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Chevrolet Guide

Chevrolet, a General Motors brand, has distinguished itself by offering a car for every category of person from entry-level to family to off-road vehicles and beyond. Its pickup is second only in sales to Ford's F-150, and of course it makes America’s supercar, the Corvette. Chevrolet also offers a large number of cars that get 30 to 40 miles per gallon, easing the cost burden to owners. After 100 years in the business, Chevrolet has had an amazing number of engineering innovations, and is now at its highest level of design in decades. In recent years, Chevrolet's greatest innovation is the Volt, executed in the midst of General Motors’ bankruptcy, and very high tech at the time it was launched. Chevy may be a populist car company, but that doesn’t mean it's not worth its salt.

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Chevrolet Avalanche

Year: Starting at $35,980 MPG 15-21 The Chevrolet Avalanche, which transforms from a five- or six-passenger SUV to a pickup and back again, has entered its final model year after a run that has lasted since the 2002 model year. GM is marking all 2013 models with special Black Diamond badging as a tribute. Every 2013 Avalanche also has a standard rear-view camera, ultrasonic parking assist, a remote starter, power-adjustable pedals, and body-color bed surrounds. The most distinctive feature of the Avalanche is the transformation wrought with the Midgate. Once you fold the rear seats down, you can tip the rear cabin wall into the cab, giving you a three-foot gain in bed length, to eight feet, two inches, for cargo. With the tailgate shut, you can fit a four-by-eight foot sheet of plywood or 45.5 cubic feet of whatever else you’ve got. The top-level LTZ has a heated steering wheel and heated and cooled front leather-appointed seats. The Avalanche’s swan song is topped off with a $2,500 cut to base pricing, down to $35,980 plus $995 destination for the base rear-wheel-drive LS model. …
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Chevrolet Camaro

Year: Starting at $23,345 MPG 17-28 The 2013 Chevrolet Camaro looks tough, but how does it perform? That really depends on which model you go for. If you are more interested in the handsome low-slung body, the V-6-powered LS coupe and LT convertible may be plenty for you. But if you’re looking for serious performance, there’s the V-8-powered SS coupe and convertible. The manual-transmission SS lets you opt for the track-oriented 1LE performance package, which includes suspension modifications and twenty-inch Goodyear Eagle tires—plus a matte black hood, front splitter, rear-spoiler, and black-finished ten-spoke wheels. Atop the Camaro food chain is the ZL1, new last year, which has a 580-horsepower supercharged V-8, Magnetic Ride Control and an advanced chassis and suspension setup. That’s good for 0 to 60 mph in four seconds, a top speed of 184 mph, and an 11-second quarter-mile time. Chevrolet calls the ZL1 the “everyday supercar.” The ZL1 has started to pass some of its finer qualities down the lineup, with the ZL1-style shift knob, variable-effort electric power steering, and optional dual-mode exhaust now for any manual-transmission Camaro. Inside, the interior is not as buff as the outward appearance, although it does have Chevrolet MyLink and color touchscreen radio, plus optional GPS navigation. Bottom line, though: you just can’t stop looking at it. …
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Chevrolet Volt

Year: Starting at $39,145 MPG 35-40 Chevrolet’s Volt five-door hatchback EV, so long in the making and so eagerly awaited only a few years ago, is now in its second model year and has become a solid, if less than captivating, citizen in the Chevrolet lineup. Yes, it runs only thirty-eight miles on electric power alone—which is three miles more than last year’s model—and its rear seat is best suited for children, but consider the fuel economy: 98 mpg equivalent, in the EPA’s parlance for electric vehicles. The range-anxious will appreciate a new Hold Drive mode—added to the Volt’s Normal, Sport, and Mountain drive modes—which helps conserve battery life. On gasoline-only power, fuel economy is 37 mpg. Its fuel economy is aided by a set of Goodyear Fuel Max low-rolling-resistance tires, but they don’t appreciably hurt the ride quality. The Volt will hit a top speed of 100 mph—perhaps not the consideration uppermost on Volt buyers’ minds, but still—and, probably a number more of interest, it has a ten-to-sixteen-hour recharge time using standard household current. Option packages add such amenities as heated front seats, perforated leather seating and steering wheel, a rear-view camera, and parking sensors at front and back. Lane departure warning and forward collision alert are other options, as is Chevrolet’s MyLink system with navigation. All that, and a range between fillups of 382 miles, if you take both the battery life and the fuel tank’s capacity into account. …
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Chevrolet Traverse

