Chevrolet Aveo Sedan

iluvmysephia1

Enterprise Rental Car in Rolla, MO. It was a silver 4-door sedan, very neat and unassuming looking. Almost looks a hair like a 4-door Ford Focus, but much better. I have seen very few of the 5-door hatchbacks out on the road in Missouri so far.

bigdaddycoats

http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0404/02/autos-110210.htm

muffin_man

That's fantastic. I'm looking forward to the side impact tests. They probably won't be as good w/out side airbags. But I bet they'll be decent.

pulgo

That's excellent, considering the low weight. Same ratings as the VW Golf/Jetta which are considered very good in this class.

backy

While the Aveo's frontal crash test results are excellent for its class, they should not be compared to cars in other weight classes, e.g. the Golf/Jetta, according to the NHTSA. Side crash results can be compared across classes because the same test sled is used for all of those tests.

muffin_man

MSRP $12,215
Discount $3216
Factory Rebate $1000
Net cost to you! $7999 (w/AC, not an SVE)

Yes, this ad does say 2 at this price, but as I have done twice before when buying these VIN specific cars, I am positive that I could get it.

fastdriver

muffin_man-

What state/country does this ad appear?

fastdriver

bigdaddycoats

That seems like a heck of a bargain! I saw a bright blue Aveo sedan on the road yesterday - very sharp.

jchan2

I saw a silver one sitting on a dealer's lot next to a TrailBlazer. Looks sharp next to the huge Black and not as good looking SUV.

muffin_man

Los Angeles, California

I don't want or need a new car, but those ads are calling me. it's almost like an obsesion!

fastdriver

muffin_man-

Thanks. You would think that since CA has the highest gas prices in the nation, Aveos, Priuses, Kias, Hyundais and that Honda thing would be selling like wildfire. Then again, with all the big stars and movie moguls and pony-tailed, Ray-Ban wearing studio workers out there, I guess they can afford those prices. I feel sorry for the average worker out there.

fastdriver

mht_in_la

With your research and negotiation skills, I think you should try higher end cars. In fact, the higher you go, the more you save. With Aveo you can only save a few thousands. Why limit yourself? With a higher end luxury car, you must be able to save more than $10,000!!

jchan2

sounds possible if you're buying a year end closeout of an Acura RL or Infiniti I35 or some other unpopular luxury car.

dispencer1

Actually I wonder what the cost of gas would have to be before there is a real switch to economical vehicles. I think that most people simply think the high prices are due to greed on the part of the oil companies and as soon as there is enough fuss the prices will go down again as they always do. I think this is why you don't see a huge fire sale of SUVs, Town Cars, etc. Actually Cadillacs, Lincolns, etc. do very well well on the road. My LeSabres always got better mileage than most of the Camrys. My Deville gets 28-30 on the road but is terrible in town. I would think that an Aveo or the competition would be great commuters and as long as I had something decent to drive on the road for trips I'd get one in a heartbeat.

backy

I saw one study recently that said gas would have to top $3.00 a gallon before people would switch in large numbers to more fuel-efficient vehicles. Realize that in historical terms, gas prices are pretty low in the U.S. They were much higher in say, 1980, taking inflation into account. Maybe if gas prices here matched those in most of the rest of the world, that would cause a change in behavior.

muffin_man

I'm going to assume that you are being sarcastic, even though I do see lots of higher end car with discounts like that.

Sounds like you didn't get as good a deal on your car as you should have. Howabout this, let's go to a dealership together and see if I can't get you a new one for the prices that I quoted. We're both in LA, if I fail, we can come right back to this forum, and you can ridicule me forever - I will deserve it.

I can't wait until gas goes through the roof, I can't wait until people have to actually think about the fuel-factor of their automotive purchases. The only problem is, I would rather that the increase come from taxes that go straight to education, or public transportation, or something like that. Too bad that any increase will probably just end up fattening some corporate pockets.

jchan2

the used car market will be filled with SUVs and not have a single used little Civic, Accent, Corolla, Rio, Aveo....

fdanna

I'm not so sure Americans would forgo their SUVs so quickly. I think the people that can afford to drive around in $35 to $60k SUVs will not really care, or rather, will not care enough to even dream of letting go of their precious land yachts.

People who are on tighter budgets who might have splurged for an SUV, not thinking of gas costs, will be FORCED to give them up or have them taken away. It's not a good situation.

The real pain will be felt by everyone in the high costs of basically EVERYTHING.

