2012 Chevrolet Sonic: What's It Like to Live With?
Follow Edmunds long term road test daily updates for more information on our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- Leaving Them All Behind
- Moto Influence
- Styling Critique
- Chevy Sonic Super Bowl Ad to Feature Rob Dyrdek, Kickflips
- Playing Golf
- Where's Our Ecologic Environmental Label?
- Detachable Shifter
- The Lights Are On in Detroit
- Armrest Critique
- iPod Cord
- Solid Driver Environment
- Crank-Calling OnStar
- Will The Bike Fit?
- Recalled for Missing Brakes
- Eight-bagger, at least
- Manual HVAC Done Right
- Slot Car
- Video Review
- Facebook Likability = Like IRL?
- Disjointed
- One Bag Hatch
- I Like This Car
- Direct Injec...Whaaaa?
- How Much Mileage Do You Really Need?
- Changing Times
- -omething's -issing
- Bulb Check
- Rear Seat Report
- Cargo Area Parlor Tricks
- Underperforming?
- Inadvertent Built-In iPhone Clamp
- The Korean Influence
- Very Accommodating
- High Gas Prices, But This Time Is Different
- Dual Personality Engine
- Good On The Freeway
- Gearing Comparison
- Name Recognition Still Seems Low
- Back Road Drive
- How About More Power?
- Now Available in Automatic
- More on the Automatic
- 5,000-Mile Milestone
- 33.0, 34.2, 35.6, 40.1 MPG
- Kinda Dig The Headlights
- The $15,000 VW
- Excellent Approach Lighting
- Dizzying Display
- This is OnStar, Would You Like Your Mirror Dimmed?
- Clutches, Anyone? Freshly Smoked!
- I Want My MTV...I Mean XM Radio
- Tinsel Town Saturday Night
- One of Ward's 10 Best Interiors
- It's a Six-Speed
- Highway Ride
- Oh Yeah Magrath? Check Mate
- No Worries
- Octane Decision
- Sniff and Chat
- Easily Pleased
- Psych!
- Sonic vs. FR-S
- The Up-Shift Light
- Does the Car Still Stink?
- Still Fishy
- Low Front Airdam
- Does the Car Still Stink, Test 2
- First Service
- Reverse Goes Here
- Does the Car Still Stink, Test 3
- OnStar Calling — With a Deal
- Does the Robotic Arm Fit?
- Odor Testing Concludes
- How the Sonic Really Stinks
- Rear-Facing Kid Seat Time
- Eject Button
- Rear View
- Little Cutie
- Gassing Off
- Writing A Country Song
- Occasional Use for Under-Floor Storage
- Hatches Are Cool
- Sticky Pedal
- Yeah, I Could Own This Car
- How Would It Be With an Automatic?
- Dog Report
- Siri's Coming to Future Sonics
- Field of View, Chevy vs. Ford
- TPMS Warning
- TPMS Warning and New Tire
- A Look Underneath
- The Manual Mystique
- The Stroller Test
- Where Do You Put Your Hands?
- July Sales Report
- 10,000 Miles
- Another Trip to NorCal
- It's Like Christmas
- More Thoughts from the Central Valley
- Smell Begone
- Does the Turbo Matter?
- Another Pit Stop
- Hottest Color for a Hatchback?
- Pricing Announced on 2013 Sonic RS
- Hot Hatch or Just a Pod?
- Hates The Heat
- Will Two Bikes Fit?
- August Auto Sales
- Child Seats Fit
- Use Premium In The Heat
- Dual Aux Jacks
- I'd Rather Commute In It Than Road-Trip It
- Small Thrills
- Careful with the Mirror
- Report From Valet Parking
- Window Switch Sticks
- Great Burgers, Fries and Shakes
- I'd Choose the RS
- Like a Golf (Again)
- Working for Recognition
- Nevada Road Trip
- Road Trip MPG
- Linkage-y
- The Acid Test
- No Compromises
- Still a Favorite
- Third Time's a Charm
- Airbag Issue?
- Best Car for Downsizing?
- I'd Get the Hatch
- Time For New Oil?
- Airbag Recall Update and Walkaround
- Seat Heater Confirmation
- Kudos for the Cubbies
- Strong Sales Numbers
- Winter-Time TPMS
- Thunk
- Ford versus Chevy
- Can You Tow it Behind a Motorhome?
- Super Sonic
- Quick and Easy Sale
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
It was not hard for GM to replace the Aveo. There were no farewell parties, no e-mail campaigns calling for a retrospective of the awful little car, and there were certainly no shortages of suggestions on how to improve the next one.
The first item on the list was to ditch the inscrutable Aveo name in favor of something cooler, like say, Sonic. Next it ditched the uninspired rental-car interior for something with grown-up materials and a slick, modern design. Finally, Chevy chucked the old 108-horsepower 1.6-liter and four-speed automatic in favor of a 138-hp 1.8-liter inline-4 hooked to an optional six-speed automatic transmission (5MT is standard).
