2012 Chevrolet Volt: what breaks, and at what mileage

What breaks on the 2012 Chevrolet Volt

Owners have reported 46 named failure modes on the 2012 Chevrolet Volt, and the three most-reported carry 28% of everything filed, which is an unusually even spread for one model year.

Other electrical problem leads with 51 reports, about 6.1 per 1,000 vehicles and with the middle half of reports between 50k to 110,000 miles.

Other fuel system problem follows with 27 reports, usually reported between 69k to 105,000 miles.

Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault follows with 22 reports, usually reported between 77k to 120,000 miles.

By system, the reports fall mostly into electrical (78), engine (31) and fuel (30).

Severity, and what it costs

Across the named modes, 9 mention a crash, 1 a fire and 10 an injury. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.

The average severity weight across every report on this year is 3.68, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.

What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: other electrical problem at $250–$2,000, other fuel system problem at $300–$2,200, airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault at $300–$1,600 and other engine problem at $300–$4,000. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.

15% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.

How often, against how many were built

Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2012 Chevrolet Volt draws about 43 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 96th percentile of complaint rates among 2012 vehicles we can rate.

That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.

The working figure is 8,372 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2012 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.

Recalls on the 2012 model year

NHTSA has issued 2 recall campaigns covering the 2012 Chevrolet Volt, affecting an estimated 8,374 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.

The campaigns cover engine and engine cooling:engine:gasoline and electronic stability control (esc). Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.

One caution about reading these together: a recall usually raises the complaint count for the same part, because owners who read about it go and file. The mileages stay informative; the counts get noisy.

Better and worse years of the same car

High risk for a 2012 — 176th riskiest of the 271 2012 vehicles we can rate. Because the ranking is against the same model year only, age cancels out of it.

Across the 9 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 2011 comes out best at 67 and 2018 worst at 78, with 2012 itself at 70.

No other year of this model scores meaningfully better than 2012, so if this generation is what you want, the year is not the lever.

Within the 2011–2014 generation specifically, 2011 is the strongest year at 67 and 2013 the weakest at 70.

What the numbers say to check

The mileages below are where the first quarter of reports for each mode had already been filed, which makes them the point at which a fault is worth looking for rather than the point at which it happens: other powertrain problem from about 20k, other body or interior problem from about 22k, other brake problem from about 31k and alternator or charging system failure from about 31k.

On a 2012 Chevrolet Volt with more miles than that on it, the useful question to put to a seller or a mechanic is whether other powertrain problem has been dealt with, and if so with what parts and at whose expense. A car that has already had the repair is in a different position from one that has not.

Treat it as where to point the inspection, not as a prediction. A well-maintained example can sail past every mileage on this page, and a neglected one can fail well before the first of them.

The limits of complaint data

359 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.

Of those 359 reports, 270 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 75% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".

The failure modes are assigned by software reading the owner's own words, which is accurate in bulk and wrong in individual cases. A mode with a handful of reports may contain a misfiled one.

And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.