7 clunkers to avoid

[daug1502]

I finally had to replace that power steering line. The Ultra racing bars prove to be a great investment everyday too.

[camopaint0707]

I wish the link still worked

[ktjr2]

lol this is the best cheap car i ever bought.. its by far NOT my favorite but when something breaks... ill fix it... this is my second one i sold my first one cause i got 3 grand for it and only had 1700 in it... ill keep this one cause its a 5 speed and gets such awesome gas millage.. i give the car a 8 outta 10... pros, its a 2006, under a hundred thousand miles, 5 speed, o ya did i metion it gets 30+ miles to the gallon... cons, it looks like an egg, it has an ugly key.. haha those are not real cons... i love this little gas getter.

[daug1502]

It is cheap and easy to work on. It's just slow, wich is probably a good thing for me.

[MetroMPG]

Cheap and slow pretty much describes all of my cars.

I've been looking at used cars recently, and saw an Aveo sedan that was traded in at a local car lot, but it was already sold. Probably for a good price too.

[thankful_ragamuffin]

This thread got me thinking about how biased people and particularly automotive journalists can be. Aveo is the #1 clunker? My '08 Wave is approaching 180,000Kms. No squeaks, no rattles, no major issues. The only repairs I have had to pay for, aside from maintenance items, has been 2 axle seals, a valve cover gasket and a battery. The car lives in an environment that ranges from -40 winters to dust bowl summers. It still has the original shocks/struts and brakes. It has been a great car and it even has some German DNA - Opel helped with some of the engineering. So into the shop comes a Mercedes B200 - the brand the "experts" call the epitome of automotive excellence. The car has 140,000Kms and needs 2 front wheel bearings, shocks/struts all around, 4 wheel brakes and a CV shaft worth $1300 my COST!!! This customer will spend more on repairs in one visit than I have spent in six and a half years of motoring. So remind me again, which car is the P.O.S?

[MetroMPG]

^ Great illustration

This thread got me thinking about how biased people and particularly automotive journalists can be.

Most auto journalists are incapable of properly reviewing entry-level cars. They need to be able to put away their "BMW yardsticks" and evaluate a car based on what it was designed to do: provide cheap A to B motoring. Most fail at this.

[AndrewButler05]

^ Great illustration



Most auto journalists are incapable of properly reviewing entry-level cars. They need to be able to put away their "BMW yardsticks" and evaluate a car based on what it was designed to do: provide cheap A to B motoring. Most fail at this.

I agree completely! Well said.

[petrified.rabbit]

The thing is, no one reviews "cheap A to B" cars well. They are also very bias to american foreign built cars. The reviews of the aveo were all poor. The cruze and sonic are a little better even though thy are essentially the "same" korean cars they were designed to be, yet from my reading the Spark still gets bad marks..

I have been to a few (very few) car press release tests. It was a terrible experience. Everyone basically followed the most "knowledgeable" guy around and wrote what he said. Everyone was free to test every car and take it on the track. When the personal testing started they all headed to the corvette, (it was a gm product review). I am not even sure everyone (anyone) drove every car. And just like many reviews sound like poor plagiarism's over other reviews, most of the people just went with consensus and not personal impression.

[06T200]

It;s good that others see through the Aveo dogma marketing spin, at least here in the States.

My .2c;

I have only had my first Aveo a few months, (racked up about 2500 miles so far) but I have learned as much as I can about it. I came into ownership as a total noob. In this short amount of time, there has been no shortage of bad press, crazy stories of ownership, everything from ‘air bags don’t work’, ‘check engine light always on’, ‘riddled with recalls’ to ‘just bursts into flames while driving on road’. I have read all the fear mongering propaganda over at NHTSA about numerous recalls, one even claiming GM used ‘counterfeit control modules’, the attacks are almost endless. All marketing ploys IMO. Any magazine that has paying advertisers were written off for what they are, marketing illusions. Most of what I have read online has been laughable. The terms ‘claptrap’, ‘unsafe’ and ‘clown car’ are common in the media spin.

All over a car, that was (apparently) designed by none other than Giorgetto Giugiaro aka Italdesign in Moncalieri Italy, according to Wikipedia on the car, and has an engine with design roots at Opel/Vauxhall including head design work by Lotus early on. Not exactly a Yugo or Pinto from it’s engineering roots. – I think the only reason it picked up this dogma, is simply due to it’s “target market” of low cost (i.e. low profit margin for marketing budget line items) buyers.

IMO any car that gives good value to the owner, should not get much positive press, as this would be counter productive to move the hard to sell rigs off of lots. - In light of this, to touch on resale value, we have combed craigslist for a few weeks trying to find another Aveo for my girlfriend, and they have no problem selling for a grand or two above KBB, in fact two just sold in my tiny town well above any book value. To make a long story short, I now own two of these clap traps.

One benefit of the Aveo dogma is I think some amazing deals can be had out there. Some people actually buy into this crap, and dump their cars on the market for pennies on the dollar. and it does not seem to have an impact on selling prices for good runners.