2005 Chevrolet Matiz SE from UK and Ireland - Comments

The speedo, petrol gauge and rev counter kept flicking back to zero, and the LED for the mileage and the clock read 88888. This can happen at any time while driving. Has been into the garage twice, but no fault found... surprise, surprise!!

Yesterday whilst driving in the rush hour, going round a roundabout, the car just cut out and stopped... no warning at all... VERY SCARY and VERY DANGEROUS... my husband will not let me drive it now, am waiting for Chevrolet to get in touch as the dealers were not interested... told me to get in touch with the AA. The car did restart, but was scary driving home.

Generally the car is OK, fuel consumption is OK... although have to be careful with the petrol - when the fuel warning light comes on, you only have about half a gallon left!!

That's madness! here in spain they're advertising this particular car at a bargain instalment rate presumably aiming at skint sods like myself. cheers for the warning!

Could be something very simple that the garage mechanics didn't check. Sounds to me like a loose battery connection - that would give exactly the symptoms you describe.

Don't be too hard on the car as it could be a very simple problem.

Never again will I buy, drive or own a MATIZ. These are seriously poor cars and for the money you can buy so many different cars, from more reliable manufacturers. Trade it in and buy a Kia, or something Japanese. I owned a matiz for two years and had nothing, but trouble and concerns.

A Kia?

By all means try a Toyota Yaris or a Honda Jazz. Forget Kia; they are second rate cars. Indeed, stick with Chevrolet if your budget does not allow you to move toward Toyota or Honda.

Actually Kias are pretty good cars these days. Look at the Cee'd and Procee'd. Chevy badges on Daewoos do not make them any better than if they had remained with their original branding.

Actually the reason why Chevrolet badges are on these cars is because General Motors purchased Daewoo in 2002 forming GMDAT - GMDaewoo Automotive Technologies. GM have invested considerably in the company and it now represents one of their most successful investments. The new Matiz, Lacetti, Captiva are all cars developed with and by General Motors.

When a company takes over another they are well within their rights to alter the branding of products. GM does not have overall control of the Daewoo name - that would have cost them $$$ - they would need to have purchased Daewoo Heavy Industries, Daewoo Electronics etc - that is why Daewoo became Chevrolet in Europe from Jan 2005 onwards.

I think the Chevrolet Matiz SE is a brilliant little car.

I have had 3 over the past 10 years trading in every 3 years when the warranty ran out.

I cannot afford to trade in this year owing to the recession and I plan to keep my little car for years to come.