Opel Ampera - 5 disadvantages which you need to accept to love this car. Opel Ampera 2012 review
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- Опубликовано: 19 авг 2020
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In this video I will share cons which I have observed within last 8 months of using my Opel Ampera / Vauxhall Ampera / Chevrolet Volt and doing over 12k km. This review focuses on disadvantages of this car.
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Opel Ampera is an electric car with range extender. However, some of the countries classify it as hybrid car or hybrid plug-in. It has 111kW (150HP) electric motor with 370nm torque and 1.4l 63kW (86HP) power generator. It accelerates in 9 sec 0-100km/h. It has battery range 40-75km and 35 fuel tank which provides power for another 600km. It's fuel consumption depends on the style of driving and is in range of 5-7l/100km.
Buying a car is a serious decision. They key point of such transaction is good research.
In this video you will watch 5 things that annoy me in Opel Ampera after 8 months of driving it.
1. Visibility
2. Lack of Android Auto and Apple Car Play
3. Lack of fast charging
4. Rubber under the bumper
5. Limitation of battery capacity with software update
Additional possible deal breakers:
1. 4 - seater
2. Compact boot
If those disadvantages are acceptable for you, I promise you will love the car! In my next episode which will be soon on my channel I will share things that I love about this car. 
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If you are interested in more information about Opel Ampera check out my playlist with videos about Ampera! ruclips.net/p/PLY6sYX_yhWZQPRvai2s4sOKkXm7fS1881
This are the best type of reviews! Thank you man!
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Thank you so much for your informative video. I was thinking of getting one of these and the bullet points you have made are very very interesting, thank you so much. I might skip this one 👍
ur welcomed! its a great car but its not great for every purpose so its important to know the weaknesses before u buy
First of all thank you Kamil for making the videos. There are many about Volt, but only a few about Ampera.
Your videos helped me to decide that I would like to have such car.
The issues that you are explaining are of course true, but I would add another one: If you are driving with regen the stop lights are not lighting up, which may lead to an accident. I have a workaround for it - gently pressing the break, only to enable the break lights, however it would be great to have the possibility to change it in the settings. I don't think such option exists, but if you know about it I would be very grateful.
PT I'm very glad that my videos helped you :) I doubt there is an option for turning on stop lights while regen, I've read somewhere that after some updates the regen power has been reduced and at the very beginning it was much harder but I don't know if it's a true. I personally didn't have any situation that somebody was surprised by unnoticed breaking but I usually before breaking just look in the mirror if there is nobody close and if there is anybody as you suggested I gently press breaking pedal. Good catch! thanks :)
1. Weak headlamps and no upgrade option.
2. Needs rear screen wash/wipe.
3. Lack of lumbar support.
4. No gauze preventing stone chip damage to radiator.
5. No heated steering wheel.
6. Slow charging.
7. UK satnav option is useless.
Apart from the above, it's great.
Still have mine after 5½ years and only 50,000 miles, white, RHD.
Still love her!
not only UK satnav sux :D the truth is that most of car's built-in navs suck and google maps is always way better
Upgrade to led I did on my insignia and they're amazing now
Big A-pillars is the bane of my existence in every modern car, it seems they are growing in size with each year
thats true but those are really massive :/
@@KamilOslizlo
Ampera-e same problem, I ended putting cheap camera + a 9 inch tall screen on each side and power them with a battery that charges from the car.
Looks ugly, but it gets the job done and there is a switch to turn them both off during highway driving.
Oh I feel you, when talking about the lost capacity. Prior to the the update I had about 9,4 - 9,6 kwh. Afterwards there's just 8,5 left. That, the old satnav and the honking attitude. Besides that I have no problems with that dream of a car.
after all this 1kwh is just about 5-7km and when you at it from this perspective its not that bad. However you still feel the pain :D
Agree with you on “A” pillars (US Volt). Exiting my condominium community, I almost struck a bicyclist who rode out in front of me. I was able to slam on the brakes. My wife in the passenger seat did not see the cyclist at all.
