Faults:

Heads up!!! I was driving my Aveo up to Vernon. I had to stop at the side of the road and was alarmed to hear that my coolant was boiling rapidly.

My car was overheating!!I had a cracked in my cam head. Although my temperature gauge hadn't even budged from the center of the gauge. About a month later, I was going up a hill and all of a sudden a loud noise came from my engine and the engine died. I had roadside assistance tow my vehicle to the dealership, where Preston's mechanics and service managers proceeded to tell me that the loud noise was my battery and starter!! And yet when my car died it was RUNNING, I was driving up a hill and after I had my 4 way flashers on for the tow truck.

BUT, I took my car elsewhere and my timing belt had snapped, due to the wear and damage from it overheating. And 4 out of 8 valve stems had been crushed when my timing belt snapped. My 4 exhaust valve stems. THE CAR HAD 80 000 KM on it!!!

Faults:

Tires needed replaced after 14000 miles, dealer will cover up to 12000, be sure to take it in before then if you have problems.

Dealer said rims were bent, he accused me of wrecking my car, and said it would cost 1000 dollars for rims and tires. I never wrecked the car. He fumbled over his words, when I asked why the original tires were still on the car, and why there was no body damage to the car. But rims do bend easily because they are cheap steel.

Clock resets itself, mostly in hot weather.

2004 has recall on the rear seat belts; they get locked in place. Mine got stuck at 6000 miles.

Brake pads are tilted at an odd angle, occasionally a rock will get stuck between the brake pad and rotor, causing a horrid squeaking sound. I had this problem fixed on my car around 16000 miles. Dealer can tilt the brake pads to solve this problem.

In colder weather, car grinded and squeaked when I would turn or hit a bump. I thought it was the suspension, but it turned out to be the front control arms, and stabilizer bar bushing, which is also a recall on the car. It still squeaks, just not as much.

I have the 5 speed model, and car is hard to put in reverse, but that's because of the type of transmission it is.

Interior upholstery on side of door had to reattached at only 23000 miles.

New hub caps at 26000 miles, because paint chipped off of them.

Paint on the car is cheap, I've waxed and buffed mine several times, it's a high maintenance paint job.

I do mostly highway driving on the car, I now have 40K miles on the car and its belts started squeaking around 37K miles. I have done research on this also; one customer had a pulley and serpentine belt replaced before 50k, and several others had timing belts. It is recommended that you change timing the belt every 60k miles.

General Comments:

I am the owner of a 2004 Chevy Aveo. I have had several problems with my car. I was so upset when things started going wrong with the car at only 14k miles. We bought this car brand new thinking it would be a better deal. We do all the maintenance, and I am very picky about my car. So in order to have some closure about this car, and to find out why, I have done hours of research to learn about this car.

The car does not handle good, and it also has poor braking. Moves side to side a lot on the highway when windy. Doesn't handle well at speeds above 80 miles per hour.