7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
More car for the money than I thought.
Date of Review: Sep 25, 2005
The Bottom Line: Good value for the money. Good quality. Quiet. Roomy. Fairly economical. Will haul big items. Look at the Aveo before spending the extra money on a Toyota Echo.
I bought the hatchback model recently and immediately took a thousand mile trip with it.
I had no prior knowledge of Aveo but I had been looking for a new and cheap car with an automatic transmission for some time. It had to be a hatchback. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Aveo.
It has an impressive array of standard features. Fog lights, disk player, tachometer, and block heater. With all the discounts the car was $13,300.00 Canadian.
I expected the usual small car performance, noise, and poor ride. I really did not care - I wanted economy. I was pleasantly surprised with the good quality of this car.
The exterior fit and finish is good, almost great. The interior is well done with nice instrumentation. The driver's seat is excellent. The car is very easy to get in and out of due to the high cabin and headroom is not a problem for tall people. We were able to load a compact washing machine into the hatchback much to the surprise of the salesman. Definitely a good car for hauling this and that!
Driving the car turned out to be a treat. Power is decent but not exhilarating. Steering is positive and not overly touchy as I have noticed in other small cars. There is some lean in hard cornering. The ride is very good. Bumps are absorbed well. I was amazed at how quiet the car was on the highway with very little engine or wind noise. Cross winds do affect the Aveo more so than other cars I have had, probably due to its light weight and tallness.
I have yet to find anything wrong with the car. No little rattles and no flaws that would require warranty attention. The only thing I dislike about the car is the hold button. They should have put it on the shift lever instead of on the console. You do need to use "hold" quite a bit to get any kind of performance from the car. I'm not saying the car is gutless. It has decent power at 103 hp. Like any economy car, performance is not stellar especially with an automatic transmission. The Aveo has a four speed automatic transmission. It seems reluctant to shift down when it should hence the need for using the hold button. It really isn't a bother once you get used to it.
It is not the most economical car in its class. Honda civics, Toyota Corollas and Echoes do better. It still has decent ratings of 44 mpg on the highway and 30 mpg in the city. Canadian gallons of course. The cost difference between my Aveo and a Echo with the same equipment would have been about $4000.00. I will take the 4 grand instead of the seven miles to the gallon.
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