As a Volt owner, I can tell you 100% that GM is not willing to buy back the Volt due to safety concerns as stated in the article. And if you want a loaner car, the terms of the loaner have been adjusted daily to make it so distasteful that it guarantees very few will take it and they can claim the fact that few take it as a sign of loyalty to the car. So do your homework before you give kudos. GM has played the media and the public with empty gestures and you took it hook, line, and sinker.

Volt Owner: Thank you for your comment. That is disappointing. I contacted GM requesting a response, and will continue to report on this.

If other Volt owners are experiencing the same "run-around" from GM, please send me a comment.

Hi Volt Owner,

Thanks for your comment. We are committed to ensuring our Volt owners have the best possible ownership experience. Can you send a note to general@chevroletvoltage.com with your contact information and I can check with our team? Thank you.

Doug Wernert
Chevrolet Volt team

Doug, why do we want to take this offline? Can't you publicly confirm whether or not there is a buy back for the owners with safety concerns, or do you have something to hide? And please disclose the terms of the buy back and the rental programs publicly too. I have a ton of money and my families safety invested in the car, but at the same time, it's impossible for me to trust GM right now due to the games. So I would rather not risk some form of retribution by giving you my contact info. But there is no need for my name, just answer these questions.

Ok, so you have no interest in publicly setting the record straight on your own article. Sad.

My interest was in helping you, which is why I've taken time out of my day to get GM to contact you. They have done so, but you do not want to communicate with them. I'm happy to set the record straight if you give me verifiable information that what the New York Times, the AP, NHTSA, and GM have reported is untrue. I don't publish blogs based on allegations from one person who refuses to provide his or her name and offers no facts.

Volt Owner,

We’re not trying to hide – we’re trying to help. We have offered to provide every Volt owner a courtesy transportation vehicle until the issue is resolved. We want to make sure we are addressing all of our owner’s concerns. Satisfying our customers is our top priority. As part of the Volt Owner Customer Satisfaction program announced on Monday, GM has a process to assess all customer requests, including buy backs, and will respond on an individual basis. That’s why we wanted your contact information – so we could put you in contact with our team if you wanted to request a loaner vehicle if you were uncomfortable driving the car.

For the loaner program, some premium rental vehicles, including some Cadillacs, will be available to those owners who turn in their Volt and our team will attempt to satisfy those requests. A Chevrolet dealership will hold the owner’s Volt while they drive the loaner vehicle. Customers can choose an available GM vehicle from a rental agency's fleet. However, there are some vehicles in this rental fleet that are not available for this program, such as the Cadillac V Series, so check with your Volt Advisor on the details.

I hope this provides some clarification. Thanks.

Sounds like the comment Posted by Volt Owner
December 02, 2011 10:18 AM
"As a Volt owner,...."
Was actually made up and the person calling themselves "Volt Owner" is probably just a troll and a real volt owner at all.

Doug, there's the rub! You want to hold our Volts hostage at the dealer. I have over $50K of hard-earned money invested in this car. None of the Volt owners want to leave their car at a dealer in an open lot being shuffled with all the other cars while exposed to the elements for potentially months. And GM recommends keeping the Volt plugged it when parked for very important battery conditioning especially in temp extremes like winter. Can you assure that every Volt will be kept as well as my enclosed garage and plugged into to 220V at all times? I doubt it because I doubt dealers have the expensive to install chargers. And maybe I am ok to drive in my Volt since I personally am willing to take the risk, but others in my family are not. So maybe I want to keep the Volt for my driving and then have the rental for when other family members need to drive with me. Why do I have to give you my Volt for that? That wasn't not part of the original terms, but it was changed to discourage rental, and it worked. And I have already been in touch with GM about the rental, and some crappy, stinky Malibu is the best they could do. A big downgrade. Why should I be punished for your mistakes? And your Volt team has specifically told me in writing that there is flat out no buy back of the Volt for safety concerns, period, end of story, no special considerations. So why aren't you correcting all the news agencies instead of gaining credit for offering a buy back??? Instead you are perpetuating here that there is potentially a buy back that doesn't exist per your company.

@notgivenout, nice try, but you are the troll. I am one of the earliest adopters and have over 10K miles on my car. I have also been one of the biggest individual salesmen for the Volt. I know more about this car than all the Chevy sales people in the country combined. I am also an ex-min-90's Impala SS and C5 Corvette owner, so I am no stranger to giving GM my money. With all that said, it's inexcusable for GM to go back on their word, change their stories, and mislead for the benefit of their own PR and damage control. If the world cares about this story, they need to know the whole truth.

