Looking for information...

[matchmade]

Greetings, first time poster here. I'm a musician for a living and travel a lot so I'm in the market for a fuel efficient car with enough room to throw my guitar, mic and guitar stands etc (occasionally my Peavey Escort for those solo acoustic shows) in and make a 600 mile round trip without costing a fortune.

My wife and I were used car shopping yesterday going lot to lot. when I spotted an Aveo5 that is in my budget. I know very little about these cars other than it fit my criteria for appearing at least to have the necessary cargo room and achieve 30+ MPG highway since that's where I do the vast majority of my driving.

The car in question
2010 Chevrolet Aveo5
112,000 miles on the odometer
Automatic Transmission.

The lot was closed at the time so I didn't get to drive it was planning on heading down there tomorrow and if everything checked out in the test drive, making the little car mine.

I was trying to do some research on the car ahead of time when I stumbled upon this forum and thought...who better to ask than folks who drive these cars all the time?

My 2001 Ford Windstar gave up the ghost a few months ago at 285k miles. I've been renting little cars from Enterprise almost every week (driving a 2015 Nissan Versa Note right now) to get to my non-trailer gigs. My 2000 Dodge Durango just gets WAY too terrible of gas mileage to drive when I don't have to tow the trailer, and cuts into the profits worse than renting a car. So my hopes for this car is to reliably (with proper maintenance) drive me A to B sometimes 300+ miles one way.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read my ramblings and let me know if I should be running toward or away from this car.

(P.S.: I love when there is a forum to join for a car I own and WILL be sticking around if I purchase said car.)

[06T200]

Welcome match! Well you didn't ask anything specific - but I can say I drive the wheels off my Aveo much older than the one you spotted, mine is a 2006 with ~240K miles on it and I drive it all over. Could not be happier with mine. We also have another 2006 that my mom drives and it too has no issues since we brought it back to life from the junk yard. Anyway, happy shopping, and you should enjoy a newer Aveo, plenty of bang for the buck IMO. We also own a 2013 Sonic and aside from the car payment my girlfriend really loves it too. If you do a quick search you can see all the work I did to ours to keep them running reliably. Maintenance like any car is KEY.

[matchmade]

Awesome, just some insight into the overall reliability of the car was what I was looking for. Knowing they are capable of 200k+ miles is helpful. My goal with most vehicle purchases are a low cost vehicle that will last me at least a couple of years as I tend to put 40-50k/year on a vehicle. I don't mind basic things like sensors, water pumps, alternators, general maintenance that kind of thing but I seldom have time (or money) for major repairs, rebuilding engines or putting in another tranny that sort of thing, so when a vehicle reaches that point it's usually done for me. Mainly looking for stories of people beyond the 100k mark and still on original engine and transmission and their general happiness with the vehicle at that point.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, it certainly makes me a bit more confident in the idea of purchasing an Aveo.

Welcome match! Well you didn't ask anything specific - but I can say I drive the wheels off my Aveo much older than the one you spotted, mine is a 2006 with ~240K miles on it and I drive it all over. Could not be happier with mine. We also have another 2006 that my mom drives and it too has no issues since we brought it back to life from the junk yard. Anyway, happy shopping, and you should enjoy a newer Aveo, plenty of bang for the buck IMO. We also own a 2013 Sonic and aside from the car payment my girlfriend really loves it too. If you do a quick search you can see all the work I did to ours to keep them running reliably. Maintenance like any car is KEY.

[06T200]

Cool, yes they will wind out the miles, just make SURE you replace the timing belt every 60K miles and it will go the distance with no worries. - However I do not know if that is considered a 'major repair' to most people. Someone we know was quoted some $800 dollars to have their timing belt changed on a Honda, my cost to replace them is under $100 for the gates kit. If you don't like working on your cars, consider the costs of having them maintained.. If it doesn't pencil out, just buy an old Chevy C10 and drive it, they never die lol

[PoisonIvy]

With the 2009 to 2011 Aveos you're actually good until 100k miles on the timing belt and components. And from what I can see, there isn't the immenent danger that you used to see when you approched 60k on the 2004 to 2008's. I've owned both generations, and hands down I'd recommend the 2009+ to even the mechanically challenged. I find it much closer to the Sonic in quality and fit and finish then the older Aveos. Not knocking the older Aveos but I feel they're best suited to more "car people" that have a better pulse on when it's time to make repairs and being able to do some of the minor work even themselves. That's a bit off topic, but I don't want to see you hesitant to buy what I consider a "good value", when alot of dislike on the internet comes from poor maintenance on the older generation Aveos. People treated the originals that were a lot more tempermental as disposable cars, and sure enough that's what happened.

I get low 30's MPG, on my 2010 with about 70k miles. The only real non-wear item I had to do was the rad just this spring. Otherwise I've gone through the brakes, battery, thermostat, front end components and tires and it's been a great car for 2 years for me.