Car Moon

GM has just released pricing information on its North American replacement for the Chevrolet Aveo, the new Sonic. When the subcompact model goes on sale in the U.S. this fall, it will be available in four-door sedan and five-door hatchback body styles with prices including destination to start from US$14,495 and US$15,395 (€10,290 - €10,930) respectively.

There are three trim levels, LS, LT and LTZ. The base models are offered with a naturally aspirated 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine rated at 135HP, coupled to a standard five-speed manual or an optional six-speed automatic transmission priced at $1,070.

Here in the good ‘ol US of A, General Motors replaced the Chevrolet Cobalt compact car with the new Cruze sedan. In South America, however, it’s another story as the Detroit brand has given birth to a new Chevy Cobalt that is being revealed in pre-production form at this week’s Buenos Aires Motor Show (June 17 to 26) in Argentina.

Developed by General Motors Technical Center in South America, the four-door sedan Cobalt Concept is slated to enter production within the next year. GM’s press blurb doesn’t mention anything about the Cobalt’s underpinnings, but judging from the size of the car, it appears to be based on the Chevy Sonic (Aveo in Europe) saloon.

This past January at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, General Motor unveiled the new Chevrolet Sonic in final production form. Available in both five-door hatchback and four-door sedan body styles, the Sonic will reach U.S. showrooms this fall. In Europe, however, GM will continue to use the Aveo nameplate when its supermini goes on sale later this summer. Read more »

Driven by the new Cruze sedan and the globalization of the Chevrolet name, sales of GM’s brand in the first three months of the year reached 1.1 million vehicles worldwide, which is the best first-quarter results in the company’s history. Compared to the first quarter of 2010, Chevrolet recorded a 15 percent increase in sales this year.

Revealed for the first time here in North America at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic will replace the Aveo as GM's new subcompact model, while retaining the Aveo nameplate in Europe and other international markets. In this latest video, the firm's designers discuss the styling features of the Sonic, highlighting the motorcycle elements featured in both the sedan and hatchback. According to Design Director John Mack, the aim was to create "a youthful, spirited car, one that stands out in the market". For the complete walk-around check out the video after the break. Read more »

Making its world premiere alongside the regular variants of the all-new Chevrolet Sonic sub-compact at the Detroit Show today is a Z-Spec-badged concept study of the five-door hatchback model.

General Motors will be showing off the Aveo's North American market replacement in the form of the all-new Sonic sub-compact at the Detroit Show later today. We've already seen the Sonic five-door hatchback, which will continue to use the Aveo moniker in Europe and other international markets, but the US automaker also released the first photos of the four-door sedan model.

“The all-new Chevrolet Sonic blends the practicality of a small car with the passion for driving that Chevrolet vehicles like the Corvette are known for,” said Chris Perry, vice president of Chevrolet marketing. “Its combination of great design, fun driving experience and the latest connectivity features create a serious competitor with a fun spirit.”

[Updated] It appears that the wait for Chevrolet's Aveo replacement is almost over as we have the first official photos of the North American-spec model. Confirming previous rumors, General Motors ditched the Aveo moniker in favor of a new name as the small car will be called the Chevrolet Sonic on this side of the Atlantic. The company noted that the model for markets outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico, which was first seen at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, will retain the Aveo name.

General Motor's South Korean Daewoo unit announced today that it will handle initial production of the new Chevrolet Aveo at its local Bupyeong plant in Incheon. The new Aveo will make its debut under the Daewoo brandname in the South Korean market in the first half of 2011 before a global rollout as a Chevrolet.

The Aveo is finally here and in the metal, and Chevy says it's aimed at younger buyers interested in a hot-hatch "looking every bit as good as the Aveo RS show car concept". Points for trying, guys, but not really...

As promised, here are the respective promotional videos of Chevrolet's Paris Motor Show-bound Aveo sub-compact, Captiva 7-seater SUV, Orlando 7-seater MPV and the Cruze five-door hatchback. From these four cars, only the Aveo has been confirmed for the U.S market with sales of both the five-door variant and the yet-to-be-revealed sedan model to start sometime in 2011.

When General Motors lifted the wraps off the production 2011 Chevrolet Aveo hatchback on September 8, it only gave us a couple of pictures of the subcompact's exterior. But today, we came across a promotional video (to be added soon) and took some snapshots of the cabin.

