Review: 2009 Chevrolet Aveo5 LS -- a decent little car that's yours for $7,995. (One at this price)

March 29, 1:32 AMDC Car ExaminerBrady Holt

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Nothing about the exterior of this 2009 Chevrolet Aveo5 LS suggests it's being sold for about the price of a five-year-old
Honda Civic.
 

When you see a new car advertised as “one at this price,” it’s generally not a bad guess that there’s a reason it’s so cheap. 

The Chevrolet Aveo5 driven for this week’s review takes that to the extreme. 

It has crank windows and manual locks and mirrors. It has a stickshift instead of an automatic. It has no cruise control. It has no CD player. It has no air conditioning. It’s a car designed to be advertised, not to be bought. 

It’s yours for $7,995.

The Chevrolet Aveo sedan and Aveo5 5-door hatchback don’t have a great reputation. They debuted as 2004 models with unremarkable styling, an underwhelming driving experience, and unremarkable gas mileage. The Aveo 5-door also lacks the interior space and flexibility of the Honda Fit, and it never really had a huge price advantage.

And when some of this started to change, no one noticed.

Recent updates to the Aveo have brought more distinctive styling and more upscale interiors, though some assembly issues remain. More importantly for a budget economy car, gas mileage has improved by three miles per gallon since the car was introduced, beating the popular Honda Fit manual vs. manual. (The Fit’s mileage improves slightly with the optional automatic.)

Moreover, while it never won the hearts of driving enthusiasts like the almost-fun Fit, it’s not that bad of a car to drive. It’s quieter than a Toyota Yaris, rides smoothly, and has space for four occupants to ride in acceptable comfort. It has enough power to get around, especially with the manual transmission.

That leaves the main problem as the price. 

Sport Chevrolet in Silver Spring, Md., has – as of this writing – 22 Aveos in its inventory, including the base-model nothing-on-it car driven for this review, which has a sticker price of $12,675 and is being offered by the dealership for $7,995. The next-cheapest Aveo is $15,000, and its invoice price is so close to its sticker that Sport is willing to give a discount of just a few hundred dollars instead of a few thousand. 

The Aveo isn’t nearly as bad a car as most reviews make it out to be, but you can do better when you’re spending $15,000 or more.

But $7,995? 

Against the other smallest cars in the country, the Aveo isn’t too bad. It’s better than the Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio, it’s comparable to the Toyota Yaris, and it’s cheaper than the Honda Fit. 

However, the Nissan Versa, with a base sticker price of $9,900 (read review) comes the closest to unseating a $7,995 Aveo5. 

The Versa is a much more pleasant car than the Aveo. It’s smoother, quieter, more comfortable, and more spacious. It also did much better in crash tests, though the Aveo didn’t fail any either. 

But that Versa, which stickered at $11,685 with air conditioning but no stereo, would never be discounted to $7,995. It had the optional air conditioning. Nissan’s “one at this price” car doesn’t need a steep discount from its low sticker price to be a good marketing tool.

But who would buy a car with no air conditioning? Clearly Sport Chevrolet is having trouble finding someone, though they would install a factory system for you for $1,434.40. Your radio still wouldn’t have a CD player, but you could swap it out for an aftermarket system or just use the standard MP3 jack.

Add the a/c to this Aveo5, and you’ve got a decent new car with a full warranty for $9,429.40. Deal or no deal?

Unlike on the base Nissan Versa, which is coated in gray plastic, there is nothing on the outside of this Aveo5 that gives any idea how inexpensive it is. Only a little “LS” badge on the back hatch denotes it as the lowest of the low, and even then only to people who know that only the $14,100-base “LT” model even offers air conditioning. (You still get crank windows and the manual transmission at that price though.) It doesn’t look upscale, but this Aveo5 doesn’t look nearly as downmarket as its price would suggest.

Even inside, you’d have to look around to notice a difference between this Aveo5 and a loaded model. The base Versa has a big blank piece of plastic in the center of the dash where the stereo would be, but you have to look more closely at the standard-issue “corporate radio” found in most General Motors products to spot the missing CD slot. You’d have to look more closely still to see the blank button with the HVAC controls that would have operated the air conditioner. 

