Seven Years of Bolts!

[Robaroni]

How long have you owned a Bolt?

I remember when we got our first Bolt, it was also our first EV and I drove around for a couple of months thinking how cool it was to be powered by batteries and charge from my own PV system.

Since we're both retired we have the luxury of charging on sunny days, well most of the time!

All three of our Bolts have been white, a 2017 LT, a 2020 Premier and now a 2023 EUV which is our favorite. GM really did nice job on the interior and our electronics have been perfect, although we did have a problem with the 2020 display that GM did change to fix the problem.

The first two were leases but we bought the EUV and plan on keeping it awhile - well unless the new 2025 is nicer but we really don't need fast charging, in fact batteries last longer if you don't.

Lots of great stories in the last seven years and lots of really fun times, what a great car!

 

[blownb310]

I'm going on five years now with mine, and drove a rare Honda Fit EV for six years prior to that. I like to drive something a little different and unique though. The Fit EV had that distinction. I really like my Bolt EV, but there are tens of thousands of them just like mine. Also, I think that GM chose unwisely in naming the car, which is too close to Volt, and confuses a lot of people. I said this publicly in the Bolt Facebook group in 2016, well before the first one rolled off of the assembly line. So I decided to rebadge the entire car. I've taken it upscale and turned it into a Saab. Why? Because if you consider the following details and use your imagination, it is a car that might have been.

GM used to own 50% of Saab, and then in 2000 bought the other 50% to fully own Saab. So they've had a collaboration. In June of 2012, it was announced that a newly formed company called National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) had bought Saab Automobile's bankrupt estate. Saab was now going to be an all-electric car company. In the end, the whole thing did not work out, but that's where my imagination picked it up. So my car became a Saab 9e. Saab named their cars numerically, which always started with the number 9. The 'e' suffix is obviously for electric.

 

[Robaroni]

Great creativity! I like it, I remember the old Saab's, people either loved them or hated them. I liked it until I drove it but never liked the way the car drove. It had a lot of room though.

I liked the Volvo's too but think they drove better, the Saab reminded me of a 1953 power glide automatic tranny.

 

[PackardV8]

We've owned at least one of every Saab made over the past fifty years; currently still have one 9-5. We mourn their passing.

As to rebadging the Bolt as a Saab, a rose by any other name still smells as sweet.

The Bolt is by far and away the best car we've ever owned. ICEs by nature are maintenance intensive and Saabs more so. Our 2017 has been back to the dealer one time; battery replacement and brake fluid flush. So far, so good.

jack vines

 

[Robaroni]

I think the 2017 was the best built Bolt.

Quite a list of cars Jack!

 

[summit]

Pick up our 1st Bolt on 1/1/2017, going strong at 110Kmiles, approaching 1st "major" maintenance of changing transaxle, cooling system fluids. First set of tires was at 70kmile, 2nd set is doing quite well. For a 1st release, the 2017 Bolt has been quite impressive. Really wish it has stop charge setting besides just hill-top