Volt Owner - With a due respect to your safety concerns, why do you have safety concerns?

The Volt continues to have a 5 star overall vehicle score for safety in NHTS's New Car Assessment Program. It was also given a Top Safety Pick Award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Any fires in the distructive testing happened days and weeks after the tests and were the direct result of post-crash procedures not being followed. Fire is much more a concern in liquid fueled cars directly after crash.

In 2010, all vehicle types in the US had 184,500 fires, mostly from liquid fuel tanks, resulting in 285 civilian deaths, 1,440 civilian injuries and $1 billion in direct property damage.

Again, the NHTSA testing caused fires days and weeks after the tests. MSNBC's The Bottom Line - LINK , comments: "The lesson here is to get out of a crashed car within a few days, and be sure to turn off the lights when exiting.  A gasoline car might not be as obliging in providing an opportunity to climb out before combusting."

The question to ask yourself - are you better off with your 5-star rated Volt that will keep you safe in the event of a crash or a rental vehicle with a large liquid fuel gas tank.

@Noel...because GM has concerns, so why shouldn't I? Also, the Volt has a largish gasoline tank (9.3 gallons that could be full a large percentage of the time due to running on battery) and a large battery, so the risk is double, not lower as you suggest, if there is a problem in the design. Interesting news: GM was caught in the lie, and now they are starting the buy back cars according to more up to date news articles (not me).

You should have concerns, but it seems that the risk to you or your family suffering from a fire-related crash are minimal if the tested packs did not fire or spark until days or weeks after.

You also mentioned that the gas tank in the Volt is largish. However it is one of the smallest gas tanks in a mid-size sedan on the market. Here is a comparision that includes your great old cars the mid-90's C5 Corvette and Impalla SS:

1995 C5 Corvette - 19 to 25 gal
1995 Impalla SS - 23 gal
2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid - 17.5 gal
2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid - 17.2 gal
2011 Kia Optima Hybrid - 17.2 gal
2011 Hyundai Elantra - 12.8 gal
2012 Ford Focus SFE - 12.4 gal
2011 Prius - 11.9 gal
2011 Lexus CT 200h - 11.9 gal
2011 Volt - 9.3 gal

I'm sorry your angry and feel that you were lied to, but GM's offers to provide a loaner or buy back the car is unprecedented.

Let us know how it goes with your replacement or loaner.

As we stated before the Volt is a safe car, our employees and their families continue to drive the vehicle. The issues that NHTSA have found happen days or weeks after a severe crash. The loaner vehicle is provided to consumers who are uncomfortable driving the vehicle. I am very sorry if one of our agents did not provide you with accurate information. We are providing people with loaner vehicles and we are doing our best to find premium cars when requested. We will consider all options to meet our customer's expectations before buying a vehicle back, but if buying back the vehicle ultimately gives our customers peace of mind, we’ll do it. Please follow up with your Volt advisor and they will help walk you through this process. I think you will see we are standing behind our statements.

Thanks.

Opps, GM flip flopped again -- that's 4 times in 5 days about the buy back. Now everything's on hold again. http://gm-volt.com/2011/12/05/gm-takes-time-out-deciding-whether-to-redesign-volt-battery-and-more/

I requested GM to take my Volt back (with very low mileage). They recently sent me the offer to buy back, everything looks good except they want me to claim the $7500 tax credit and return them the full $7500 cash irrespective of what I get back from IRS after I file my tax for 2011. I don't understand why I have to return the full $7500 whereas probably I'm going to get less than $3000 from federal tax.

Is this legitimate or they just want to make the money thru the program? I feel like they are using the program as a bait.

I love the car but don’t have time, patience and money to throw on a Beta version.

GM has offered to buy back my 2012 volt and wants me to also claim the $7500 and provide them the money. I do not think that it is the ethical thing to do, however I do not want the beta version either and am not willing to falsify my tax return.

I am thinking that they want to offer the new owner the $7500 off the sticker price to offload the cars later.

I've found that if you post a question on the GM Volt FB page you'll get a fast response.

I've found that if you post a question on the GM Volt FB page you'll get a fast response.

