My Chevrolet Aveo 1.4 Base - A VFM Used Car

[sukanta]

So it was 2011 January, And after a long straggle we (me and my wife) able to find my a common place where we can rest our gypsy life,
She was shifted to Hyderabad, and I finally able make a job change to Hyderabad and finally was looking for getting out of the Google video chat services (Seriously our love life is mostly depended on Google chat and Video chat services.. So guys who ever make this service, a sincere thank you from us)
So, in April, just after 10 days of moving in Hyderabad, on a lazy Saturday, we are passing a maruti showroom with our grocery bags, and I said Can’t we buy a car? So we drop the grocery bags in home and drop in to that showroom. (Varun Motor)

Showroom Experience
So we walked in and a smiling SA join us... and.. and... Started asking questions!!! I never know that before buying a car you have pass an eligibility test. None of my friends warned me about that!!! So after failing the test (like budget, which car I am looking, petrol/ diesel), he offer us coffee and started asking some normal question (like what I am going to do with Car?) I laughed and came out of the “I don’t anything” customer to a TAI type customer.
I give the problem.. my budget is upto 10 big bucks and my not so much running means petrol is fine, but I need a car with high resale value, because I don’t know how many years I am going to stay in Hyderabad and I don’t want to lose money in resale. SA literally sigh a relief (i saw sweaty forehead in him.. poor chap) and take me to SX4(which has worst resale amongst maruti), so to cut short, I asked for Alto(old) key and check the display car, also checked the K10 there, asked for price list and leave the place.

Used car dealer
So came back home and thought why not take the resale value to our side and buy a used car which has worst resale.. So after some google search we found a really high tech used car dealer (Dr. Car), a quick call set up appointment at 4 o clock. This time I don’t play stated my requirement in their language, I asked for sedan within 3-4L price range, So the SA started show fiestas/ Ikon and a vernas and 2 Aveo. I test drove 1 fiesta, 1 Aveo and leave the place impressed. My wife was impressed with the Aveo’s interior and almost want to finalized the Aveo LS there (07 Aveo with 40K KM asking price was 3.8), I said we should check some other place also if I could find a better deal. But we seal that our first car should be aveo.

Finally a private seller
So next day being Sunday, I again sought help from google, and pinpoint a Aveo on sale by the owner himself (on a popular online car site), contacted with him and after some mail exchange I have 2 picture of the car and a meeting appointment on 5 o clock. Checked the car, 4.5 yr old car with 53K odo, Tyre are on last leg and that’s it. Car is good, and got the surprise when owner say the asking price (he say 2.8, wow that’s less than a new alto), so ask for the service history and a test drive on a letter day.
So on the second test drive (I took my office cab drive with me) and a full service history on chevy service centre computer (they let you check the history, but wont let you take a printout.. wired policy), I shook the hand with the gentleman with a final price set at 2.65. we decide to meet on my home on Sunday( just a week after I started looking for Car.. Quick right ),
I make a arrangement of a ‘dalal’ to on that who took all the document related things, I paid him by online transfer and volla.. I am a now a own a car.

So those who have able to read through this ultra long post, a small visual treat here. Check out the car on my first day of ownership.

Us with the Car

front face

Side profile

Back view

interior

interior

All power windows control. Good after 4 yr of use

Back seat


revered reverse gear.

Good bits
Price – I got the car less than money of a new Alto, it is cheaper than the same age swift/dezire and fiesta. That a tremendous bang of bucks
Interior – Well a lot of said about it and believe me, its best interior in the segment. It can be compatible with entry D segment.
All the basic is present – you get rack and pinion steering wheel, seat height adjustment, nice big analog RPM meter, Engine temp meter and a very useful watch integrated in Dash. No cost cutting here, ( I don’t like when manufacture deleting basic erigomic and driver assistant feature and give fuzzy MID/ Alloys. Sure MID is great to have, but not at the expense of RPM meter/or driver seat height adjustment) This is base variant I am talking about, Even Honda city doesn’t have all of this in all variant.
Space – You have space everywhere, leg space is not a problem in front or back seat, boot is big enough for a budget sedan.

Bad parts
Engine – Engine is powerful, but way above rev range, its pathetic in lower range. Its a great cruiser, but a bad choice for drag race. You will loose everytime with a swift/santro.
Parking – At 4.3 meter it is a big car, and with a big boot which you can’t see from driver position, it is a bit tricky to park, I have install a parking sensors for that
No MID – Well I don’t expect one though, just mentioned because a I lot of cars coming with this.
No safety – My car doesn’t have abs/ airbags. My next car will surely have those.
and the question “Kinta deti hain” – I am getting 11 – 12 in city (I drive in choke a block traffic ) and get 15 in highway run (with AC)
I brought the car at 53,1xx km (on 30th April,11) and now it is 673xx km. Will update my centre experience and long term costs in next post

 

[Gurrala74]

@Sukanta

Nice crisp review of your buying experience and finally with that Chevy Aveo !!

