2008 Chevrolet Aveo
This year drew an ordinary 163 complaints for a Chevrolet Aveo — the model's median is 169. What they were about is the unusual part: 25.2% of them mention bag, against 6.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 163 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 169 |
| Involving a crash | 17 |
| Involving a fire | 16 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 26.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- bag — 25.2% of this year's complaints, against 6.9% across the model's other years (3.6×). Owners wrote it as: bag, air bag, bag light, bag warning.
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
THE AIR BAG WARNING INDICATOR REMAINED ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC, BUT THE FAILURE COULD NOT BE DETERMINED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 70,000. THE VIN WAS NOT AVA…
WHILE OPERATING THE VEHICLE, THE AIR BAG WARNING INDICATOR REMAINED ILLUMINATED. THE FAILURE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED. THE LOCAL DEALER (FRANK BASHAY IN RACINE, WI) WAS NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE [VIN] WAS NOT NOTIFIED. THE VIN WAS NOT AVAILABLE. THE FA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V261000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING
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 2008 Chevrolet Aveo? What happened to yours?
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