But Chevy didn't stop there: It upped the ante even further with an optional 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder making 138 hp and 148 pound-feet of torque. This optional engine is available only with a six-speed manual transmission. Interesting choice for a subcompact Chevy.
The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic may look like the Aveo in profile, but that's where the similarities end. It's an all-new car with an all-new outlook, one where inexpensive does not mean cheap.
What We Got
The base 2012 Chevy Sonic LS Sedan is available with the above-mentioned 1.8-liter Ecotec and a five-speed manual transmission for a starting price of $13,735. That car comes with remote keyless entry, 15-inch wheels, air-conditioning, OnStar and, wait for it, a four-speaker AM/FM stereo with an aux jack. As inexpensive as that one is, we wanted more. Specifically, we wanted a hatchback (they're more useful) which starts at $14,635 and we wanted it with the smaller turbocharged motor. That engine would be more fun and, according to the EPA, the 1.4-liter returns better fuel economy, which will be helpful as it costs an additional $700.
The 1.4-liter is only available on LT and LTZ models. LT models are fairly loaded with full power accessories and upgraded cloth upholstery and are available with the Connectivity Plus Cruise package that has Bluetooth, iPod and steering wheel-mounted controls. LTZ models have the Connectivity Plus Cruise package standard along with leatherette upholstery, 17-inch wheels, foglamps and heated seats. The price difference is $1,500 if we didn't want Connectivity or $1,125 if we did want the $375 package.
A local dealer arranged a local trade to get us a 1.4-liter Sonic LTZ in Victory Red with a jet black/dark titanium interior. Other than the turbocharged Ecotec motor, there were no options, which gave our car an as-tested price of $18,695 including the $795 destination fee.
Invoice, however, was $18,018. After some shrewd negotiating by our crack team of car buyers, we paid the invoice price.
Why We Got It
In a comparison test earlier this month, a 2012 Chevy Sonic LTZ absolutely mopped the floor with a 2011 Mazda 2. At the end we concluded that the Sonic is "worth the extra money over the Mazda 2 and it's even good enough to talk you out of buying a Mini Cooper."
In our short-term testing the Sonic was an impressive little car. Will that hold up for the year? Will we manage to stay out of the throttle and get the EPA fuel economy? Will we still be thinking Mini beater after 12 months and 20,000 miles?
Current Odometer: 1,788
Best Fuel Economy: 35.1
Worst Fuel Economy: 23.7
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 28
Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
I have to say that I've been enjoying driving our new long-term 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ through rush-hour traffic. That's saying a lot considering it's stick.
Usually when the long-term car board comes to me, I pick a car based on where I'm going for the evening. Like, is it way cross town where I have to sit on the notoriously clogged-up 10 East and then cut through the equally bad surface street traffic? Or am I just going straight home, which is just 7 miles from the office, aka 30-45 minutes away? Most of the time I'll go for a car with auto because, let's face it, driving stick in stop-and-go suuuhucks.
But our little Sonic isn't so hard to shift. It's not as light as the Fiat's shifter/clutch but neither is it like our old Mazdaspeed 3. And bonus is that it has a 1.4-liter turbocharged Ecotec engine and 138 horsepower so I can switch lanes quickly and get around the slow pokes and not-so-slow pokes like no one's business.
I see many more rush-hours in our future together. By the way, score on the seat heaters in the Sonic. So effective! More on that later.
This morning, I gave you all my two cents on the Sonic's exterior styling. Now, let's head inside.
The first thing that grabbed me was the instrument panel. Just by the mere fact that it reminds me of a sportbike is enough to win me over. Note the similarities to my soon-to-be-acquired Yamaha R1. Both have a big tach with a digital display off to the side and inset. Cool.
But function should never be forsaken, either. The Sonic's instrument panel is incredibly legible in a variety of lighting conditions. The deep hood surrounding the digital readout effectively cuts oblique glare and the giant speedometer can be read in a quick glance.
On the downside, though, the rest of the interior is made up of hard plastics. The only soft touch points are on the fold-down front-seat armrests. The door armrest is particularly uncomfortable, with a corner on it that seems needlessly sharp. To its credit, these plastics at least appear soft, but if I had to drive the Sonic long-distance, I'd probably bring an elbow pad.
It used to be that cars in the entry-level hatchback class were dull and uninspired. Nowadays, it seems like this segment is leading the way with fun and evocative design. Between the Hyundai Veloster and our new long-term Chevy Sonic, teenagers today have it much better than I did.
Styling goes a long way with the Sonic. Take off all of the flourishes, and its underlying shape falls somewhere between a Smart ForTwo and a Suzuki SX4. There's an aggression about the Chevy that really speaks to me. Those canted-in headlights give it an Evo-like frown up front. From the side, there's enough visual interest in the character lines to keep it out of crap-box territory and lean towards Japanese funky box.
I think Chevrolet nailed the design of the Sonic. It's more aggressive than the Ford Focus, without going too far. On top of all the design stuff, it's just a pleasant car to drive. Well played, GM.
