Chevrolet Aveo

Not as bad as you'd expect

2010 (60)

We bought this car as frankly Chevrolet's participation in the BTCC had worked on us and we couldn't afford a Cruze. Doing the research, we found a few bad reviews but mostly stuff labelling it boring. Personally, I'd call it 'safe'.

Moving from a Clio to this, it was clear that the ride on the Aveo is a little softer, and the brakes not quite as sharp. But it has enough poke for this sort of car and will easily do motorway speeds. We're a couple of larger people and we have plenty of time and it uses less petrol than the Clio we had, too.

Not many extras in the cockpit, there aren't steering wheel radio controls or bluetooth, any of that fancy stuff - but what do you expect from a cut-price car of this class?

It's now done 13000 miles and is yet to need any more than a new tyre when some idiots put screws in the road (it was in the local Hi Q sitting next to a Beemer too so that can affect anyone) so reliability's absolutely fine.

Basically then, I like it and you could go worse. If I had the money I'd rather have a Civic though ;)

Mr D Francis