2007 Chevrolet Kalos SE from UK and Ireland - Comments

Various quality issues: various trim rattles, sharp edges on steering wheel rim and back, warped passenger airbag cover, some rusty bolts around fuel filler.

I have run the car as a hire car for 1300 miles across a variety of rural, town, city and motorway standard roads, and find it has many good attributes, but is too compromised to ever consider buying one.

I currently run a 2007 Perodua Myvi with the previous car being a 2006 Suzuki Swift. We (my wife) runs a 2007 Fiat Panda Diesel and we have experience of most 2006/7 cars made in this price class - Getz, Picanto, Ignis, Wagon R, C1, Aygo, Swift, Panda, Sirion, Myvi etc.

Good points: This SE spec model has an excellent level of standard spec, and does come with three years free servicing - all for £6750 discounted.

Spec includes remote/keyless entry, four electric windows, air-con, four speaker CD, electric mirrors, five full seatbelts and headrests, split fold rear seats, colour keyed bumpers, handles & mirrors as standard.

Nice touches are plenty-tinted sun strip across the windscreen, mobile phone pocket on side of passenger seatback, asymmetric cupholders to deal with any size cup, seatback pockets, boot light, a proper boot handle (curiously not in the centre!), well designed remote key is easy to use, intelligent electronics-delayed courtesy light and a seatbelt alarm that quits after 5 dings, nice front sidelight style.

Driving the car would be fine with a different power unit; it handles tidily, rides reasonably, has pliant and quiet suspension and good traction. It is stable and brakes well, inspiring confidence.

Bad: It has simply the worst engine possible, being terribly underpowered with poorly matched gear ratios, thirsty (I averaged 35mpg) and is just plain frustrating to keep up with everyday traffic. The poor economy results from spending 50% of the time absolutely flat out trying to keep it moving with the traffic - hills scare this car too. It cannot be driven gently just over tickover, is raucous over 2500 rpm, and anything over 3000rpm is just pointless.

If this was due to a stringent ECU emissions setting, you could forgive it, but amazingly for a 1.2 it emits a very high 153g/km, taking it into a high UK tax band of £140 per annum. Ignore the magazines and their 0-60 figures - the 1.0 Daihatsu Sirion, the Toyota Aygo and the Citroen C1 would leave this for dead in any situation - and all emit less than 120g/km, and therefore lie in the £35 per annum tax bracket.

The wheel trims expose the steel wheels and make them look cheap.

The interior fabrics smell of oil and are horrible - scratchy, synthetic and very sweaty.

There are various unsightly blanking plates for missing kit, and quality control issues as above.

The seats are flat and uncomfortable, with headrests that are sited too far forward, pushing your head forward and keeping catching the back of your hair.

The old fashioned rear headrests are not child friendly and block rear vision.

It has a daft space-saver spare wheel.

The stereo is a dated face-off unit with fiddly buttons.

Not enough storage cubbies.

No clutch rest.

The steering wheel is slightly too far away, and does not adjust for reach.

A general feeling of cheapness pervades the whole car - because it is cheap.

To sum up, it is a flawed cheap car with lots of equipment for the money and a good servicing package. It has a variety of talents, but the awful power unit, cheap finish and general discomfort will very quickly irritate you and outweigh the other benefits.

Honestly, I will be glad to give it back soon.

**Update**

The front headrests work on a ratchet and can be adjusted so they are not quite so annoying; just pull them all the way forward and let go. They are still annoying, but better than before.

I filled the car with 5 people and undertook a 135 mile drive on A roads, B roads, town and motorway and really struggled with the power; nearly burnt the clutch out trying to pull away uphill. The car can be praised for good body control and braking under load, but the power is awful and the car weaves at 70mph and over on the motorway.

Most owners will never use all five seats, so this is exceptional use, but not recommended; the seat belts in the rear are very difficult indeed to use with three rear passengers. You have to sit the middle passenger in first, alone, and connect the 3 point belt into a choice of two clips each side (one works on inner belt, one on outer belt, each side won't work other way round) then get the outside passengers to get in and find the other belt clips, which are located on the inside of the inner belt clips and push too easily back through between the seat back and base into the boot! What a nightmare this is! Five attempts later...

If you want to buy a cheap car to carry five passengers regularly (unlikely in this type of car) then avoid the Kalos and look at a Suzuki Wagon R+ or a Perodua Myvi- both larger and easier for rear passengers.

I own a Chevy Kalos and love it. For the money its well built and comfy.

My first one covered 28000 miles and never rattled and was very reliable.

My father has just bought a 1.2s three door pre-registered with delivery miles for £5595 on the road!! It also has three years free servicing included. No air con though.

I agree with all the previous comments on spaciousness and comfort of the car. Ride quality and body control are good too. The boot is small, but this has been sacrificed to give more room to rear passengers. It must have best in class legroom for those in the back.

However you would not want to load this car up. When I first drove the Kalos with my father, I thought I had left the handbrake on!! That is how gutless it feels, no torque at all. So you have to rev the guts out of it to make decent progress and that of course affects the fuel consumption.

It is a much better car than you would expect for the money, especially if further discounted from the list price. But avoid the 1.2 engine, especially if it has air con which will further sap the engine power.

**Update**

I can honestly say this is the worst car in the £6-8k bracket I have ever encountered, having owned 76 cars, recently including; 2006 Suzuki Ignis, 2006 Suzuki Wagon R+, 2006 Suzuki Swift, 2007 Perodua Myvi, 2007 Fiat Panda, 2008 Daihatsu Sirion and having tested everything else available. When I handed it back and got back into my then current Perodua Myvi (!!), I felt like singing. With the windows open. I rang people to tell them of the joyous occasion of giving it back and never having to get in it again.

