Interior Features

The Aveo interior is better than you might expect for such a low-cost car. Revised gray fabrics and a new Charcoal/Titanium color scheme dress things up nicely. The seats offer a solid fit and are quite comfortable, with high-density foam under the LT's tweedy deluxe cloth.

There's a comfortable four-spoke steering wheel, finished in matt black. The instrument panel is simple, while still presenting the important information in big gauges: speedo, tach, fuel and coolant temp. There's some silly pseudo carbon fiber in the door handles, and the golfball grain on the dash looks rough; but Cadillacs have it too. There are a number of thoughtful slots and pockets for storing things, including a lighted glovebox. There's a floor console with a storage compartment, and an extra 12-volt power outlet.

We drove an Aveo LT on a hot Texas day and found the air conditioning excellent. There's a storage slot big enough for your whole hand under the CD player. The big, round, old-fashioned black gearshift knob with black boot seems simple and appropriate for the no-frills Aveo.

We crawled in the back seat and discovered lots of room back there, as well as good visibility, thanks to Aveo's theater seating. The rear seats are elevated, a feat made possible by Aveo's high roof. The rear seat of the sedan folds flat and opens up the 11.7 cubic-foot trunk, while the rear seat of the five-door further flips forward with the touch of one finger, yielding a relatively cavernous 42 cubic-foot cargo area.

To minimize wind, road and engine noise, there's a lot of sound insulation located under the hood and floor, and in the doors and dash panel.

Driving Impressions

With an inexpensive compact, it seems there is no middle ground in acceleration: it's either zippy or it's a dog. The Aveo is zippy with zoom to spare, at least with the standard manual transmission, a solid-feeling five-speed gearbox. The gas pedal seems a bit mushy, but the engine works hard to overcome it. The little Aveo will chirp the tires in second gear.

Aveo also features some surprisingly sophisticated engineering. Its little engine breathes through a variable-geometry intake system that helps fatten the torque curve at low rpm. As a result, there's plenty of power from 2000 rpm in the lower gears all the way up to 6000 rpm. The power band is remarkably linear, with no lapses or surges as the tach needle climbs to 6500, where a rev-limiter abruptly interrupts forward progress; so you upshift and all is well again. We accelerated all the way up to 85 mph in fourth gear, and the engine stayed with us all the way. But you can't expect miracles from 103 horsepower, and Aveo won't exactly catapult you toward the horizon if you stomp it at 65 mph in fifth.

Out on a Texas Interstate with 80-mph traffic, we noticed how pleasantly, surprisingly quiet it was inside the Aveo's cabin, with nary a buzz from under the hood. The engine noise is low thanks to the deep-skirt construction of the block itself, along with a large intake resonator and dual-muffler exhaust system.

We gave the manual gearbox some good hard downshifts, and it took them without complaint. The gearshift lever has kind of a long throw, but then Aveo isn't trying to be a sports car.

The optional four-speed automatic is gated; by depressing a Hold button on the shifter, the driver can shift manually, even starting in a higher gear for better traction on ice or snow. One has to admire this simple, mechanical alternative to the electronic tip-shift devices found on far more expensive automobiles.

From behind the wheel the sedan seems bigger than it is, or maybe it's actually bigger than it seems it should be. Whatever the reason, it's a good thing for a subcompact to feel bigger. The rack-and-pinion steering is sharp, and the torsion beam rear axle gives the car a grown-up feel. With a turning circle of just 16 feet, Aveo can make a U-turn in a ridiculously small space. That makes it extremely maneuverable in tight, crowded quarters.

Suspension and steering tweaks coupled with the available 15-inch wheels and tires are designed to improve the handling of the 2006 models.

Aveo is sufficiently damped to offer a good ride even through a choppy construction zone and over twisty back roads. There were a number of spots where the ride might have felt harsh if it were going to, and it didn't.

If you lock the brakes, you will come to a screeching halt without veering. The vented front discs are large for the size of the car, and the rear drums have wide linings. We recommend the optional anti-lock brakes with brake force distribution, which improves stability and helps the driver maintain control under hard braking. In any case, wear your seat belts as they are your first line of defense in a crash.