what are expectations
when we define them are we breaking the mold
what if they expected me to do that
who are they why are they pointing a camera at me and why did it take me two
years to make this video maybe none of that matters maybe what really matters
is the here and the now and the who like
who is my sponsor
when i bought my chevy volt model threes weren't shipping yet and
model s's even second-hand ones were going for as much as a hundred thousand
canadian rubles that's more than every other vehicle
i've owned in my life put together so
the hunt began for some other option any other option for someone who loves
technology as much as he hates paying for gas but who doesn't need ludicrous
speed or whatever i mean
at the end of the day how much fun can it be
still gonna have four wheels in it
sort of tesla strongly disagrees with that
sentiment and they're actually working on providing a review unit of the model
3 for me to check out as we speak
but before we make that video i owe you guys finally an explanation
for why i made the choice i did why did Linus tech tip sebastian settle for a
chevrolet volt performance on the track wasn't the first consideration for me
and it isn't for a lot of people but that doesn't mean that the volt is a
slouch because in here we've got not one
not two but three engines the 1.5 liter
gas engine right here on the left outputs a measly 101 horsepower the fun
part that's the dual electric motors doing exactly what electric motors are
famous for torque at a standstill we've got access
to nearly 300 foot pounds of the stuff so how does that feel you might ask off
the line it's surprisingly exhilarating doing zero to 50 in just 2.6 seconds
then at about 70 clicks it peters out finishing the zero to 108.4
which coincidentally is identical to my old 2003 honda civic just without the
extra fun of a manual transmission the advantage compared to my civic however
is that i'm doing all of that without using any gas whatsoever and compared to
other plug-in hybrids it's a lot happier
i get anywhere from 60 to 100 kilometers of range depending on the weather that's
enough for me to do well over 80 of my driving on battery meaning that the
average tank of gas lasts me a month or two or even more sometimes as an added
bonus we installed ev chargers at the office and currently there's a taxation
loophole that allows me to refuel using those without counting it as a taxable
benefit reducing my total cost of ownership we already have a honda
odyssey for family road trips and hauling soccer things so
anything bigger than a sedan or a hatchback would have only served to take
up extra space in our cramped two-car suburban garage and a lot of the
benefits of an ev like being able to use the hov lane by myself less frequent
servicing and okay yeah being quicker off the line of delay change were very
appealing to me with the volt sharing all of them even more appealing look at
all that space chevy went with a design that's become
quite popular probably so that they can sell the same body both to sedan lovers
here in north america and to hatchback enthusiasts across the pond
i've actually really missed my wife's vw rabbit ever since we got rid of it and
if i trade it in my volt i would definitely miss it too it is shocking
how much stuff you can fit in this thing when you've got the seats folded down
hey like check this out i had all that tack
loaded in it to give away at my house last halloween flipping crazy right
by the way don't show up at my house this year i'm not doing that again
as a taller user it might not be as comfortable but for
me the front seat design is basically perfect and the only change that i would
make to the instrument console is to add a clock option right in front of the
driver there is one built into the center display but the problem is that
when i'm in Android auto some apps don't have a clock overlay so i'm left without
one altogether which is a minor inconvenience kind of like the rear
seats now shockingly i can get all three
of my kids back there even with car seats but i would recommend spending
some time on the websites that specialize in car seat compatibility to
find a configuration that's likely to actually work and i would also recommend
not trying to put three adults back there the two outside seats are pretty
comfy as long as the occupant is under six feet but the middle c is basically a
non-seat media controls are all handled with buttons on the optional leather
wrapped steering wheel which okay that might not seem like a huge deal to you
but coming from my old car that was an absolute game changer and regenerative
braking is handled in one of three ways when you're on battery you can either
drive around in low and as soon as you take your foot off the accelerator
you'll get a mild regenerative effect or you can press this paddle to the left
of the steering wheel and you'll get a much stronger effect finally if you
don't like the on and off controls of the paddle you can simply press the
brake pedal lightly and it will start with regen then if you exceed the
