Met an unhappy Aveo owner today

[TheDon]

my step dad bought the 5 door liftback when it first came out, of course with the 5 speed. He has been getting 39-40 in it since day one

[greenitup]

i was wondering why the fe rating was sooooo low, 24 is pretty small city for a car of it's size. would be better off with yaris lower msrp and better fe.

[homeworkhome53]

"would be better off with yaris lower msrp and better fe." I don't know where you are shopping, but when I looked into a Yaris the msrp was $4000+ more than an Aveo. Yes, the Yaris has a better EPA mpg, But turning in my aveo for what may or may not be better mpg with a $4000 penalty? I don't see many yaris owners beating my mpg. Last 3 tanks over 50mpg. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"

homeworkhome53

[greenitup]

Originally Posted by homeworkhome53

"would be better off with yaris lower msrp and better fe." I don't know where you are shopping, but when I looked into a Yaris the msrp was $4000+ more than an Aveo. Yes, the Yaris has a better EPA mpg, But turning in my aveo for what may or may not be better mpg with a $4000 penalty? I don't see many yaris owners beating my mpg. Last 3 tanks over 50mpg. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"

homeworkhome53

2008 Toyota Yaris | New Toyota Coupes — Yahoo! Autos 2008 yaris msrp $11,550 - $14,650
2008 Chevrolet Aveo | New Chevy Sedans — Yahoo! Autos aveo msrp $12,170 - $13,920

they are both 2008's 2009 yaris wasn't listed yet.
the yaris can be had for lower but also has a bigger range, but that may be because of extra options chevy doesn't offer.

[IndyIan]

When the first Aveo came out in Canada it was rated only .1L/100km better that the midsize Malibu... Now I see that the Aveo is rated lower, so maybe they've changed the gearing a bit or something. I shouldn't criticize people who got one but it seemed to be a car for people who didn't do their homework if you actually bought one anywhere near MSRP. As posted above, getting a small car for $4000 less buys alot of gas and makes a much smaller payment so maybe getting the Yaris of a Fit isn't such a no brainer.

The really sad part is that Suzuki is selling the Aveo as their Swift here instead of bringing over the real Swift. It is supposed to be many times the car that the Aveo is. I guess us north americans are not capable of appreciating a good small car...

[Whoops]

I think it's more of a marketing/dollar revenue issue. My impression is that in the U.S. and to some extent Canada, they car manufacturers largely are moving in a implicit direction of putting the 4 speed automatic, torque lockup into larger vehicles with taller gearing/lower final drives, while leaving the smaller cars with less tall/higher final drives, either for torque response.

Ultimately the overall direction is to create, largely, a circumstance where they can still sell SUV's or larger vehicles because they are finally moving them towards getting better effectiveness and by their manipulation of the market, there isn't as large a gap between them and smaller vehicles. Since they can charge more, they can make more $.

[akcapeco]

The general scuttlebutt is that the Aveo gets lousy mileage.

Contrast that with homeworkhome53; he gets better mileage in his Aveo than I get in my Metro 1.3L, 5 speed.

There was a fellow on GMinsidenews.com named Wolfman who also mileage well over 40mpg regularly.

It's all very anecdotal, but at least its fair to say it's possible to get decent mileage with an Aveo.

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted by Whoops

I think it's more of a marketing/dollar revenue issue. My impression is that in the U.S. and to some extent Canada, they car manufacturers largely are moving in a implicit direction of putting the 4 speed automatic, torque lockup into larger vehicles with taller gearing/lower final drives, while leaving the smaller cars with less tall/higher final drives, either for torque response.

Ultimately the overall direction is to create, largely, a circumstance where they can still sell SUV's or larger vehicles because they are finally moving them towards getting better effectiveness and by their manipulation of the market, there isn't as large a gap between them and smaller vehicles. Since they can charge more, they can make more $.

I get this impression too, especially now that many SUV's are basically cars, or the wagon version of a midsize car. It is a way to charge $15k more for $3,000 of equipment.
I think this is why more people are buying smaller imports as well, GM, Chrysler, and Ford would really have you buy one of their SUV's instead of small car and I think it shows in the quality of their small cars.
Also it was so sad during the NHL playoffs, Ford payed big bucks for premium ad time and played the same stupid Ford Super Duty truck ad 100's of times when gas prices were going through the roof... How many people watching need to tow 20000lbs? How many wish they could get better mileage tomorrow on the way to work?
If they sell 2000 of those trucks in Canada they will be lucky, meanwhile their Focus sales are being destroyed by Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, KIA even...

[Tony Raine]

bigger tires to make all the gears a little higher? (plus recalibrate speedometer)


for example, changing from (stock) 28.9" tire to a 31" tire "changed" my axle ratio from 3.73:1 to 3.48:1. drops the rpm's about 250 going down the road at the same speed

[mfor4x4]

I find this article very interesting as I bought a 06 aveo to replace my 97 metro. My aveo is going to cost me around $3000 less when I am done rebuilding it, it was a total loss car before I had it. I work for a large auto salvage yard and have found out by running vin numbers through the local GM dealership final drive ratios for a possible swap out of gears. A Chevy optra has final drive ratio of 3.56 compared to an Aveo's 3.94 I am going have to wait though until I can try them out in core transmissions before I will try them out in a good one. I'm sure that that swap would help with my fuel mileage.