30th Sep 2008, 12:39

06:38.

The UK list price of the Chevrolet Aveo (nee. Kalos) is from £7,695, not £4,500. Where this individual is getting his figures from is anybody's guess.

Although I do not own a Kalos/Aveo, I am considering a Chevrolet/Vauxhall/Holden as my next car.

I have to say I would never consider a Hyundai/Kia/Perodua etc.

30th Sep 2008, 14:22

Steven -a good point, well put. I wrote the review tongue in cheek as could be seen by the language and comments - but people take things very seriously.

The cost of ownership is easy to work out using lease data, tax, mpg, depreciation etc, reliability is harder to do so fair enough.

If every car was judged on long term ownership, there would be no car magazines: they all drive a car for a day or so and make a review out of it, unless they have a long termer as part of their fleet. After 1300 miles, I had seen quite enough.

After studying so many cars, the performance figures, mpg, emissions, NCAP rating etc mark this car out as dated, and this is borne out by the fact that the car is actually a renamed Daewoo Kalos - sold after Daewoo went bust, so uses very old outdated tech and does not compare well to the recently released models I fairly compared it with.

I thank you for your impartiality.

30th Sep 2008, 14:38

I have seen 1.2 Kalos offered by car supermarkets at £4500 new, they are currently being offered direct by Chevrolet at a 22% discount - see the official site at £5995. The cheapest I could see today was a new 1.2S at £4995, but this could probably be beaten with a bit of time and effort now it is an old model and dealers want to move the last of the old stock.

I am not even going to start on how the motoring press has widely reported the "new" Aveo to be just a rehashed Kalos... I just can't be bothered - suffice to say it looks the same to me.

Maybe the Volt will change my views on the company - it won't ever change my view on Kalos, though.

If you love Chevrolet, enjoy - I'll leave you to it.

Cheers!!

28th Oct 2008, 09:38

Hi, I'm from MEDAN, Indonesia, south east asia. I have a Kalos 2007, a/t, dark grey. I say KALOS IS SUCK, LIAR DEALER, we are becoming a victim for your profit, guys, look what they do for their profit but to sacrifice the brand of Chevrolet. I hope the Asia region manager of Chevrolet or anyone responsible for this embarrassing thing can do some action to the dealer.

30th Oct 2008, 05:51

Ref: previous comments on price of the Kalos, at present, a UK car supermarket is offering Kalos 1.4 16V SXs only 9 months old at £4500, and the 1.2Ss at £3995.

It is not a great car, but this it is cheap.

31st Oct 2008, 03:55

If you compare list prices, it puts the Kalos/Aveo against some very talented opposition like the Corsa and Swift, which is unfair on Chevrolet. After all, GM owns both Vauxhall/Opel, and Chevrolet is their UK budget brand.

The thread title is for the Kalos, not Aveo - are you admitting that they are one and the same?!

If you compare the new deal prices (no-one with any sense would pay list for any car), it puts it more fairly against the Picanto, Myvi, I10, Gen2 etc.

I could not find any 9 month old Kias or Getz that were so cheap - it is true that used Chevrolets find it hard to find a home in the UK as people are wary of them (perhaps due to ignorance of the brand?).

If we fairly compare the run-out Kalos 1.2SE against the run-out Getz 1.1GSi (I20 is due now) spec for spec, 5 door versions are both available new in various places-the Kalos £5500, the Getz £6000.

Pre-reg or low mile models under a year old differ greatly-the Kalos £3995, the Getz £5500-check the car supermarkets, Auto Trader etc. This is probably due to the favourable reliability and ownership reports on the Getz plus that it has a five year warranty.

Chevrolet was a revered brand in the UK until they launched old Daewoo models as new cars - but I have to say that at these low prices they do look attractive. Today on Motorpoint, you could get an 08 Chevrolet Lacetti Estate in metallic with 2463 miles for £5699, which makes a mockery of the list price of £11,945 plus metallic. This represents a 54% loss in just 6 months and makes it even cheaper than a base Kalos/Aveo.

List prices are irrelevant - they are like asking prices on houses - it's what they sell for that is important. Any discount on new is reflected in the resale value - and all you are paying for while owning a car is the depreciation on it:

New Jazz £9990-deal £9750, value after one year £7200

Kalos/Aveo deal £??? value after one year???

If you paid list price for an Aveo, you would lose approx £5000 in the first year, so the extra cost of financing a Jazz would work out cheaper in the long run.

Where Chevrolet makes most sense is 6 months old with the huge reduction - a 2,000 mile hatch for £3995 or larger estate at £5699 (plus tax/admin fee) both with 2.5 years warranty sounds like a great deal to me. Otherwise, buy new at a good price and keep for years - a £5500 car new that would fetch £1500 after 5 years would only cost £800 a year in depreciation.

I have learnt from bitter experience about this having lost tens of thousands buying wrong before I worked this out. I now have a new car every 6/12 months and lose approx £1000 pa - this includes road tax, warranty, breakdown cover and of course I do not have to pay out for servicing or tyres etc as I sell the car before these are needed. I source my cars nationwide, do very sharp deals and then sell privately to minimise the loss.

So - ignore list prices, look at the loss of value as the key element and buy wisely! That Lacetti SW looks tempting as it has lost most of its money and would sell privately at a £1000 loss after 12 months/15,000 miles.

Very cheap motoring!

31st Oct 2008, 13:39

There's no doubting that the Chevrolet brand is held in higher esteem by the UK public as compared to Kia, Proton, Hyundai etc.

The public are well aware that GM took over Daewoo in 2002 and that the Kalos is now a 7 year old design that is at the end of its model run. ALL car manufacturers have models that come to the end of their model run and ALL such cars become heavily discounted. It's not rocket science.

Both the lacetti and kalos are being discontinued as Chevrolet moves forward to release the Chevrolet Cruze and Chevrolet Beat in spring 2009. These new cars will further improve public awareness of Chevrolet throughout the UK and Europe.