10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
9,449 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.

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problem #13

Dec 262022

Volt

  • miles
After the battery runs out, the engine loses propulsion and fails to run on gas. The car completely stalls in the middle of traffic. The speed drops from 70+ mph to 0. Extremely dangerous to myself and others. The issue suddenly appeared at the end of December 2022 during a long drive. The engine check light remains on and a warning re: reduced propulsion power is displayed every time the car is turned on. Dealer is unable to fix the issue because they already have multiple cars with the same issue waiting for weeks to be repaired. Recently filed class action law suit suggests that this problem is caused by defective BCEM unit.

- Oceanside, CA, USA

problem #12

Jun 032021

Volt

  • miles
When shift-to-park the vehicle says the cars is not in park and will not turn off.

- Corona, CA, USA

problem #11

Mar 102020

Volt

  • 10 miles
The cruise control does not work every so often. It seems to happen when I use a lot of the steering control to increase and decrease the speed. It's I took it to the dealership 2 times and they can't find the problem. I don't have specific dates when this happened but it happens enough. Other things that happens are 1) the Volt has a charge setting that optimize to start charge delay depending on when you schedule when you plan to leave so the car will not be left fully charge for a long time. However, the estimated charge time is completely off now. It seems to think it will take 12 more hours to charge. Therefore, the car would start charging a few hours earlier than it should. 2) the audio system connected to the smartphone is very buggy. Sometimes the display shows music is playing but no audio.

- Torrance, CA, USA

problem #10

Nov 292020

Volt

  • miles
We own two 2017 Chevy Volts. Both have two issues: 1) often cruise control does always stay engaged due to brake pedal slipping to a very slight depressed position. 2) shift-to-park- cars will not properly go into park sometimes and thus cannot be turned off. These two issues are clearly manufacturer defects as both cars were bought new and within a month of each other. I will enter this for my other VIN number as well. These have been ongoing issues that we are having to spend money to correct and there are many reports of these being issues, yet there is no recall. We purchased both cars brand new within a month of each other. Both issues have been ongoing and have occured more than once.

- Greenville, SC, USA

problem #9

Nov 292020

Volt

  • miles
We own two 2017 Chevy Volts. Both have two issues: 1) often cruise control does always stay engaged due to brake pedal slipping to a very slight depressed position. 2) shift-to-park- cars will not properly go into park sometimes and thus cannot be turned off. These two issues are clearly manufacturer defects as both cars were bought new and within a month of each other. I will enter this for my other VIN number as well. These have been ongoing issues that we are having to spend money to correct and there are many reports of these being issues, yet there is no recall. We purchased both cars brand new within a month of each other. Both issues have been ongoing and have occured more than once.

- Greenville, SC, USA

problem #8

Jan 172020

Volt

  • 15,300 miles
My 2017 Chevy Volt has an adaptive cruise control problem. It will only work when it wants to but what make it so dangerous is that if you get it to engage it will randomly and without any warning disengage itself. If you are using the 2017 Volt in the low gear mode and this happens the car will rapidly decelerate which is very dangerous and has almost cause the people behind me to run into me. I have tried to get this fixed several times but it seems nobody knows what to do with it and they will try but it just goes right back to doing it again.

- Leesburg, GA, USA

problem #7

Jul 122019

Volt

  • 15,000 miles
While driving on city streets and highways, the adaptive cruise control will not engage 25% of the time and will disengage without notice. "adaptive cruise control will appear in dic. However, this creates a safety hazard as you never know if the car will automatically slow down. I have filed case # 9-5379585813 with Chevrolet and been to four dealers and they refuse to fix the problem. They no longer return my calls. I am afraid to use the cruise control.

- San Antonio, TX, USA

problem #6

Sep 272019

Volt

  • 36,000 miles
Faulty front proximity sensor or camera resulting in false positives of object in front of the car. False warning lights and warning sounds as if an object is in front of the car when no object is in sight. Usually during the rain but occasionally not. Occurs when the vehicle is traveling less than 6mph. Happens around 75% of the time during the rain and about 5% of the time during dry weather.

- Amherst, NH, USA

problem #5

Jan 252019

Volt

  • 26,000 miles
Driving up the freeway at a normal speed, my Volt began to accelerate without warning and after applying the brakes again began to accelerate involuntarily. After I managed to pull to the side of the road by applying the brakes hard, smoke came out of the hood. I called a tow truck and he had to jump the car to start it again.

