2009 AVEO...GOOD BUY? Please help!

[Question]

Hello I am looking at a 2009 aveo 4 door base car. It has 67,000, owner says it is mostly highway miles. It needs two new rear tires but that seems to be it. He tells me the car has never had any problems and has all records for it and it's only had its oil changes and nothing else has been needed.

What I am worried about is I keep hearing about the timing belts on these cars. I'm told that in 2009 they changed the motor up a bit and the timing belt is not a issue anymore, but is that true? Also if the timing belt does break will it break a lot of other stuff costing me a ton of money? Lastly is $4,400 a good deal? Anything else you can tell me about these cars I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you very much!

[Pickles]

"mostly highway miles" 99.9% of the time is bull****. However, 4400 seems like a deal to me... I paid 9100 for my 2010 hatchback with 28k miles (at a dealer though)

[HeavyDuty]

well if it's like mine, 2009 it should be in need of a few bucks worth of repairs real soon mainly the timing belt if it hasn't been done yet...67,000 KM or miles ? it's due at 100,000KM or 60,000 miles. Sorry but you couldn't give me an Aveo for any price and this coming from a guy that has owned one from brand new. Walk away unless you really really really enjoy working on and paying for repairs...and putting the effort into making something that never worked right from day one work properly. I paid 17,000 for mine so I am in it good, no choice I feel but to work through the issues mine/they have and make a car out of it.

My dad always told me you can pay for good land once, or pay for badland the rest of your life...this applies to just about any asset you will ever own...imo.

I use to own a 1988 Chev Sprint, it was basicaly just like the Aveo in build quality. The difference is with that car I bought it for 1000 bucks and they were plentifull in the scrap yards so parts were cheap but it had the same kind of bizarre issues the Aveo does, I was driving it down the street one day and somehow the command start which I didn't even know was installed in the car shifted the transmission into reverse...while I was doing 30mph forwards...wheel bearing were an almost every other month task....Vega,Sprint,Aveo got to be money in this program cause GM just keeps on selling them.

At the time I bought this Aveo it was 17,000 and VW TDI was 30,000...here's a quick numbers crunch I am out of pocket $ 5600 in fuel as of today at 88,000 KM. I own my cars for 300,000 KM so I will be out of pocket at 300,000 KM $ 19040.00 bucks in lost fuel mileage the biggest thing is the VW TDI was a nice ride, handles well, the VW I could sell the Aveo I will have to give away. The VW has no trouble going 80,000 KM on a tire the Aveo so far hasn't got over 25,000 KM on a tire yet. You get the picture I am sure....

[petrified.rabbit]

2009 aveos have a 100k mile timing belt interval. It is an ecotec correct?

That said i would never pay 17000 for an aveo, i paid over 6000 less for mine brand new.

There are definitely things about any car that affect ownership, reliability, etc. The aveo has less recalls than most honda and toyota cars. MY aveo has only left me stranded three times, and one of those times "may" have been my fault, and one was definitely mine (left snow tires on in summer until one blew out on highway, emergency jack didnt fit under car..)
My oem tires didnt make it 5000 miles, (replaced under warranty) second set of oem were gone before the odometer had 10k.

Adding in fuel to figure total cost is an interesting way to decide if its a sound investment. At $4400 for a fairly decent mileage car i would worry about title issues, wrecks etc. Why is it being sold so cheap?

[Question]

I live in South Dakota and a lot of people here work out on the oil rigs in North Dakota, because the cost of living is so high they drive back and forth every week. The job is one week on one week off most the time. Anyways the owner of this car just got a now job and moves Monday and can't take the car so I asked if he would be interested in 4,400 cash and he said yes because I don't think he can do anything else with it. I'm suppose to pick it up tomorrow but then I started reading about these cars and 4,400 is starting to not sound like as good of a deal as I first thought.

[HeavyDuty]

YOU COULD NOT GIVE ME AND AVEO..my kid turns 16 this month, I will not allow her to drive this car end of story. I realize some of these Aveo for some reason seem to be ok and some are not, I got a not one and I see more nots than ok's...and timing belts gee did I get caught there said back in 1982 I would NEVER BUY ANOTHER car with a timing belt, I thought they were banned then found out this car has one LOL

If I let my kid drive this car and she gets into an accident I would never forgive myself.

If you got $ 600.00 bucks find a Cavalier same fuel milage and a darn good ride.

[Question]

Lol that is funny because I have been looking for a decent priced cavalier for the last two hours now haha. Sadly I'm not finding any near me. Denver seems to be the best bet but not sure how to get two cars back if I go there to buy one lol.

[HeavyDuty]

228,000 KM on my 03 Cavalier...total repairs for the life of the car, under $ 1400.00 bucks ( 10 years ownership) aside from oil and tires which last 90,000 KM on my car. The Aveo I have spent over $ 3000.00 in the past 12 months on repairs so FAR, need another $ 2500.00 to make it steer well. Tires last as I said under 30,000 KM....and cost more money per tire btw.

I have steered my Cavalier with my left thumb the day I bought it and still do today.

[HeavyDuty]

Well I bought the limited TEAM CANADA EDITION, leather wheel and shifter knob sunroof ect, and I am in Canada things here not the same as the US. I spend most of my time in the US so I know how much cheaper things get the further south you go.