Year: Starting at $30,510 MPG 16-23 The Chevrolet Traverse is not your everyday seven- to eight-passenger SUV. Its attractively curvaceous body style and well-appointed interior set it apart from the basic family vehicle, and it’s priced starting at $31,000, so for a vehicle of its size and type, it’s attractive financially, too. For 2013, the Traverse gets a mild makeover inside and out. Part of the newness includes chrome accents and an updated center stack, as well as eight-way passenger seats and adjustable headrests. There’s also—first on the market—a front center air bag to protect people in the front seat in the event of a side collision. The third row of seats is split folding and is best left to the kids. In the second row, you can elect to have a bench seat to increase total seating capacity to eight. SUV-style options include a rear-view camera, Bose sound, a power liftgate, and a navigation system. Do any of those really sound like things you could live without? In this kind of vehicle, maybe not! …
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Chevrolet Suburban

Year: Starting at $43,295 MPG 15-21 The Chevrolet Suburban is sui generis: not a minivan or a work truck, not an SUV, not a station wagon. Call it the Shaquille O’Neal of vehicles: it’s a behemoth, yes, but one that overflows with personality and charm despite its eighteen-plus-foot length. Who doesn’t like the Suburban? It has not been the butt of hostility the way the Hummer, for example, has been. And even though there has been a Suburban on the market for nearly eight decades, no committee has turned it into a Suburbanette or taken it off the job it is on earth to do: haul people and stuff capably. If you’re shopping for one, know that you can choose from three V-8 engines, and in half-ton or three-quarter-ton versions. Active Fuel Management is on hand to bust that eight down to four cylinders when cruising, to save on gasoline, and E85 can be used. But you don’t care about that as much as two other numbers: how much cargo, and how many people? The answers are: 138 cubic feet, and nine people. There are also comfort features on board, including a second- and third-row DVD system, touchscreen navigation, a backup camera, and heated seats in the front two rows. So what are you waiting for? Saddle up, remember to fuel up-- and off you go. …
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Chevrolet Tahoe

Year: Starting at $39,830 MPG 15-21 The Chevrolet Tahoe is two feet shorter than the Suburban, and it also comes in a hybrid version. But there are many ways in which the two are similar: starting with the 5.3-liter engines they share, continuing with the number of people they seat (up to nine), and how it looks inside. It’s still a full-size SUV, even if it’s not the fullest-size you can get from the bowtie brand. It can tow up to 8,500 pounds, carry cargo up to 108.9 cubic feet, and still get 21 mpg on the highway. That latter figure is courtesy of Active Fuel Management on the 5.3-liter V-8 and a standard six-speed transmission. Then there’s the two-mode hybrid, which delivers 20 mpg in town and 23 mpg on the highway in either rear- or four-wheel-drive versions, which GM says is tops for the full-size utility segment. Considering its size (it seats up to eight) and its 332 horsepower, that is not bad—even if it’s not quite the configuration you might picture when you think “hybrid.” A Bose nine-speaker sound system (also available on the standard Tahoe LT) and a rear-vision camera are the icing on the hybrid’s cake. …
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Chevrolet Spark

