2004 CHEVROLET AVEO User Comment / Complaint

On thursday morning 28 june 2007 the timing belt on this chevrolet aveo broke, resulting in catastrophic damage to the engine. the vehicle was towed to radley chevrolet, where this diagnosis was rendered. radley chevrolet held a new car owner's orientation class at which their services and hours were discussed. class topics included timely oil and filter changes. no mention was made,or emphasis placed, on the need for inspection of the timing belt at 30,000 miles or its replacement at 60,000 miles. when i mentioned this recently to the radley chevrolet general manager he responded by telling me that all chevrolets made in the usa use timing chains instead of timing belts. hence his staff would not think to emphasize the need to inspect and change the timing belt. it appeared that this lack of concern or training may have extended to some maintenance personnel. i was not advised of the need for this inspection at either of the two oil changes, performed by radley around the 30,000 mile point. the timing belt failed at an odometer reading of 60,331 miles. the 331 miles beyond the 60,000-mile recommended replacement point suggest that the odometer has an accuracy better than .55%. considering the technology used to measure speed and mileage in vehicles sold to the public it is not likely that any are so accurate. had observed that in driving from alexandria, virginia to fredericksburg, virginia she was often among the slowest on the road in spite of speedometer readings that suggest she was driving well above the posted limit. on several occasions she had her husband record the elapsed time between mile-posts and found that they were traveling around 5 to 6 miles per hour less than the speedometer reading. this amounts to an odometer reading from 6.25% to 8.5% greater than actual distance traveled. hence at an odometer reading of 60,331 miles, actual mileage is between 56,560 and 55,203 miles.