The Steady Chevvy

Chevrolet Lacetti 1.6 SX

First we have Chevrolet – synonymous with all things American (’57 Chevvies, kids called Buddy with check shirts and quiffs, driving your date to the Prom). Then we have Lacetti – cool sounding. Italian, than soft “c” conjouring images of olive skinned teens hanging out in dark glasses.

But put the two together and you get something very different. Because the Chevrolet Lacetti is a long way from that cool image. The car – which actually started life as the Daewoo Lacetti before the General Motors buy-out of the South Korean manufacturer in 2002 – is a value for money hatchback that is aimed at people who want to get from A to B with the minimum of fuss.

With an entry price of £10,175 rising to £13,265, it ticks all the boxes for those peopl who are looking for the no-frills motoring at a competitive price.

It wont thrill you or leave you panting for more, but it’ll do what you ask it in a quiet and unassuming manner. Just taking a look at the five door hatchback gives an indication of what the Lacetti is all about.

It looks like an amalgam of a lot of other hatchbacks. Nothing striking (although the headlight cluster is on the verge of being so) but nothing unpleasant. An everyman kind of look.

The Lacetti comes in a range of three petrol engines – 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 but no diesel.

The 1.6 I drove is sprightly enough off the starting blocks but things begin to slow further up the gears. Steepish hills necessitate a gear change but once the revs are up the Lacetti has a decent pull. Things begin to struggle at lower speeds in top gears.

Acceleration figures for the 1.6 while the top of the range 1.8 knocks a second off that. Top speed is 120mph.

once it reaches crusing speed, however, the hatchback is adept at eating up the motorway miles, and I put on a few hundred miles of M1 on the clock.

The five speed manual gearbox is solid enough, and slots nicely into place with only a little jerkiness. Where the Lacetti scores is in its driveability its comfortable in an unassuming way although there is a degree of body roll while cornering, the more marked the tighter the corner.

The steering is prcise and light, enabling good control either in town or at higher speeds. The driving position is just right and all-round visability is very good.

You do however, get a fair amount of noise inside the cabin, especially road noise, and the engine noise levels rise in accorance with your speed.

Inside the Lacetti the theme of functionality is continued. Everything is in the right place and does exactly what is asked of it. The dash layout is so straightforward it could be described as old fashioned.

There are three large, clear dials in front of the driver telling you what you need to know and traditional twirly knobs for the heating control, a complete lack of push button switches and a CD player which unlike practially all new cars now, is of the type you can remove tha fascia and carry away.

The plastic of the dash and console is a little hard but not too unpleasant on the eye. It all helps to keep the price down. Seats are comfortable and there’s a lot of leg and headroom for both front seat and rear seat passengers. The boot’s a decent size although you have to hoist your suitcases or your shopping over a high lip to use it.

As the Lacetti’s aimed at a family market there are also more than 20 little compartments and cup holders dotted around inside for all those knicknacks that need to be transported.

Each engine has its own trim levels. On the safety side all models have driver and passenger airbags and ISOFIX child seat mountings. The higher spec Chevrolet Lacetti have side airbags.

Its cheap to buy and it comes with three years warranty, breakdown cover and free servicing. Good economy figures to boot with all three engines notching up 40mpg.

Chevrolet Lacetti 1.6 SX
1.6 Petrol
Five Speed Manual
0-62: 10.7 seconds
120MPH max speed
39.7mpg
Price £10,175