Review: 2009 Chevy Aveo

No test car that’s been delivered to CarDomain headquarters has caused as much excitement as the 2009 Chevy Aveo. Sorry, just kidding. Unless you’re a teenager that’s just been surprised with the keys or a poor slob that’s been riding the bus for the last decade, you’re probably not going to be excited by a Daewoo Kalo dressed up with a Chevy bow-tie. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad car. I spent a couple of days behind the wheel, and I found it perfectly serviceable, roomy, and even a little fun.

Most of the fun was due to the fact that our tester was a five speed, which makes driving anything an order of magnitude more entertaining. Now, the last manual transmission car I’d driven was the new Challenger, and when we took it out for tacos, Rob commented its clutch felt light, more like what you’d expect to find in a Honda Accord than a hulking lump of Hemi-powered nouveau muscle. But the clutch in the Aveo? It takes about as much effort to depress as the pedal that opens one of the fancy little wastebaskets at Bed Bath & Beyond.

In all fairness though, the little 1.6 had a respectable amount of get-up-and-go, and I thoroughly enjoyed ripping around the city in the Aveo. While it’s tiny—which made parking downtown a breeze—there was plenty of headroom, and there was also an 1/8 inch jack on the stereo so I could plug in my iPod. Since it’s rated at a respectable 27MPG city and 34MPG highway it’s not going to kill you at the pump, and I have to say I really liked the design of the front clip. Personally, I think the four-door model is more attractive than the five-door, but I didn’t have any complaints about our tester’s interior. Everything was in the right place, the climate controls were intuitive, and the stereo was much better than decent. Overall, it seems like a good buy for $12K.