- Castro Valley, CA, USA

problem #4

May 012017

Volt

  • 530 miles
Adaptive cruise control unavailable randomly occurs while driving using adaptive cruise control. Presents a large danger of hitting other vehicles if the adaptive cruise control is used to come to a complete stop as it will randomly disengage while coming to a stop. Cruise control only works 4/10 times attempted and was "fixed" by the dealer with less than 500 miles on the odometer. However the problem recurred within a day. Looked it up in forums and it is not an uncommon problem. Holding foot under the brake pedal allows cruise control to work but is more dangerous than randomly cutting off. No one in Volt forum has gotten a complete fix to date. When they do I will be getting mine repaired armed with the correct information. But it is dangerous.

- Laurel, DE, USA

problem #3

Apr 252018

Volt

  • 15,000 miles
Like others, including the incident in rancho cucomonga, ca on the same day, April 25th, I was driving on the highway at high speed. I was in the carpool lane on the 210 freeway. I think I also was told to put the car in park. I lost the ability to accelerate on at a very dangerous time, while I was the furthest to the left in the late afternoon. Miraculously, there was only 1 car quite far behind me. So, after deceleration was forced upon my car, I began to steer the car to the right through 5 lanes - one of the widest parts of the highway at that point. Here is what I now think. I have been through loss of power in my 2014 Volt. I had accidentally turned it off while being on the highway. They fixed that design flaw in this 2017 model. I have shared my theory with GM. GM/Chevy has 3-way called me with the "stolen vehicles dept". they aggressively describe how they won't issue a slow-down through the on-star unless they have a request through police, the police are behind, the lights blink, etc. But, they're reluctant to share what happens next. They've been reluctant to share how they track your vehicle through the VIN and gps tracking. They're reluctant to share that this system can be hacked. It is evident that much can go wrong once the ability to control your car is placed in other's hands -- who aren't in the car driving it. The dealership could see the code of the slow-down. Of course they were surprised. This wasn't just a "failure". this is a "feature" in the car...but someone else used it without our permission. I want the on-star control disabled in my car!!! it could have killed my daughter and me. It could have killed the others who reported a similar situation.

- Altadena, CA, USA

problem #2

Nov 012017

Volt

  • 10,000 miles
I purchased a new 2017 Chevrolet Volt equipment with automatic parking assist. On November 1, 2017, I was driving on bath street in santa barbara. I decided to park on bath at pueblo street. The first time, I engaged the apa feature to assist with parallel parking, I followed the instructions on the dashboard. After coming to a complete stop, I followed the direction to shift the car into reverse. The moment I completed the shift and I lifted by foot from the brake, the vehicle accelerated unexpectedly in reverse at a high rate of speed. The steering wheel turned to the right, and the car continued to accelerate out of control until it had jumped the curb and sideswiped a telephone pole. I had the vehicle towed to a Chevy dealer and filed a claim for product defect with General Motors. General Motors has subsequently declined the claim.

- Santa Barbara, CA, USA

problem #1

Apr 062017

Volt

  • 5,000 miles
We bought a new 2017 Chevy Volt at the end of December 2016 and had our first issue in early February 2017. What happened that first time was on (2/3/2017) while driving through traffic the car without warning turned off the electric wheel motors and would not allow us to power the car properly to get the car to the berm. We were nearly were hit twice while trying to steer the car off of the interstate highway as it decelerated. The car was completely disabled an needed towed back to the dealership. After the dealership had the car for a week they returned it with the explanation that the car needed to do software updates and they were too large to do over the car's satellite system ' but they never gave us any indication of how we would have been informed of the need for such an update. We then had another near accident today (4/6/2017) on the same highway and we were nearly pushed up under a semi while trying to maneuver off of the highway at 75 miles an hour. Again, the car without warning shut off the electric wheel motors and warned us to 'put the car in park'. it happened in exactly the same way as in February but no warnings had been issued for our car and we almost had a horrible accident. My concern is for my family and colleagues safety at this point and I don't want anyone driving in this car. I hate to think of what would have happened today if my daughter, who is a brand new driver, would have had to deal with the same situation sandwiched in by two semi-trucks and with a car trying to pass on the shoulder around her ' it could have been far worse. I am in several Chevy Volt groups on facebook and people who loved the generation 1 of these cars are having major issues from battery packs dying, to drive train issues, to speed control problems and more where people are having major system pieces replaced 2-3 times in the first few months they own the cars.

- Fort Collins, CO, USA