[idk2018]

I am becoming more concerned Chevy dealers haven't been trained as well as they should by GM. My 2018 has had its propulsion update,and the timing of my problems presented almost immediately after . It was only about a month since delivery when the (mandatory) update was applied. The dealership service manager, the assistant don't seem to know about the Bolt EV. Telling me to discharge the battery fully before charging contradicts minimizing degradation. Or a technician advising a dash cam below the Bolt EV camera, behind the mirror(sensor unblocked) will prevent the active systems from functioning. Bolt EV active braking system within its limitation doesn't work on mine. Including the front collision, blind spot alerts failing within their limitation. Cannot scroll through presets using the steering wheel tabs while using Android Auto map. Current Android OS isn't working at all with AA. DTC errors do reflect the issues.Dealer can't provide a fix for anything to date.


Asked GM to remotely diagnose the Bolt EV, they won't. GM Customer support is underwhelming, training is weak given their Bolt EV assistance to date.

 

[raitchison]

I am becoming more concerned Chevy dealers haven't been trained as well as they should by GM. My 2018 has had its propulsion update,and the timing of my problems presented almost immediately after . It was only about a month since delivery when the (mandatory) update was applied. The dealership service manager, the assistant don't seem to know about the Bolt EV. Telling me to discharge the battery fully before charging contradicts minimizing degradation. Or a technician advising a dash cam below the Bolt EV camera, behind the mirror(sensor unblocked) will prevent the active systems from functioning. Bolt EV active braking system within its limitation doesn't work on mine. Including the front collision, blind spot alerts failing within their limitation. Cannot scroll through presets using the steering wheel tabs while using Android Auto map. Current Android OS isn't working at all with AA. DTC errors do reflect the issues.Dealer can't provide a fix for anything to date.


Asked GM to remotely diagnose the Bolt EV, they won't. GM Customer support is underwhelming, training is weak given their Bolt EV assistance to date.

The Bolt is a low volume car for GM, even the dealers that sell a lot of Bolts probably sell 50 Silverados and a couple dozen each of Equinox, Malibu and Cruze. This is reflected in the service department as well except it's worse because an EV is rarely going in for maintenance (next to no maintenance required on the Bolt).

My advice to you is to see if there is a dealer anywhere near your area that does sell a lot of Bolt's or EVs and bring it there, even if it's a bit further drive. You're much more likely to find someone who knows what they are doing at a dealer that sells 3-4 Bolts a week than one that only sells 1-2 a month.

Also, make sure everything you complain about is well documented especially if they can't fix it, you might need to invoke your states lemon laws if they can't fix the issues.

Good luck!

 

[idk2018]

I own a PHEV from a German manufacturer,and I have had the exact opposite dealership experience. By NO means am I saying they,or the manufacturer are perfect.There can be issues because the dealership model relies on the manufacturer to authorize in warranty actions. The repair process issues I am having are a problem because of the diagnostic approach by the dealerships [yes I have gone to more than ONE],and GM's technical assistance to the dealer. I had to tell one tech.which scan to do for my Bolt EV that resulted in a full analysis versus minimal, resulting in no faults.

No one appears to be diagnosing the Bolt EV like a computer, software/firmware, then look at wiring for faults to determine if hardware could be the problem. The first one is easily diagnosable via OTA,even the second since it's connected to the Bolt's on board computer, controller modules....

Sadly, I am documenting, and taking images of the issues where possible to avoid having an accident given my issues occur during drives. I have witnesses to the alerts not appearing within the same drive, under similar conditions.


I really like the Bolt EV, but the post sale experience with the service side is wearing on the positive

 

[drdiesel1]

AA is not a GM issue! Neither is your phone!
In most cases it's the customer that doesn't understand the car and you're no exception.

 

[raitchison]

AA is not a GM issue! Neither is your phone!

That's not entirely true, the AA software in the car has a big impact on how AA works and how stable it is. Likewise the phone, has an impact.

With my last phone (LG G5) AA was very stable but with my current phone (Moto X4) AA will crash randomly and won't work again until I restart the phone.

You could say that is a phone problem but also when I was in Europe in July AA was VERY unstable on my rental car to the point of being unusable, my same phone (Moto X4). The rental car was an Opel Astra which interestingly was also a GM vehicle and definitely shared tech with the Bolt (features like LDW were nearly identical) but I couldn't get AA to stay running for more than a few minutes before it died. On my Bolt AA rarely dies in less than 30 minutes, that's the same phone, same AA software on the phone but a huge difference in stability, the only difference is the car.

 

[Sean Nelson]

On my Bolt AA rarely dies in less than 30 minutes...

A classic example of "damning with faint praise"...

I'm super happy with my Samsung Galaxy S7 and Android Auto. It's only ever had an occasional problem, usually when I'm out of cell range and I'm stupid enough to try to use a voice command, which seems to cause it to hang every so often.

