's fast! As mentioned everywhere, it lags a bit off the line, but I tried sport mode for a bit and I think "sport" should be renamed "linear". It's a more natural process off the line. Flooring it at anything more than 10MPH is a blast up to 60. Since there's little engine noise when flooring it you hear the tires make a sand paper-like sound as they pull the vehicle forward in the face of all the torque. When cruising on surface streets, the instant pull from a stab at the gas pedal lets you take advantage of gaps in traffic as if everyone else is asleep at the wheel. The car also pulls pretty well on the freeway. Not quite as ridiculously as it does on surface streets, but pretty darn good.
- cornering is a little awkward and yes the tires are crap, but it's mostly OK for generic commuting. I have yet to test the braking. It will be the braking performance that determines if better tires are a safety necessity.
- Still figuring out the best method for regen braking. I drive exclusively in L. Energy regen spikes when you depress the brake pedal a bit, but I don't know if it's better to coast-regen for longer, or pedal-regen at the higher rate for less time. Either way, GM should consider updating the car's firmware to activate the brake lights when in L and using regen to coast to a stop. You decelerate at a pretty significant rate and people behind you see no indication that you are slowing.
- As described in reviews, the car does indeed have a weird decrease in braking force as you come to a stop as the car transitions to the mechanical brakes. You have to plan for a little extra room between you and the next car when stopping.
I've got a number of ideas for things to do to the car. Being a lease, I'll have to be mindful of having to return it to stock later, but I think there's some fun little things I can pull off.