Very short memory, Josh?

The Grand Prix and Grand Am names have been dead for 2 and 6 years respectively.

I think that falls under the old GM, and it's safe to say those names wouldn't be around.

Also, I recall the Trailblazer doing quite well till the past couple of years.

Cash For Clunkers didn't exactly do Aveo any favors. The only GM vehicle to crack the top 10 (Ford had 2 entries Toyota 3) was the Cobalt, which was at #10 (even the Dodge Caliber managed #8).

Cash For Clunkers also significantly impacted sales of Chevy's Equinox, Colorado, and HHR, GMC's Terrain & Canyon.

Apparently, people taking advantage of the $3,500 to $4,500 aren't using the money to buy bottom feeders. I'm sure there were a few C4C benificaries that bought Aveo, but as far as GM vehicle sales that benefitted, Aveo is barely a speed bump next to other vehicles that have.

Seems even the Impala experienced a bigger bump in sales. It's currently experiencing an impressive sales surge over last year. Last numbers had it running up in sales over last year by over 10%, while Aveos are down between 25 and 30%.

Not quite.

Most all Aveo buyers tend to be 1st time car buyers, who you can safely say with very few exceptions "move up" on their next purchase.

Aveos, like Accents, Fiestas, GLCs, Echos, and all other cars in the lower end of the market simply do not have repeat buyers the way most other vehicles do. This is also the level that has one of the lowest brand loyalties, since price and what you get for that price far outstrips name equity.

GM can put any name on it they want (up to a point). If the car looks respectable, has a lowball price, and doesn't feel or look like they kept that lowball price in mind when putting the thing together, it will do well.


FWIW:
For the year, outside of cars in the Saturn Division, Cadillac's STS, and Pontiac's Solstice, the Chevrolet Aveo is the car that has seen the worst drop in sales of any GM passenger car (55% year-to-date as of August 1st). For July, Aveo's sales were down 31%

In 2008, even with $4+ per gallon gas, GM moved only 55K Aveos yet the public snapped up 188,000 Cobalts.

 

As sad as this is, I forgot GM even made the STS. Yikes!

 

In general, I think auto enthusists take the name on the car far too seriously.

Suburu? There was a Mazda GLC ("Great Little Car"), aka 323.

 

Really, I just can't get too worked up over what they name this car. I just think it's really dumb of GM to continually keep renaming a car every time the re-do it.

If you are so ashamed of the old one, someone should just get fired.

 

ugh... I testdrove one at autoshow in motion(had to test drive a slow car before you get into a GTO/vette/CTS-V wow.... was it a crappy car.

 

I think they should rename it Metro. Last year with the gas price spike, a lot of people were buying them used..so the name obviously has part of the right connotation with it.

As for CFC, it would be a wash for GM..since most of the cars that would qualify are small ones GM loses money on. One statistic I would be interested to see is how many people were pulled in the show room due to CFC, but ended up buying a bigger/less efficiant car that did not qualify because they wanted more space/power, or their trade did not qualify. Kinda like how halo cars work...the Corvette gets people in the showroom, where they get the I wants and buy what actually fits them.

 

If I recall correctly, the Aveo's mpg rating is pretty low compared to other micro cars and even cobalt/corrolla compact cars. I remember in 2007 looking at some of their window stickers thinking at that mpg you may as well be in an entry level Cobalt or Ion.

 

with each new generation, comes the opportunity to enhance identity and recognize the model for something more than before. accord and camry used to be small, economical, cheap, reliable....now they're luxurious, accomodating, family-sized, everyday executive sedans. just getting a name ingrained into the collective mindset is hard enough, introducing us to new info all the time is worthless. get the car out, make a new image through the product itself, and continue the familiar name that way everyone knows where it stands in the world.

 

To me a small car should be about high MPG. I see no reason to get a current Aveo over a cheap Focus/Civic/Cobalt

Cobalt XFE = 25/37
Focus auto = 24/34
Civic auto = 25/36
Aveo M5 = 27/35
Aveo A4 = 25/34

 

^the ratings are too close, plus the extra space you get and the looks of the cobalt make up for the price difference.

 

that makes sense to me

 

The Aveo needs the 1.4L turbo Ecotec.