What is the FE of the car at present and do you felt like changing it any time these days

 

[sukanta]

@Gurrala - i'm getting 11/12 in city (with AC/without) and @15 in highway. Good enough for sedan specially with 93bhp on tap .. dont you think?

 

[Gurrala74]

@Gurrala - i'm getting 11/12 in city (with AC/without) and @15 in highway. Good enough for sedan specially with 93bhp on tap .. dont you think?

Yes Sir, it is a good FE with such power and with that amount of space inside, but we get little disturbed only when we look at the present diesels gives close to 20.

 

[visran]

That's nice deal you got yourself there. two and half big ones for a full blown sedan just oozes value. look's this model also has a leather seat(i may be wrong here)

 

[gns_blr]

it seems you are lucky enough to get 12 kmpl in city conditions. My boss's Aveo returns just 8 kmpl in Bangalore traffic. I was assuming that low FE causes cheap resale value of Avio.

Congrats for your wonderfull crisp review.

 

[sukanta]

@visran
Ya this is leather seat, Though not a standard. Previous owner put this genuine Chevy seats... make the deal sweeter doesn' it?

it seems you are lucky enough to get 12 kmpl in city conditions. My boss's Aveo returns just 8 kmpl in Bangalore traffic. I was assuming that low FE causes cheap resale value of Avio.

Congrats for your wonderfull crisp review.

Thanks gns_blr.. FE needs a bit of clarification.. Hyderabad traffic condition is much better than b'lore, and 12 kmpl is without AC figure. Plus I gave up the idea to match acceleration with swifts, it can't.. it need sweet time to build up speed, and the engine doesn't like much revving..

 

[anshuman8]

@ Sukanta, thats a nice used car deal you had got

Did you put any other gadgets/accessories in your car after you bought it.

When are plans for upgrade ?

Cheers,
Anshuman

 

[thegreatv]

Wow! Congratulations for your new drive sir!
The price you got the car for is amazing.
I personally like the car except for it being a chevy!

 

[sukanta]

So I plead guilty of not updating my own review thread. Sorry for that (really.. I mean it)
Now I was happy some days back that I didn't need to spend big bucks on my used car deal. but my fun rather shortsighted
Anyway for the last 15k kms, All I have changed are tyres and battery (wear and tear items.. can't complain) and front shocks. but this time when I gave my car for 70k servicing. The bill came out to 24k. Bad.. I know. But I allway believe that a used car will give a long shot service bill once atleast. I don't mind (considering how sweet the the deal was)
for those who want to kkow what exactly needed changes.(what consist of big shot 24k bill)
Tensioner belt (prescribe to change in 60K, didn't change then)
v belt (again needed tobe change in 70k)
water pump (this was in its last leg, the gear/pully was allmost smooth)
pullies (none visible problem, but I guess those are changed as a procedure)
brake pad (didn't ask for, but they say it needed. I didn't mind ofcource)
other tit bits (engine oils, some gaskets, labours & paid serving)
So the car came back with smooth written eveywhere.. I am satisfied.

@ Sukanta, thats a nice used car deal you had got

Did you put any other gadgets/accessories in your car after you bought it.

When are plans for upgrade ?

Cheers,
Anshuman

Except for headunit and reverse sensors. I didn't add anything. I like all thing stock. (not even the alloys, which the tyre seller kindof pushing)
Plan for update.. Well none. The car is giving no problem so I would like to enjoy it till it become unreasonably expensive to maintain.

Wow! Congratulations for your new drive sir!
The price you got the car for is amazing.
I personally like the car except for it being a chevy!

Thanks sir.( Though I think it a bit late to acknowledge.. but well )
What's problem with Chevy?

 

[anshuman8]

I guess even after the service and repair expenses, the car remains a VFM for you. What has been the FE for city or highways?

 

[sukanta]

I guess even after the service and repair expenses, the car remains a VFM for you. What has been the FE for city or highways?

The car certainly remain VFM. but it does pain a bit seeing a 1/3 of the total expenses goes to maintenance. but hey ho.. I trying to put more petrol bill now

Anyway about the FE
The worst FE I get is 10.5. which is 100% AC in dead hot summer full city drive. Generally I do manage to get 11-11.5 in full city use.
On Highway I generally get 15-16KMPL, with full AC. Actually I never drove without AC in a highspeed drive.

 

[sukanta]

Just got a OBD scaning tool today. (El chipo one from dx.com. $16 one). it comes with a switch so I don't need to open it from the port. It does release a tons of data.. and I know what I'm going to do in the next few days..

 

[K!NkY]

I am a fan of Chevy cars. Only concern with their engineering is they use single belt system which connects engine, alternator, powersteering, AC. If the belt is worn out your helpless. Same I face in my Chevy Optra Magnum.

 

[sukanta]

^^ true, but if you service through chevy A.S.S. They check the v -belt (This is what they call it) in EVERY service, I actually saw there checklist for regular servicing, this part was there.

I have changed it 55k even though it was scheduled to 60K.