7 clunkers to avoid

[2010AveoLT]

It;s good that others see through the Aveo dogma marketing spin, at least here in the States.

My .2c;

I have only had my first Aveo a few months, (racked up about 2500 miles so far) but I have learned as much as I can about it. I came into ownership as a total noob. In this short amount of time, there has been no shortage of bad press, crazy stories of ownership, everything from ‘air bags don’t work’, ‘check engine light always on’, ‘riddled with recalls’ to ‘just bursts into flames while driving on road’. I have read all the fear mongering propaganda over at NHTSA about numerous recalls, one even claiming GM used ‘counterfeit control modules’, the attacks are almost endless. All marketing ploys IMO. Any magazine that has paying advertisers were written off for what they are, marketing illusions. Most of what I have read online has been laughable. The terms ‘claptrap’, ‘unsafe’ and ‘clown car’ are common in the media spin.

All over a car, that was (apparently) designed by none other than Giorgetto Giugiaro aka Italdesign in Moncalieri Italy, according to Wikipedia on the car, and has an engine with design roots at Opel/Vauxhall including head design work by Lotus early on. Not exactly a Yugo or Pinto from it’s engineering roots. – I think the only reason it picked up this dogma, is simply due to it’s “target market” of low cost (i.e. low profit margin for marketing budget line items) buyers.

IMO any car that gives good value to the owner, should not get much positive press, as this would be counter productive to move the hard to sell rigs off of lots. - In light of this, to touch on resale value, we have combed craigslist for a few weeks trying to find another Aveo for my girlfriend, and they have no problem selling for a grand or two above KBB, in fact two just sold in my tiny town well above any book value. To make a long story short, I now own two of these clap traps.

One benefit of the Aveo dogma is I think some amazing deals can be had out there. Some people actually buy into this crap, and dump their cars on the market for pennies on the dollar. and it does not seem to have an impact on selling prices for good runners.

my Local GM Dealer has a 2011 Summit White 2LT Sedan (or as I like to call it; SCOOTAPARTS!) on their used lot; and they are asking $14,561 if you walk onto their lot. I Purchased Scoots Right next door at my Local Nissan Dealer for $10,382.93 (I actually had to look at my Sales Paperwork I put in a Master Maintenance and Repair File I started that has all of my Dealership Invoices both Parts and Service)in January of 2012.

[TurboElk]

I have to add to this... first brand new car I ever bought was a 1989 Geo Metro... Only got it because I needed a commuter car and could not afford to drive my 1964 Nova that put out in the neighborhood of 400 horsepower, or May 1979 cutlass supreme that had a 350 horse sbc 350 to work and back 90mi every day, so I bought the Geo thinking that I would own it until I moved closer to my work, little did I know that this car would end up being the MOST reliable car I had / or will probably ever own, (24,000mi first year) 158000 miles later i never did anything to it not even the timing belt, which now I find out should have been replaced @ 100000 miles... and this was the car that everybody said was a POS and was a throwaway car and I would never be happy driving even with 13 inch Enkys I got INCREDIBLE gas mileage, and it held up extremely well when it was t-boned by a full-size Ford F 150 4x4.
I missed that car for many years until I bought the Aveo I own now 2005 blue hatchback 5 speed... Have owned it a month, I have really enjoyed driving in the two thousand miles I have on it so far..... thanks for all the guys on this forum that help everybody with their cars, I hope that I can be of help to people also.