I made a video about the cost benefit of buying a Bolt over a gas Chevy and was wondering if the owners on here think the numbers I used for repair/maintenance costs over 3/5/8 years are reasonable estimates? I'm assuming most new car owners would kake their vehicle to the dealer vs an independent or doing the work themselves... Opinions?
Tire rotation, tires, what else? No other costs. I never even think about the costs, as they are so low.
Thanks for the reply! How long have you had it? I’m wondering long term about EV maintenance on items like the cooling system etc. Good to hear nothing needed so far!
I have had my Bolt 3 months. Had to replace the windshield wipers likely because it sat from August 21 to May 22 waiting for a new battery. ! Not long enough for maintenance but thought I’d throw out my “major” repair
I have had it five years. The only real cost was hitting a deer one evening. I had to replace some plastic at the front. Cost me a couple thousand, but I can't count that against the Bolt EV. i could have aimed at the deer just as easily with a climate warming vehicle. Otherwise, I bought new tires, and paid to have the wheels rotated every 7k. Oh yes, I had a new cabin filter installed, and I bought the lighted charge-port accessory just for fun. I don't use the brakes, of course, so no maintenance there. Did I hear someone say something about fluid changes? Nope not sure what they are. Something to do with those climate warmers? Actually, I have not reached over 100k miles yet, so no cost there. My wipers seem to be ok still, but there I never replaced wipers very often on those climate warmers anyway. I think that may be because my car is garaged.
I see that the first service is at 7500 miles which involves rotating the tires and performing the REQUIRED SERVICES. Now I'm wondering what exactly that consists of. Anyone know? I can easily rotate the tires myself.
2019 Bolt with 72,000 miles I purchased a used bolt 6 months ago with 65,000 miles. The vehicle had just had the battery replaced for the recall. Last month I had to have the steering rack replaced because it was sticking and now my heater just went out. The HVAC system will only blow cold air and it will not defrost the windshield. Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
Why was the rack sticking to the point it needed replacing? Was it bent? Why not put some grease in it? Did you obtain a second opinion? My experience with dealers is that once they do major surgery on the car, things keep on going wrong. That's why the accident history is so important. Did the car have an accident history?
Rats, or mice, or packrats, in the engine compartment are a common problem with any car. Certainly, this is not peculiar to a Bolt EV! Pesky critters.... I doubt the engine compartment of a Bolt EV is as warm as a gasoline engine at any time.... no radiator there there.
Wire insulation for new vehicles are soy based and can attract rodents, if you are parking the vehicle for extended periods of time put dryer sheets in and around the vehicle, the smell will drive them off.
I wonder what percentage of repairs on a gas car are things associated with the parts specific to being gas powered/powertrain? Just guessing for a minute, maybe it's 40%? I really don't know. The common items with EVs are electrical, suspension, driver interface issues (buttons, windows, etc). In theory, EVs should have less repairs, but it seems that these days, a larger percentage of problems with cars are related to electrical, or software things. I've had 4 different EVs over the past 5 years. I would say that they have been only slightly less expensive with repairs. My Nissan Leaf's only real problem was with an A/C leak. Nissan quoted me thousands to fix it. Wound up finding a local place that was able to patch it for $200. My Ioniq EV has had several electrical issues. My Clarity PHEV had to have a very expensive wiring harness replaced (Woodchuck). My Bolt also had to have an expensive wiring harness replaced (not animal related). The last three issues I mentioned rendered the cars undrivable. It seems to me that EVs seem to have more electrical issues than my prior gas vehicles. And to go back prior to that, we had a Prius that had to have the traction battery replaced. Big bucks. So while EVs will have less mechanical issues than gas cars, I'm not sure how much less expensive they really are to maintain repair-wise. Now this is just my small sample. I'm fairly sure in Consumer Reports recent car ratings, they have found that EVs do not have fewer problems than gas cars overall.
Brake wear on EVs will be significantly less as they use blended braking and slow down with the motors first to recoop energy back into the battery before the physical brakes are engaged. Problems EVs will have on brakes may include rust or delaminating pads as they aren't used as often but that can be easily taken care of.