What do you think? In this segment, is it on top?
Chevy has just released details on yet another Super Bowl ad they'll be playing this year. First we had "Happy Grad" promoting the Chevy Camaro and now we've got word from Chevy that another spot will have Rob Dyrdek kickflipping the little hatch.This is the second of seven commercials we'll see from GM.
The ad "Sonic Anthem" will also feature other stunts made by the Sonic and will air on, you guess it, February 5th. Music will be the song "We Are Young" by the New York indie band Fun.
As small cars go, my preference has always been for the Volkswagen Golf.
I’ve tried to be a Honda Civic guy. I’ve also always taken an interest in small practical cars from strange, out of the way places. You know, like Croatia. Italian-style small cars are clever, even when they’re being built in Japan like the Suzuki Swift. I’ve even tried to like a German-designed Opel built in South Korea and sold as a Pontiac.
But really I like the VW Golf. So when I say that the Chevy Sonic is pretty much like a VW Golf, it’s kind of a big thing for me. It’s as if the GM guys finally decided to quit fooling around with trying to prove how clever they are and just, what the heck, built a Golf.
The Sonic has long-travel, compliant suspension just like a Golf, and the car rolls a lot in the corners yet never loses touch with the pavement just like a Golf. The Sonic has an engine with a very broad and flexible powerband and very (very) tall gearing just like a Golf. The manual transmission has a smooth, long-throw shift action just like a Golf. The Sonic steers like a Golf and has a certain compatibility in the way all the driving controls work together just like a Golf.
This Sonic hatchback even looks like a Golf, that is if you scrunch up your eyes real good and ignore the Chevy Sonic front end and the wacky, too-clever rear window shape that makes the whole car look like a Golf that’s has been beamed up by the transporter with not entirely perfect duplication. And when you’re sitting in the Sonic, you also feel like you’re in a Golf, except all the architecture has been moved around so you can tell that it’s a sedan trying to be a Golf. Then again, the Sonic’s interior fits big people just like a Golf and the interior trim is actually way, way nicer than a Golf.
So despite being deeply, deeply skeptical of a car that has a heritage that includes the relentless crumminess of the Chevy Cavalier and the scary flimsiness of the Daewoo Lanos, and is still for all intents and purposes a German-designed Opel that’s been engineered in Korea and then built in a former Pontiac plant in Michigan, I really like this car.
Driving the Chevy Sonic reminds me of driving a VW Golf, and I think that’s a good thing.
Chevy has just announced a new Ecologic window sticker that will be fitted to all new Chevy's starting with the 2013 Chevy Sonic. (Ours is a 2012.) The sticker "lets customers see some of the environmental features of the vehicle relating to manufacturing, driving and recycling." GM's Mark Reuss said that "Customers want companies to be honest and transparent about their environmental efforts and sustainability goals and rightly so. Putting an Ecologic label on each Chevrolet is just one more way for us to share our environmental progress."
The labels are audited by Two Tomorrows, a third-party sustainability agency which provides "assurance services to companies for environmental initiatives."
Three areas are covered on the label: Before the road, On the road and After the road. The first highlights manufacture and assembly, the second fuel-savings and the third notes how 85% of the vehicle is recycled.
While it probably won't aid in the sales of many cars, I can see this tactic reassuring nervous buyers that the car they want is still good for the environment. "Look, 85% of my Suburban can be recycled. Can your Prius batteries?"
OK, our new long-term 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ's gearshifter doesn't really detach but the other night while driving the car and trying to quickly do a three-point turn in the face of approaching traffic, the cover for the shifter did pop off. Not the best moment for that to happen.
But, not to worry, it's not broken. The little hooks for the plastic trim didn't break off so I was able to slot it back into place. And the cover hasn't popped off since but just wanted to point out that it did.
*FYI, I took the Sonic to the car wash today so no more dirty floor mats.
Three years ago, a bunch of guys said it was time to turn out the lights on Detroit.
They were guys in New York and Washington D.C. and Dallas and L.A. and all over. Wall Street guys and telecom guys and business guys and shopkeepers elected to office. They waved their arms a lot. They seemed very important. They certainly thought they were important.
And now, three years later, you can peer through the trees and, look, the lights are still on. Those guys in Detroit are still building cars.
In fact, they happen to be building the most practical, most relevant cars in the world. Really, if you were handing out trophies, which would you pick as a better car for the times in which we live, the Audi A7 or the Chevy Sonic?
Times are tough, of course. The engines coming to the Orion Township assembly plant in Detroit where the Sonic is built are brought in from Mexico and South Korea for the moment. About 40 percent of the hourly workers are entry-level hires earning half what union workers should make. There are half the skilled trades workers employed in the plant than when it was building Malibu sedans two years ago. And there’s also a lot of employees from various suppliers working at low wages.
But every day, about 1,750 people go to work at Orion. And the car they’re building is great — and that’s as in great.
The lights are on in Detroit. And I think that’s really something.
