Being spoiled for choice was uppermost in my mind after spending a week with the latest Johnny-come-lately Chev, the Aveo sedan. After all, it's up against competition from a dozen brands.
At R129 000, the well-specced Aveo 1.5 LT sedan is in the ring with some big contenders.
While it meets those opponents toe-to-toe, before the bell goes you - judge and potential buyer - will have to decide why you want an Aveo instead of a Volkswagen Polo 1.4 Trendline, Opel Corsa 1.4, Kia Rio 1.4 (a Korean contender), Fiat Siena 1.2 EL, Yaris T3 or Tata Indigo 1.4 GLX.
Why one brand and not another?
General Motors will cite lots of reasons why you should have been choosing its products since its 2003 return to our shores - albeit with a number or rebadged Daewoos.
One is its growing dealer network - 14 in 2004, 75 by the end of 2006 - and another the badge that reigned supreme in this sunny, braaivleis-mad land until the oil price went pear-shaped in November 1973 and again later in that decadent decade.
Chev wants a slice of the eight percent - 2600 units a month - pie that makes up our market for compact sedans. In June the Aveo's combined sedan/hatch offering sold 861 units. That market has been growing steadily as South Africans buy down - settling for smaller cars with a range of what used to be "luxury accessories".
For your money, the Aveo four-door LT I tested is a full-spec package with everything that buy-downers want: radio-controlled door releases with central locking, air-con, power windows and external mirrors and a radio-CD-MP3 player with six speakers.
My car also had factory-fitted leather upholstery - another standard item on the LT.
Instrumentation, too, is full-house with a comprehensive trip data computer that told me, among other things, that it should do about 450km on a 45 litre tank, improving to about 580km on the open road.
Styling, also, is in the eye of the beholder: the Aveo four-door has traditional three-box lines developed in Korea (the south, of course!) by Daewoo, which is owned by GM with a bit of input from China and uses global resources to get the best before being "tailored for South African customers", according to Chev SA brand manager Des Fenner.
The LT comes with stylish 14" alloy rims and 185/60 rubber braked by a traditional discs front, drums-rear set-up with anti-lock and electronic fluid pressure distribution. More than adequate for the 1100kg Aveo.
No race car
Providing the muscle is a fairly low-revving 1500cc, single overhead cam, four-cylinder engine with eight valves per pot and producing 62kW and 128Nm. It drives a five-speed manual transmission and all the controls are light.
Translated, it means the Aveo LT is no race car and needs some urging if you want to get anywhere really quickly but, with a target market among the over-35s, traffic-light dices and skipping quickly through mountain passes would not be high on any would-be owner's agenda.
The engine's quiet at cruise speed and the ride pretty neutral, though there's some body roll if you are going quickly through the twisty stuff. (Again, please see the Aveo's market.)
GM gives a three-year or 100 000km warranty and three years warranty against rust-through and there's the extra-cost option of either a maintenance or service plan.
The Aveo is a worthy contender in the sedan market. It's still very much a new-boy-on-the-block with its recent styling changes but I have to hark back to choice: there is a heap of competition out there, so the lads and ladesses selling these cars need to get bums on seats to change the mindset of our buying public and remind them that Chev is back.