GM made a cunning move by re-badging Daewoos as Chevrolets when the auto giant took over the South Korean operation and formed GM DAT. Not only successful abroad, Chevrolet is heading for a 4.39 percent share of this market in 2008, following gains of 18.3 percent and 44 percent in the last two years respectively.

Perhaps South Africans still have fond memories of the 'rugby, braaivleis, sunny skies and Chevrolet' era of yore, though the modest price tags must have helped too. The facelifted Aveo takes a courageous step away from its Daewoo styling origins, with clear 'American Chev' influence in the bold front end, even if it appears rather gauche once you slap on the obligatory number plate.

Jump inside and the tinny sound the door makes as it shuts is an ominous sign that this is not a modern car. But hang on a minute, that dash lifted from the Aveo sedan looks quite cool and the plastics are decent by small car standards. Build quality seems solid and interior space is good for this class, except taller passengers will cry for more headroom in the back.

Turn the key and you fire up the new Aveo's biggest weapon. Without charging much extra money, they've replaced the old model's tardy 1.5-litre eight-valver with a new Opel-sourced 1.6-litre multivalve, making the Aveo a leader in the bang-for-buck stakes.

All considered, the Aveo seems great on paper, but the cracks show when you introduce it to asphalt. Here, the Aveo's new mask can't hide its previous-generation Korean underpinnings. That's great if you enjoy spongy-feeling clutch and brake pedals, a rubbery gearshift and a chassis to match. The ride has a crashy feel, though it's not bone-jarringly bad, and road holding is nothing more than so-so. Through tight bends it launched into understeer far sooner than expected and the steering sensation could only have been engineered by an anaesthetist.

On the upside, the engine pulls quite strongly throughout the rev range, although it did fall behind most 1.5 and 1.6-litre rivals in our acceleration tests. As the bean counters appear to have skimped on sound-deadening material, you'd better learn to love the sound of this new engine — we can't remember when last a car in this class was so noisy.

The Aveo sorely lacks the refinement and solid 'big car feel' you'd get in newer rivals like the Opel Corsa and Mazda2, which explains the aggressive pricing. The LT test car was not cheap at R144 500 and strangely it came with leather seats but no audio controls on the steering wheel. The real bargain hunters will snap up the LS version, which packs all the necessary luxury and safety kit for R126K, which undercuts many smaller-engined cars. Wouldn't count on the safety aspect much, as the pre-facelift Aveo could manage just three EuroNCAP stars.

Nonetheless, given the current economic climate, buyers will flock to the new Aveo because of the features and performance it offers for the money. And if they've never driven the latest crop of cars in the Yaris/Corsa class, they should be perfectly satisfied with this little Chev and the money they saved. Yet if we were bargain hunting, it'd be hard to look past the Suzuki Swift.