I fully realize the Chevy Sonic is a small, inexpensive car. But dang, the door armrest feels like it's little more than hard plastic. Which is exactly what it is.
I understand the need to keep costs down with a car like this, but the plastic is so hard and uncomfortable that there's almost no need for the armrest because you have no desire to put your elbow there.
Of note, this is of course much more of a problem when you wear short-sleeve shirts like I do almost every day, leaving your elbow without any form of padding.
On the bright side...
The adjustable driver's seat armrest is considerably more cushy. Nice. And for me, anyway, it's at the perfect height. And, it doesn't interfere with your shifting even when in the down position.
In our last episode alert readers noticed my iPod cord coming out of the glove box of our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ and defiling the cabin with its noodly whiteness.
It was, in fact, exiting the uppermost of the Sonic's two glove boxes. And while I agree the glove box is not my favorite USB socket location, and the empty center bin below the A/C knobs looks invitingly empty and available, at least Chevy burned the calories required to make this location work as good as possible.
Exhibit A is that small notch that allows the cord to pass freely under the door while it is fully closed.
Exhibit B is the matching trough within that allows the cord to line up with the notch automatically — there's no need to hold it in place with your free hand while you close the lid.
Exhibit C is the little shelf (with non-skid and a hefty lip) that gives one a handy place to store the iPod or iPhone and its cord inside away from prying eyes.
Exhibit D is the fact that all of this is in a second upper glove box that a phone could have all to itself if desired, not the lower main one.
Exhibit E is the fact that this is no German glove box iPod dock wih a stubby 6-inch cord or physical dock that makes it impossible to fully sync your iPod and still keep the device within easy reach in case you need to, say, use it to stand in for the navigation system the Sonic lacks.
You've got to admit GM has done a very good job at this location. But I agree that the cord is an eyesore and the USB dock might work better somewhere else. I'm just not sure the bin below the HVAC knobs is big enough to keep a coiled-up cord out of sight and out of the way. It certainly lacks security.
Too bad Apple doesn't make black iPod cords.
Despite its small size, the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ fits my 6-foot 2-inch tall frame very well. It has more than enough of every adjustment I could need or want. Its telescopic wheel pulls back far enough, the seat height adjuster drops low enough and the seat goes back more than far enough.
I also like those large bins on either side of the center AC vents, the simplicity of the manual climate control buttons and knobs, and the folding driver's seat armrest.
And then there's the gauge cluster.
Love it. It's small, cool-looking yet very readable, with a design that simultaneously emphasizes the tach and speedo in two different prominent ways. Compact and well-placed, I find it very easy to gather the information I require in a quick glance. It's everything Toyota's center-mount Prius gauge layout is not.
This is our long-term 2012 Chevrolet Sonic's manual day/night mirror. I use the night function a lot when I'm driving small cars in the dark, and I'll usually toggle between the two frequently, depending on traffic density.
Notice how close the OnStar buttons are to the lever. When we first got the Sonic, I spent a long weekend with it... I really enjoy driving it — good ride, good shifter, good torque. During that time, I accidentally called OnStar four times. After the second incident, I learned to use the cancel function that comes up on the car's head unit.
OnStar buttons on a manual day/night mirror... not a good combination.
The Chevy Sonic is small. Bicycles can be unwieldy to fit into small cars.
How does the new Sonic do with my road bike?
Awesome, of course, because the Sonic is a hatchback.
It was a surprisingly simple fit, only needing to move the front passenger seat forward slightly and tilt the seatback a bit to accommodate the rear wheel.
We received this recall notice for our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic. Click the picture to enlarge. The first lines read, "Why is your vehicle being recalled? The front brake inner or outer pad may be missing." Oops.
I didn't fill it to
it's
its true capacity which seems to be about eight bags of groceries — and they didn't tumble and spill all over either. Also, there's more volume available beneath the floor.
Update: there, I fix'd it
Some things don't need to be "improved." I submit the above. Thoughts?
So, there's this purposeful-looking slot dead-center on the Sonic's center stack... Is it some sort of audio-related port? Nope. It's much simpler than that, but certainly convenient.
Here is Senior Editor Erin Riches with a video review of the 2012 Chevy Sonic. This video covers the whole Chevrolet Sonic model lineup but the action footage is Erin driving our long-term Sonic LTZ.
Since I haven't been a new-car owner...ever, I haven't had the need to poke around the Facebook pages of any new cars to get info on "my car" or bond with other owners. But for some reason I found myself on the Facebook page for the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic.
And I have to say, color me impressed. Such a fun page, what with its Foursquare-like badge challenge, Sonic bucket list, and even a way to customize your own Sonic. Compare that to, say, the Fiat 500's Facebook page and the Sonic's is certainly more engaging and dynamic. But then again, the Fiat USA page does give you a chance to win an Abarth. So there's that.
On a side note, it's funny to compare the 500 and Sonic's Likes. Fiat likes the pages for Mopar and other Fiat pages while Sonic likes bands, music venues and even Arizona State University. Looks like Chevy's social media team knows who the Sonic's audience is.