Year: Starting at $12,185 MPG 32-38 It’s a car for a small planet: the Chevrolet Spark is tiny and adorable. It also has a five-door hatchback body style with a reasonably sized back seat area, making it an unusual choice in the minicar category. Priced starting at just under $13,000, it’s a logical alternative to cars like the Fiat 500. Unfortunately, the Spark doesn’t astonish with great fuel economy: it makes 28 to 32 mpg in town and tops out at 38 mpg on the highway. Since 40 mpg has become the number to beat, that’s not a brilliant figure, especially considering the Spark only offers 84 horsepower from a 1.2-liter four-cylinder engine. Five-speed manual and four-speed automatic transmissions are available, and despite its diminutive size, the Spark has a grown-up set of ten standard airbags. Chevrolet is aiming this, its first U.S.-market minicar, at city dwellers, which explains in part why it offers MyLink information and entertainment with a seven-inch color screen, Bluetooth streaming audio, and Pandora and Stitcher compatibility. It may not be the greenest of the small cars, but it’s a pretty colorful choice for a starter car. …
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Chevrolet Silverado

Year: Starting at $23,590 MPG 15-20 The Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, like the workers who will buy it, is nothing if not versatile. It can be configured in an amazing number of variations, including five trim levels, a choice of three bed lengths up to eight feet, three cab sizes up to crew cab, rear- or four-wheel drive, and five V-6 or V-8 engines—plus there’s even a hybrid. Fuel economy may not be what a full-size pickup is about, but the Silverado 1500 Hybrid can tow 6,100 pounds while getting 23 mpg on the highway—the eco equivalent of bringing home the bacon and frying it up in a pan, we guess. There’s also a conventionally V-8-powered Silverado, the XFE, that offers 22 highway mpg thanks to “aerodynamic enhancements.” New for 2013 is powertrain grade braking for models with the six-speed automatic transmission, which downshifts the transmission to cool down the brakes on those long downhill stretches. Also, there are two new metallic exterior colors, Deep Ruby and Blue Topaz. But decorative touches are a minor point. GM leaves no doubt about what kind of buyer it’s aiming this truck at, using terms like “broad shouldered” and “chiseled”—to describe the truck, not the customer, but chances are, the descriptors fit both. …
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Chevrolet Malibu

Year: Starting at $21,995 MPG 22-34 Chevrolet completely redid the Malibu for 2013, giving it a more modern appearance, widening it for more interior room and trunk space, and going with the ecological flow by offering it as a hybrid. This mid-size sedan is available either as a four-cylinder/electric hybrid or with a standard or turbocharged four-cylinder engine, all of which are paired with a fuel-friendly six-speed automatic transmission. The hybrid version, called the Malibu Eco, has General Motors’ eAssist lithium-ion battery setup, giving the sedan a 37-mpg highway fuel economy rating. That’s impressive, but not the best you can do in today’s eco-competitive marketplace. The Eco model has been dressed up with metallic, chrome, or wood accents in the cockpit, plus ice blue ambient lighting and—surprise—a swiveling radio face that hides a six-inch-deep secret storage compartment. Chevrolet calls this “the quietest Chevrolet in history,” asking you to notice its use of sound-reducing and sound-absorbing materials inside the Malibu. While you’re enjoying the quiet, note the trendy dual cockpit and the presence of the Chevrolet MyLink information and entertainment system, standard on the Eco model. Even General Motors admits that the mid-size sedan segment is “vanilla,” but the company has worked hard to position the Malibu, now in its eighth generation, as a modern contender. …
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Chevrolet Impala

Year: Starting at $25,860 MPG 18-30 The spacious six-seater Impala sedan has been a stalwart in its segment for half a century. This year is the last for the current model, since Chevrolet has completely redesigned the Impala for 2014. That will present buyers of full-size sedans with a sleeker, much more modern-looking product. In the meantime, the current Impala will stick around in its current guise for 2013. Part of its appeal this year will be a Luxury Edition package that includes heated leather front seats, a premium Bose audio system with eight speakers, a universal home remote control, and other quality-of-life features. The uplevel LT and LTZ models will be available in a new Crystal Red Tintcoat color to help the old Impala go out with a flourish. The 2013 Impala comes with a 3.6-liter V-6 that makes 300 horsepower, coupled to a six-speed automatic transmission. Despite its old-school size and shape, this sedan gets up to 30 mpg on the highway. The upcoming 2014 model will be available with a choice of three new engines, two four-cylinders (one of which is a mild hybrid) and a V-6, to go with its new look. It’s scheduled to come out in early 2013. The Chevrolet Impala may not get anybody’s heart racing, but it fills the bill just fine if what you want is a traditional big sedan. Get a good deal on the 2013, or look forward to the upcoming 2014? Decisions, decisions. …
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Chevrolet Equinox

