2009 Chevrolet Aveo
This year drew an ordinary 169 complaints for a Chevrolet Aveo — the model's median is 163. What they were about is the unusual part: 13.6% of them mention coil, against 3.8% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 169 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 163 |
| Involving a crash | 13 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 29 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- coil — 13.6% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the model's other years (3.6×). Owners wrote it as: coil, spark, plugs, spark plugs.
- accelerate — 13.6% of this year's complaints, against 4.6% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: accelerate, stall, pedal depressed, depressed vehicle.
- acceleration — 7.7% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the model's other years (5×). Owners wrote it as: acceleration, car very.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHILE DRIVING AT 35 MPH, THE VEHICLE WOULD ACCELERATE WITHOUT WARNING. THE FAILURE RECURRED THREE TIMES. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER WHERE THE SPARK PLUG AND THE AIR FILTER WERE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS MADE AWARE OF THE FA…
WHILE DRIVING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE VEHICLE LOST ACCELERATION AND STALLED WITHOUT WARNING. THE VEHICLE WAS ABLE TO BE RESTARTED. THE FAILURE WAS INTERMITTENT. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO A DEALER, WHO COULD NOT DUPLICATE THE FAILURE. THE [VIN] WAS NOT NOTIFIED O…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V460000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chevrolet Aveo was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2009 Chevrolet Aveo? What happened to yours?
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