My local Chevrolet Dealer have new '09 Aveos that are heavily discounted. I am looking for a good car for my hobby, road trips. This car will be replacing my 1998 Hyundai Elantra which has 280k miles. Any of you do any road trips with the Aveos? Any Pros or Cons?

Next year, I plan on doing a road trip from Key West Florida to Inuvik, NT, Canada and Alaska (11,500 miles). This has been my dream for a while.

Another question: Are both the E-Tec and Ecotec a Daewoo-designed engine? What are the main differences besides HP? What are these premature timing belt issues I'm hearing about? Where are the 2009/2010 Aveos made in?

Thank you in advance.

Here's a link via mapquest of the road trip I plan on driving:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Key+Wes ... :M::/bl:/e

They are gm engines. As long as you change the timing belt every 60k, there's nothing to worry about. To my knowledge the Aveo is built in Korea. Mine is anyway.

Pretty sure this is accurate. Korean platform with GM engine. They are great cars considering the price, can't really go wrong. Premature timing belt failure can happen on any car, but yes a lot of people have experienced that problem with the Aveo. If you're concerned about that, inspect the belt for wear. Mine lasted more than 60k miles but it was not going to last much longer by the look of it.

They're not the most exciting cars, but they get you where you want to go at a relatively low price in terms of total long term cost.

Two months after buying my 2009 Aveo5 (5 speed manual) I took a road trip from Waterloo to Ottawa and back and drove a mix of roads. There was my wife, son and me on this trip and luggage for a 4 day weekend. No one in the car complained about being uncomfortable and I was averaging between 600 to 500km on a tank of gas using the air conditioner.
The new engine in the 2009’s has 108 hp, but I do not new if it suffers from the same timing belt issue. The owners manual calls for a timing bet change at 100,000 miles only.

the engine in the 09 i think is a "better" design. well at least different, cant say better until we have enough data and miles on it.

i drove my aveo 100 miles a day 5 days a week until this summer. its good on the road. the only complaint i had was the stock springs and stock tires, but i prefer the handling of a lowered car. But that is your preference.

on the highway i think you will have no complaints. i dont drive for fuel economy like most of the people here, but the aveo is a very capable car in most aspects of driving. it cruises well, can keep up with all kinds of traffic, etc.

ive driven in my 07 from PA to Fl in back a few times and its good, im 6' foot tall and it is a confortable car, the timing belt on the new engines will last over 100k, not sure about the premature belt breakage, 95% break after their expected life. Nothing wrong with Daewoo/GM

Thank you for the replies. You guys can tell the truth because there's nothing shameful about Daewoo. I used to own a Daewoo Lanos back in the day and it had the same Daewoo/Holden-designed E-Tec engine. Very reliable engine. I wonder if the Ecotec is a totally different design? I was just a little concerned about the timing belt issue because I will be traveling on a lot of roads where help is distant. My old Hyundai Elantra never gave me problems so now I'm looking for a new car that won't give me problems. The Aveo is first on my list due to its clearance price. Today, I test drove a Yaris and it was the worst car I have ever driven.

The new engine is a Daewoo built vauxhall copy. So it's been around so to speak.

We've owned a 2009 since November. No problems at all with it, except the accelerator pedal which is electronic was found to be defective. (It didn't affect the driveability of the car any - it was discovered when I complained about getting 22 MPG in city driving. It was hard to tell when the car was up-shifting.) It's used for my wife's commute, all local driving. My only complaint is that it gets poor fuel mileage in city driving due to the way the transmission is programmed. The new accelerator didn't help the city MPG any. On the highway the mileage is excellent, about 37 with the A/C on. Don't worry about the timing belt. From what I've heard it's supposed to last 100K on the 2009.

I chose the Aveo over the Yaris, which I also test drove. The Yaris interior is an absolute absurdity: flimsy and weird with the speedometer and sparse instrumentation that is not in front of the driver.

By now you should be able to drive a hard bargain in buying a 2009 leftover.

It's a copy? I thought GM-Daewoo-Vauxhall-Holden were one company?

What kind of price are you looking at with those "heavily discounted" cars? And also, say hello to Wolf when you're up in Alaska...

I always consider it a copy when it's not made at the same location or by the same people.

2009 Aveo, $9,000. A/C, 15 inch tires, Manual transmission, "premium" stereo, power door and windows, wing in back. The car has 100 miles. I thought it was cool that it came with onstar.. that will be a big help when I'm traveling on roads where there is no help nearby.

As long as you sign up for premium onstar service for the month/months you're doing your big road trip so you can contact them when you break down... or call to order pizza.

And $9000 is not a bad price at all for a brand new car like that...

It's heavily discounted (as it should be) because it has already depreciated in terms of resale value; meaning you won't get too much for it when you sell it - but who knows? If gas eventually hits 5, 6, 7, dollars a gallon, even used Aveos might have 'value added' to their resale appeal. But it's hard to go wrong at that price, considering the 3 year full coverage warranty will be in effect from the date you buy it.

Offer the dealer $8,200. Make him squirm... After all, for Chevy it's a tough sell, and ultimately they gotta unload 'em.