The only plus would be that everyone would blame Bush and he'd be booted out of office :-) Woohoo!

muffin_man

Why stop at $3 a gallon? I want to see .6 liter Japanese style K-cars in the streets!

jchan2

maybe $7.50 a gallon?

muffin_man

Let's not get carried away now, you don't want me to have to ride the bus, do you?

backy

Our bus drivers have been on strike for over a month with no signs of settlement. May be lots of people out shopping here for inexpensive wheels, like the Aveo. Maybe that's why my local dealer can't seem to keep any in stock.

jchan2

at least that price will get that huge honking Excursion out of the driveway of the neighbors down the street.

iluvmysephia1

better without the Excursion anyway, eh? Imagine a neighborhood where EVERY house had either an Aveo 4-door sedan or Aveo 5-door hatchback sitting in the driveway! Now we're talking great automobile times, boys!

jchan2

not to mention another neighbor has a Pathfinder, yet another drives a Navigator, and another neighbor drives a Blazer. Oh yeah, the guys accross the street have a Grand Cherokee. Yes, the street would look better without the SUVs hogging the driveway.

bigdaddycoats

The following is from this site -

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/NCAP/Cars.cfm

"Since the test reflects a crash between two similar vehicles, make sure you compare vehicles from the same weight class, ± 250 lbs., when looking at frontal crash protection ratings".

So following this guideline, the Aveo is comparable to the Civic (2449 lbs., sedan) and many other small cars.
Aveo sedan - 2503
Focus sedan - 2586
Lancer - 2646
Cavalier sedan - 2676

What is my point? I don't know, just thought I would through this out there.

bigdaddycoats

http://www.mpt.org/motorweek/reviews/rt2324.shtml

backy

The Aveo showed well. But it's a mystery to me why they decided to compare three subcompacts to a compact (Forenza). Why not throw the Rio into the mix if they wanted to compare four similarly-sized and priced cars?

dispencer1

I can't understand all the Excursion knocking. All the car is is an F-250 extended cab with a body over the pickup bed. Nobody gripes about the F-250. I wonder why the Excursion is a big deal. My daughter has one - she has 5 children - and she has a diesel. They get mileage well into the 20's on the road. If I were going to make a cross country trip, I'd much prefer to be in an Excursion than an Aveo. Any debate is apples and oranges. Why not compare the Queen Mary 2 to a chris craft? It makes about as much sense.

iluvmysephia1

more for the purpose of highlighting the fact that the Excursion is just another example of big 'ole Detroit framework in a fresh, expensive getup for a large wad of cash and not enough personality to show for it.

It's a good example of an expensive, tasteless box with very little body design integrity that every soccer mom just has to have. It's also a snotty example of American waste and overkill. Other than that, spend away with abandon. I'd way rather have a Chevrolet Aveo, in a hatchback or sedan.

orallen

Hi. This car fits me perfectly. Great Looks, new styling, decent gas mileage. But.... I test drove one today and I found myself sliding out of the seat when going around curves, like the seat doesn't support me enough. I also notice that there is not an arm rest in the middle, so that was a bit annoying. I like this car a lot, but since I had these two issues, I decided not to buy one today. FYI.

jchan2

If I had five kids, I'd buy a nice sized Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna. Maybe even a full sized conversion van. I'm sure any of the vans I mentioned above could at least manage 26 MPG on the highway, WITHOUT a diesel engine.

jchan2

I'd prefer an Aveo to an Excursion any day.

iluvmysephia1

I have a question for you. When you were rounding the turns were you also pushing the accelerator down and speeding up? Because that's what it sounds like you were doing. Maybe not, though. Has anyone else experienced this while driving an Aveo sedan or hatch? It's possible the seats are built too lean on the sides. I know, for example, that in my '01 Kia Sportage 4x4 body lean can be pronounced as we round tight turns especially if we head into a turn a little too quickly. In the Sport I have to keep speeds down on turns to avoid tipping, as you know, because it's a mini-ute. My point being that the Sportage's seats are built strongly up the sides and we stay snugly in them come what may as we turn and straighten out.
    
   To experience falling a tad out of your seat in a new Aveo is kinda odd. Did you test-drive an Aveo sedan or hatch, orallen?

dispencer1

I agree with you completely. I have no interest in an econobox Aveo but I have a Silhouette van that holds my daughter's five kids just fine and rides like a car - gets mileage in the mid 20's on the road. Her husband, who likes dirt bikes and drives locomotives, had to have 4 wheel drive for some unknown reason. I agree that a van is lots more practical, but when you think of the Excursion as an F-250 with seats -it doesn't seem so impractical -it is just another big truck that is good to tow a heavy trailer with.

jchan2

that most people buy it as a substitute for a minivan, and they're likely to never tow with it and could have gotten by with a minivan. For the very few people that actually tow AND need passenger space, the Excursion is the way to go.

dispencer1

I agree -it holds more people than a crew cab. My son in law has a big Hallmark trailer that he uses to take dirt bikes to motocross events. He needs the Excursion. It also has a DVD player which keeps the kids quiet. For the group - Has anyone driven an Accent and directly compared it to an Aveo? The Accent is more conservative looking -I liked the one I rented once .

jchan2

if you've rented one once, please tell us your opinion of the Accent.

orallen

Hi, I think you're right, the Aveo may have more roll or lean than I expected going round a curve. I tested the Hatchback, a silver one. It feels roomy inside, much like a Focus I had. The focus held me more securely in the seat though than the Aveo. I may test drive it again, could have just been that one time. I like the looks a lot on this car.... I prefer buying an American make even though this is made by Daewoo.

iluvmysephia1

the hatchback. I prefer it over the Aveo sedan. I saw a red Aveo hatchback in the back of my local Chevy dealer last night. That's the first red hatchback I've seen. I wanna tell you guys, that is one decent looking little import now! The slanting taillights with the red taillights on red bodycolor looked VERY appealing to me. Daewoo did a fine job with this little cub!
   orallen-report back any more test-drive results with Aveo's, OK?

fastdriver

Just got a fax that my LS was scheduled for production on 3/27- the day before my birthday! It is slated for delivery between 4/12 and 4/21!