Inside, you’re sitting on firm and narrow seats, but they’re high off the floor to offer good visibility and thigh support. The overall interior ambiance is nicer than in a Toyota Yaris and comparable to a base Honda Fit’s. The interior materials – the plastic on the dash and door panels and the cloth seats – feel nicer than those two cars (though a step down from the Versa), but the quality is marred by some misaligned panels, most notably top-center on the dashboard above the instrument panel.

The overall feeling of the Aveo5’s interior, from the driver’s seat, is that it’s basic but well-designed. This is a marked difference from Chevrolet’s larger Cobalt, which suffered such design mishaps as a parking brake underneath an armrest and cupholders filling the center-rear footwell. The Aveo’s higher seats are also more comfortable than the larger Cobalt’s, especially in the rear. There’s no excess of leg or knee space, but rear occupants’ feet fit easily under the high front seats, and the high seat cushion prevents knees-up riding. The Aveo is too narrow for a fifth adult passenger. It’s worth noting that the Aveo was designed by the Korean Daewoo, a General Motors subsidiary, while the interior of the Cobalt was fully developed in North America. 

The only obvious ergonomic glitch in the Aveo is the horn, which is operated by pressing little buttons on the steering wheel spokes rather than pounding on the center. I knew this before my test drive, but I am sure I would have instantly forgotten had an emergency arisen.  

But the Aveo5’s biggest shortcoming is its cargo versatility. The base Nissan Versa comes only as a sedan without a folding rear seat, but other small hatchbacks offer either more space or more versatility, or both.

There’s little space behind the Aveo5’s rear seat, just 7.1 cubic feet, with little floor space. The rear seat folds in a 60-40 split, but it ends up several inches above the cargo floor. Cargo volume expands to 42 cubic feet with the rear seat folded.

For comparison, a Honda Fit has 21 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat and 57 with the rear seat folded. (It folds flat, too.) The Nissan Versa 5-door (which starts at $12,990, with air conditioning and a radio) has 18 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat and 50 when it’s folded, though like the Aveo5, there’s a ledge between the top of the folded seatback and the cargo floor. 

Driving the Aveo5 is mostly pleasant enough for a subcompact car if unremarkable. The engine gets loud under hard acceleration, though I preferred its lower note to the buzzier tone in some competitors. (The Versa, as noted, is much more refined.) The ride is pleasant, but handling is unremarkable. Tight dimensions keep the car very maneuverable at least. Gas mileage has gotten more impressive recently; it’s rated at 27 miles per gallon in the city and 34 on the highway as tested, or 25/34 with the automatic.  

However, there’s a reason Sport Chevrolet stocked only one of 22 Aveos with the manual transmission. The shifter is rubbery and vague with long throws. Bringing it into second gear forces you to bring your arm into your body. Keep holding the shifter after you’ve engaged the clutch, and you’ll feel it shudder for a few seconds. Car enthusiasts love the Honda Fit for its stickshift – the Aveo practically urges customers to buy the automatic.

The cheapest Aveo5 automatic built stickers at $14,985. Sport Chevrolet has two at that specification it will sell you with a whopping $610 discount from the sticker price. This $7,995 model is indeed “one at this price.”

With all this focus on what this Aveo5 doesn’t have, it’s easy to ignore what it does have. It’s a bare-bones car, but there’s still some flesh left.

You do get a radio with four speakers and an MP3 jack. You do get front and side-impact airbags. You do get GM’s OnStar driver assistance system with a year’s free subscription. And unlike possibly any other $7,995 car in the country, you get a full factory warranty: 3 years or 36,000 miles for any problems, and 5 years or 100,000 miles for any powertrain problems, with roadside assistance. 

Most versions of the Aveo are underrated but overpriced; they’re nicer cars than they’re typically given credit for, but they’re not as good as other cars in the $15,000 range. 

However, at $7,995 -- or $9,400 with air conditioning -- the Aveo5 is at a price point where it should be an alluring deal for bargain hunters who can drive a stickshift. 

Vehicle tested: 2009 Chevrolet Aveo5 LS
Vehicle base sticker price: $11,965
Vehicle sticker price as tested: $12,675
Vehicle transaction price as tested: $7,995
Test vehicle provided by: Sport Chevrolet of Silver Spring, Md.