In any case, a question to new-car owners: Do you even look at the FB pages of your cars or of cars you're looking to buy? Just wondered if social media like this has any influence on prospective car owners nowadays.
I'm not sure how we've gone this far into our long term review of the Sonic without mentioning this, but the interior of the Sonic is completely chaotic and disjointed. What is going on here?
First, let's start with the instrument cluster that I guess is supposed to be motorcycle inspired. I should mention that this is not, in any way, a motorcycle. But like a motorcycle, this cluster of things — speedo, tach, information screen — has just been glued somewhere relatively in front of the driver. This method of attachment makes sense on a motorcycle as the rider only has handlebars in front of them. This method is annoying on a car where you have an entire dash to work with. Sticking something on top of it just looks funny.
Next up is the center console. Two useless bins, a giant seam, a slot that throws your parking card onto the carpet as soon as you accelerate, and at least 11 different materials. From dead-on it looks like a sad elephant.
There are circles, squares, rectangles, seams, cut-lines, knobs, lights, buttons, fake metallic finish, levers and every other kind of design feature — other than wood or carbon fiber — you can think of all crammed into one relatively small package. On the plus side, the materials and assembly of them are quite good for this class. Another bright spot are the seats. They're attractive, supportive and the leatherette feels good.
After a few days of being in it, the girlfriend finally spoke up on the car and summarized my thoughts, "An adult could never buy this car. The interior is hyperactive — like five guys all under 20 designed it for guys under 16 who drink too much Redbull."
Judging by GM's Sonic Super Bowl Spots, she might not be too far from the truth.
Last week, our 2012 Chevy Sonic served airport shuttle duty. Riswick and I were headed to Chicago for the 2012 Chicago Auto Show and the Sonic was headed for four days of being parked in a garage.
Unfortunately, I didn't anticipate (for some reason) how small the Sonic was. It's tricky when you drive it because it doesn't feel as small as it is. The Mazda 2, for example, felt small. Maybe it's the lack of rear visibility, but every time I drive the Sonic I feel like it's got a decent sized hatch. It doesn't. It's rated at 19 cubic feet (the sedan offers 14) which is room for exactly what you see there.
One carry-on fits in the back. Sideways. Even then, the hatch cover doesn't close completely. Riswick's bag rode in the back seat. Any sort of checked bag would've required seat folding.
I wasn't expecting this one to carry four people and luggage to the airport, but being limited to one carry-on without using the rear seats is frustrating and would probably make me move up a class in size.
I agree with Magrath that the Sonic's dashboard design looks like a sad elephant. I'd also add that its materials quality and selection could be better. If I could transplant the Kia Rio's cabin into the Sonic I'd be a happy guy. However, none of the above dulls my enthusiasm for this car when I drive it.
Its turbocharged engine is wonderful, providing ample punch off the line and making it eager to dart through traffic. The steering is sharp and I appreciate that the controls work with a similar amount of effort. GM apparently put in a lot of effort to make them work with such a consistency and it makes a big difference. It just feels right.
Last night, however, I realized why I like the Sonic so much. It reminds me a lot of the GTI, a car I like for similar reasons. Yes, the turbo engine has a lot to do with it, but I found my driving style and level of enjoyment to be reminiscent of one of my favorite cars on the road. Heck it even has a VW-esque long-throw shifter, though, it's less damped in its motions and the one-two shift can be notchy at times.
And like the GTI, this Sonic is also going to be a divider amongst our staff. Already battle lines are being drawn amongst the "Love its" and "Hate its." Count me in the former camp. In the subcompact class, this is the car I'd buy.
So there I was this morning; making a hasty early morning retreat to beat the Obama motorcade out of Beverly Hills (I succeeded, by the way). When I rolled to a stop at a light, this popped in my head, "Man, that direct injection really makes this sound like a diesel."
That was going to be my blog post this morning, until I double-checked out long-term intro. The Sonic is not direct injected. Being that Magrath wrote it, I triple-checked it against the GM specs. "Sequential multi-port fuel injectors," is what it said. That's not good. Our Sonic sounds like a diesel and Magrath is right.
As this revelation circled the editorial department, everybody had the same reaction of disbelief. But even with the underhood clatter, I think the Sonic is a great little car.
Parked the Sonic next to our Prius C test car this morning in the garage. Cute aren't they?
When I got out I noticed that the two cars were alike in more ways than just their paint color. They're both very compact, four-door hatchbacks that boast great mileage. Obviously, the Prius is a hybrid so it gets to lay claim to better overall mileage, but is it really worth it?
Our Sonic cost us $18,700, or about a grand less than the starting price of the Prius. And that's for a fairly loaded up Sonic with plenty of nice features. That Prius might save you a $1,000 in the long run on gas, but I would much rather have the better looking Sonic and it's nicely-tuned suspension. What do you think? Is the Prius C worth it for the mileage alone?