Sometimes I even triple check if nobody is approaching :s
Thanks Kamil, I recently purchased an Ampera Positiv on a 2015 plate here in the UK, but im guessing it was an earlier model year of manufacture as i have no Bluetooth streaming facility for my music. Annoyingly i have a driver's side indicator lens broken and ive done a temporary fix for now to prevent water ingress, but trying to find parts is really hard from research so far. In addition I am only getting about 29 miles range on battery after a full charge, which seems to run down fairly quickly unless i use my petrol generator to help extend my mileage. I drive the car sensibly to maximise efficiency so im guessing its down to some battery degredation now as its coming up to 9 years old based on the numberplate. Ive got it booked in for a service next week, but finding a Vauxhall dealership that has electric car servicing facilities has proved challenging! Great content from you on the Ampera, if i can add to your list of issues it would also be the headlamp brightness at night on dark roads. Although the bulbs look bright i may have to consider a HID conversion to help me on country roads, especially as the car has no fog lamps either to help. 😞
Meant to add that no rear parcel shelf is annoying too, in order to prevent people seeing what you are carrying in the boot space. I have seen some people online using a Renault Mégane parcel shelf which has been trimmed in some areas and a fitting kit is available to purchase as well, think it's referred to as the "Ampyshelf" online, but no idea what generation of Mégane is used for the parcel shelf 🤔
Hey, thanks for your comment. Indeed finding spare parts (especially side mirrors and carrosserie) is extremely hard. 29 miles range is not that bad and depending on the weather conditions and the climate control settings doesn't have to mean that your battery is degrading. Remember to keep your tire pressure correct as it decreases the range as well. The one more thing that you can pay attention to, are the rare brakes. The mechanism likes to get stuck and then the range gets much lower.
Thank you for info.
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Thank you. points mentioned in the video is really uncommon and interesting to read before purchasing used Ampera/volt
Glad I could help. I still think it's an amazing car though.
hello Kamil, did you get any info about Navi update until now? Its really anoying ánd I hate this.... Thank you
Hey, there are some guys here in Poland that do updates. I've never done one as I'm using google maps on my phone anyways. Also I've heard that there are some cases when updating maps is causing bootloading loop.
But you can use aux input to play music from your android phone ?
yes you can
Is it true that ampera mirrors have better visibility ("larger vision") than Volt? So buying an imported Volt from USA , we need to replace mirrors from european Ampera or to stick some small mirrors for better visibility and dead zone.
I'm not sure if there is a difference, however I know a few volt owners, they haven't replaced mirrors and they were not complaining. There are different problems with imported volts like lack of service in Europe or lack or problems with FM frequencies.
@@KamilOslizlo thank you.
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Biggest annoyance is the horn sounding when connecting the charger, this also makes it difficult to rig up any home timers for charging as it sounds when power is applied. No idea what to replace the Ampera with other than a Tesla ( if money was not an issue). I also have an i3 and it is difficult to choose between the Ampera and the i3.
It should be possible to turn off the horn! And yeah for me the next car will be tesla when the prices drop enough :)
Kamil Oslizlo I don’t think possible through the car but can be done with a laptop or extra circuitry. I think if programmed with a Netherlands profile the charge beep can be stopped.
Buy Honda Clatity PHEV
Witaj, czy jest możliwość wymiany lub upgrade standardowej ładowarki na model o większej mocy lub dołożenie szybszej ładowarki
czesc. Nie slyszalem jeszcze o osobie ktorej by sie to udalo. Z technicznego punktu widzenia uwazam ze jest to mozliwe, nawet Chevy Volt gen. 2 pod koniec produkcji mial ladowarke pokladowa 7.2kWh.
I removed the rubber shield 4 years ago. Since then I have been satisfied with my decision.
okoxoko i think I have to "grow up" to this decision hehe
@@KamilOslizlo But the rubber shield is designed to - intentionally... touch the ground without cause any damage.
It's actually fun, because cars are normally damaged by such.
Djeseret i doubt it has been designed to touch the ground. But true it doesn't do any harm however at the very beginning i was terrified 😂
@@KamilOslizlo Unusual solution it is yes...
It is designed to be able to touch the ground without cause any damage - in situations where it can not be avoided... ! - the information comes from GM.