I have never configured Keypass because I've read a several horror stories about it in the forums (which means I guess I should have avoided AA too).

 

[raitchison]

A classic example of "damning with faint praise"...

AA is a relatively immature technology, it's frustrating that AA isn't reliable, the question is who's to blame for it's lack of reliability? GM makes the head unit, Google makes the app and (in my case) Motorola/Lenovo makes the phone. Seems like if it was a Google problem that MANY people would be experiencing similar issues, so it's either GM or Motorola or a combination. My point was that since AA works (mostly) in one GM vehicle and was completely unusable in a different GM vehicle indicates to me that most of the blame belongs to GM. Ideally I'd be able to test my phone with a different (non GM) vehicle to find out for sure.

I'm super happy with my Samsung Galaxy S7 and Android Auto. It's only ever had an occasional problem, usually when I'm out of cell range and I'm stupid enough to try to use a voice command, which seems to cause it to hang every so often.

That's not surprising, Samsung is far and away the most popular brand of Android phones and simultaneously the most "different" in terms of software customization (a Samsung phone is very different from every other Android phone). I would not be surprised if GM made changes to their AA software specifically to make sure that it worked well with Samsung's quirks, even if those changes made the software not work as well with literally every other Android phone. Still, Motorola is hardly a niche brand, it's the 3rd most popular brand of Android phones in the U.S. with many millions of them sold every year.

I have never configured Keypass because I've read a several horror stories about it in the forums (which means I guess I should have avoided AA too).

You might be able to get KeyPass™ to work without too much trouble since you have a Samsung phone.

 

[drdiesel1]

I have a Pixel 2 and AA works great for me. Most issue's are phone related.

 

[Sean Nelson]

..Samsung is far and away the most popular brand of Android phones and simultaneously the most "different" in terms of software customization (a Samsung phone is very different from every other Android phone). I would not be surprised if GM made changes to their AA software specifically to make sure that it worked well with Samsung's quirks...

This is exactly why I generally buy "industry standard" products, particularly devices that can be networked with other equipment. The more widely used your device is, the more likely that it's been tested and made to work with the other stuff you use.

 

[raitchison]

This is exactly why I generally buy "industry standard" products, particularly devices that can be networked with other equipment. The more widely used your device is, the more likely that it's been tested and made to work with the other stuff you use.

The problem(s) with that are that Samsung phones are EXTREMELY expensive and chock full of bloatware.

Spending $500+ on a phone is one thing if you can swap the battery when it's worn out and keep it going for 2 or more years but now they want $600-$700 for a phone without a replaceable battery? Nope.

My last Samsung was a Galaxy S4, I loved that phone and kept it going for 4 years, of course I replaced the battery about once per year and I was able to load a custom ROM (customized de-bloated version of Android) on it which kept it going strong (at least until I dropped it and broke the screen).

In any case, the inner workings of Android phones are very much standardized with Samsung being the only significant outlier. The problem is they have 25% of the market and too many companies cater to that 25% at the expense of the other 75%.

 

[drdiesel1]

The problem(s) with that are that Samsung phones are EXTREMELY expensive and chock full of bloatware.

Spending $500+ on a phone is one thing if you can swap the battery when it's worn out and keep it going for 2 or more years but now they want $600-$700 for a phone without a replaceable battery? Nope.

My last Samsung was a Galaxy S4, I loved that phone and kept it going for 4 years, of course I replaced the battery about once per year and I was able to load a custom ROM (customized de-bloated version of Android) on it which kept it going strong (at least until I dropped it and broke the screen).

In any case, the inner workings of Android phones are very much standardized with Samsung being the only significant outlier. The problem is they have 25% of the market and too many companies cater to that 25% at the expense of the other 75%.

This is exactly why I purchased the Pixel 2XL. No bloatware at all.
Sure, it's not cheap. Given the alternative, it's priceless.

 

[Sean Nelson]

Spending $500+ on a phone is one thing if you can swap the battery when it's worn out and keep it going for 2 or more years but now they want $600-$700 for a phone without a replaceable battery? Nope.

Yeah, I hear you about the battery thing. I hate proprietary batteries with a passion, and that's mild compared to my disdain for fixed batteries. But there's a third-party market for S7 battery replacements, and that's kind of what I'm counting on if I get to the point where I need a new one.

My last Samsung was a Galaxy S4, I loved that phone and kept it going for 4 years, of course I replaced the battery about once per year and I was able to load a custom ROM (customized de-bloated version of Android) on it which kept it going strong (at least until I dropped it and broke the screen).

I came from a Galaxy S3, which I had for 5 years. I'd only had to replace the battery once. The power switch eventually went on it, and when I was unable to get it working I decided it was time to upgrade, since I knew I'd shortly be buying my Bolt and I'd probably want a newer phone to use Android Auto anyway.