I was sitting at lunch the other day with Josh Jacquot and Dan Frio reminiscing about some recent test cars in our long-term fleet.
Me and Josh were telling Frio (who joined us after these long-term cars departed) that we had a Nissan GT-R35 and an Audi R8 at the same time. This overlapped with our long-term test of the Dodge Challenger R/T.
Good times indeed.
But yesterday, I went down to the garage and was greeted with this...
That's our long-term Fiat 500, a new Prius C (a short-term loan, not a long-termer) and our long-term Chevy Sonic.
Yup. The times, they are a changing.
Yes, I stole this title from Mark Takahashi. In July he wrote a blog on our 2011 Kia Optima that said, "This isn't a new problem, nor is it exclusive to the Optima. But when I listen to my iPod/iPhone in some cars, the first half-second or so of a song gets cut off. It bugs me, but certainly not as much as throttle tip-in or rough shifts."
Remove the "rough shifts" part of that and you have the Chevy Sonic. It cuts off the first second/half-second of every song when played through an iPod/USB device. It's maddening, especially on albums where one song's end is the next song's intro.
Mark finished his blog well, too. I'm going to steal that. "Whatever the case, here's my open letter to car manufacturers: Please stop doing this. Thanks."
The three-second rule is alive and well in the automobile industry, where all of you car's warning lights must perform a "bulb check" each time you fire up your machine.
If, as they should, the lights briefly come on then go out, you've learned two things. First, the bulb hasn't burnt out and the warning circuit is working; And second, as we all know, lights that go out after the bulb check period indicate the lack of a problem with that system. Or you haven't yet put your seatbelt on, or you forgot to release the parking brake, or your high beams are on, or the cruise control is armed, or whatever.
That's the easy part, but who is going to notice lights that don't come on? To do that you must first know which ones you're supposed to have. You know, the RTFM part.
In the case of our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic, the three apparent dark circles in the upper right corner are not the sign of a problem. There are no lights there, is all. They're blanks, room for future expansion or a mere styling cue to make eveything look even.
The back seat of the Sonic saw some action this past weekend. Get your minds out of the gutter people, I'm talking about that normally vacant space being used to show some visitors around L.A.
Older subcompact cars were often called penalty boxes due to their cramped cabins. This was especially true in the back seat, with cushions that were usually thin, flat and low to the floor in an attempt to maximize passsenger space. The result was most folks' legs ended up splayed out and unsupported. Not so with Sonic, whose high rear seat is thickly padded and contoured for proper support. The Sonic's tall cabin translates into generous legroom back there — at 34.6 inches it's just 0.8 inch less than a Cruze's — and it even has about an inch more headroom than a Malibu.
At first glance, the hatch area at the back of our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic looks fairly standard. 60/40 fold down seat? Check. Rigid tilt-up cargo cover? Check.
But it does have a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
For example, that hole is a grab handle. The floor, you see, is also the lid of a hidden basement storage compartment...
...that you can remove altogether to increase the total size of the storage space. OK, you'll no longer have a flat load floor if you fold the seats at this point, but you do get a solid 6 inches more depth back here when you use this space as a trunk.
But where do you put the lid/floor you just removed? That's a hassle, right?
Nope. It goes right back where it came from, but on the floor of the basement level. Yeah, it eats up about 3/4-inch of the six-plus inches you just gained, but at least you don't have to store it in the garage.
OK, but what about the rigid security cover? Didn't Magrath take issue with that when he and the Riz tried to load their suitcases in for a trip to the airport?
Yes, but Mags could have done the followoing: unhook the two lifting strings and pop the front hinge-clamp thingies loose as if he was going to remove it. And then ...
...tip it forward and down into the groove that resides just behind the rear seatbacks. In the Sonic the security cover has a place to live in the car; stashing it in the garage is not required.
And if you you do both things - drop the floor into the basement and stow the security cover - the Chevrolet Sonic easily becomes the two-bag hatch Mags and the Riz were hoping for. There may even be enough extra room for a laptop bag or two, to boot.
OK, it's no Honda Fit, which has no equal in this class when it comes to cargo flexibility or outright capacity, but the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic hatchback nevertheless offers some decent storage tricks of its own.
There are plenty of subjective reasons to like the Sonic. Here, I initially thought, was an objective one: Gasoline today in the Los Angeles/Long Beach area of California was $4.368 per gallon, up 18.2 cents for the week, according to AAA.
After three weeks of double-digit increases and the "the biggest one-month price jump in history," gas prices in the region of Edmunds worldwide HQ are within 30 cents of their all-time records, which were set in 2008, AAA says.
That would be one more reason to buy such a car (along with its attractive price and spirited driving). The car's onboard fuel-economy gauge was registering 34.8 mpg this morning — though I do know better than to rely on it. In most cars, the gauges lie like desperate politicians.
