[SteveWilson1983]

So, finally got around to putting my gti up for sale. Figured I'd better go get gas, and take it to work once or twice to get the rust off the brakes (hasn't moved since I got my bolt this summer) before ppl come to test drive. And..
sweet mother of god, do I ever miss that car. Don't get me wrong, I like the bolt, and after waiting since 2017 for ev prices to fall / my wealth to grow, I will never switch back to ice, but holy crap, is it ever nice to get back into a "driver's car". Trip around the block to get gas took ~ 1/2hr, thanks to general hooliganism.

It's not about power either, the bolt and gti are essentially dead even 0-60.. but it is literally everything else. The handling, the stiffness of and feedback from the steering, bolsters that protrude farther from the seatback than I do.. H*ll, not a lot of cars put a mechanical handbrake in cars these days, and I put mine to good use that trip, despite only parking once.

Now I get, the bolt wasn't made to be that car, but for at least the 2017-2019 versions, they are really far from it. I'm curious, all you 2020+ (especially the 2022) owners, do the newer models get any less like riding on top of a pretty darn fast refrigerator?

Don't get me wrong, I'm here for quite a while. I love that chevy was one of the first to do what they did (take musk's specs for the model 3, make it a little less good, and a lot more available) so early on. But I could definitely see me changing teams down the road to a couple year old ID.X (electron fueled gti) if the bolt stays as is.

Let me finish on a positive though.. Yesterday right at closing, I get to chevy dealer to pick up the bolt w some fresh blizzaks on the factory rims. I'm the last customer, and the service techs are getting outside as I do. Pulling out of the lot, I decide to get a little squirrely (I mean the tires did look like they had a little too much tread on them, and I had an audience) to the amusement and grins of said service techs.

No doubt enjoying the job security my future tire purchases will bring.

Thoughts?

 

[MisterJJ]

What year GTI? I really miss the Audi version of the GTI I had, an '06 A3. Although I miss what it was like when I bought it new, not the deteriorating car I sold last year. I almost bought a new-ish GTI before going for the Bolt. It's been harder than expected to go from a drivers car like that to the refrigerator on wheels.

 

[SteveWilson1983]

What year GTI? I really miss the Audi version of the GTI I had, an '06 A3. Although I miss what it was like when I bought it new, not the deteriorating car I sold last year. I almost bought a new-ish GTI before going for the Bolt. It's been harder than expected to go from a drivers car like that to the refrigerator on wheels.

A3, the gti in a fancy suit. Right, as I recall, you were the other person here I saw post a picture of your intake valves (or maybe you just mentioned it, and I posted pics). Boy, that was a hoot. You do yours yourself?
'08, but babied, and 156k km (<100k mi), so still nice and fresh, but with a once or twice a year cel. . Just accepted a deposit on it last night, so I'm ev only from here on out! Wanna buy a vcds?

 

[SteveWilson1983]

Copy of a "contact us" email on chevy.ca I just submitted:

Hi,
First, let me say thank you very much for making a very good ev.
I figured I'd share this with you (I have to just include a link to a post I made on chevybolt.org, as it's slightly beyond the # of characters allowed on your website), as this is something that I, and at least some of the other Bolt owners I know (some of whom I convinced to become bolt owners) would pay for. I understand it's not gonna be your target demographic for your first mainstream ev, but perhaps something to keep in mind down the road.
Again, thanks for making an ev with very generous power output, at least when it's fully charged (if/when we're allowed to do that again)!

Hooligan

So, finally got around to putting my gti up for sale. Figured I'd better go get gas, and take it to work once or twice to get the rust off the brakes (hasn't moved since I got my bolt this summer) before ppl come to test drive. And.. sweet mother of god, do I ever miss that car. Don't get me...

www.chevybolt.org

-Steve

 

[RoadTripBiker]

Went from a 2008 VW Rabbit to a Volt - big change! 2020 Bolt Premier is a lot of fun but not the drivers car exactly although a lot of fun. Best drivers car I’ve had was a1991 BMW 318iS! Best balanced car I’ve had. started riding motorcycles so car became secondary. Most of the time my Volt stayed in the garage while I rode my Kawasaki ZX6R 636 to work. If it was raining or below 30 in the morning I would drive the Volt.

