The only thing about this battery recall stuff that bothers me is the amount of email and snail-mail I'm getting from GM, asking me to take it in for recall service. I activated the hill-top reserve, I doubt it's going to turn crispy any time soon. I would have to drive 50+ miles to the nearest Chevy dealer that has a Bolt certified mechanic, (probably some computer geek with a laptop!) and probably wait around there for 2-3 hours for the scheduled 45 minute service. Thanks but no thanks, GM. I have better things to do with my time.
Let me know when you're done trying to figure out the cheapest way forward for you
. I remember the GM pickup side mounted gas tank 'fix', $1000 off an GM product that was not a Saturn or a Chevyzuki (Geo Tracker 4x4). I owned one of those pickups, a 78 3/4t Chevy. Although I never was traumatized by owning and driving that pickup, I was rather nonplussed by the 'settlement'. The lawyers that brought the class action suit to the courts made out like bandits. I had just bought a new car and wasn't even close to needing another car at that time. Even though the certificate was transferable I decided to toss it since no one I knew at the time was interested in using it. A testament to the quality of product for GM back in the mid 90's.
The only other class action lawsuit I was part of for an auto was VW's 'dieselgate' debacle. I bought a brand new 2013 VW Jetta TDI Premium. Nice car, and I wish I still had it. I told everyone I know that this would be the last car I'll ever own. Since I was well into my 60s at the time, and I only drive about 700 miles per year it seemed safe to think that. Just doing the math I think I'd have to make it to 90 to get a full 200k out of that Jetta.
Then came the bad news in summer of 2016, VW had gotten caught cheating on the diesel emissions. Over on TDI Club forums the speculation quickly ramped up about the fix, which everyone assumed was going to hamstring the TDI cars 32-35mpg range, and for VW to put some money in your pocket to help pay for the extra fuel burn. I averaged 40.1mpg over 3.5 years & 24,000 miles, and not one problem. When the 'fix' was announced it stunned quite a few people, including myself. You could either keep the car, get some money and wait for the fix, and subsequent loss of mpg, or sell back to VW. VW posted a spreadsheet a few weeks after the announcement. I paid $24,974 OTD, and VW was offering me $25,925 to return it to them, or $6200 to keep it and get the fix. I'm no dummy, I took the $25k. I mean, ****, they're offering me almost $1k more than I paid OTD? I get 24k miles for better than free? Well, Okay!
I liked the TDI well enough to buy another one. It's a 2013 WV Golf. It gets 41+mpg in stock form. I don't drive it much since the Bolt has such great range. I routinely go 100 miles round trip taking my younger brother to some of his Dr. appointments. At 90% charge I'm still left with anywhere from 70-90 miles of range left.
Shortly after I sold the Jetta back to VW, I bought a used/off lease Nissan Leaf SL, the TOTL Leaf for 2012. I'd always wanted an all-electric. The Leaf was a hard lesson in EV's in terms of range. I live in a somewhat remote area in a town of 7k people. I started feeling like I lived on a island! While I could go 22 miles west to an adjacent town I didn't often have a good reason to. And the town 25 miles to the east was something of a stretch, I got range anxiety every time I went there. I'd get home with as low as 5-10 miles left on the GOM. Not good, and forget it in winter if I wanted to stay warm doing it. It wasn't going to happen. After almost 3 years of owning that car I sold it, and got back all but $800 of the $9200 OTD I paid for it! It was a well appointed car, but why would you need a navigation system with such a short range? After a full charge on the Leaf I would see anywhere from 70-75 miles of range. The only way I could get that kind of range is to drive at 25-40mph. Drive anywhere in my town for longer than 3 miles and you're on 60mph roadway.