Still, though, I was disappointed to see that our Sonic is underperforming when it comes to fuel economy. Its EPA rating is 33 mpg combined city/highway driving, and a class-leading 40 mpg highway with this engine and manual transmission, according to Chevrolet. (We paid an additional $700 for that 1.4 liter turbocharged engine on the premise that we'd get better fuel economy.)
Well, after 17 fill-ups, we're getting 27.7 mpg. We've mostly been fueling up with 87 octane, with the occasional 91-octane splurge. The Sonic has the fifth-highest fuel efficiency in our fleet for February.
But doesn't it seem like it should be doing better in the fuel-economy department?
We've all commented on those oddly-shaped storage slots on each side of the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic's center stack. Turns out they're perfectly sized to grab onto an iPhone if the case is squishy enough.
It's like having a built-in hands-free windshield mount, and the map screen sits right in my line of sight. I essentially have traffic and navigation in a car that didn't come with it, and I don't have to dicker with it any more than any factory-installed touch-screen navigation head unit.
As for the phone function of this setup, the Sonic's Bluetooth connection and steering wheel voice commands take care of that. And the Sonic's radio head unit is reasonably adept at controlling the iPod album and song menus, too.
Too bad the USB jack isn't located inside this compartment so the cord isn't an eyesore.
Although most readers of this site know that the Sonic was largely a project of GM's Korean operations, to the casual observer, the site of Hankook tires on a Chevrolet might be a bit alarming.
No need to worry, though, as this Chevy rides just fine without a set of Goodyears connecting it to the road. In fact, the Sonic is one of the best riding Chevrolet vehicles I've driven in years.
Obviously, not all of the credit can go to the tires, but they're a big part of the overall equation. Road and tire noise is moderate and the grip levels seem well suited to this hatchback. No need to fear the Optimos.
Subcompacts often leave you sorely underserved when it comes to in-cabin storage opportunities (Mazda 2, I'm talkin' to you). That tiny, city-friendly footprint comes at a price.
That's why it's a pleasant surprise to find that the Sonic is different.
This Chevy features generous door bins for stashing tchotchkes.
Even more impressive is a positively humongous-for-the-segment glove box that offers two tiers of storage.
The last time fuel prices surged in 2008, car shoppers reacted by gravitating towards more fuel efficient cars. That was fine unless you were a domestic automaker with nothing of substance to offer those shoppers.
But times have changed.
Actually, you could argue Chevrolet and Ford are well positioned should high fuel prices continue or even increase more. In both the subcompact and compact segments, the Sonic/Cruze and Fiesta/Focus are critically acclaimed and fully competitive choices. No longer are Honda and Toyota the only games in town.
Incidentally, for the fill up I did in the above photo, the Sonic logged 35.6 mpg, its best tank so far. That was me driving it for 280 miles of mixed city/highway. It might also lends credence to some of the comments made on Carroll's earlier post this month responding to why the Sonic's mpg numbers seem low — for this tank it was more highway mileage, no Los Angeles commuting (I work remotely from our Santa Monica office) and my general small-car driving style, which I suspect is more conservative than the editorial norm. We'll see. I'll be driving the Sonic for at least another week.
The interesting thing to me about utilizing a turbocharged, small-displacement four-cylinder engine in the Sonic is that it gives the driver more options for driving style. If you want to treat your Sonic like a hot hatch, the turbo 1.4-liter will boost up and do its best to appease you. Alternately, if it's maximum fuel economy you want, just tread lightly on the throttle and stay out of the boost.
I like it because I can mix both styles so easily. For normal driving, I'll just keep it casual, maximizing mpg. But when I do need to accelerate quickly (say, for a highway entrance ramp), the turbo provides an extra dose of power that wouldn't otherwise be available in this type of car.
As a freeway companion for a long drive, our Sonic is pretty agreeable. The ride is comfortable for a short-wheelbase car. Overall wind and road noise seem below average. (Incidental note: check out in the photo how the tall gearing keeps engine to just 2,000 rpm at 70 mph in sixth gear.) There's lots of storage space for your stuff. The six-speaker sound system isn't a $6,300 Bang and Olufsen, but it certainly gets the job done.
As for seating, I can't seem to really find a driving position I really like in this car (even though there's telescoping steering wheel and height-adjustable seat), so I'm not really as comfortable as I'd prefer for a long drive. But that's pretty minor. Overall I think our Sonic works pretty well for long drives.
After my post a couple days ago on highway driving and the Sonic's low rpm at speed, I was curious to see how its gearing ratios compared to other subcompacts with six-speed gearboxes. If you were wondering the same thing, well, you're in luck.
I put the Corvette in just to see how low (or tall) you can go.
My friends know what I do for a living, so a common question I get is in social situations is: "What are you driving now?" Usually there's some sort of car name recognition, but with the Sonic, replying with: "A Chevrolet Sonic," has typically resulted in a pause, a quizzical face and something like, "A Sonic? What's that?"
