Smallish five-door hatchbacks make up a significant sector of the market in South Africa.
Many of those that currently sell in the R100 000-to-R130 000 price range are considerably less toylike than the really low-budget cars, offering many of the performance, luxury and safety features we would all have been thrilled to find in a package costing thousands more not too many years ago.
The Hyundai Getz, Toyota Yaris, Daihatsu Sirion, Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio, Fiat Panda and the recently launched Suzuki Swift ranges all have excellent offerings in this category.
General Motors (GM) has now upped its game to become a serious contender with the new Chevrolet Aveo. According to GM, all that’s carried over from the old model is the windscreen, the roof dome and the outer door panes. I’m sure a determined parts-hunter would find a little more DNA than that if he dug deep enough, but that’s by the by.
More powerful than its predecessor, better equipped, and extremely well built, the new Aveo also trumps the opposition as even its R112 900 base model, complete with a driver’s airbag and ABS brakes, comes with a 1,6-litre Ecotec engine from GM.
Apart from an extra 100cc capacity, the new engine — also now fitted to the otherwise unchanged Aveo sedan — boasts multiport fuel injection, twin cams and four valves per cylinder. There’s electronic throttle control and a sophisticated engine management system that helps elevate power from the outgoing model’s 62kW at 5 400rpm to 77kW at 5 800rpm, while torque improves from 128Nm at 3 000rpm to 145Nm at 3 600rpm. Both those gains are significant, allowing top speeds of 184km/h for the manual versions and 176km/h for the auto.
The factory claims fuel consumption of between 7,3 and 7,7 litres for every 100km travelled in mixed use, allowing a range of about 600km from the 45-litre fuel tank.
The new Aveo hatch is bigger than the old externally, but the inside hasn’t changed much in size. The car is slightly longer, wider and higher, with marginally more front headroom but virtually unchanged leg and shoulder room. What is very good, though, is the quality of the interior trim. The Chev’s panelling is excellent, and the ergonomics good. There’s enough space inside for four or five adults, and boot space has grown by almost 20%, to 1 189 cubic decimetres.
Tare weight, at 1 090kg, is about 10% more than the older car, which is more than compensated for by the extra grunt from the bigger, more modern engine. At the launch we drove the new car for a couple of hundred kilometres at Reef altitudes and found it to be a good, honest offering. My only complaint was that the gearshift of the five-speed manual transmission felt sloppier than I would have liked.
GM’s newest hatch comes, in South Africa, in four versions, with five-speed manual transmissions in L, LS and LT trim, as well as an LS derivative blessed (or otherwise) with a four-speed automatic transmission. For me, that would be one to avoid because smallish engines with four-speed auto gearboxes battle to stay in synch with my enthusiastic driving style. On the other hand, conservative drivers with a dollop of common sense between their ears quite likely disagree with me on this, so don’t take my opinion as gospel.
All use the same engine, suspension and brakes, and all come with power steering, air con, an immobiliser, a driver’s airbag (and one for the front passenger in all but the base model) and ABS brakes, which is all that I consider really necessary.
As you move through the LS and LT versions you gain added features such as power windows, remote central locking, a roof spoiler, fog lamps, alloy rims and a factory-fitted sound system. The price, of course, rises accordingly, with the LS retailing at R125 900, the LS auto at R135 900 and the LT at R144 500. The booted sedan, which retains the old styling for now but gains the new engine, costs between R125 900 and R144 500 for LS (manual and auto) and manual LT versions.
GM’s Korean facility has produced an attractive, well-built package, and the budget versions in particular offer way better than average performance and quality for their price. Highly recommended.