2009 AVEO...GOOD BUY? Please help!

[avguy]

I have lots of sympathy for HeavyDuty's tale of woe on his '09. But that being said, one lemon or Monday Morning Special isn't the whole story. 4,400 is a very good price for a vehicle with 67K - you won't find many others. But there is one big catch - what's the oil change history? There really isn't much maintenance required up to 67K, outside of oil changes, but that one item can be a show stopper. Good oil changes is likely to set the stage of many more miles without big expenses, and the flip side is equally true. So, do you know this guy well - is he someone you can trust to be honest about this maintenance? Personally, if I KNEW the oil had been maintained properly, I would do this deal in a heartbeat. But keep in mind that an Aveo is a low-end vehicle, it's not going to handle like a sports car, and you're going to spend a few bucks on repairs (which depends a lot on rust). I've had lots of low-end vehicles over the years, and I think of my '05 Avio as being "average" in what I've owned. As with anything else, it helps a lot if you can do some wrenching

[HeavyDuty]

LOL there seems to be some pretty big diff between the Aveo's with the LXT and LXV engine, I have the latter. And I will state further that a good dealership at the onset would have made huge changes to the entire outcome. The problem is a 17,000 new car buyer takes a back seat to the 60,000 1/2 ton buyer...and warranty favors are reserved for the latter.

I have been working on this car now since about June or May and I am confident I can make a car out of it...but it's taking far more than some wrenching, it's re engineering it needs....and a pile of $$$$....which makes it a not so economical ride, and frankly it really isn't safe to drive but it's getting better now...again $$$$$...and time.

I bought a new car because it was suppose to be economical and I bought it for my wife so she could have trouble free transportation to and from work 6 months into this car she would not even get behind the wheel of it. I initially blamed her until I started to drive it.

I equate the purchase of the Aveo as a similar experience to having bought a written off car from an insurance company. I have done that in the past. The problem is not what I was looking to buy, I would have bought a write off not a brand new car if this is what I wanted to do and it would have been 10 grand cheaper and a far more enjoyable experience.

I work 120 hrs a week, my wife works a good 60, hours spent on this pos are hours not spent with my kids for sure. There is one good thing though that will come out of it....I will bet the farm neither one of them will EVER buy a GM product.

[petrified.rabbit]

HeavyDuty- I stopped reading your rant about half way through, and not to sound rude, but your kind of taking the "educated idiot" approach to your car. I stopped reading at $150 per tire. If the first OEM set didn't last, why in the hell would you spend another $600 on the same set of OEM tires besides the fact the dealer said so? if you would have bought better way back when, then half of your issues would have went away. The other part is if i was paying $17000 for a car at the time. I would have gotten a base line jetta, golf or similar. But price is not the issue, i think your dealership really screwed you with the car in both sale and maintenance.

I have had a lot of luck with my aveo. It has 42k miles on it in 4 years with only 2 real repairs. The o2 sensor (24k), and the fuel pump (5k). Comparatively my audi had a new engine installed at 39k, My r32 had a new fuel pump put in at 600 miles, our fsi vw needed a new cam, fuel pump, and such rebuilt at 60k (look it up overly common). Of the newer cars i have owned, my aveo has been just as reliable as much more expensive cars, with much less expensive repairs (mine covered under warranty).

I feel sorry for your situation, I have a 2005 cavalier as well. VERY well built car. If the cobalt was half the car the cavalier was i would have gotten one of those instead of the aveo ($500 cheaper with incentives at time of purchase). But most of the issues you have seem to stem from not having someone reliable to fix it, and having been miseducated.

[HeavyDuty]

well your Aveo is a 2005 not a 2009, not at all the same. If you want to know why I paid 150 bucks for those tires it's because at the time "it blew out" there was only two tires that size in this province...so out of the two tires I had to choose from, I took those two since my car was sitting in my drive way with the dummy spare on. I have that sidewall blown out Hankook tire right here beside my desk.

Now one needs to realize when this happened, I was in the process of fighting with GM for new tires. I needed to buy the exact same tire to determine if it was the axle or the tire, you see this is for reasons of evidence. My axle was bent, I said replace the tires they said no...I said ok, we will figure this out in court I am not standing around here fighting with you about it.

Those tires were shot at 8500 KM, and it was discovered the rear axle was bent out of spec and it was replaced. So do I blame the tire or the axle ? Well I blamed the axle and gave the tire the benefit of the doubt... stupid hey. Hankook had a good name in tires....bent axles had a reputation for destroying tires.

Only two diff tires ava here now in that size the same Hankook or a Nokian, I have the Nokians now as I ran the Hankooks I bought until they were junk at under 30,000 KM.