The Kalos, although well kitted, is unbelievably bad. I am not often quite this damning about anything, but this is a TRULY awful car with no redeeming features.

It is even thirsty and has a high tax band.

Avoid. Even at £4000 new with a boot full of platinum ingots and free tax, insurance, petrol and servicing until you and your descendants finally die.

If this was the only car available, I would eat my licence and go and live in a somewhere remote where I would never have to see one ever again. Seriously. If someone tries to sell you one of these cars, run far, far away. Awful.

Warning, be careful with this car.

I was given one by a car hire company, I had the car for 1 day when I crashed it.

This was not my fault, THE BRAKES FAILED.

I had a Chevrolet Kalos as a courtesy car and it was not much different to the 2002-2005 Corsa, Fiesta etc. The interior was somewhat mediocre but the suspension pretty good. The 1.2 engine is a Suzuki derived unit or so Chevrolet told me.

The fact that the Chevrolet Aveo/Kalos is the USA's best selling small car should say something about the car.

It is nothing like a Fiesta! It is cheaper though - and it shows in so many ways. It looks good on the spec sheet but hugely irritating to live with for so many reasons.

In the UK there is fierce competition in the extremely popular supermini sector (we love our small cars!) so these cars are generally of a high standard - not always bought for economy, but for suitability to our roads and towns, and for style choice. In that context, the Kalos really is right at the bottom of the quality pile. If the US sells lots of them, the competing cars in this class in the USA must be of low quality; probably due to larger cars being generally favoured, and smaller cars being the economy choice and priced/equipped/built as such.

To take it the the extreme, compare a Kalos to a new Mini, Honda Jazz, Mazda 2 etc; not cheap, economy cars like the Kalos.

To put into context, even at the same price of £6500-odd you can buy far better in the UK than a Kalos. It is dated, has high emissions, terrible build quality and poor performance.

Well I'm afraid I don't agree with you, Suzuki engines do not have terrible emissions and the build quality was fair to good.

Indeed it is Perodua and Proton that are well known to have poor build quality... just check Top Gear and their website, Chevrolets tend to fair medium with 3 star rating... Proton and Perodua are at a 1 star level.

We shouldn't even be comparing Chevrolet (mainstream) to Proton (budget manufacturer)

We all have our opinions, but in fairness, I have owned three new Suzukis and three Peroduas to give a fairish assessment.

The Chevrolet Kalos 1.2 emits 153g/km, the Perodua Myvi 1.3 emits 137g/km and has better fuel economy. Kalos uses the last generation Suzuki engine, not the current - but the Perodua uses the excellent DOHC DVVT Toyota engines.

Some Chevrolets may be OK, but the Kalos is awful due to its dated design; I am not saying that other brands are without fault!!

I note that Chevrolet UK are now giving them away at £5999 with three years free servicing. The replacement Aveo has been panned in the UK as a poor facelift of a dated design.

Chevrolet is a budget brand and the Kalos is directly in competition with other horrors like Proton, so it is a fair comparison. You can't compare Chevrolet to say, Audi, VW or even Skoda- Proton, Perodua, Dacia etc are the competition.

Maybe in the future with some modern input from GM, Chevrolet may build good budget cars. One day...!!

PS you actually listen to what Top Gear say??!!

Top Gear is a sensationalist chat show - hence Jeremy Clarkson would not drive a Perodua Myvi as it "sounded like a tropical disease". I personally have no interest in racing a daft supercar against a student off a cliff, etc, so whatever they say does not affect my buying choice!!

Top Gear magazine gives both the Myvi and Kalos two stars anyway, so what ARE you on about?!!!

I think you will find Chevrolet has a great deal more brand equity over perodua/kia/hyundai etc. That's part of the reason why daewoo was merged into chevrolet.

Chevrolets history goes much further back and it is a global company working in affiliation with GMDaewoo, GM worldwide, Vauxhall, Opel etc.

With regard to the star ratings take a look at the average perodua/proton car ratings (of their whole range) on ANY website and compare and contrast to Chevrolets ratings. Reinforce this by checking in parkers guide.

I suppose that's why car rental companies never purchase protons or perodua's...people just don't wish to drive them. Chevrolets are on the other hand a common sight on car rental fleets amongst vauxhalls, fords, mazda's etc.

This might explain why Chevrolet UK had a record year in 2007 and is due to surpass this in 2008.

And incidentally I would FAR rather hire a Chevrolet than a Skoda - even though Skoda's are know to have improved lately.

If I met up with friends and they found me driving a Skoda I would never live it down!

Thanks for the response. As I said, some of the range may be OK, but the Kalos etc is poor and I stand by my comments.

Hire car companies buy solely on what it costs them to own the car for 9-12 months/12,000 miles and so pick up mainstream which has steady demand used or buy rat cheap off desperate sellers wishing to offload poor cars that no-one wants. Chevrolet virtually give them the Kalos in large numbers to get shot of them.

I think we've both said our piece, but I was amused by the fact you would never live it down being seen driving a Skoda - but you would drive a Chevrolet Kalos?

Have you looked at any Skoda in the last five years? If you are saying that the Chevrolet Kalos is better than a Fabia then I disagree!

You have made a few valid points; Proton is poor, Perodua is not the best; etc.

I've one, a 2007 Chevrolet Kalos auto; it sucks.

You can hear sounds of tires (Goodyear), rollbar, the ECU, it does not save fuel, 1 litre for 6 km, terribly, the dealer said 1:11, liar dealer.

I would suggest you alter your driving style - if you can hear the tyres screech and are using fuel at that rate, it sounds like you should at the very least SLOW down.