GM is offering us a "buy back". We think? I have yet to get a straight buy back offer. They are offering us to go to a GM dealer and purchase a different car..
The original dealer on June 20th 2011, gave us a trade in value on 2 vehicles of $12,800. GM will NOT honor this. And on top of that, they are charging us $2900 additional for ~6k miles we drove. We did not "lease" the volt. I guess because we are working class people and we could not purchase it outright, they are sticking it to us. The offer they gave us... We are responsible for $37,528.00! So we now have to give the Volt back, in perfect shape. We have no cars to trade in. We found a 2011 new truck for $28K after rebate. So we are having to finance a $27 for $37K! If the sales contract says we owe X amount and that is the law, why isn't the trade in value of Y the law? We are so very sorry we tried to buy American and try to go green and support this. Had we known there was a flaw in the battery pack, we never would have purchased this vehicle. Period. This is unfair and unjust. The new gm dealership we are dealing with are very nice, but GM is not making sure we are satisfied by no means. When we first called, they assured us they would "Make us Whole". Guess I better start ranting on the GM Volt FB page and everywhere else to save anyone who may not know about this. For other Volt owners...has your Shifter popped out yet? Oh it will!!! And wait until you get a nail in your tire...oh, they patch it and rotate it only for you to have flats all the time. And don't say "take it to your dealer", they don't have a CLUE about these cars! We are sick about this whole fiasco. I guess the $12K or so they are sticking us with will keep GM in business! While we bust our tails working overtime to pay for their faulty product. If it wasn't broke, why are they asking the "owners" to bring them in to be "enhanced"? right. save it. I doubt this will even get posted.

To Doug Wernhert: Please help us. The options we've been given so far are outrageous.

To Doug Wernhert: Please help us. The options we've been given so far are outrageous.

To Doug Wernhert: Please help us. The options we've been given so far are outrageous.

To Doug Wernhert: Please help us. The options we've been given so far are outrageous.

To Doug Wernhert: Please help us. The options we've been given so far are outrageous.

Will they even take it back now that there is a fix for the coolant spill issue?

I agree with Amy. This is totally unethical.

I returned my car on Wednesday 1/11/2012 but the loan account is not closed yet. I called the GM representative and she told me that they are sending the check today (1/17/2012). I guess GM expects me to pay the interest even after the car has been transferred to their names.

I returned the car when it had about 3300 miles on it; they deducted about $1200 from the refund. I did not return the car because I disliked it, I returned it because GM agreed to buy back due to the recall. Why the customers are made to pay a usage fee for a recall. It's GM's QA fault and they should pay for it.

Why GM launched this vehicle when these tests were not complete? They make the customer pay the top dollars when the vehicle is not fully quality assured.

The part where they are asking for the full refund of the federal credit of $7500 is totally unacceptable.

How can they ask for the full refund of $7500? It's not a refund or a credit. It is actually (up to $7500 write off of your income tax - a green tax deduction. Oh yes, it's in the fine print. And we knew that. I read somewhere it's up until 12/31/2011 or until the money runs out. I'd have to go back to verify that exact date.

I'd like to know who is going to do the "enhancements"? They say in February 2012.

Here is an option:
Take the $12,800 GM (dealer) gave us for our trade in, plus the $3K down payment, plus the $4K they are "allowing" for buying a 2011 GM product to replace the 2012 after much agony....with our fully loaded Volt - SPLIT that in half and move on.

OR: Give us our trade in vehicles plus our $3K down payment back. Plus our "time usage fee" of %5K, then take the Volt back, "enhance" it and sell it to someone else. Oh, we can't do that now can we. Surely not.

With that deal, maybe I could get some "enhancements"...

Unfortunately we will probably take the hit and get over this due to the stress and time it has taken us to "be a satisfied customer" if this is what you call satisified. Not. We also are not returning the car due to "not liking it" or whatever other reason others may say. It is because we purchased a product that has a defect. A costly product that had it been revealed there was an issue at the time of purchase, we would have passed. GM has publically posted this fact and publically said they would "satisfy their customers".

I may say that also the 110v charger that comes with the car...$450.00 a pop. I've had mine replaced 2 times since purchase June 20th. Luckily they took it back under warranty...Take a look at yours.... the end where the cord connects to the unit becomes separated...first you see mesh, then wires... sooner or later it will not be good. I was even told by a GM person this was a defective piece they were "working" on.

I have defended the Volt up and until I could not get any answers to the truth of the safety of the battery pack among some other issues with the car. Then this buy back deal. It makes one very "leary"....Customer satisfaction? No..not at all....

Come on GM, don't put all the pressure on the local dealer... do what you say you are going to do...