I rescind my prior positive comments

UPDATE (8/8/2008): While dealers are not cars, they are an inevitable part of buying and living with a car, so I felt the need to provide an update on my trials with this vehicle and the dealership.

On May 20th, 2008 I initially took the car in to be diagnosed for a check engine warning, surging, bucking, and reduced power ("limp mode"). It is now August 8th and the dealership has tried and failed four times to fix the issue. They also worked on it one other time during the fiasco because they replaced the tank pressure sensor and destroyed the seal around it in the process, causing gas to leak all over the place when the car was fueled.

Frankly, at this point, I'm going to have to say that this is, far and away, the worst car I've ever personally owned. My experience with GM dealerships during the fiasco has been so infuriating that I've contacted a lawyer.

Avoid this car, and avoid GM dealerships in general. I'm a fan of American cars, but this disaster has just completely turned me off to GM vehicles forever. The car is a piece of junk, the dealership is horrendously frustrating, and GM has been of no use at all.

Just steer clear of the entire GM disaster.

------- Original review:

I previously wrote a review for the 2006 Aveo, but I've put some more mileage on the car and I need to provide a completely new outlook on the vehicle.

The Aveo is still a cheap car, it still gets approximately 30-35mpg in mixed driving, and it still drives about as you'd expect, but my opinion of its reliability is severely altered by recent experience.

First, an overview of the car.

As far as performance goes, it's about as good one can expect from a $12,000 vehicle. It has adequate power for merging and cruising at highway speeds with minimal effort, but the acceleration provided is nothing thrilling. The Aveo is a high-revving, light car, so speeding along a flat or downward-sloped onramp doesn't require a wing and a prayer, though you have to keep your gears low and your RPMs high when attempting to accelerate on hills or merge from an upward-sloping onramp. Once you're on the highway, the Aveo will cruise at 75mph without complaint, though be wary of bridges and windy days. The side of the car is broad and it's very light, plus the tires are narrow and the profile fairly high, so you lose a substantial amount of stability when being buffeted by wind. Even the draft off of semis will pitch the little car around in an unnerving way until you get used to it.

It handles, to be honest, poorly. Body roll is substantial, as is wheel hop. Taking turns at anything but a snail's pace requires you to carefully snake through the curve or suffer some substantial Gs as you're pushed toward the outer edge of the curve (and, as a result, the door of the car). The vehicle's wobbly body is bad enough that it frequently sets off bouts of nausea in my wife, though she's fairly sensitive to motion.

As far as comfort, it's adequate. The seats are supportive and high, and the driver and front passenger will have plenty of leg, shoulder, and headroom. At 5 foot 11 inches, I have plenty of excess space all around me in the driver's seat. The rear passengers, however, will be a little cramped, especially when it comes to legroom. Two adults will not be comfortable for any significant length of time in the back seat, though children should be fine.

The car is amazingly roomy, however, when it comes to hauling cargo. The trunk is both spacious AND generous with its entryway. While some vehicles have a spacious trunk with a narrow mouth that blocks your ability to push in objects that would otherwise fit, the Aveo's trunk provides plenty of space and allows you to fit everything into it. We took it on a trip to North Carolina from Pennsylvania this past June and were able to fit me, my wife, our Chihuahua (in a doggy car seat in the back), two large suitcases, two coolers, several boxes of soda, and a few bags of food, towels, and miscellanea.

Now, on to the bad part: the Aveo is a cheap car, and its shoddy build quality betrays that fact at every turn.

Aside from the flimsy skin on the outside and insubstantial doors, the Aveo - or, at least, my Aveo - is a mechanical disaster, and GM's dealerships have been useless in repairing it.

At about 24,000 miles the car began to run rough in the mornings, bucking and surging violently at certain RPMs for several minutes after starting up. This would initially clear up as it was driven, but the problem became increasingly prolonged and, eventually, led to a service engine soon light and the triggering of "limp mode".

I took the vehicle to the dealership I purchased it at and was told it would be a week to get a "tank internal pressure sensor" in.

Four weeks later - and one miserable trip to North Carolina which saw the triggering of "limp mode" five times (twice on the D.C. beltway requiring me to negotiate the car to the side of the road in heavy, high-speed traffic to turn it off and back on again, and once on the drawbridge into Maryland requiring me to creep up to the edge of the bridge to shut off and turn on again) I was informed the part was in place. I drove the car and the light and surging problem immediately returned. This time, I was told it was the ECM (though the code triggered was for a throttle position sensor). I drove the car from the lot and smelled gasoline in the cabin. This made my wife physically ill for two days. It cleared up the next day, so I thought nothing of it, but then the check engine light came on again about 24 hours after I picked it up: tank internal pressure sensor.

This was yesterday and I was told it would be another week to wait for the part, so I took the car with me as that particular problem shouldn't be a major drive ability issue, but the car is now back at the dealership, having to have been towed from the gas station after it dumped a gallon and a half of gas out the top of the gas tank onto the ground during filling.

If it had only been one problem, or none at all, I might say the car's other foibles are forgivable simply due to its cost and mileage. However, dumping a gallon and a half of gasoline on the ground during filling is the last straw. I regret purchasing the vehicle to the point that I will consider legal action if the dealer fails to provide an acceptable compromise when I next speak with them.

Avoid it at all costs.