I chatted with Charlie Mott, who is the product and marketing manager for the Aveo, and he filled me in on this wholly new entry. GM started selling a no-great-shakes Aveo in 2003, a product of its joint venture with Daewoo in Korea. Soaring gas prices helped move some of them. “A well-timed entry,” said Mott.
But the new Aveo is built from scratch, benefitting from small car experience at both Daewoo and GM’s European Opel division.
The Aveo (priced somewhere between $13,000 and $15,000) and the tiny urban-oriented Spark start production in 2011, part of a laser-like car focus at the newly profitable GM. As a stockholder, I’m proud. “We don’t intend to take a backseat to anyone with small cars,” said Mott.