I will always have a soft, nostalgic spot for GM’s Chevy brand of cars. Looking back on my teenage years, rolling around Toronto, ON in my ’93 Chevy Cavalier RS; I thought I was a bad-ass taking names. I experienced many-a-party, wasted gas, and of course, my makeshift CD player made from a converted tapedeck - hoping and praying the songs wouldn’t skip when I hit a bump. Phone calls weren’t even a thought, let a lone worrying about Bluetooth wireless connection and the fine associated with not using them - again, that was 2001, things were A LOT different.

Now, fast forward to 2012: Cars are flying, Bluetooth comes embedded at birth, and Unlimited data isn’t a taboo subject with the big 3 carriers. Alright, I embellished a little bit, none of the aforementioned is true, but things have come a long way since the tape deck era; especially what Chevy is doing with their cars.

I could go on and talk about all the great features of the Volt, like it’s green thinking ways, its rechargeable battery, or how cool it looks on the inside - but those features speak for themselves (and I am not a car blogger, I’m a cellular one). What I will do, however, is talk about how intuitive its media functionality is and, more importantly, how well the Bluetooth is integrated.

Setup, Functionality and Usability:

Never have I had an easier time connecting my phone to a car. Period.

From selecting “Bluetooth” from my phone, automatically a “Your Car” notification popped up in the devices section. Wow. Who would think that GM would be the first to stray from the standard “yx77and - 9979″ generic Bluetooth name to something, well, recognizable. Within 30 seconds my phone was connected and the notorious Bluetooth logo was glowing subtly at the top right corner of the screen (as you can see above). Before I even had the chance to check into my iPod or contact list, my phone rang and I was ready to try out my first call.

Ironically enough the call was from my father, the biggest Bluetooth critic I’ve ever dealt with.

Instead of immediately warning him of the test, I decided to go on with the call like normal. We chatted, laughed, discussed life, love and of course, fine wines - you know the usual father-son deep conversation. Things seemed to be going great, until I said: “hey, Dad, by the way, you’re on speaker phone. I am testing the Bluetooth on the Chevy Volt and you’re my first call”.

The line went silent.

Dad? Dad?

“Yeah Corey, I’m here, just a bit shocked. Seemed like you were talking right from your phone”.

You see, this all happened as I was driving, GPS running and all. My father was none-the-wiser and I was pleasantly surprised with how well the call came through; no choppiness, no dropping, no questions. Brilliant.

Now that the call was over, I headed on over to my iPhone to check out the A2DP usability.

Easy as pie, I was able to navigate my way through the menu to my music and playlists. Even Rdio - my streaming service of choice -worked flawlessly; the album art showed up on the dash-installed touchscreen like it was pre-installed there.

Overall:

In the week I had the Volt, I was pleasantly surprised with how well Chevy did with the media and Bluetooth integration. It works like a charm, and adds that much more to the driving experience.

Learn more about the Chevy Volt via GM.ca here