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There are still 6,000 first-gen Chevy Volts on dealer lots

The next-gen 2016 Chevrolet Volt looks to be a pretty fantastic vehicle with more electric driving range, better fuel economy than its predecessor, and a lower starting price. However, if you're looking for a deal, the 2015 model of the plug-in hybrid might not be a bad place to check because Chevy has a ton of them to get rid of. According to The Detroit Free Press, there are around 6,000 examples of the 2015 Volts that are still sitting on dealer lots. That might not sound like a lot, but Chevy only sold 905 of them in April and 2,779 through that month in 2015. It moved 18,805 of the PHEVs for all of 2014. Buyers are in a pretty good spot to haggle at the moment, too, with the a new Volt right around the corner. According to The Detroit Free Press based on TrueCar figures, the current average closing price for a 2015 model is $30,607 before any federal or state tax credits. You can also lease one for 39 months for $299 a month and $1,649 due at signing. In April, Chevy was reportedly offering customers 2.9-percent financing for 48 months and leases with no money down for buyers trading in a vehicle from a competitor. Of course, there's also always the option to buy a pre-owned example. Just a few months ago, prices for used Volts were reportedly as low as $13,000 at auction.

Buick Encore, Chevy Trax reportedly dead after 2022

The Buick Encore will not get an encore, and the Chevrolet Trax is dead in its tracks. Separate unverified reports say the two crossovers, which are essentially identical underneath the sheetmetal, will retire at the end of the 2022 model year without being directly replaced. Citing anonymous sources, enthusiast website GM Authority wrote that production of the Encore and the Trax is scheduled to end in the third quarter of 2022. Both models are manufactured in Bupyeong-gu, South Korea, and General Motors will reportedly use the extra production capacity to build more examples of the Trailblazer, which outsold the Encore and the Trax combined by a significant margin in 2021. General Motors hasn't commented on the report, but we wouldn't be surprised if the end is indeed near for the Encore and the Trax. Buick released the Encore for the 2013 model year, and Chevrolet launched the Trax for 2015, but the model made its debut as the Opel Mokka in 2012. It's at the end of its life cycle, and sales figures reflect this: 20,072 units of the Encore were sold in America in 2021, a drop of 52% compared to 2020, while 42,590 examples of the Trax found a home, a 60% decline. It's further proof that Americans don't like small cars. Viewed in that light, the decision not to replace either crossover makes perfect sense. If the report is accurate, the Encore GX (which is not related to the Encore in any way) will enter the 2023 model year as Buick's entry-level model. The situation is a little more complicated at Chevrolet: The pocket-sized Spark is on its way out in 2022 as well, meaning that the Trailblazer will become the entry point into the range. It's a different story in Europe: Opel, which is now part of the Stellantis group, released the second-generation Mokka in June 2020.

Would you pay $17 a month to give your older Ford connectivity?

When it was first introduced in 2007, there was nothing like the original Ford Sync system, since it allowed car owners to connect and use a portable device better than anything that came before it. And because it was a brought-in/tethered and software-based system, Sync leveraged a device's connectivity and was easily updated. It took competitors awhile to catch up: Toyota Entune wasn't available until 2011, and Chevy MyLink didn't roll out until 2012. But now Ford is the one playing catchup since it stuck with the brought-in strategy while most other automakers were quicker to add connectivity via an embedded cellular modem. Ford initially installed 2G/3G modems in its small fleet of electric and plug-in electric vehicles starting in 2012 so that owners could keep tabs on charging. Embedded connectivity came to Lincoln in 2014, and Ford began adding onboard 4G LTE via Sync Connect to select cars starting with the Escape in 2015. To get more cars connected more quickly, last week the automaker rolled out its FordPass SmartLink solution that plugs into the OBD port of 2010 to 2017 model year vehicles. This lets owners retroactively get onboard Wi-Fi, set up a "geo-fence" to keep tabs on a car's location, receive vehicle health reports and allows remote engine starting and door locking/unlocking using a smartphone app, among other features. But to connect older Ford vehicles will cost owners $16.99 a month for two years, not including installation. Ford throws in 1 GB of data or a 30-day trial, whichever comes first, after which owners have to add the vehicle to their Verizon shared data plan, which supplies connectivity for SmartLink, or establish a new account. (Disclosure: Autoblog is owned by Verizon.) By comparison, GM's 4G LTE data plans start at $10 a month for 200 MB and goes up to $30 for 3 GB, and owners can also add a car to an AT&T shared-data plan. But OnStar doesn't have a separate monthly subscription for the embedded modem or an installation charge, and standard features via the RemoteLink Mobile App are free for the first five years of ownership. FCA's Uconnect Access service also uses an embedded modem to provide similar telematics features for $20 per month following a free one-year trial, while a la carte in-car Wi-Fi is offered for $10 per day, $20 per week or $35 per month.