2006 Chevrolet Aveo: America’s Price Leader

The only thing American about the compact Aveo automobile is it’s Chevrolet name. Built in Korea [or in China] by GM Daewoo, the Aveo is America’s price champion coming in at just under ten thousand dollars. That’s right; you can still purchase a new car in the USA for under ten thousand dollars excluding taxes, dealer prep, and destination charges. Let’s take a closer look at Chevy’s bargain basement people hauler. Available as either a four door sedan or as a five door hatchback, the Chevrolet Aveo fills an important niche in the Chevy line up as an entry level econocar. Priced nearly five thousand dollars less than Chevy’s next most expensive model, the Cobalt, the Aveo allows for Chevrolet to contend for a piece of the youth market. The Aveo is expressly targeted to compete against similar models from Scion, Kia, Hyundai, and Toyota. So, exactly what do consumers get for their money, particularly with a base model? For starters, the Aveo comes with tires, a steering wheel, bumpers, and safety glass. Seriously, standard equipment for the Aveo is a 1.6L I4 engine paired with a 5 speed manny tranny. Air conditioning will cost you extra, but the base equipment list does include an AM/FM radio, rear wiper, a cargo cover, and side impact air bags for the driver and front seat passenger. Option packages include better sound, air, an automatic transmission, and a host of other accessories. With a 97 inch wheelbase and a curb weight of nearly 2350 pounds, the Aveo certainly is a contender in the lightweight category. Headroom of nearly 40 inches allows taller drivers easier access, but one can only wonder if anyone would find the Aveo all that comfortable to begin with based on the car’s size and the quality of the seating? GM Daewoo [50.1% owned by General Motors] recently released a new version of the Aveo [called the Gentra in Korea] that currently is only available in Asia. The new Gentra/Aveo incorporates a rounder exterior departing from the dated wedged shape of the current Aveo. No official word as of this writing if and when the new model will make its American debut. While the Aveo is certain not to win many awards, it does provide for consumers possessing limited means an affordable mode of transportation. For Chevrolet, who was lacking a basic home grown model, the Aveo brings in buyers who might have otherwise bypassed Chevy dealers and headed directly to Scion or Kia for their first car. Beyond that the Aveo is a truly forgettable car and first time buyers may want to consider a good used car instead.

Read More

How Can an Engine Produce More Horsepower? Part I The Basics

So you have a lead foot (and the tickets to show for it). You want to put the pedal down and have a little more power to the pavement (don’t we all). Then let’s talk about the basics of how your engine produces power, no matter if it is a 4 cylinder rice burner or a mammoth V-8 brimming out of your hood. Let’s start with the basics. As a Crew Chief in the United States Air Force, jet engine combustion was always taught in the simplest of terms: Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow. Yes it sounds like a sultry movie you would watch at a pay by hour motel, but it will all make sense in a second. Let’s start with the first part of our friendly Department of Defense taught equation. Literally your engine “sucks”oxygen. Now follow me on this one Homer, the air from the outside travels through an intake tube to a manifold all the way into the cylinder chamber. So why do we need more oxygen? Good Question. We need the maximum amount of ambient air to fill each cylinder chamber (no matter if you have 4 or 10 of them) on the down stroke of a combustion cycle with one of the magical ingredients that produce horsepower: you guessed it, oxygen . Why? Keep reading. At this point after our “suck” part of the equation is complete, we move on too the “squeeze” part. The valve that allowed the air to enter the cylinder chamber closes and the cylinder moves upwards and squeezes the air that was “sucked” in, at the same time fuel is introduced to the chamber at this point. Now if you where a Boy Scout or had gone through Combat Survival like I did, then you know you need three things to make fire. Air (oxygen), Fuel (gasoline), and Ignition (sparkplugs, more on these later). Now we are condensing the air and the fuel, making a nice packed (and denser) concoction for a nice fire, well really an explosion. How? Keep reading. I like fireworks, and that is what you have for the third part of our equation, “bang”. Now we are cooking, with that oxygen and fuel all compressed and ready to explode. Remember I told you about the ignition, you know the sparkplugs. These little puppies produce a high intensity spark that are going to ignite that condensed concoction we have been talking about. Bang, ignition, an explosion happens and this is really where the horsepower happens. Why? Well at this point the cylinder is pushed down at X amount of force. That X amount of force is dependant on a lot of factors, which when you get right down to it is where horsepower is made. How? Because that little explosion pushes the cylinder down, in turn will push one of your other cylinders up and then that little explosion happens again. It’s a tough vicious cycle, rotating continuously, producing what is better known as horsepower. Let’s move on. So we have sucked, squeezed, banged and now we need to blow (you’re a pervert). The exhaust valve opens up and lets out the carbon dioxide that are left over after our little explosion inside the combustion chamber. Now this little cycle, which happens in milliseconds, is reproduced thousands of times a minute. You know your tachometer, RPM (revolutions per minutes), that is about how many times this cycle of combustion happens in one minute. There you go this is the very basics of how an engine produces power. If this is still a little confusing to you, well try to envision it as much as possible. Now on the next article we will talk about how we can improve this combustion cycle to produce the best possible combustion which in turn produces more horsepower from your engine. Check out: How Can an Engine Produce More Horsepower? Part II The Intake

Read More