The First 5,000 Miles

I passed the 5,000 mile mark in my Volt on September 25, 2012.  It took me 143 days driving an average of 35 miles per day to make it to this milestone.

One cool thing about this car is that I can download an insane amount of data collected by the vehicle.  The plot above was made using just a small portion of the data. 

You can see from the graph (click on it to make it larger) that I drove very, very few gas miles during the first 5-6 weeks that I had the vehicle.  That allowed my lifetime mpg to make it all the way above 500 mpg.  In early September I drove to Ceday City and Logan in a single day which which knocked 30+ mpg off my total.  I'm now ranging between 107 and 109 mpg.

I still love the car.  I miss it when we're out traveling and driving in our rental cars.  Our electric bill has probably increased around $30/month, but that amount will decrease with the lower winter rates. While the Volt is still somewhat controversial, the truth is that most of the people complaining about that car have never driven one and would never consider purchasing a Volt because of political reasons.  Their reasoning has nothing to do with the quality or design of the vehicle. /rant

Anyways, here's a fantastic article from Forbes.com about the increasing popularity of the Chevrolet Volt: Rants Aside, The Volt is Actually Earning Raves -- And it's a Hit. If you're looking for a new car, I would recommend the Volt. :)