Before we get too far into the praise of the Bolt and Volt, let me say I looked at both with intent to perhaps purchase. The powertrains were fine, the interiors are horrible. Yes horrible. The plastics and carpet in the Volt rival an early 80’s car. Both cars are ergonomically laid out well but the plastics are the cheapest quality aI have seen in years and the Bolt seats are uncomfortable with just bad cloth or what passes for leather. Put an ELR quality interior in it, I’ll buy one but the Bolt is a $20,000 economy car with an electric powertrain. Priced as such, it is a decent car, at $40k it is also a rip off. Your average $25,000 Kia has a far nicer interior than either car. If GM could figure that out then both would sell in much greater numbers. I read the the difference in cost between decent interior materials and cheap crap was less than a hundred bucks to the automaker. If that is true, GM has its head up its own butt with those two cars. The ELR at $70,000 was insane. But put an interior of that quality in the Bolt or Volt and you have revolutionary cars that beat Tesla at their own game. Instead you feel like you spent $40 large to sit in the penalty box. Look at the quality of the interior of a GTI for $25k. GM has no excuse for the cheapness.

Before we get too far into the praise of the Bolt and Volt, let me say I looked at both with intent to perhaps purchase. The powertrains were fine, the interiors are horrible. Yes horrible. The plastics and carpet in the Volt rival an early 80’s car. Both cars are ergonomically laid out well but the plastics are the cheapest quality aI have seen in years and the Bolt seats are uncomfortable with just bad cloth or what passes for leather. Put an ELR quality interior in it, I’ll buy one but the Bolt is a $20,000 economy car with an electric powertrain. Priced as such, it is a decent car, at $40k it is also a rip off. Your average $25,000 Kia has a far nicer interior than either car. If GM could figure that out then both would sell in much greater numbers. I read the the difference in cost between decent interior materials and cheap crap was less than a hundred bucks to the automaker. If that is true, GM has its head up its own butt with those two cars. The ELR at $70,000 was insane. But put an interior of that quality in the Bolt or Volt and you have revolutionary cars that beat Tesla at their own game. Instead you feel like you spent $40 large to sit in the penalty box. Look at the quality of the interior of a GTI for $25k. GM has no excuse for the cheapness.

Oh I am not praising the model 3. I am just pointing out that we should not give the Volt or Bolt a pass either. The interiors look good in pictures, but don’t hold up in person, I am a little spoiled in that I have been playing in the deeper end of the car pool lately, but while plain, the S2000 interior used quality materials, my subie outback had surprisingly nice materials, my Highlander was bland and kind of cheap interior wise, but I drove the Volt and said “eegad!”

When you see in person how nice a GTI interior, as well as some other inexpensive cars, you cant get by with cheap and expect to sell these days. Some manufacturers do this on purpose thinking if you want nice you will step up to a more expensive model in their inventory and in GM’s case, models with a bigger margain. But I appreciate makers that just say anything we make will have the highest quality in the segment. Leafs have nicer materials at the same price point. I like both the Bolt and Volt but they are good cars in crappy interior wrappers and that is a shame when it is easy and inexpensive to do much better. Mazda should have their interior quality benchmarked by the industry as the gold standard in the price point. Compare a CX5 interior the the new Equinox, not even close. They should both be the same quality. I have purchased 2 new GM cars in my life, and if they fixed the interiors it might have been more.

Not trying to be to harsh on GM but those two models could be really dominant in their own segments, but you gotta feel like you are getting what you paid for and you spend all of your time inside the car staring at cheap plastics or nice materials. And if it is the former you feel disappointed regularly. I think my brother will wonder where his money went when he spends every traffic jam in the interior of his Model 3 as well. I crawled around a Model X at a Tesla showroom and that one was very nice inside, but it was $110k.