Djeseret I always thought it was for aerodynamic reasons 😁
Proszę spróbować wjeżdżać do garażu lekko z ukosa przy samym dole, tak by jedno z przednich kół szybciej złapało podłogę w garażu zanim zrobi to fartuch. I tak samo z wyjazdem. Może to być rozwiązaniem, choć nie mam takiego auta. Zagłębiam trochę wiedzy na temat Ampery, ale nie znalazłem za bardzo info czy zapala się rezerwa paliwa i ile ma litrów ta rezerwa?
dzięki Bartosz, tak właśnie robię przy zjeżdżaniu do hali garażowej. Przy wyjeździe fartuch już nie haczy. Jeżeli chodzi o rezerwę, to tak, zapala się rezerwa, chyba w okolicach 5l.
also add on anoying list: only driver windows has auto-up. I hate it when I have to close all windows, I struggle to close them all together. I push auto-up on drivers door then I try to press the remaining 3 together
yeah!! thats what I do as well, but I thought my switches are broken haha
In the old days we had to crank up each window separately....at least power windows is the norm now
Len Imbery there are still some new cars with manual windows 😂
Czy jest miejsce na dojazdówkę (lub pełne koło) w bagażniku?
Dedykowanego miejsca pod płyta nie ma. Na wyposażeniu jest zestaw naprawczy z kompresoerem pod zaplaniczke. Teoretycznie do bagażnika wejdzie dojazdowa /pełne koło ale wtedy już niezbyt wiele miejsca tam zostaje
Spare parts and services in the future?
Hey Solarman, it depends on what sort of spare parts. Most of the parts related to the engine come from regular 1.4 Opel Corsa. They are easily accessible and cheap. When it comes to the body parts they are quite expensive as there are not many cars like this on the market. Parts related to electric motor rarely break. When it comes to services there are authorised ones (in Poland at least 5, while only 1 Tesla service) and many unauthorised.
So what is a electric only range in reality? I am planning to buy one from 2012 with 25.000km, should i buy it? It is more than 10 years old car and i am worried about battery capacity over 10 years,....
I wouldnt be worried about battery capacity, however 11 years old car with only 25k on clock looks suspicious. Mine has still about 30-60km range depending on weather conditions.
My biggest issues with this car are:
- enormously wide A pilar,
- really hard suspension,
- low top edge of the windsreen,
- loud and rough sound of the ICE generator on hi revs,
- 80's style gear selector
...but still, it is a great car.
gear selector as well as whole front pannel looks very weird however once you get used to it, its ok.
I like the gear selector and the centre panel with the touch buttons, especially at night when they light up blue. The rear spoiler is actually useful at night as it is in the exactly right place to stop the lights of the car behind reflecting in your mirror when close on medium to slow speed roads. The front pillars are an issue though. For where I live the suspension is good but I agree you can hear the ICE when you are going up a steep hill or pushing it hard. Not something that bothers me to be honest. If the car had another 20 miles range, I would barely use any fuel at all, pity the 2nd gen didn't make it to us in the UK (and Europe).
No lumbar support , seats look very nice but are terrible to sit in. I have transplanted lumbar support from BMW5 seats. Massive improvement.
Sounds interesting. Do you have any photos?
@@KamilOslizlo I do, I'll try to find them..
You must be a tall guy! I lowered the seat and set it really back. I am 1,83 tall and I like to drive in a sporty position (not like so sporty like in a Celica but sporty) and so I have no problem with visibility. Maybe my head is lower, so I have a better look.
I'm not that tall. 1.85 here. I have lowered my sit all the way down but on the other hand I'm trying to keep my back straight (8h working in sitting position so at least in car I try to sit correctly) :D Lack of visibility on traffic lights it's not that bad, I either keep some distance or ask my gf to tell me when the light changes haha but pillars are quite annoying and require double attention
My Honda Clarity has an advantage in 4 of these five points. 1.) Visibility - it's fantastic in all directions 2.) Android Auto works fantastic, Apple Carplay - supposedly too. The indications are very logically displayed on both screens. 3.) Fast, really fast charging would probably be useful, but you can still charge the Honda in 2.5 hours, so there is no drama. I do not consider it a significant disadvantage in a PHEV car. 4.) The aerodynamics of the Honda Clarity are amazing, despite the considerable ground clearance, the bottom of the car is perfectly flat. 5.) The car is a fully functional five-meter sedan with plenty of legroom for full-size five passengers. The trunk - it's huge, although access is not the easiest and the floor is not flat. Among other things, these features made me buy this car, not a Chevy Volt.
