Doug DeMuro
1 HN recommender · recommended in 5 months, 2017–2019
18:53 · 3.3M views · Aug 31, 2017
Doug DeMuro reviews the 2017 Chevy Bolt, which has a $37,500 base price and 238 miles of range. He looks at why it sells poorly next to the Tesla Model 3, noting its quirks and narrow seats.
Cited as a thorough, candid review of the Bolt, particularly for its uncomfortable seats and uncool image.
5 comments from Hacker News
Note that this is the Bolt not the Volt. Even as a petrol head who owns a V8 and a Subaru STI, I really like what GM has done with this vehicle. Really really great review from Doug DeMuro here: this video Doug has a great style - really digs deep into all the quirks and oddities of the cars he reviews.
> It's a shitty car, and non-electric reviewers have loathed it. It's a perfectly good car, and most non-electric reviewers have said its only major fault is being "not sexy, not cool". Doug DeMuro, for example - this video > the bolt weighs more than the (short range) model 3. Sure, but only barely . The short-range Model 3 weighs 3,549lbs, and the Bolt weighs 3,563lbs. Your complaining about a difference of 14 pounds (less than 1%). The Bolt also delivers 18 extra driving miles of range, which explains a small portion of the weight difference. > the lead aero guy called it a nightmare Of course he did, they sacrificed aerodynamics for comfort. Some of the big complaints with Chevy's last electric car (Volt) was that it was too low to the ground and too short -- all great things for aerodynamics, but all things that actual humans complained about. So they made the Bolt a proper hatchback -- taller and sit higher -- to make it nicer for the occupants. Chevy, shockingly, listened to their customers and made some changes they requested . The Bolt is perfectly fine car. Obviously it's not as sexy or luxurious as a Model 3. But the Bolt is not in any way a "shitty car" -- by most accounts, it's fast, comfortable and reliable. In fact, the Bolt is arguably the best electric car you can actually purchase in the US today -- and likely will be for the next year or so until Tesla solves their production struggles.
I think they did it to avoid competing with themselves. Before we bought our Telsa in 2017, we test drove a Bolt. The sales people tried really hard to steer us toward a Volt (which was more expensive). It seemed clear they were not really interested in selling the Bolt. Speaking of the design: On the drive, we noticed that the seats in the Bolt were narrow and uncomfortable. The odd thing was that they had plenty of room to make the seats a few inches wider. Doug DeMuro noticed the same thing in his review: this video
You can walk into a dealership and buy a Chevy Bolt right now because there is plenty of surplus inventory. People are just not buying them for many reasons. this video >GM's electric offering was built from the ground up to be an electric car, and has won tons of awards for actually being a good car. The Bolt actually used many of the Chevy Sonic hardware/parts so I would hardly call it being built from the ground up. I mean, they look pretty much the same. It's like the Tesla roadster 1.0 which used Lotus parts.
We looked at a Bolt. We mostly liked it, except the seats are incredibly uncomfortable. I'm not even close to obese, and the seat bottoms were just too narrow to be comfortable. It is odd, as there is plenty of space to either side of the seat with the doors closed .. they could have made them wider, but chose not to. At least one reviewer agrees: this video