Hot off the introduction of the Orlando MPV and Cruze hatchback show car, Chevrolet today released the first photos of the production Aveo five-door hatchback, which will make its world premiere at the Paris Motor Show at the end of the month.

Most of the styling, including details such as the 'hidden' rear door handles and the 'angry' looking front with the exposed twin-headlamps and dual port grille, has been carried over from the Aveo RS show car that was displayed at the Detroit and Geneva motor shows earlier this year.

What you see here are official design patent drawings of the all-new 2012 Chevrolet Aveo four-door sedan and five-door hatchback models, filed by General Motors. The next generation of GM's Ford Fiesta rival was teased in concept form with the sporty Aveo RS hatchback study at 2010 Detroit Auto Show in January while shortly after we also got a sneak peak of the sedan variant through some leaked illustrations.

The drawings of the five-door model suggest that the production version follows pretty closely to the RS concept minus of course some snazzy details like the shaved door handles, big alloy wheels and the more pronounced side sills that made the concept model really stand out.

The first images of the 2012 Chevrolet Aveo econbox sneaked out on the web today following an earlier presentation by Bob Lutz. General Motors had previewed the next generation Aveo subcompact model with the sporty RS concept at the Detroit Show this past January.

The four-door saloon version keeps the same front-end design with the 'angry-looking' twin headlamps as well as the big grille and pronounced fenders of the conceptual five-door RS hatchback. Same goes for the interior, albeit with more production like and less fancy materials and decorative trim.

The 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit next week will host the world premiere of the Chevrolet Aveo RS Concept car handing us our first look at the next-generation Aveo that will be sold on both sides of the pond competing with superminis like the Ford Fiesta and Toyota Yaris.

Longer, wider and more spacious than the current production Aveo, the five-door concept adopts several styling cues including the dual element grille, round tail lamps and fender flares from other Chevrolet models such as the Spark and Cruze.

Chevrolet's European arm is expanding its German lineup with the introduction of three special edition packages for the Aveo supermini, Cruze sedan and Captiva SUV.

Priced at €1,990, the Sport package for the Aveo is available on both the 3- and 5-door models with the 1.2-liter and 1.4-liter engines. It adds a sport suspension that lowers the Aveo's ride height by 30mm, 15-inch black alloy wheels shod in 195/45 R15 tires, a stainless steel exhaust system and a roof spoiler.

The Extra-Terrestrial Vehicle or ETV -we're not even kidding, that's the car's official name- is a futuristic-looking custom build created by Mike Vetter and his Florida-based company, 'The Car Factory'. It's hard to believe it just by looking at the ETV, but underneath that sci-fi outfit you'll find a Chevrolet Aveo stripped out of its body but not its heart.

Apparently the Aveo5 can look worse, much worse as GM unshamefully proves. The American automaker has launched a new customization program for the small Chevy that is available across the Middle East. Mods can range anywhere from the simple fitting of alloy wheels and applying stick on decals moving on to more complicated fittings of front bumper kits, side skirts, rear wings, spoilers, hood and roof scoops or even a customized paint job. "We understand some people might want to build on that wonderful package, and there are several options for them to choose from while doing so," commented Karen Toor, Marketing Manager of Chevrolet in the Middle East. And if any of you think that the demonstration Aveo5 pictured above looks decent, we're pretty sure you'll have a change of heart after seeing the car's interior by following the jump below.

Now repeat after us: hip, hip hurray for General Motors’ badge engineering! For all you folks that don’t like the bowtie logo and the split grille of the Chevy Aveo5 which itself is a rebaged version of the Korean market Daewoo Gentra (previously known as the Kalos), GM has stuck BMW-esque nostrils and a Pontiac logo to the Aveo5 and renamed it the G3. Available exclusively in five-door hatchback form, the Korean econobox will hill Pontiac showrooms in the U.S. in spring 2009. -Continued

According to GM, the Pontiac G3 “proves that you don’t have to sacrifice sporty design and responsive driving to achieve impressive fuel economy.” Don't you just love marketing talk?

The ‘sporty’ Pontiac G3 will be offered with a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder gasoline engine generating 106 HP that can be mated to a five-speed manual or an optional four-speed automatic transmission. According to GM, the G3 can get over 30 miles per gallon on the highway. While prices have yet to be disclosed, GM said that standard features will include air conditioning, a CD/MP3 audio system with auxiliary input jack, fog lamps, rear spoiler, OnStar and four airbags.