The Chevy Fails

The Chevy Aveo managed to do about 65,000 miles with no issues apart from some bushes on the front suspension, some tyres and new brake pads. Then one night, a failure occurred that actually prevented the car from being driven.

The passenger headlight bulb died.

Now this is one area where Chevrolet have really let the side down. The last time I had to change a bulb on a car was on a Renault Laguna, I had to dislocate a couple of fingers and peel a few layers of skin off my hand to replace that bulb. On some of the new Fords, you have to remove the front bumper to replace a bulb, on one French car you have to replace it by going in through the exhaust with a specially designed bulb replacement tool only available from the Albanian spare department on a Thursday afternoon in September and on on Italian car you can only replace the bulb from the passenger seat of  a car parked in front of you, providing it's not a blue Vauxhall Astra.

So on the Chevy, I expected to at the very least to have to put the car over a manhole cover and go in from the underneath. But no, on this car you open the bonnet (hood if you're reading this in the colonies), pull a plug off the back of the bulb, remove the waterproof seal, unclip the bulb and put the new one in, you can even use 2 hands.

Honestly, in this day and age you would expect this to be far more complicated, the makers have even put the oil filter at the front in such a position that you can get hold of it easily. What were they thinking.

The whole bulb replacement process should take at least a few hours with specialised tools these day instead of the 5 minutes it took me in the dark.

Come on Chevrolet, get your act together.