Bolt has put the fun of driving back into driving. It’s fun to spin the OEM tires. I’ve got a rear sway bar for the Bolt but waiting till after battery replacement before installing.

 

[Roadrider7021]

Nice post OP! My 2021 Bolt runs decently thru the curves with a surprising balance but, alas, does feel a scosh like a fridge, adore it just the same. The only ICE I hanker for is my current 6.0 liter 2500 Silverado (which pretty much just sits) and my old '93 K1100RS BMW.

 

[PLP]

sweet mother of god, do I ever miss that car. Don't get me wrong, I like the bolt

Who is mother of god? I mean, which god? Could you be more specific?

Man, you sound like... me.
And since I could not justify getting another hatchback, and I always wanted to have the GTI, but my wealth was not there yet... I ended up getting an old Boxster.
She loves the 911's headlights/front (first water cooled era), so the Boxster worked just fine.
Plus the engine sound... priceless.

 

[M1A4ME]

"We" like our Bolt a lot. My wife is taking a friend to the doctor this morning (nothing serious, just a follow up after cataract surgery). She could take the 435iX instead, but she just likes the Bolt.

We didn't buy the Bolt to sell the 435iX or my Genesis Coupe (mine because it's bright yellow and has a manual transmission). We bought it for situations like the current administration in Washington DC is creating. Cut off the fuel, drive up the prices of fuel and force more people to do without heat/food/driving because they know what's better for us than we do. And they don't care about the suffering that occurs as long as they force us to do what they want.

The Bolt will be there to drive when gas is $6 a gallon - on rationed, or just unavailable. Being fun to drive is just an additional benefit that comes with the Bolt.

It will never be as fun as either of the two coupes. It won't be as fast (beg to differ about the 0-60 speed being fast. Faster than my 3/4 ton 4WD truck? Probably. Faster than my cars? Not even close. We can get in the car (as long as we can afford/buy gas) and drive hundreds of miles and only stop to use the bathroom, buy some food or whatever. If they ever get electric cars/trucks that will "fill up" the battery in 10 minutes then electric cars will be as nice to drive long distances as the coupes.

Right now, choosing to drive an electric car forces you to limit where you go, the route you take, and results in a travel time increase. And,, driving the coupes in winter or summer doesn't reduce their range or comfort.

 

[Village Idiot]

I too miss my previous vehicle. I sent my 2006 Acura TL 6-speed out to college with the kids. The Bolt is great, but sigh it's not the same. It's actually my first automatic daily driver. At least I have a 5-speed Saturn Ion for the HS kids that I take out when I need that standard transmission fix.

 

[KyleBrightman]

Who is mother of god? I mean, which god? Could you be more specific?

Man, you sound like... me.
And since I could not justify getting another hatchback, and I always wanted to have the GTI, but my wealth was not there yet... I ended up getting an old Boxster.
She loves the 911's headlights/front (first water cooled era), so the Boxster worked just fine.
Plus the engine sound... priceless.

PLP, I may follow in your footsteps. I grew up as a Porsche fan (my dad has owned 6 over the course of his lifetime, including a 2000 Boxster S he bought new), and will likely pick up a Boxster or Cayman as an occasional fun car. I wish the prices had stayed down, but the past 2-3 years the 986 market has started the appreciation trend after bottoming out. The 987 market has already sailed beyond what I can justify as a toy and not transportation. It's a bit embarrassing that in 22 years of driving I probably don't have more than an hour of operating a manual transmission. Some day (assuming they are consumption taxed out of budget with the trend away from ICE).

 

[atc98092]

There's still a '13 GTI in my garage, although it's my daughter's car. While I hate dropping down into the seats (I'm old... ), it's still a hoot to drive. It spun a rod bearing at 55,000 miles, but I bought it as a CPO and VW installed a brand new engine and turbo, so it's good for quite a while longer. But my daughter also acknowledges that when replacement time comes, she'll likely be getting an EV herself.

 

[MisterJJ]

A3, the gti in a fancy suit.

Just a more expensive suit. Many on the A3 forum would complain about the GTI getting aluminum pedals and other nice bits that the A3 would not. I did like the extra few inches in the rear. With the rear seats flat I could get an air mattress in there and I once fit a new TV, just barely, as I had to put the drivers seat all the way forward. That was before the Takata airbag recall.

