Routine Maintenance - Your Aveo's longevity depends on it.

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From reading posts on this forum and other forums one thing stands out...routine maintenance is critical with these cars.

One thing that people don't want to spend money on is their cars. We just fully expect that whenever we turn that key, no matter how long its been since it was last serviced, or what we've chosen to ignore, the thing will turnover and run just as smooth as it did when we got it. It's human nature.

Well "some" cars you might be able to get away with that for awhile but the Aveo isn't one of them. Think of it as being a finely engineered Alfa Romeo or Porsche....yeah LOL. Sure.

Its obviously a finicky and a very cheaply made car in some respects. No argument there but, because of that exact reason routine/prevenative maintenance and addressing issues as they appear is paramount, if you want to keep this thing out of the junk yard.

For example I just bought a 2010 Aveo5 that had just 56,000km or about 33,000 miles on it. Former owner was in his 70's and it was apparent that he didn't drive it much. He also didn't do much routine or prevenative maintenance either.

But it only had 56,000km on it. That's right but its also 8 yrs old.

So far, thanks to this forum, I've replaced the timing belt, water pump & thermostat housing before they failed...and at 8 yrs of age it was just a matter of time before they did. I also read about rad hoses etc just blowing off without any warning so this led me to inspect all of the clamps and connectors of the cooling system. Guess what? They were rusted to the point of turning into powder and a couple of the hoses were very brittle. So for a few bucks I replaced them which in turn no doubt saved me from a bigger catastrophe later. I also replaced the rad and gas caps that also seem to contribute to the headaches of Aveo owners. Just a couple of items that GM cheaped out on to help lower the initial purchase price but the very same things that can and do contribute to catastrophic failures (plastic thermostat housing anyone!).

While on the topic of cheap, I also found from reading this forum and others that "cheaper" replacement parts can also cause headaches aggravation and added expenses. Take for example the infamous o2 sensor CEL headache that comes up so often. These things fail far too early for whatever reason and due to their expense, $325 Canadian for a GM sensor, owners naturally turn to universal or aftermarket sensors since they are about 1/3 of the price. The problem however seems to be that some of these cars (mine being one of them) reject them which leads to a whole lot of frustration. On my car in particular we went through two sensors until I broke down and bought the GM sensor.

True things do go wrong with these cars even when you do look after them but that's true with ANY used car or a car that is creeping up in age or has been "neglected". I've owned Honda's, Hyundai's that have had their own "issues" even while following the recommended routine maintenance.

I know owners of these cars that now have 120,000 plus miles on them and they're still going without anything done to them other than routine or preventative maintenance and they swear by them which was one of the reasons we bought ours.

Hopefully taking care of it along with a little luck we'll be able to drive this thing for several more years.

Cheers.

[xintersecty]

well said. Personally I have been driving a year with the crappy O2 sensor. One day I will have cash and get a good replacement part. it did not last long

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We have a small Delivery Service/Courier in our Village and they have two Aveo's, earlier models 2005 or so I believe. They each have well over 200,000km or 124,000 miles on them. The owner, who is very cheap, told me that other than the usual repairs, with the timing belt being the most expensive thing, he has had zero issues with either of them.

Our mechanic has an 07 with close to 300,000km around 186,000 miles on his and it too hasn't given him any grief although his maintenance costs are no doubt less.

So longevity is possible but just like anything else its going to cost some $$$.