NHTSA Complaint #11438705 — 2012 CHEVROLET VOLT

While traveling slowly (about 25mph) on an uphill grade, my Volt suddenly, with no warning messages or other alerts to me, lost propulsion, power brakes and power steering. This car is extremely hard to steer and to brake without the power assists, so I really had to wrestle with the wheel to avoid losing control of the car, and I really had to jam on the brake pedal to get it to a stop, even though I was moving slowly and had a gravity assist from the uphill slope. It seems to me an event such as I experienced could be catastrophic if it occurred at high speed, and / or on a steep downhill slope or a street with a lot of traffic. Incidentally, when this happened I had just turned onto a side road from a highway with lots of traffic moving at 60-80 miles an hour on a slope so steep that in spite of numerous warning signs, accidents, including fatal accidents, occur regularly on this section of the highway due to drivers failing to apply their brakes hard enough or early enough to keep the car on the road. As a result I felt like I had barely escaped with my life, only as a result of a sudden whim that entered my head to leave the highway for the scenic side road. It may also be relevant that the incident occurred directly after I picked up the car from the Chevy dealer following repair for another incident where I lost propulsion, power brakes, and power steering - the difference being that the car was stationary during the previous incident. The photo shows the electrical connections that the dealer ultimately determined were responsible for the second (Oct. 20) incident, and maybe the first as well. These terminals are enclosed, and not visible to the car owner, even with the hood lifted. Checking the terminals is not part of any maintenance recommended in the owner's handbook, nor apparently in the standard service procedures, even when a car comes in with symptoms that could be caused by a loose connection, even after replacing the 12V battery, as they did.