I first got mine (a 2004 hatch) thinking it would be useful as I was starting my own business, and needed something I could put enough stuff in, at the same time not costing me too much or wasting too much gas. It fit the description, I had bad credit, and I was able to get approved at a shady used car place.

At the time it only had 50,000km and still had warranty coverage. It drove perfectly fine, and I got the brake pads and spark plugs changed for free.

On one hand, the car has been good to me considering I wasn't very good to it. Drove it through some places that, only a truck should have driven through really. Taxied some stupid people around in the back seat that I really shouldn't have, a few too many times... put a lot of heavy stuff in the back a few times, etc. Let the car sit in a parking lot for ~5 months rarely getting driven (I was living elsewhere), started driving the car daily again when I got back. All bad things for the car... but it hasn't failed me.

In more recent times I started to be nicer, driving it better and doing more preventative maintenance as I should always have.

Anyhow, I used to be kind of critical about the car and didn't really like it. I can't fault the thing though, it has taken abuse and has never failed me even in the winter.

Coming soon is timing belt change, don't want to wait on that one.

I need to change the shock top mount bearings, possibly contributing to some of the noise. The rear suspension is sagging quite a bit, but again I think that's my own fault.

Now it has around 90,000km and nothing has ever broken on it... So that's 40,000km without problems - pretty decent, no?

I can't say that it gets good mileage though, cause it doesn't. The absolute best I've been able to manage is just under 140km on just under 10L of gas, which is OK-ish, but can't be reproduced if I do it with a full tank, or go faster than 90kph, or have other people in the car, etc. All those things kill the mileage dramatically. People all seem to be under the impression that it's some kind of super economical car, but it's not at all. It's just normal... I had a Lancer and got very similar mileage with it.

All in all, I'm more or less satisfied with the car; but unsatisfied with the horrible financing that I agreed to take.

I would consider trading it for a newer Aveo when I'm ready, but I think I'd rather something a bit more fun to drive. It drives fine, and I prefer it over other less torquey small cars, but it just isn't really any fun at all.

What are your thoughts? Do you like yours?