The Chevy Aveo RS, 138 hp turbo charged engine, could be interesting, depends on how it drives, it's built by Daewoo in S Korea...

 

Great! Another cheap, crappy car from Korea, via GM. Badge engineering at it's finest!

I've concluded that GM is simply incapable of either building or marketing a decent small car.

Their track record with medium and large cars isn't that good, either.

When GM finally goes belly-up, it won't be a mystery why.

 

Amen!

 

You guys are bagging on this with no supporting info. Have you ever really researched the ecotec blocks. The cobalts have the ecotecs in them and they are a very nice motor with a ton of aftermarket support. The are very capable of high amounts of hp. If they decide to do the 1.6l ecotec turbo I will be be giving up one of my cars and picking one up. Yes I said it! A chevy(as long as the block is very similar to the cobalt and not just a rebadged pos). If the motors have the same mounts and transmission pattern as the cobalts/ion this could be one insane car with a motor swap!

Revised: Lots of work for this motorswap. I dont believe the trans are the same so it would = a lot a work(mounts, electrical, ahh screw it too much to list).

 

The Ecotec engines are quite good, as the LSJ (2.0L S/C in the 2005-2007 Cobalt SS) and LNF (2.0 T/C in the '08+ Cobalt SS, Solstice GXP, etc) have shown.

However, I think some skepticism is warranted for a couple reasons:

1. This wouldn't be the first time GM put a good engine in a much-inferior vehicle... LS-series V8 into the FWD Grand Prix, for instance.

2. If the new Aveo is 100 times better than the current one, it'll still be several orders of magnitude worse than the competition.


I'm not saying the new Aveo WILL be a piece of junk, but I think some skepticism is legitimate and reasonable.

 

Chevy and Skippydog...get some *****, this only has 138 hp w/turbo. Could it possibly keep up with a stock Mini on the track...doubtfull.
I dont mean to diss on you Skippy personally..mostly for GM for trying. Keep with the new Camaro SS or the '62 Impala 409 for power or the '67 Z28 for some vintage road course action.

 

Yes, a great new small Chevy is just around the corner!

And has been, for 40 years!

Sorry, but GM has turned out so many awful small cars over so many generations that I just don't pay attention to their product anymore.

I may have no supporting info, but neither does GM.

 

What's funny is when I had my 1993 Suzuki Swift econobox (Geo Metro clone), it was more reliable than my MINI. Plus I use to take it down dirt roads ie. Rally style!!!! Don't knock a car because you are scared of what it might do to your MINI. As stated before, ecotec engines are awesome. I'd say much better than the prince and tritec engines in the MINIs.

 

I think if GM would just sit down, design, and build a good little car in-house it might just get it right. Decades of rebadging cheap cars from overseas has done irreparable damage. All they know how to do now is hold out their hand and beg for taxpayer handouts and hope the new Camaro saves the day... Which might...

 

My last car was a Saturn Ion, which had the 2.2L Ecotec. That engine drove me nuts. It revved like a tractor engine and was almost as responsive. It ran and ran and ran, but it was not much fun. The car around it was a POS too. I cannot tell you how many issues that thing had. I only had about 95k on it when I traded it in on my MCS, and I could not get rid of it fast enough. It had brake rotors that were prone to warping, a weird issue with the starter that prevented it from starting on some cold mornings, the clutch pedal actually broke, the front sway bar bushings had completely deteriorated so that the car made a thumping noise over every bump, and it squeaked and rattled like it was about to fall apart.

The real tragedy is that GM CAN make some great cars, just see the C6 Vettes, Caddy CTS, Ponitac G8, etc. But those cars are few and far between. While I would LOVE GM to make the best cars in the world, I just don't think it is going to happen. Thus, I view all GM vehicle releases with a large amount of skepticism.

 

This debate could go on and on against any Mini and any other vehicle. Some Minis have a lot of problems, others do not. Some Chevys have alot of problems, some do not.
My 2000 Blazer with a 4300 v6 is bullet proof but the car around it, with all the plastic, is falling apart.
I can only compare apples to apples in the same time frame. I will see if I have similar problems in the same time frame with my mini.

