RS as the fully kitted-out version of a really well done tuner car

The problem with the current Aveo is its crushing mediocrity. But after looking at the Chevy Aveo RS show car earlier today, it's clear this lightly-disguised preview of what's to come is styled much more aggressively than the last one.

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The problem with the current Aveo is its crushing mediocrity. There's nothing outright bad about the car, but nothing very good about it either. GM's planning on upending that mediocrity with the next Aveo, moving the car onto a bigger platform, giving it some aggression and actually styling the interior. What you're seeing in this car is about 80% of what we've seen from the production-intent Aveo.

Think of the RS as the fully kitted-out version of a really well done tuner car. That's about as close as the RS is to the real deal. The interior is faithful to what we've seen, tarted up a bit with slightly fancier materials and a dollop of chrome, but other than that, very similar. Hell, this "concept" even has oh-shit handles.

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The RS is powered by the same turbocharged direct-injection 138 HP 1.4-liter I-4 Ecotec planned for the Chevrolet Cruze and mated to a six speed manual transmission. The big slotted brakes rotors and four piston calipers are sadly not destined for production, but they sure look nifty in a show car kinda way. Don't expect to see the center exhaust on the production car either.

It's an interesting choice to retain the Aveo name for such a remarkably different (and considerably better) new car. The Aveo has a reputation as a rebadged bottom dollar Korean econobox, and this will slot above the Chevy Spark and below the Cruze and be built at the Orion plant right in Michigan. Time will tell if the name carries too much baggage, but at least they didn't replace it with an alphabet soup.