Papachot Pachota in deed Honda Clarity tackles some of the issues that ampera has however there are some trade offs that are not acceptable for me. First of all price is completely different. 2nd there is no authorized service for clarity in Poland and it's quite hard to get parts. 3rd it might be very subjective but ampera for me looks way better, clarity is too "strange" for me. Probably if I could accept first two i would choose Chevy volt 2
What update should be avoided to prevent the KWH loss?
there is an update of software when your car is not charging. As far as I remember its called HVAC. What Opel does in such situations is updating 3 modules while it is possible to update just 2 of them to not get kwh loss. Unfortunetely I don't know which one should be omitted. Hope it helps
@@KamilOslizlo Thank you for your reply. My car charges and drives just fine. Every now and then I get a motor management signal.
My biggest complaint is the handling. It is a nice car, but if you try to drive it as advanced drive, the battery drops very quickly. It does not handle well in bends at speed. It is great at what it's designed to do, but best suited to cruise control and calculated fuel use for straight road commutes. It's not cut out to be driven hard, which I think most drivers will notice if you test it's capabilities. Its my only real complaint of note about this car
every electric car will drop battery fast when driven hard :D but here you have an advantage of power generator so you can have fun for quite a bit, unlike another EVs
You speak about the lack of fast charging as if this was a battery-only electric vehicle. However, the whole point of this car is that was the first plug-in hybrid so that for your regular commute to work, or going shopping, you can run in electric-only mode after charging overnight. However, for the occasional times you want to drive a long distance, then the internal combustion engine takes over so you don't have to worry about finding a charging station.
The limited visibility is a valid criticism and while it is true that it has been years since I had 5 people in the car, it is important to know that this has ony 4 seats.
It's all true, however when you are living in a big city, where at the time of recording there were plenty of free ccs chargers it was a pity that there was no fast charging. Even 3phase AC charging would be a great deal for Ampera as there are many places where you could charge 100% in about an hour. Nevertheless its still a great car :)
how do you stream music form the iphone? my Ampera is 2013 and I stil don't know how to do it....
I stream through USB cable, just connect it to the port under the arm rest and you can stream music that is on your phone or from spotify etc. There is only one requirement, you need to have at least 1 song on your phone, otherwise it will not detect the device.
possibility of bluetooth streaming depends on what radio do you have, some of the facelifted could stream with bluetooth some not, but with usb cable all should.
I guess I only tried with bluetooth. anyway my bluetooth connection dies after a while, especially if I enable contacts sync.
danpadure try with cable :)
@@danpadure On my 2011 Volt, bluetooth only works with phone calls but not audio streaming. I bought an audio jack cable to play the music through the speakers.
sorry buddy but you can upgrade to nev system or add extra to that and you have full app
that's true you can upgrade to have android auto and car play however it's quite expensive comparing to another cars where you can simply replace radio unit with built in Android for about 200-300 euro. But you are right it is possible :)
Much the same here, blindspots, charging time, and the "seats" I find them to firm, and wish they where more like French car seats, nicely cushioned.
Do you have leather or fabric sits?
The same for me. I find the blindspots are the biggest negative, followed by the firm seats which give me bum ache after more than 45 mins driving. My seats are the leather ones. I've bought a memory foam seat pad which helps a lot with this. My third gripe is it only having 4 seats. Of course I knew this when I bought it, but there have been a few times when I wished I could squeeze another person in.
Otherwise it's a brilliant car and I have no intention of changing any time soon. All cars have their downsides, I've only had about 9 cars over 40 years but they all had negative points, on the earlier cars some rather large negatives!
stevechelt1 i find those leather sits quite comfortable
@@KamilOslizlo I find them comfortable at first, for short trips. I think the bum ache is due to an old motorcycle injury which seems to affect me more now that I've aged!
@@KamilOslizlo leather, I wondered to the possibility of changing them to much softer seats..... otherwise the car is good
You mention poor rear visibility. yes, I agree. Yet your Opel Ampera has better rear visibility than a Chevy Volt that does not have the vertical piece of glass. I had a first generation Honda Insight with the small vertical piece of glass and got spoiled being able to see out the rear., With my present Chevy Volt, I feel uncomfortable backing up without being able to see out of the back. It would really be bad had the Volt not have the back-up camera.