threshold it will apply more conventional brakes and this easy access
to regen braking has already been saving me money in little ways like less wear
on my brake pads just like a fully v or
at least for now a big potential downside of this plug-in hybrid approach
is reliability two complementary drivetrains does introduce the potential
for more costly repairs but uh
knock-on wood so far i've done really well now one of
my personal preferences when it comes to cars is to give myself a better chance
when it comes to recalls and lemons by avoiding all new model years whenever
possible letting someone else find the overlooked flaws in a brand new platform
or design i'm still dealing with the worst of both worlds though ice engines
tend to be more prone to breaking down than evs and electric has its own
ticking time bomb too the batteries
now given that a foam that used to last a whole day when new might barely get
you through lunch two years later i understand people's concerns about the
longevity of battery packs in cars but fortunately chevy thought of this
from the factory chevy intentionally doesn't expose the whole battery to the
user which reduces unnecessary wear on the batteries from overcharging and also
adds a battery buffer so to speak so over time they slowly give you this
buffer back to make sure that the range of the volt is as good on year 5 as it
was the day you left the lot i mean of course the buffer will eventually run
out but if nothing else this approach forces the consumer to care for their
battery properly and it's an approach that i really like we saw what the race
for more talk time did to phones and it would be a shame to see evie makers fall
into that same trap of eliminating this buffer for the sake of advertising
bigger and bigger ranges at the cost of their batteries ending up in landfills
sooner so i guess that's another win for the volt when it does become junk at
least a lot less battery is getting tossed compared to a full ev like a
tesla so if i love this thing and i think it's great why do you not see them
all over the road well one big reason is the price brand
new these things ran about 35 000 us dollars and frankly
i wouldn't have paid that much for one either but second hand
now we're talking i ended up paying just about 23 000 us dollars for a
one-year-old lease return with 29 000 kilometers on it one of the biggest
letdowns though and something that i'm expecting to be very enticing about the
tesla is the technology
i mean you can roll down the Windows on a hot day with the fob the backup camera
is way better than my van and honestly all that i could ever need the bose
sound system is pretty good you know i'm glad the
previous owner selected it and having Android auto and carplay is well
hey it's a lot better than not having them but
other than that unless you consider traction control and
power Windows to be tech features there ain't a whole lot going on here
even the basic driving assist that the car does have are implemented in ways
that just aren't that great cruise control without the adaptive component
is just not as useful to me and one of the areas i really like using cruise
control in school and playground zones i can't not allowing cruise control at
speeds under 40 kilometers an hour is just asinine to me because if i could
use it then i could be covering my break rather than my gas or excuse me
accelerator and i can be watching the road for children rather than watching
my speedometer to make sure that i'm not going to get a ticket in these high-risk
areas and there are a handful of other sucky slash weird things the ac
particularly in eco mode is super weak
it makes me irrationally angry like i shouldn't even mention it but it drives
me nuts that you can press the Windows to go all the way down but then everyone
but the driver's seat you have to hold it to bring it all the way back up and
whenever i throw my backpack in the passenger seat if the car is like
yelling at me to have my passenger put their seatbelt on even though my bag
only weighs like 10 pounds but with all that said i got an absolute ton of car
for my money and in spite of my recent jaguar i-pace test drive i just haven't
been tempted to upgrade for now so
that's it that's why i bought a chevy volt
tesla now it's time to change my mind thanks
again to dji for sponsoring this video all the sexy in-air drone footage was
shot by our very own colin warabets on the mavic air 2 drone and we had a ton
of fun doing it it's got a 10 kilometer transmission range up to 34 minutes of
flight time like what you can capture up to 4k 60fps or 1080 at up to 240 FPS
it's got a pass 3.0 obstacle avoidance you can edit the videos afterward easily
with their dji fly app on your smartphone and it's got tons of other
great features it's just a lot of drone for the price so check it out today at
the link in the video description if you guys enjoyed this video you might
enjoy our other videos about cars which i don't think we really have any yet but
make sure you're subscribed because we're hoping that this is just the first
of many that's true actually alex is