Bye VW, hello Aveo.

So what ever happened to the VW? We traded it in. A prime time to do so.

But why get rid of a VW golf? I hate VW s. The German engineers are asses. The way certain things are mounted and placed is a joke. But away from that it ran like crap. For the first two months after we bought it, it ran great.

Then the tranny started shifting hard, then late. Then I found out the transmission is a “sealed unit”. Not so, if you need to change transmission fluid on a VW search my blog, it’s there. The great thing about VW tranny fluid, is that it is about $25-30 a liter.



Then the fuel pump went out, a $400 fix, then the starter, a $300 fix, and then the strut mounts, a $80 fix. Did I mention VW parts are expensive? Not including labor, which I graciously volunteered.

After the tranny fluid change it shifted a bit better. But then it started running hot. Something got crossed in the wires/bad fan, and the fuse kept blowing for the electric fan.

I replaced the fuse and usually it would blow in 5-10 minutes. I never wanted to hunt down the cause. So it ran a little hot. Then the “thermo housing,” the hose junction on the side of the block, started to leak. Well it had been leaking since we got the car, but started to get more noticeable where I had to add water twice a week, versus once every two weeks.

The radio lights stopped working from us running the heater to cool the car down, melted the wires inside the dash. The engine began to run weak as well. When it ran great it took about 5 minutes to get to 70, so weaker performance was very noticeable.

So we started car shopping, and we found a Chevy Aveo we liked. The day we went to look at it something under the dash went up in the VW, so I pulled fuses until the smoke stopped. We went the dealer and they offered us $1500 for it. Sold. I just had my fingers crossed when they test drove it.



We got the Aveo. Ok I know it is a Daewoo, that doesn’t surprise me. But it has a Chevy warranty, 4 year bumper to bumper, and 5 year engine/drive train. Good warranty, but you have to “afford” the maintenance to keep the warranty valid. Good thing my wife is sleeping with a mechanic.





But I like the Aveo. It is tiny, four door, and fun to drive. The car has a tight turning radius, super quiet, and feels huge inside. It is peppy with its little 4 cyl, but has exhaust manifold turbo, I found the air pump and hear the whistle. It’s pretty easy to do maintenance on, everything is easily accessible. There are some guards in the way, but not as bad as the VW.





One of my favorite things is the mileage. We get almost 40mpg on the highway, about 30-35 in town, with no air on. But the air will turn the small car into a meat locker.