Right, as I recall, you were the other person here I saw post a picture of your intake valves (or maybe you just mentioned it, and I posted pics). Boy, that was a hoot. You do yours yourself?

Yup. Bought some metal wax carvers and scraped them by hand a few times. But later on I found a non-invasive method. I had the DSG tranny and I would drive at just the right speed where punching the gas would drop directly from 6th gear to the top end of 3rd gear. If I hadn't done it in a while I would get a huge cloud of gray smoke behind me as the gunk broke loose. I would have to repeat this 4 or 5 times until I no longer got any smoke.

'08, but babied, and 156k km (<100k mi), so still nice and fresh

I had well over 200k on my '06 model that I got in '05. It was just at a point where the paint was failing and all the internal plastic and rubber bits were falling apart. Then the oil cooler cracked and mixed the coolant into the oil. After a complete tear down and rebuild, I was pretty much done with keeping an old ICE around.

Wanna buy a vcds?

Haha. Already sold mine. But I'm thinking of getting an old A3 E-tron to hold me over if/when my buyback goes through so I may regret that.

 

[atc98092]

Wanna buy a vcds?

Since I still have the GTI, I'll be keeping my VCDS cable. And who knows, it might work on an ID.4 as well.

 

[XJ12]

And who knows, it might work on an ID.4 as well.

had to google what a VCDS is. dang, bought an id.4 a couple weeks ago. didn't know this was a thing.

 

[atc98092]

It's a great thing to have for any VW products (VW, Porsche, Audi). No idea what it might offer for the ID series, but it's still a VW, and there's likely still a CANBUS, so who knows what sort of setting you can adjust?

 

[RoadTripBiker]

I’ve had one for years along with the Ross-Tech software. Really nice way to do stuff to you VW. Every now and again I’ll have to dig it out to read codes on my daughters 2008 Rabbit. It is one of the best programs around, I’ve used the Ford equivalent and have looked at the Bolt and Volt a bit with a more generic tool. My son used the Ford Forescan tool to add change the radio and display on his Focus ST to the latest version with CarPlay.

EDIT
On my BMW motorcycle had a box that plugged into the CANBUS and used data from it so that I could do things like have an aux brake light that would flash 4 times before going solid. It would also turn off the driving light on the side of an activated turn signal so that the turn signal would be easier to see - also a change in lighting that would get folks attention which is important when riding a motorcycle. Haven’t found anything like it for my current motorcycle.

Changes and mods like this are really nice and allow folks to customize their vehicle in unique ways. Yes some could abuse it but most don’t.

 

[PrimerGrey]

Me too... when I'm in my wife's GTI (Mk7, 2018) I try not to think about how much better the handling, ride, seats, overall road manners, and interior materials/fit/finish are in the GTI than the Bolt. I too have the rear sway bar and rear Bilsteins in my Bolt, which help a lot, but it's still no GTI (ride- and handling-wise). My wife and I met because we both had Mk3 GTI VR6es at the time, so we are VW/Audi fans... I'm happy with my Bolt for now, until "the next thing" comes (maybe a hypothetical ID.3 R?).

Despite having liquidated our Audis (02 allroad, 01 S4 Avant, both 6MT) I'm holding on to my VCDS "HEX+CAN" cable

 

[Sean Nelson]

I gave up on VW after owning two original Rabbits that needed new mufflers every year or two, a new Bosch alternator every 3 years, leaked oil from day 1, and lots of other really annoying problems. I used to think that German cars were superior to American ones, and perhaps that was true at the time.

But the Plymouth Voyager I bought new in 1993 is still going great. Yes it's needed some repairs over the years, but they've been individual one-offs and not the result of obvious design flaws. And it's still on it's original muffler, believe it or not (although one its hangars broke off after 20 years and had to be replaced).

I'm at 4 years now with my Bolt and it's never seen a service bay with the exception of a software update, so I'm ecstatic. I have high hopes for it, especially given that I'll get a brand new battery that will probably extend its life another 4 or 5 years.

 

[Cakebatter]

We have a '12 WRX and I completely understand the sentiment. There's some theatrics surrounding the way ICE sports cars drive that make them appealing. Its what keeps me from selling it.

 

[MisterJJ]

I used to think that German cars were superior to American ones

In general, I still think German cars are superior to American ones... for driving.
Repair and maintenance... not so much.