Year: Starting at $24,155 MPG 20-29 It’s hard to remember a time when crossovers weren’t all over American roads; they have become so well established that it’s harder to notice them or tell them apart. This one is no exception; it gets a more powerful V-6 engine for 2013, without losing out on fuel economy—24 mpg on the highway—but otherwise it’s the tried-and-true smaller crossover that it has been for several years already. The interior is dependable and modern-looking, with blue ambient lighting and a wraparound dashboard with an upright center stack. The exterior has a sleek front end; its raked windshield and sweeping headlamps turn the Equinox into the anti-box. The base four-cylinder engine is no powerhouse, but it can get 32 mpg on the highway if you use the transmission-adjusting Eco mode. For those who want to use their crossover for towing, or just want more power, the newly added 3.6-liter V-6 makes 301 horsepower while adding 37 horsepower over last year’s smaller V-6 engine and, as previously mentioned, with no loss in fuel economy. This front-wheel-drive five-seater may not break any new ground in style or substance, but it is a good choice for anyone seeking a moderate amount of both attractiveness and versatility in a reasonably priced package. …
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Chevrolet Cruze

Year: Starting at $17,130 MPG 26-36 The Chevrolet Cruze name may not have the historical cachet in the small-car segment that is enjoyed by such competitors as the Honda Civic, but it has a lot going for it. For one thing, it’s peppy, with good highway smoothness and well-designed suspension. You can get it with a turbocharged 1.4-liter engine or a 1.8-liter engine with variable valve timing that makes 138 horsepower and yields 36 mpg on the highway. Beating that is the Cruze Eco model, which has lighter suspension parts and low-rolling-resistance tires, taking top honors for a non-hybrid at 42 mpg highway for the manual-transmission model. Chevrolet has also upped the technology ante on what was already a pretty great interior. Chevy’s MyLink information and entertainment system is standard on most versions, offering Bluetooth streaming audio and voice recognition. There are also two new audio systems on offer, including one with GPS navigation and a seven-inch color touchscreen. Perhaps the most appreciated 2013 addition is an optional Enhanced Safety package with park assist, blind-spot alert, and rear cross-traffic alert systems. To dress up your Cruze, there’s an RS appearance package with a rear spoiler, rocker moldings, an upgraded fascia, and chrome instrument panel accents instead of the standard silver. Top it off with a sliding power sunroof on LT and LTZ trim levels. …
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Chevrolet Corvette

Year: Starting at $49,600 MPG 16-26 Yes, it has been sixty fun-filled years since the first Chevrolet Corvette hit American roads. Making no concessions to this late-middle-age number, in 2013 Chevrolet is selling the fastest convertible in the history of the bow-tie brand, the 427 convertible. With its carbon fiber body parts and 505-horsepower 7.0-liter V-8, it’s pretty much a droptop version of the Corvette Z06. GM is calling it a Collector Edition, so keep that in mind. The Z06 coupe comes in a limited Carbon edition that has many of the styling features of its more powerful ZR1 sibling. Speaking of the ZR1, the top Corvette’s supercharged V-8 makes 638 horsepower and lets the Vette go north of 200 mph. The big story for 2013, in addition to the last year the current-generation C6 Corvette is in production, is the Sixtieth Anniversary appearance package. It’s a pretty classy-looking Arctic White exterior with two shades of blue on the leather-wrapped interior. An optional graphics package shouts a bit more loudly about the anniversary, and naturally there is badging inside and out to make this package more special. Corvette buyers looking for something a little less pricey may prefer the lower-frills Grand Sport, still with a sub-four-second 0-to-60-mph time close to that of its pricier stablemates. Add to that the base coupe and convertible models, and you’ll see that there’s a Corvette at price points just above $50,000 to a bit over $100,000. …
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