|
Can you make a Chevrolet Kalos into a decent car?
|
|
These comments followed on from a now-deleted spam post. But it struck me that Kalos (Greek for beautiful) applied to the dreary little Chevrolet in question must be the most inappropriate name for a car since the very grey Nissan Sunny.
There may be others....
Edited by Avant on 27/10/2018 at 22:46
|
Check the owners forums, but I’m sure there was a common engine or gearbox problem which is why so few have survived.
|
|
|
“There may be others....”
Mitsubishi Carisma. How we cringed when we received the first demo. A car they promised us was a genuine Mondeo rival turned out to be a car utterly lacking in charisma and a huge dive in quality over its predecessor. Not a terrible car, they proved to be very reliable and excellent on fuel but oh so dull.
|
|
I'm sure with enough time, ingenuity and knowhow a Chevrolet Kalos could be made into a decent car, but given that may (if what Davey says is true) involve an engine/gearbox swap, why would you?.
There are plenty of other cars which are already a decent car to begin with, so unless it was some kind of engineering project I'm not quite sure what the point would be.
|
The Kalos was ok for the money. I remember helping negotiate a deal on a new one for a friend in 2006. New car with central locking, PAS, electric windows and a 3yr warranty all for £5,495 plus she got £2,000 for a tatty Ford Ka with a noisy power steering pump. Wee car ran without major issue for 8yrs when I sold it to another friend for £1,000. It was written off after almost another two years reliable use. Can’t ask for better value from a new car especially when neither female owner looked after it particularly well.
They used Vauxhall running gear and the ancient 1200/1400 petrol motors rarely gave any bother. The handling was a bit woolly for a small car and the steering a bit numb but the worst thing was the gearchange which was like stirring porridge. The best things about these wee cars were the amount of space you got and the ride quality which was excellent for a small car. I once sat in the back of this particular example from Ayr to Middlesbrough and found it surprisingly comfortable.
|
The Kalos was ok for the money. I remember helping negotiate a deal on a new one for a friend in 2006. New car with central locking, PAS, electric windows and a 3yr warranty all for £5,495 plus she got £2,000 for a tatty Ford Ka with a noisy power steering pump. Wee car ran without major issue for 8yrs when I sold it to another friend for £1,000. It was written off after almost another two years reliable use. Can’t ask for better value from a new car especially when neither female owner looked after it particularly well. They used Vauxhall running gear and the ancient 1200/1400 petrol motors rarely gave any bother. The handling was a bit woolly for a small car and the steering a bit numb but the worst thing was the gearchange which was like stirring porridge. The best things about these wee cars were the amount of space you got and the ride quality which was excellent for a small car. I once sat in the back of this particular example from Ayr to Middlesbrough and found it surprisingly comfortable.
Strange that, several I know with the 1200 seized up before 50k and they were properly serviced, though the 1.4 most are still going well and know a couple local to me still looking good for their age and economical, but they made a mistake using that 1.2, agree with comfort and space but handling was terrible
|
“Strange that, several I know with the 1200 seized up before 50k and they were properly serviced,“
I wonder if they’re the later chain driven version that was used in the Aveo which was just a facelifted Kalos. These were bad for timing chain problems same as any Vauxhall with a timing chain especially if oil changes were neglected which on a budget motor like these is very common.
|
“Strange that, several I know with the 1200 seized up before 50k and they were properly serviced,“ I wonder if they’re the later chain driven version that was used in the Aveo which was just a facelifted Kalos. These were bad for timing chain problems same as any Vauxhall with a timing chain especially if oil changes were neglected which on a budget motor like these is very common.
No, they were cambelt, I tried to take the heads off them but the bolts were welded to the head, though the rocker box came off ok, never was able to strip them down but oil was non existent on head(plenty in sump) so put it down to oil pump failure cambelt ripped to shreds, we tried replacing one but £1600 at the time was too steep so scrapped it
funny thing was, several weeks later someone claimed they had been hit by the same car on the A2 and tried to claim on the insurance, I went to the scrap yard and car was still on a pile waiting for collection with no/plates still on
|
|
Can’t say I ever had any bother with them. I found them fairly respectable cheap runabouts. But sheer volume sold meant there had to be some that went wrong. Plus GM we’re always bad for cost cutting.
|
|
|
