In my last post I mentioned that I was driving a Chevy Aveo as a rental when I had my CRV in the body shop for repairs.  My Honda has power windows, 6 disc cd changer, sunroof, everything but navigation.  Because I very intelligently elected not to have rental car coverage on my insurance, I had to pay for all of it myself.  My car was going to be in the shop for about 3 weeks which was really going to add up to a nice bill for the rental so I asked for the cheapest car they had.  Hello Aveo.

Before I go on, I don't want to insult anyone out there driving this thing.  I mean, it got good gas mileage, it's affordable, and lets face it, today people are hurting more financially than our generation can remember so there is nothing wrong with owning a Chevy Aveo.  Gulp.

 

 

 Photo courtesy of Edmunds.com  www.Edmunds.com

 

Let me tell you a little story that takes me back about 6 or 7 years ago.  I was in a bar, a pretty popular one, and while I was in the middle of a game of Golden Tee, the bartender came over the intercom and this is what he said: "attention everyone, the guy who own's the blue Kia Sophia in the parking lot....pause...pause....(I'm thinking lights are on) forget it buddy, you ain't getting laid tonight cause you're driving a BLUE KIA SOPHIA".  This was probably the most profound and hilarious thing I ever heard in my entire life.

 

I digress...

 

Back to the Aveo.  Everything in it was manual except the transmission.  Manual seats, crank windows (did you hear me, I said crank windows), manual side mirrors, the hvac vents were ridiculous and let me tell you about the radio; amazingly it had a cd player, but you know in most normal cars both FM 1 & 2 and AM have 6 preset settings equaling 18 settings?  Well, the Aveo had 6 preset settings for all three, equaling 6 fricking settings! For three weeks I had my choice of six stations between FM and AM and I think I got tennis elbow changing the dial to all the other stations when I ran out of presets.

  

When the fan was on speed 3 or higher a buzzing noise came out

of the dashboard that was so high pitched I wanted to throw up; and to top it all off, I had this pimp ride during Chicago's first snow storm.  Ugh!

 

When I opened the trunk to put my Christmas presents that I just bought in it, there was an exposed spare tire with no tray or covering over it.  I had to place my bags right on top of the the tire.  There were no power locks which meant I had to reach across to unlock the passenger doors and then remember to lock them again when I got out.

 

In all, this was the worst car I've ever drove, and trust me, I driven plenty.  I mean, I understand there is a need for a $9k vehicle that barley has A/C in it, but I wouldn't recommend to anyone who's has had the luxury of power windows or locks in the past decade to rush out and buy this thing.  I would at the least recommend buying a 6 or 7 year old Honda civic that is fully loaded with like 75k miles on it before buying a brand new Chevy Aveo.  Trust me, you'll get your money's worth that way.

 

Love, the car guy.