When thinking of subcompact cars, General Motors in general and Chevrolet in particular don’t usually spring to mind. GM has struggled with its small car program since Chevrolet abandoned the Corvair in 1969.
Its Vega of the early 1970s had an all-aluminum engine that would seize up at the drop of a hat. In the heyday of GM’s small car effort — resulting from the oil crisis of the same decade — it offered the Pontiac Phoenix, Oldsmobile Omega and Chevrolet Citation. GM was so inexperienced at building little cars, they were hopelessly unreliable.
The Chevrolet Chevette of the 1980s wasn’t much better. In an attempt to redeem itself, GM offered a rebadged Suzuki for its brand (Geo) within a brand (Chevrolet) and called it the Metro — an underpowered bucket of bolts that donned the Chevrolet bowtie in 1998 when the Geo brand was dumped. The Metro should have been flushed with it.
Chevrolet’s latest subcompact effort is a giant leap forward from any little car it marketed in the past. It’s the Aveo and it comes courtesy of the GM-owned Daewoo. Aimed directly at the underbelly of Hyundai and Kia, Aveo is a respectable entry in the $10,000-to-$12,000 segment dominated by these two brands.
How does Aveo stack up against the more popular entries in the segment? Pretty well. In terms of driveability and comfort, it outshines the Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio. Its price is also in the ballpark with these bargain-basement runabouts. Chevrolet has even made it competitive in the area of warranties where Aveo would have been at a disadvantage if it came with the usual three-year/36,000 mile Chevrolet warranty. Instead Aveo will have a six-year/60,000 mile warranty comparable to the warranties of its two key competitors.
Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Italdesign penned the exterior lines of both the sedan and hatchback.
Chevrolet provided a hatchback for this test. It is a tall five-door with well-defined wheel openings, short overhangs fore and aft and a gently sloping hood. The rear end with its large, jewel tail lamps and subtle spoiler (optional) located over the rear glass is actually better looking than the front.
There are three — Special Value, Base and LS — trim levels. The five-door tested here was an LS. All Aveos come with daytime running lamps, tilt steering wheel, 60/40-split folding rear seat, AM/FM stereo, intermittent wipers and a rear wiper (hatchback only). Spending an additional $1,500 or so for the Base version gets you air conditioning and carpeted floor mats. Add another grand to the bottom line for the LS with power windows and door locks, remote keyless entry, heated outboard mirrors, passenger-side power outboard mirror, upgraded seat fabric, and a CD player with MP3 playback. Key options include antilock brakes, four-speed automatic transmission, power sunroof and upgraded audio system. You can get into a five-door LS with antilock brakes for under $13,000 including destination charge.
Powering both the sedan and hatchback is a 1.6-liter inline four-cylinder engine. It has dual overhead cams and 16 valves. Its 103 horsepower and 107 foot-pounds of torque won’t exactly set the asphalt ablaze, but acceleration is respectable. The standard five-speed manual transmission shifts smoothly while helping the driver keep the revs up where the power is. Fuel economy is solid, earning the Aveo an Environmental Protection Agency miles-per-gallon rating of 27 in the city and 35 on the highway.
The power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering delivers a quick response to changes in the helm. MacPherson struts and a stabilizer bar up front, and a semi-independent torsion beam axle in the rear are the suspension’s main components. It provides a fairly comfortable ride — particularly for a subcompact.
Capable of holding five passengers, the Aveo is better suited to four — especially if the four are adults. The middle rear seat position doesn’t have a headrest. While legroom in the rear is a little cramped, it’s in character for this segment. There is plenty of headroom, though, and front-seat occupants will be quite comfortable. The tidy instrument panel is neatly arranged with easy-to-use controls and switches. The audio controls are placed high up in the center of the dashboard, requiring the driver to divert a minimum of his attention from the road when making adjustments. Only three knobs are required to operate the ventilation system.
The front seats are supportive and the upgraded fabric in the LS is attractive. The rear seat is a bit hard, but livable. A fair amount of sound-deadening material has been stashed throughout the Aveo. It manages to minimize both engine and road noise seeping into the cabin. It’s not Camry-quiet, but less noise than expected makes its way inside.
A decent little car, Aveo can go toe-to-toe with anything in its segment. Smart styling, solid engineering and a sensible price tag make it a contender. Base price of the LS is $12,045. Adding the $540 destination charge as well as another $625 for antilock brakes and rear spoiler brought the price as tested to $13,210.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.