Our Aveo experience

The van broke down; again, and so we had it towed into the shop Friday morning. They didn’t get it fixed so we rented a car. We didn’t want to spend the extra $4 for the weekend and went with the economy model.

When we pulled up to Hertz the only economy model was a Chevy Aveo. I said, “That’s our car and laughed.” Yolanda said, “Nooo.” I was thinking we could always upgrade. Unfortunately they where all sold out for the weekend and the Chevy Aveo was our car.

Now I thought it’s a 2011 surely Chevy has made some improvements in the small car area since the Chevette. I think they’ve gone backwards.

I read a quote I think it was from GM complaining about the small car market and basically saying American’s won’t buy small cars. But really American’s don’t buy American small cars because American car companies still have no idea how to build a small car.

Okay let me remind everyone that I have been driving small cars for as long as I have been driving. My first car was 1977 VW Rabbit, loved that car and am still a big VW fan. Overall I would say that my 1977 VW Rabbit was a better car then this 2011 Aveo.

At first sight it’s not too bad in fact it looks rather large on the outside. But I think Chevy has perfected the T.A.R.D.I.S. except haven’t figured out that it is better for the car to be bigger on the inside and smaller on the outside then big on the outside and small on the inside. It honestly looks bigger then the 1998 VW Jetta but it feels a whole lot smaller.

For the numbers the Aveo is slightly smaller then the Jetta. Its width is 66.1” campared to 66.7” for the Jetta. Wheel base is actually longer though at 97.6” vs. VW’s 97.4”And the Jetta is over all longer at 173.4” vs. Aveo’s 154.3”. In height the Aveo is 59.3” vs. the Jetta’s 56.1”. So these are cars are close to the same size. The Aveo weighs in at 2546 lbs verses the Jetta at 2590 lbs.

The Aveo with automatic transmission is rated at 27/35 the Jetta was rated at 24/31. I’ve gotten 34 on the highway in the past.

Engines: for the Jetta 2.0L I4 SOHC 8V FI Engine developing 115 h.p. and she uses every single one of them to good advantage. For the Aveo 1.6 L DOHC I4 16V developing 108 h.p. I think it has a couple of hamsters under there running on a tread mill.

I will say this at least Chevy is having Dawoo make the thing so that’s something. However, this car gets an F overall grade as a car. The wife said, “It’s a golf cart with a body.” I play golf I’ve been in nicer golf carts plus they are fun to drive. Aveo not so much.

It has no cruise control but power windows and power door locks, of a sort, and power mirrors. There two redeeming points it has plenty of head room, which you will need as the suspension seems to be tuned by the Amish for their buck boards, and an MP3 input for the stereo. You will need this as the radio cannot pick up any radio stations.

Everything about this car screams cheap. And at a base price of $12,000 I guess it is cheap except you can step into a used Jetta TDI for around that price and get about a 30% increase in fuel economy and a whole lot nicer car. The key feels cheap you can feel the door moving when you open and close the driver side window. The doors feel cheap as they open and shut with a comical clown like feel and sound. The horn fortunately is a manly sounding and one and I was quite surprised that the horn sounds so well coming from such a clown car.

The car does ride like a go-kart, bumpy as heck and unfortunately not as fun to drive. The huge A pillars create massive front blind spots.

I’m not really a GM fan but this car has convinced me that I am correct in avoiding GM products. If they can’t get one car right why should I believe they could get any car right. If this car had been built under the Government take over one might blame Washington on this fiasco of a car but alas this one is all GM’s.

The car does have great acceleration from 0-5 mph but after that I think the hamsters are over taxed. I’m still trying to figure out who the target audience is. Perhaps people who live within walking distance of work but want to say they own a car.

The other day I heard Click and Klack the car guys talking about how the Yugo was the worst car of the 20^th century. I think the worst car of the 21^st century will probably be the Chevy Aveo. Makes one long for the Geo Metro. Maybe if they come out with a convertible that will help.

I think if I was GM I wouldn't allow this to be a rental car and if I was a rental car company I would not be having this in my fleet. I have half a mind to ask for a refund from Hertz because we were way over charged to rent this thing.