Chevrolet SRV review |
 There was a breed of cars called Hot hatches; they got lost a certain car called the Fiat palio 1.6 GTX. These cars are meant to rip the road apart and make the miser look like a sinner. Burn the petrol to the envy of the sheiks of Dubai; turn the heads of all the babes and in one shot take you from zero to hero. They need not make practical sense like all the other econo-misers; interiors and other things hold no real sense of achievement. Its all about whats under that hood.
The SRV is meant to bring you the same sense of joy; joy that can only be had with a three digit figure against power and a hatchback body to keep weight under check. Suspension that complies with both comfort and driving pleasure on the hills. Plain and simply put, this car is for the young adrenaline junkie with money to burn and an urge to impress.
Design and Interiors
The SRV is based on the Chevrolet Optra, from head to toe and from front to back. Its exactly the same, except for the fact that the boot has been chopped off. In effect, its almost like somebody rammed the Optra from behind and the SRV was born.
Changes have been incorporated to the head and tail lamps though; the new front section looks neat with the big Chevrolet bow-tie which can be seen from a mile away. Very similar to all the Chevrolet cars in India, like the Chevrolet Aveo. The profile of the Chevrolet SRV is very european thanks to the Italian styling and some of the people here at carsinindia.com even compared it to the Citroen Xsara! Opinions apart, the car is very grown up and looks like a design job that took in a lot of time and effort on the part of the designers and stylists at Chevrolet India.
The car is complete with 14" alloy wheels as standard fitment, with a 185/70 section wheels that help the car make an
excellent style statement. If you thought the optra was stylish, chevrolet have really bettered themselves with this. The proportions are very elegant; the long sweeping bonnet with the nicely raked screen give the car a very purposeful stance. That said, I find the ground clearance a bit too much for a car that is supposed to be hugging the road at breakneck speeds. We will find out about that in our Ride and Handling review section. The rear end of the car, as I already mentioned seems like someone rammed the Chevrolet Optra's backside, but the tail lamps are fresh and have a horizontal arrangement unlike the vertical with the mid-sizer. I find the Car to look extremely good in the rear three quarters angle.(refer photos on the next 2 pages)
We know that although the proportions were carried forward from the Optra, some changes would have to be made to the interiors, thanks to the change in the roof lining and the C-pillar, that are now lower; affecting the headroom available at the rear. As we found out from the dealers though; the rear seat bench has been mounted a bit lower in order to retain head room. We have tested the Maruti Suzuki Swift, which also aims at the same kind of costumer (not nearly in similar price range though) and we found Maruti could really do much better as far as the interior went. We stepped into this car and were seriously impressed by the amount of space available here. I mean, it's supposed to be a hatch right and Hatches are supposed to be small inside; perhaps no one bothered to inform General motors about this and they did a magical job as far as interior space went. The seats are also very comfortable; we did miss padding on the sides of the front seats or perhaps racing seats up front that would really set the pace as far as driver morale went. Furthermore, the interior plastic which is quite good could really do better when the asking price was as high.
On a much brighter note though, the car comes equipped with a high end 2 din Alpine MP3 and cassette player with six speaker surround. Tiny speakers find their way into the doors too. Seats at the rear are also quite nice with excellent leg room; quite unbelievable when you consider this is a hatch. But, the proportions do indicate otherwise. Yet, one was even more taken aback when the boot was opened, releasing enough space for the weekend trip and more!
Review on the Engine and transmission and the Ride, handling and Verdict of the SRV.
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![Chevrolet SRV exterior](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=srv4.jpg&imagetitle=Chevrolet SRV exterior"))
![Chevrolet SRV interior](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=srvmeter.jpg&imagetitle=Chevrolet SRV interior"))
![Chevrolet SRV interior](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=srvdash.jpg&imagetitle=Chevrolet SRV interior"))
![Chevrolet SRV exterior](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=srv2.jpg&imagetitle=Cehvrolet SRV exterior"))
![Chevrolet SRV interior](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=srvseat.jpg&imagetitle=Chevrolet SRV interior"))
![Chevrolet SRV interior](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=srvboot.jpg&imagetitle=Chevrolet SRV interior"))
![Click to Enlarge](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=srv2.jpg&imagetitle=Chevrolet SRV exterior")){kind=link}