First look: Aveo arrives in Shanghai

TAKE a long, hard look at the new Chevrolet Aveo released last week at Auto Shanghai 2005 – China’s biggest motor show – because it is likely to become a common sight on Australian roads.

More than just another Chinese-market small car from the General Motors stable, Aveo is the latest GM Daewoo product to emerge from South Korea and is expected to be sold in more than 120 countries – including Australia.

Holden remains tight-lipped about which Daewoo-built models it will plug into its range from this year and where, saying only that both existing and forthcoming models are on the table.

But Aveo’s appearance at the emerging Shanghai show - as a lime-green Xtreme hatch and a more conservative sedan - is the first tangible evidence of what could be sold through Holden’s dealer network, in lieu of persisting with the Daewoo brand’s marketing and infrastructure costs.

Further down the track, it could also become the first Chinese-built Holden, if a free-trade agreement now in negotiation between Australia and China is successful.

How a model like Aveo would fit into its range is unclear and, as reported in GoAuto e-news two weeks ago, Holden’s options include selling a modified version of the Daewoo’s discontinued Kalos alongside the European-built Barina as a cut-price light car, or replacing Barina with a ‘Holdenised’ Kalos altogether.

But Aveo, which GoAuto understands is a rebodied version of Daewoo’s current Aveo hatch and the Kalos – in what constitutes a wholesale midlife makeover – introduces a third and more likely option: sell Aveo alongside premium Barina variants as Holden’s sub-$13,990 price-leader.

The plan would avoid the risk of its least expensive model being viewed as a lightly massaged, rebadged version of the tarnished Kalos nameplate, and would introduce a newlook sub-light car entrant for Holden.

Similarly, GoAuto sources indicate a facelifted version of the J200-series Lacetti will be revealed later this week at the Seoul motor show in South Korea.

It is understood this car will take up the batten from the $19,990 TS Astra Classic, as Holden’s price-leading small car alongside the new AH Astra, when stocks of the superseded model are exhausted later this year.

While Lacetti is actually larger inside than Astra, it could be sold as a sub-$20,000 small car alongside the AH Astra, which currently opens at $21,990.

Holden is on record as saying every GM Daewoo-built model is under consideration for release Down Under as part of an unprecedented global GM program to source lower-cost vehicles in the face of increasing price pressures in Europe.

It also announced on April 12 its intention to "take advantage of GM’s South Korean capability in design, development and manufacturing to expand its portfolio later this year".

Aveo represents good value alongside the current XC Barina. Developed by GM Daewoo with assistance from the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Centre (PATAC) in Shanghai, the sedan version unveiled in Shanghai measures a class-leading 4310mm long, 1710mm wide and 1495mm high.

Riding on a 2480mm wheelbase, it features 1450 and 1430mm front and rear wheel tracks respectively, virtually echoing Kalos. The boot holds a sizeable 400 litres, aided by a split-folding rear seat, and the Shanghai car offers fog lights, 15-inch wheels and an optional rear spoiler.

China’s Aveo, which will be assembled and marketed by Shanghai General Motors, will come with the choice of 1.4 and 1.6-litre DOHC fourcylinder engines, matched to fi ve-speed manual or four-speed auto transmissions.

Inside, there’s a tilt-adjustable steering wheel, driver’s seat armrest, seatbelt height adjusters, power windows, power door locks, intermittent wipers, remote central locking, wood-look trim and even optional leather trim.

The front-drive Aveo employs MacPherson spring-struts up front and torsion beam suspension at rear, plus hydraulic rack-and-pinion steering.

Along with four-channel ABS, twin front airbags and seatbelt pretensioners, Aveo also offers a Commodore-like B-pillar structure, which is designed to swing pendulum-style rather than protrude into the passenger cell in the event of a side-on collision.

"This is the first global product from GM and in fact the first global production car from any international automaker ever launched in China," said General Motors vice chairman of global product development, Bob Lutz, at the car’s launch last week.

"We are setting a precedent with Aveo that I think really demonstrates the importance of, and our commitment to this market.

"The way we see it, the winners in the global marketplace of the 21st century will continue to be those companies that get the balance between local and global most correct.

"And that is what we are expecting to do. Being one global auto company allows us to better leverage our capabilities, systems, processes and architectures so they’ll be easy to tailor for local and regional markets," he said.

Holden owns 43 per cent of GM Daewoo Automotive & Technology and both GM subsidiaries last year chose to end distribution of Daewoo cars in Australia following slow sales in the price-driven small car market.

"There’s no question – we want to strengthen our four-cylinder line-up and our four-cylinder reputation, and we will continue to look at what I call the total GM product portfolio for opportunities of products which might fill some of our holes," Holden chairman and managing director, Denny Mooney, told GoAuto last year.

"It’s got to be worthy of the Holden brand, it’s got to be upscale enough, it’s got to have the vehicle performance levels that we would be confident that a customer in that segment would say: ‘Yeah, this feels like a Holden.’ The reality is that you’re not going to see a standalone company like Holden compete in an open world market without leveraging a bigger corporation." "There’s a lot of people that don’t like that, and I can understand that. I was an Oldsmobile guy, by the way, at one time – Oldsmobile doesn’t exist any more – but the reality is that General Motors is the biggest car company in the world and we’ve got lots of brands and we’ve got lots of technology and lots of capability."