Junkyard Find: 2014 Chevrolet Volt, Documented with Volt-Branded Flip™ Camera
I have enjoyed photographing Chevrolets with branded cameras included with the purchase of a new Chevrolet or issued as a promotion by a Chevrolet dealership, and I'm going to continue that tradition with today's Junkyard Find.
GM made a Volt concept car in 2006, revealed the production version to the world in 2008, and began production in late 2010 as a 2011 model. Some of the first Volt buyers were given Volt-branded Flip Video digital camcorders, for some top-notch Great Recession multi-bankruptcy-era synergy.
Once I obtained one of those Cisco-era Flip Video camcorders (more on that later), I knew what I had to do: Find a junked first-generation Chevy Volt and document it with the Flip. Volts aren't exactly common at your local Ewe Pullet, and I'd managed to shoot just one example ( a '13 in Denver last year), but Rollin at junkyard_cars_of_colorado tipped me off about one at Andersen's Metal and Salvage in Greeley.
A bit of prehistory first: Chevrolet issued 35mm film cameras with combination Chevrolet Venture and Warner Brothers branding (plus matching photo albums) to buyers of 1999-2003 Ventures, and I got one of those cameras and shot junked Ventures with it. Yes, digital cameras had more or less shoved film photography aside by that time, but this is GM we're talking about here.
Soon after that, a 24 Hours of Lemons team bribed me with a 35mm "Picture Yourself in a Vega" camera that was a dealer giveaway to people who test-drove a new Chevrolet Vega. Naturally, I shot their race Vega with the VegaCam.
At the 24 Hours of Lemons race at High Plains Raceway in Colorado a couple of weeks ago, a member of a Pacific Northwest-based Rainier Beer-themed Mustang II team who was judging for the Lemons Supreme Court gave me a genuine Chevy Volt-branded Flip camcorder. Amazingly, it was still functional.
He knew that I liked old cameras, and this one fit right into my collection. The Flip was developed by Pure Digital Technologies during the mid-2000s era (in which smartphones and point-and-shoot digital cameras shot at very low resolution), it shot reasonably good-quality video, and it was cheaper than dedicated digital camcorders that recorded to magnetic tape.
The Flip came with editing software and enabled users to send video clips via email (as if anyone actually wanted to get video emails). But then smartphones came along and cheap digital cameras were able to shoot better video; by the end of the 2000s, Pure Digital Technologies was failing and Cisco bought the company (a couple of months before General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection). That's when Chevrolet had the Volt Flips made.
So! I took my Flip over to Andersen's and shot some clips of the junked Volt. The Volt Flip couldn't shoot stills, only video, so that's what you'll get here.
I shot a couple of clips in portrait orientation, because I need to get rich from hugely viral TikTok videos and this shall be my ticket.
Here's a self-portrait of the Volt Flip, shot in the left side mirror of the junkyard Volt. The lack of digital image stabilization is very 2005. I just made a lot of money selling a beat-to-hell 2017 Canon PowerShot, because that's the vintage digital camera used by Kendall Jenner, and vintage digital is in now; perhaps my Volt Flip is worth more than a fully depreciated Volt now.
Andersen's is one of my favorite Colorado junkyards, because they get so many interesting old cars. I've found everything from a Vauxhall Victor Estate to a 1949 Willys "Jeep" truck there.
I have decorated my new junkyard toolbox with mid- and post-GM-bankruptcy UAW stickers from GM cars, as one does.
I reviewed the first-generation of Volt and found it to be gratifyingly cheap to operate but with some annoying design flaws.
My system of shooting a junkyard car is to get stills of the interior and engine compartment first, then walk around and get exterior shots from all angles. With the Volt Flip, it's like living in the future!
I already have a junkyard-obtained Prius battery cooling fan to vent my garage using cheap solar panels, and I considered buying this one from the Volt (but ended up passing on it).
I wonder if any of the Chevy salesmen giving away Flips to the lucky early Volt adopters imagined that one day they'd be used to film used-up Volts.
Nearby, I found this amazingly nice 1977 Dodge Colt sedan, which I'll write about in the near future. I tell you what, image stabilization is our friend!
[Images and video: The Author]
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Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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28-Junkyard-Finds Later meets the Blair Witch Project.
Thanks - was waiting to see these come up as Junkyard Finds. Would be curious to know what happened to it. I had a '12 Volt that was both my best and worst car ownership experience. Great car - loved the electric powertrain - sadly ruined as the battery started to fail. Erratic driving behaviour - battery performance slowly decreasing as engine took over and revved unusually high - especially in cold weather. Dealers were incompetent when it came to EV diagnostics. Couldn't be trusted to run EV SW updates or root cause issues. Quoted $24,500 to replace the battery with no timeline and likely salvaged components. Disappointed that GM couldn't stand behind its EV products with service parts - hopefully won't see the same for Gen2 Volt, Bolt or newer EV customers, but I doubt it.