Totally agree. I appriciated Ampera's rear visibility when I got in Hyundai Ioniq where it is even worse 🤣
There is no bluetooth connection for music?
Only post lifting models have bluetooth music streaming.
@@KamilOslizlo no to słabo. Szukam kolejnego auta na nastpene 5-6 lat i to jest jeden z moich must have. A polaczenie kablem jest przez jack czy usb?
@@mateo123r przez USB i z tego co pamietam rowniez przez jacka. Mozna kupic transmiter za niewielkie pieniadze i po bluetooth pieknie smiga. Tutaj masz pokazane jak to u mnie dziala ruclips.net/video/NVoaQU-V_CE/видео.html
@@KamilOslizlo obecnie smigam na transmiterze i o ile jeżdżąc wokół komina mam już swoją częstotliwość to jednak jak jade dalej to często coś mi się wcina i musze szukać wolnego pasma. Po prostu marzy mi sie lekki przeskok technologinczy.
Ten transmiter którego używam do samochodu podłącza się za pomocą jacka. Działa praktycznie bez obsługowo, raz sparowany telefon sam się łączy. Częstotliwości radiowe w ogóle nie są używane
I wouldn't use word "hate" here, "do not like" is enought. Blindspots in front is, because of airbags are mounted, many US designed cars hsve them wider than others. One more thing on making decision buy/not buy, you should have overnight charging place.
Darius agree, most of them are more dislikes than hates. I don't have overnight charging place, mostly I use city chargers which I have 3 near my flat and once my office is opened once again I will have possibility to charge at work for free.
5:31 you are looking for the word speed bump.
exactly! thanks ;)
I am sure many people will love your expression “lying policeman”. Wonderful phrase!
@@Lee-fi4vo 😂
I think the only thing that "annoy" me is the lack of a fifth seat and lack of android auto, but in reality I don't typically have any passengers and I wouldn't want to have three people squashed at the back unless they're kids
Equally, most of my younger relatives have now grown up anyway so it's a swings and roundabouts. I live in the UK, so I'd end up having the same issues as yourself
You can also get portable android auto units these days, which you couldn't even do just a couple of years ago when you made this video
Nowadays I would say the most annoying thing is lack of spare parts. Some of them are almost impossible to buy or very expensive
the facelifted rubber skirt is smaller, so less anoying
Didn't know they were different :O
yes. rarely rubs. maybe get a facelifted one. I think it's ~1/2 height
danpadure when I was looking for the car I was almost to buy late 2015 but it was almost double price
So why'd you buy it if you hate it so much?
Len Imbery cose there is much more that I love about that car :) actually it's good to drive "normal" car from time to time to see how wonderful Ampera is! One week ago i was driving 2019 Opel Astra 1.4t with automatic gearbox and you can't even compare those two 😂
if it had a fast charge, we haven't bought it since 2012
I'm not sure if I'm getting your point correctly but there have been cars in 2012 and even in 2011 that already had fast charging
Un video comodo,ma figliolo metti 2 dita nella presa di ricarica ogni tanto
First of all not an opel
It’s a vauxhall, because actual car review channels call it vauxhall Ampera.
Secondly, seen a few in Canada, surprised anybody got them imported.
First of all it is Opel :) Different countries have been selling this car under different makes. In the USA and Canada it was chevrolet volt, in Europe mostly Opel Ampera (Holland was selling under both makes Opel Ampera and Chevrolet Volt), UK had a Vauxhall Ampera while Australia called it Holden Ampera
Poproszę o wersję z "napisami".
o dziwo autotranslacja dosyć dobrze sobie poradziła, tylko kilka początków zdań źle przetłumaczona
Napisy dodam jak tylko będzie to możliwe. Niestety youtube ma jakiś problem z kreatorem napisów i nie mogę ich dodać :(
eSUBA94 niestety automatyczna translacja jest tylko dostępna na komputerze... Szkoda że yt nie pozwala dodawać napisów z automatycznej translacji...
@@KamilOslizlo ma problem bo teraz zmieniają cały mechanizm napisów, wycofują propozycje i możliwość zatwierdzania napisów przez widzów
Great video mate, but, please, drink a cup of ☕ and take some proper night sleep 😄
You are right I need to work on it! and well I'm working so hopefuly next videos will be more energetic :)
:)
thanks :)