Can't wait as the gas prices keep climbing higher here in CT although not as high as CA which really surprises me because NOTHING is cheap in CT even with our two generous Indian casinos!! Now, I can just keep the Acura CL-S in the garage during the week and use it on the weekends! ;-))

Looks as if it has everything on it that was scheduled for late Spring availability- power sunroof, theft deterrent/engine immobilizer and 6-speaker premium sound system.

Stay tuned! Pictures will follow ASAP! ;-)

fastdriver

bigdaddycoats

ummm.. You mean that it will be built and delivered half way around the world in less than a month? Did you mean 5-12? Let us know when you get it. What color?

dispencer1

For jchan2 - My LeSabre broke a plastic fitting on the radiator (on Saturday of course) in Albuquerque -214 miles from home. I nursed it to Firestone but the part had to come from a GM dealer and everything was closed. Rather than spend two more nights in Albuquerque I rented an Accent and drove home that afternoon and back on Monday. The car was totally unremarkable - handled well, was fairly quiet, comfortable, seat , legroom, headroom, was ok and the car got good gas mileage. I could have driven it across the country. Absolutely nothing to gripe about and I'm not a subcompact driver. I really like bigger cars and am fairly picky. It was fairly basic inside - can't remember if it had power windows. I know it had air which worked well and automatic which No cruise control of course and the radio was OK - peobably had four speakers. The nice thing about it was that it all fit together well - enough pickup to pass someone if you judged distances adequately and went up hills without sounding like it was under a strain.
If we had a Hyundai dealer here I would seriously consider one. I would certainly get one over an Aveo because it looks more normal and has a far better warranty.

alpha01

PLUS, the Accent has very desirable head/chest side airbags standard for driver and passenger. Have to say though, the Aveo at the NY Auto Show drew no complaints from me, interior wise, given the price. Driving experience is of course a different story, and I have not yet driven one.

~alpha

fastdriver

bigdaddycoats-

Paperwork said "estimated delivery date 4-12-04 to 4-21-04".

I guess I'll know soon enough. The color is Galaxy Silver Metallic.

fastdriver

jchan2

Sounds good. Car And Driver reviews of the Aveo says that it was a decent car. Certainly better than the Kia Rio. Consumer Reports rated the Accent ABOVE the ION and Cavalier.

mht_in_la

Seems like I'm the only Aveo owner/driver in this thread. I just took my Aveo to a long trip to see how it performs. I put 1,300 miles on it in 5 days. In average I got 34.5 miles out of a gallon of gas. My daily commute is all city (no freeway) and I usually get 25 miles per gallon.

On the trip I kept it at 80 miles per hour for a few hours and it was fine (however if I have cruise control I'll be happier). I did notice if I follow a huge truck too closely or try to pass one, the wind created by the truck would shake my Aveo badly.

As to the sliding problem mentioned by earlier posts, I think it's caused by 2 reasons --
1. Aveo leans more than other cars when it curves. Maybe it's because Aveo's weight center is relatively high. It's quite noticable when compared with my old Camry.
2. The material Aveo uses on its seats are very smooth (not leather, but something very "silky"). Again I'm comparing this with my old Camry.

Sliding is not a problem for me since I drive conservatively. Also I put on a seat cover so it's not silky smooth anymore.

Finally, after driving my Aveo for more than 2 months, I still have not seen even 1 Aveo hatchback on the road (I see Aveo sedan very rarely). When I drive by my Chevy dealer I always take a peek at their inventory and it's empty. It seems Chevy is not pushing Aveo real hard.

muffin_man

Sounds like you are getting pretty good mileage. How many miles on your car now?

backy

IMO 25 mpg in the city and 34.5 mpg in the highway is not that good for this class of car. In an Elantra GT with only 300 miles on the engine (i.e. not broken in), I am getting 25 mpg in the city and over 35 on the only (short) freeway trips I've taken, and that car is heavier with a larger and more powerful engine. Other cars in the Aveo's class will easily get 30 in the city and near 40 on the highway. It seems to reinforce the point that the Korean car companies have a ways to go yet to match the best Japanese companies in engine efficiency.

fastdriver

mht_in_la-

Thanks for the update. Mine is STILL not in yet. I have not seen ONE on the road of any kind yet here in So. CT.

backy-

I think that mht_in_la might have gotten better gas mileage if he wasn't going 80! FWIW- the Toyota Prius gas/electric doesn't get the MPG that they advertise.

fastdriver