When making the decision to buy the AVEO your going to find this funny, I said to my wife you know are second car is beat our Cavalier needs new tires this is the funny part our Cavalier needed new rubber...I said to her, lets buy a new car and put off replacing the Cavalier tires.....and after owning the Aveo for 4 months I had to shell out for new rubber for IT !

NO WARRANTY COVERAGE GM CANADA REFUSED TO REPLACE THEM. They cost me over 150.00 each to replace.

How I came to be the owner of this Aveo..well I did the math, GM dealer told me Aveo will get 51MPG and I verified this MPG on various websites and the car window sticker... the 2009 was a remake of the Aveo, we waited to buy the 09 for that reason the all improved version it was suppose to be....about 7 months after we owned the car mysteriously all those published MPG numbers disappeared off the GM website, the TDI VW was getting 70 MPG diesel and I confirmed this with someone that owned one, but was double the cost of the Aveo....so the VW didn't pencil out and I was a long time GM car buyer I think this Aveo is my 2 brand new and 5th less than a year old GM product...I took the word of GM because of that history.

Well turns out Aveo was getting around 23 Mpg for the first 6 months we owned it, chewed up a set of tires in that time frame, transmission wouldn't shift still doesn't GM didn't fix it, Powersteering pump failed first 90 days I owned it, car stalled all over the place including while you were driving down the street, GM didn't fix it, stero system shorted out, GM didn't fix it I had to disconnect it, paid IDK how much for that sat radio feature LOL which never did work and nobody could keep the car on the road. The first 6 months we owned it I think it spent I will say around 8 weeks in the shop. We couldn't keep air in the factory aluminum rims and had to pay out of pocket to have those removed and sealed, Onstar quit first 3 months we owned it..GM did fix that.

Is there a recall on this transmission shifting issue I have not seen one...sure should be problem is whenever I take it to the dealer they write can not duplicate problem...well I drove around with a capture device in the car they gave me and I captured it for them so they can't tell me it wasn't duplicated...never heard a single word back from them. No recalls when the dealers don't write up work orders for issues on the car. Can you recall for 50% less MPG then was advertised ? These are huge issues, should have been a recall on the OEM tires I have a work order here from a GM dealership that states rear tires 0/32 tread and the invoice actualy says this " CAR IS UNSAFE TO DRIVE " and right after that it says WARRANTY DECLINED.

I owned two Chev Cavaliers one brand new right off the lot the other 1 year old....the first one never did see a service bay or have a recall and it never left me anywhere great car. The second one never saw a service bay till it had 80,000 KM which was the day I replaced the OEM tires and took it in for an alignment...never saw a service bay again until it had over 170,000 KM on it and it needed and rad fan and I replaced the thermostat on it once. My Cavalier still has OEM exhaust and it looks good, the Aveo wow looks like it might rust through any day now. I know a good car when I see it, the Aveo not it by a long shot.

Cavalier I replaced OEM tires at 80,000 KM and they could have went more but I was going on a trip. The Aveo well I am on set number 3 now and I had to shell out over 800.00 bucks for steel rims and rubber for winter or else park the car when the snow flew....it has 87,000 KM on it.

Cavalier I replaced the O2 sensors at 150,000 KM when I tuned it up didn't need them. The Aveo already replaced the after cat $ 147.00 bucks at 82,000 KM on account of CEL. Aveo spark plugs went through 3 sets before the recall plus the recall ones the Cavalier is running on it's second set. 228,000 KM VS 88,000 KM. Cavalier rear strut went at 180,000 KM so I replaced all of them, Aveo all four shot at 80,000 KM. Cavalier OEM battery failed in spring 2008...5 years of service, Aveo's OEM battery already replaced at year 3. Cavalier just had a safety done on it at 221,000 KM every component passed (but one rear wheel brake cylinder) and it's all original tire rod ends, ball joints, bushings. The Aveo entire front end has been replaced at 88,000 KM and the whole rear end was replaced at 8500 KM. Cavalier has heat in the winter time the Aveo doesn't. The Cavalier hugs the road all four seasons, the Aveo well I will not even talk about how it handles. I can pull a trailer with the Cavalier the Aveo I can't..nor would I likely fry the transmission first hill I took. The Cavalier has hauled 2000lb loads of shingles all over the place. The Cavalier when I step on it at 30 MPH it will squeel the tires the Aveo well it does pick up speed for sure, sometimes anyway. Cavalier has more room than the Aveo...and they both get almost identical MPG. Cavalier insurance is cheaper and good golly when I turn the Cavalier key...it turns over the Aveo well sometimes u need to wait or give it a few tries your just never sure if it is going to or not....and if it does start will it remain running that to is often a mystery....

I cant even count the hours I have spent on this Aveo, fixing, talking to GM Canada, taking it here taking it there trying this trying that premuim fuel MPG testing.....research it's not even a hobby any more, it's become more of a I am not going to be beaten by this POS it's gonna run and drive like it should or I will die tryin. I enjoy my Cavalier and that is how car ownership should be...if your the kind of person that goes looking fortrouble then buy an Aveo.

[tacomafitch]

I have a 2009 4 door manual transmission with 117K Miles. I have had good luck with mine. Tire wear is an issue. 1 radiator hose split but otherwise runs great