2009 Chevrolet Aveo5 road review: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Aveo5

I hate to kick a guy when he's down, and GM is certainly down, but
at the same time I can't sugarcoat this review just because GM is in
bankruptcy.

Let's start with the Good:

The
redesigned and Korean built Chevy Aveo5 is a tidy little car that looks
modern and neat with a higher degree of styling pizazz and interior
volume than one wold expect from an entry level hatchback.

"It's cute," and "It kinda reminds me of the Chevette" were just just two of the comments I heard during my week with the Aveo5.

BTW: The "5" in Aveo5 stands for the number of doors in the diminutive runabout.

Aveo2 What's
especially nice about the Aveo5 is that while this is an entry level
car, the top shelf quality and design of the Chevy never makes you feel
like you couldn't afford  afford a nicer car. The car never makes you
wish you had bought the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, or Nissan
Verse—three cars that directly compete with the Aveo5.

First
impressions sometimes are everything and the Aveo5 is that polite boy
that comes to your door for a date with your only daughter sporting a
nice smile, polite attitude, and neat and trim haircut. You just feel
good about letting him into your house.

The Aveo5 also feels and
rides like a substantial amount of care and effort went into building
it. Unlike older entry level Chevys that ( and let's be honest here)
were poster children for built-in obsolescence, the Aveo5 inspires a
long term relationship, instead of just a short throw away affair.

But before you go and carried away and rush to your nearest still in business Chevy dealer you should know about the bad.

Aveo3 Let's
start with the gas mileage. I was only able to get an as tested real
world 26 mpg in both city and highway driving. For a teeny tiny car
with just 106 horsepower and the acceleration of a constipated cow this
is not only bad, but actually very surprising—and not in a good way.

The
Aveo5 automatic was also the only car I've ever tested that was so slow
as to make my iPhone accelerometer app useless. In other words, I could
not get the car to produce enough g force to even trigger the
accelerometer to start calculating the car's speed.

So with the
help of my stopwatch and the speedometer I did it the old fashioned way
and recorded a time of 0 to 60 in 17.45 seconds at altitude. You might
want to take that number with a big grain of salt, but trust me when I
say the Aveo5 will not win any stoplight sprints unless you happen to
be racing the bike messenger—and even then you'd be well server to
jump the red light.

Aveo4 At
this point you might be thinking to yourself that I'm only judging the
car based on speed, and after all the Aveo5 was never designed to be
fast. This is where it gets a bit ugly.

Driving
the Aveo5 inspires about as much fun as a visit to your mother-in-laws
for an extended holiday. It's not that you dread it, but let's face
facts, you don't exactly look forward to it either. The Aveo5 will get
you around town and even out of state without much fuss, but without
much fun either.

The other bit of bad news is that my blue moon
car came loaded with an as tested sticker of $18,115 which is hitting
the glass ceiling of economy car pricing. For that money you can cross
shop a wide world of bigger, faster and especially more fuel efficient
cars all day long.

On the plus side you'll never fear for your
life in the little Aveo5 as it does come with a five star government
safety rating for frontal crash protection, and a four star rating for
side and rollover protection.

Plus, if you really care about the environment the little engine in the Aveo5 has a small carbon footprint of only 8,095 lbs CO2 per year.

So
when it comes to the Aveo5 is the glass half empty or is the glass half
full? The best answer I can come up with is it really depends what you
like in your glass.

If you like milk, the glass is certainly half full.

If you like something a bit stronger, well—you know.

2009 Chevrolet Aveo5 2LT

Price as Tested: $18,115.00

Engine, Transmission: ECOTEC 1.6L DOHC with 4-speed ECT Automatic Transmission

Horsepower: 106

PocketDyno Test Data

0-60 mph: 17.45 per stopwatch and speedo

EPA Fuel Economy Estimates

City: 25.0 mpg

Highway: 34.0 mpg

Combined: 28.0 mpg

As tested: 26.0 mpg

CO2 per year: 8,095 lbs

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Roman Mica
Roman Mica is a publisher, columnist, journalist, and author, who spent his early years driving fast on the German autobahn. When he’s not reviewing cars or producing videos, you can find him training for triathlons and writing about endurance sports for EverymanTri.com as our sister blog’s publisher. Mica is a former broadcast reporter with his Master’s Degree in journalism from Northwestern University. He is also a presenter for TFLcar’s very popular video review channels on YouTube.