Well, I decided that the winter beater was a little too beat, so I pulled the trigger on one of these Aveo 5 SVM’s that we had on the lot at my store. It was a steal, ’cause it was sitting out there 60 days and the boss had it priced for less than what we owned it for.
Anyway, it’s a silver 2007 with about 12,400 on the odometer. It seemed like a smart buy since it has plenty of factory warranty left, my techs said they hardly ever have problems, they hold their resale well, and I should be able to achieve some pretty respectable MPG’s with the little 1.6L engine. Although, I did splurge and get some 16″ wheels for it (since I naturally get a discount, and the stock 14’s were just too cheap-looking), so it might effect my efficiency a tad. We’ll see.
By the way, SVM stands for Special Value Model, which means that this car is about as no-frills as one can find these days. A basic AM/FM radio, crank windows, 5-speed manual transmission, no A/C, cruise, or power…anything. Pretty much just the essentials are included, although it does have side impact airbags and a nifty digital clock right on the dashboard.
As far as the MPG’s go, I thought I’d spend the winter tracking the tank and see what this little golf cart can do. The goal is to beat my summer car, the modified 2000 Cougar aka “Slow and Low”. On paper, this looks easily achievable, considering the official EPA numbers:
The Aveo is definitely at a disadvantage, however. Consider alone the ambient temps here in Minnesota in the wintertime (below zero for most of last week), which translates into both less efficiency when she’s going, but also burning gas while she sits there warming up (I’m sorry, but when it’s 10 below, I’m going to run it for at least 5 minutes. The car was so frozen the other day that the clutch actually stuck to the floor). Now, add the snow factor (and all the spinning and slogging that results), along with the fact that I wouldn’t consider myself as an expert with a stick shift, and that I won’t be logging nearly as many highway miles (I’m transferring to a store that is much closer to home)….I think we might have a pretty good competition here.
So, for the record, Slow and Low burned 213 gallons of fuel and travelled 6505 miles last season, which sets the mark to beat at 30.537 MPG. Can this little Aveo do it?
Mileage logs will be tracked here. Or, better still, I’ll try to figure out a way to paste the tracker button
somewhere on the main page (it’s a little too wide for the sidebar).
ChenZhen's Chamber 