I had a 71 Datsun 240Z a couple of years ago, all original and never had a problem with it other than a universal joint in the rear end.
I'm sure everyone has had a vehicle with NO problems at one time or another.

 

I have to strongly disagree with you there. The Ecotec is not that great of an engine. There is more to being a great engine than making lots of power. The Prince in my MCS is much better than the turbo Ecotec. I drove that motor in the Saturn Sky Redline, and it had the same irritating driveabilty issues that the NA Ecotec does. It won't rev and it is not very responsive. I cannot imagine trying to drive that thing on a track. The Prince engine is a jewel in comparison.

 

Not all cars built in Korea are crap. Let's not diss Koreans.

 

ZR1....

 

You must have keep it less than a month or never drove it to only put 95,000 miles on it. If 95,000 is low "only" what do you consider high mileage?

 

Problem here is, even if GM did design and build a reasonable small car of their own, they still couldn't do it as cheaply as somebody who's already done it, especially a Korean company, and especially one that specializes in small cars. I'm ok with them importing and rebadging, but only if they (cough-cough) learn lessons from the past and do it right.

That being said, what I'm most afraid of is the version of the next-gen Aveo that actually hits the streets will be completely watered down from the show car in the OP's pics. Chevy is notorious for trying to make its small cars a be-everything-to-everybody option, which gives them absolutely no identity of their own and makes them everything we've gotten from GM so far: uninteresting and totally devoid of personality or identity. They use the scatter-gun marketing approach -- shoot it everywhere and hope to hit something -- instead of doing a little market research to figure out exactly who is most likely to buy a sub-sub-compact, and then target that market. That's just lazy, but it's how GM has always operated --at least with small cars, anyway.

There's nothing wrong with going after the MINI audience. If they bring out a car that's small, fun to drive and doesn't look like something you'd see in your grandparent's driveway, the car could catch some interest. If they offer some decent factory options, like a real sport package that honestly steps up handling, braking and performance, and keep it at a price that a part-time-working college age kid can almost afford, it might actually be successful.

But there are so many things fundamentally wrong with how not only GM, but all the American car companies build and market small cars. I would love to see a shift in philosophy from them, where people who buy small cars are not just considered 'those people who buy small cars', but rather people who do have a certain level of standards that happen to prefer them in a smaller package. But we all know their track record in this area; hence, the 'bagging'.

If they're suggesting that the next-gen Aveo is a new direction for small cars from an American brand, I'll believe it when I see it.

 

At the time that I had my old 1275 Mini Cooper S, I also had a brand new Chevrolet Vega station wagon. I'm the only person I know who had to regularly drive a MiniCoop to work because the "good" car wouldn't start.

 

Actually the "Badge engineering at it's finest" title would likely go to BMW.

 

If that Aveo drove like a Mini I would buy it. Reliability couldn't be any worse than Mini...

 

I got an Aveo5 stripper once as a loaner from the MINI dealership, let's just say I'd be looking out for the fit and finish and overall build quality on this one.

 

You all have to remember, They are required to have a certain amount of cars that get a certain amount of gas mileage. It's just easy for hem to be lazy and rebadge a foreign car. But on topic, I don't think this car is intended to compete with MINI. MINIs are niche cars and really are mostly in their own class.

 

Wow...let's see a $30K...Mini Cooper or New Camaro...Hmmm!

 

Mini, hands down....

Love GMs but can't get away from the fun factor driving the Mini.


I sold a supercharged convertible C5 to a friend of mine a few years ago. He doesn't drive it much (1500 miles in 2 years) and has offered to sell it back to me considerable less than what I sold it to him for.

I have refused on several occassions because simply said, the mini is my fun daily driver. I wouldn't imagine that would change because of a new camaro.

(however, we just did some paintwork on a 2010 camaro with heads and cams putting out 438rwhp... sounded great, just wouldn't be as fun to drive)


Mark

 

Plenty of small cars out there that will tote the note better than this one. In fact dead last in revies like this http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com...hevrolet_Aveo/
Mini have a narrow consumer base. Lots of folks think they are too expensive, small, whatever. They could be right, we just brought home a Venza, and it was only about 4K more than the Mini and very nicely equipped. It isn't a Mini though.

 

Guys...

That doesn't look anything remotely like a MINI.