You're welcome! Yeah, I can definitely understand, if it's just a generally crappy design then spending time and money to fix it might not be appealing.

Snipping and soldering wire is actually pretty doable, you'll be pleasantly surprised I think. The absolutely foolproof solution is these "solder seal wire connectors" - this cool new invention where you just stick the two wires in a tube, heat it with a lighter, and bam, you have a waterproof/insulated/solidly done connection. You can buy those on Amazon for pennies apiece: https://www.amazon.com/120PCS-Solder-Seal-Wire-Connectors/dp/B07S62KYSL/

If you're looking for the easiest and fastest way to make solid, reliable connections - this is definitely it. Takes maybe 60 seconds to learn how to use them, and then you can make connections quickly and easily. To cut and strip the wires you'll want a wire stripper, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/WGGE-Professional-crimping-Multi-Tool-Multi-Function/dp/B073YG65N2 - the video also gives an example of how to use it, also very simple to use (put the wire in the hole, close strippers, pull.)

Soldering is a bit more of a time investment (depending on how fast you learn and from who, you can learn to make semi-okay solder connections in between an hour and a day.) I'd recommend asking a friend to help show you how in person, but there are plenty of online guides that are decent. This guide is almost a bit too detailed and makes it seem a bit trickier than it is, but it's fairly decent: https://log.andie.se/post/4529161438/soldering-is-easy-the-comic-book The key is really just 1) decent soldering iron ($20 on Amazon will get a decent one), 2) decent solder (absolutely not lead-free solder, always start with 60/40 lead rosin-core), 3) a bit of patience.

Good luck, and feel free to ask if you have any more questions - I'm happy to help.

Can't find the original post, but looking through my eBay history, these were the parts I ordered:

• https://www.ebay.com/itm/374251716700 (Female 7443 socket that fits into the tail light housing. Even though the Volt uses 7440 bulbs, only the brown 7443 sockets will fit. 7443 bulbs are the same size as 7440 but have extra pins, so you'll need to cut off the red/blue wire and cap it with some heat shrink)
• https://www.ebay.com/itm/394315693134 (male 7440 plug that plugs into the existing socket)
• https://www.ebay.com/itm/252828141931 (150ohm 3W resistor)

You'll have to make up an adapter for only one side. You're going to connect the black wire from the plug and the green/yellow wire from the socket to one end of the resistor and connect the red wire from the plug and the black/white wire from the socket to the other end of the resistor.

The end results are going to look something like this, but with a tan connector instead of a grey one, a black/white wire instead of the red/blue one, and a much smaller (and cooler) resistor.

If you have a soldering iron I would just solder the connections and cover the whole resistor and the solder joints with some 3:1 marine adhesive-lined heat shrink (I use this set from Harbor Freight). If you don't know how to solder you can use something like this and a heat gun to make the connectors on each end of the resistor and then cover the whole thing in heat shrink or electrical tape.