In hindsight I would have gotten a VW jetta also, LOL but no VW dealership were I live there was a GM though would that make any difference in your purchase decision...in hindsight ? A dealership 20 minutes from you in the town you work in or 4 hours away in a city you never go to.

[petrified.rabbit]

Mine is an 09, i think i know more of the differences between the aveos than most people. My dealer replaced my tires under warranty without me asking (a nice surprise) when they did my fuel pump under warranty. I still dont see how those are the only two tires in the entire providence, your providence has VW, miatas, as well as a dozen other cars that used that size, but in your hurry to have a fix, you went with what you found.

How did the axle get bent?

[Mathmatic]

@HeavyDuty you really seem to have a lemon. I own a 2009 G3 Wave base model with a 5 speed manual transmission car now has near 40000kms(25000miles) Problems I had were speed sensor for the speedometer(cost me 55$), seal on the axle, rubber on the door which were making alot of noise above 100km/h and one other sensor problems all those problems were done under warranty. I have to admit that this car is really built in a poor quality I will have to change the nut on the air filter cap because they are too rusty to be remove. Other than that it still is an incredibly cheap car to run. Cost me 12770 tx included in oct 2008 and still worth between 6500-7000$. The fuel millage is not really good but I am only doing around 10000kms a year.

[HeavyDuty]

Mine is an 09, i think i know more of the differences between the aveos than most people. My dealer replaced my tires under warranty without me asking (a nice surprise) when they did my fuel pump under warranty. I still dont see how those are the only two tires in the entire providence, your providence has VW, miatas, as well as a dozen other cars that used that size, but in your hurry to have a fix, you went with what you found.

How did the axle get bent?

The axle was bent from the factory..and the new one they installed also out of spec right from the factory, and it turns out the axle they installed isn't the correct axle part number for this car, of course the only way I can find out the difference between the right axle and the one that they installed is to lay out the $ 600.00 bucks and order the right one and compare the two. I did not see the alignment report from the original OEM axle I was out of the province at the time and my wife was was dealing with the dealership at the onset. Theres no paperwork from them for any work that was done other than axle out of spec and replaced. I just found out 3 weeks ago they changed the power steering pump (back in 2009) under warranty well that was news to me, knew nothing about it.
185/55 15 inch tires are not common, and in 2009 they were less common, and in Saskatchewan they were unheard of, two tires in the entire Province the GM dealer didn't even have them in any brand. There was no other tire option to buy at that time, ok sure I could have ordered a set brought in from the states and waited two or three weeks for them to arrive. But as I said I needed to install the identical tire anyways to determine the true cause of the premature tire wear, had nothing to do with being in a hurry. I bought and installed two of them and drove the car for 15,000 KM then had all four removed and replaced with a different brand. I am now tracking the wear on the diff brand tires and monitoring the wear, because I still think it's really the car not a tire issue. Hankook warranty on those tires was and still is 80,000 KM...

And anyone whom has had alignments done by a GM dealer from 2009 till 2012 will clearly see the alignment specs for the Aveo have been changed. The specs in 2009 are not the same as 2012 specs...they changed them.

And I don't doubt your knowledge of the difference bewteen Aveo models in any way shape or form, thought I saw somewhere you had the 05 and well this 09 is not anything like the 05. Even the 09 came with two different engine models...the LXT I suspect might be a much better engine.

[HeavyDuty]

indeed I do math that coupled with having previously owned cars that were great....makes this extra bad. I would have to say. per mile/km it's the most expensive wheels I have ever owned it's even gone above cost per mile of my 1996 Chev 4x4 extended cab it managed 14 mpg, but repairs were zero, and tires lasted easy 80,000 KM.

So you paid 12,700 the same month I bought mine and yours is a standard base model so my cost isn't out of line given I got the Team Canada Edition with sunroof and the auto. A manual transmission would eliminate 80% of my grief. It's the "really built in poor quaility" you mentioned that is the problem...I can invest both time and money into something worthwhile, that's what's missing here....build quality.

[fomenter]

$4400 is a very nice deal. You won't find it anywhere else.

[Rainbow1616]

Well I will chime in since I bought My 09 new. I got about 26,000 miles on my oem tires. Yes you heard me right. I just replaced them but I did not have to. I just wanted fresh meat for the winter. This car has given Me absolutely no problems. I did get snow tires this year since My son travels back and forth to school in it. The gas mileage is great and it suits him since he is a poor college student. He did wreck the front end of this car slightly so I put a new bumper skin on it and I had to take it in for a recall once.
Knock on wood but We love this car, I will keep it as long as I can, Once My son is done with school it will be a great car to run back and forth to work with.
Long Live My Aveo!