I was driving my car home one day, everything seemed normal, until I pulled up to a stop sign and noticed massive amounts of thick, white smoke coming from the engine. I immediately pulled over and opened the hood. Relieved to see no fire, I sat for a few minutes and the smoke eventually cleared up. Since I was only a couple more kilometers away from home, I figured I'd try starting it again and driving home to look into the problem later. It started up again, no problems, but as I was driving, I noticed the temperature gauge rising rapidly to the red zone an smoke started to flow from the engine bay again. I had to stop a few more times on the way home to allow the engine to cool but I made it. Knowing now that it was a problem with the cooling system, I checked along the coolant lines to find that the thermostat housing had broken into 2 pieces and all the rad fluid had dumped out. Apparently that is a common issue with this car as the factory housing is built very cheap out of plastic and prone to cracking with age. I picked up a new thermostat + housing from the dealer for around $100, thankfully replacements are made of metal which will hopefully last the life of the car. The install couldn't have taken more than 30 minutes and was very strait-forward; the only difficult part being removing the hoses from the old housing. Once installed, I filled up the car with anitfreeze and it's been working fine ever since.

If you own this car and still have the factory, plastic thermostat housing, I STRONGLY recommend you buy the metal one from the dealer and replace it immediately. I was lucky that mine broke so close to home but it would be a real hassle to happen in the middle of no where seeing as the car becomes basically undrivable. Just save yourself the grief of being stuck on the road and replace it while you can actually drive to a dealer.

IMPORTANT: If you notice fluid dripping out from underneath your Aveo (especially near the front right wheel), check your thermostat housing for leaks (EVEN if your rad fluid level doesn't seem to be changing) because mine was doing the same thing for a couple days and then it just burst one day.