Of course, the odds aren't in the Sonic's favor. For one, it's a new nameplate. No doubt it was tough for Chevrolet to choose between staying with the known (but image-damaged) Aveo nameplate or going all-new. And then there's the issue that the Sonic is a subcompact, which, as a market segment, most Americans are about as interested in as knowing who the top secretaries of the U.S. Treasury Department are.
Then again, Chevrolet did run its splashy "Stunt Anthem" Super Bowl commercial for the Sonic. Maybe my friends were too busy doing web searches on their smartphones for Adriana Lima and Catrinel Menghia to notice.
Anyway, I'm rooting for the Sonic to build up some nice sales momentum. It's a solid little car.
Some of my coworkers were out testing a rather desirable exotic sports car yesterday. Since I wasn't able to participate, I figured I needed a condolence prize. Alas, driving our Sonic on some back roads would have to do. Driving a subcompact around corners is not normally something that would sound all that fun, but the Sonic was up for the task.
The Sonic LTZ isn't a hot hatch, but "warm hatch" probably isn't too far off the mark. The steering has pretty good feel to it, and there's respectable grip from the Hankook 205/50R17 tires. It reminded me a little of our old GTI long-termer, actually. The suspension is compliant in that long-travel sort of way, but you can press on in the Sonic up to a certain point and still enjoy yourself.
The turbocharged 1.4-liter engine and manual transmission are a big draw, as well. Together, they make the Sonic feel pretty lively as I powered out of corners. It does make me wonder how a regular Sonic with the normally aspirated engine, automatic transmission and non-LTZ wheels/tires would be — you know, the Sonic a lot of people will probably buy. In all likelihood: not nearly as enjoyable to drive on a road like this. Even so, I had a fun time with our Sonic LTZ today.
After my back road drive yesterday in our Sonic LTZ, I got to thinking more about the upcoming Sonic RS. Going on sale late this year, the RS will come with a sport-tuned suspension, sport seats, larger wheels and slightly more aggressive styling. The turbocharged 1.4-liter engine will be standard. (At SEMA, Chevy also showed off the Z-Spec line of styling accessories.)
Ah, but there's the question every small car enthusiast is wondering: Will the Sonic get more power, too?
More power is always a good thing in car enthusiast land. And how hard could it be? Just turn up the boost dial up to 11, right? The RS suspension upgrades combined with more horsepower and torque could be a pretty sweet combination.
Ah, but GM has already said that it's not doing an SS version with more power. My suspicion is that it'd cost too much. I doubt GM would want to spend the money on such a niche product. As a subcompact, the Sonic is already a low-volume seller. Now add in the development cost of an SS, including shoring up the drivetrain, ensuring longevity for the turbo-4, stronger brakes, etc. An SS could actually end up being pretty pricey.
That said, I think it'd be cool if GM could at least add a sport exhaust to the RS.
One of the major complaints about the Chevy Sonic when it first launched (when we bought ours) was that the good motor, the 1.4-liter turbo 4, was only available with a manual transmission. This wasn't so much a complaint from our side of things as we tend to like manuals. Unfortunately, the American consumer, on the whole, doesn't and by limiting the turbo motor to the manual transmission, most people would be stuck with the 1.8 that runs far less smoothly and returns worse fuel economy (35 highway with the autobox).
Now, however, GM has announced that the 1.4-liter turbo motor will be available with a six-speed Hydra-Matic 6T40 automatic. The EPA says that this new transmission will return 37 mpg on the highway, 27 city and 31 mpg combined and GM says the combination's good for a 0-60 time of 7.8 seconds. In our testing the manual version hit 60 in 8.5 seconds.
Pricing was not announced, but for the Cruze 1.4-liter, the automatic is a $1,185 option.
By now we all know that the 2012 Chevy Sonic will now be available with the 1.4-liter turbocharged motor (the good one) and an automatic transmission (the one most Americans want and that it will cost an additional $1,070.
Here are two more facts about the automatic...
1) The Sonic automatic will have slightly different gear ratios than the Cruze automatic. They are:
1 4.58
2 2.96
3 1.91
4 1.45
5 1.00
6 0.75
Rev 2.94
(Cruze is: I = 4.58; II = 2.96; III = 1.91; IV = 1.44; V = 1.00; VI = 0.74; R = 2.94 )
2) The manual shift gate will operate like the one in the Cruze (and not like the stupid one in the Malibu) and, in manual mode, will hold gears at redline.That's always a welcome feature.
Our Chevrolet Sonic cleared its first 5,000 miles a couple days ago. So far I'd say the Sonic's been a nice addition to our fleet.
A few weeks ago I posted that our Sonic's fuel economy might see a rise while I was driving it. Well, I'm getting back to you. The title numbers above were my fuel economy numbers after fill-ups. They're all better than what we have been averaging.
The first three were standard city/highway mixes. For that last tank, the 40.1 mpg one, I put in a little effort to maximize economy. It was mostly highway driving, and I stayed very close to the speed limit (70 mph) and used cruise control whenever possible. The overall highway route was the same one I used to get 46.1 mpg in the Jetta last year.
I still think our Sonic's numbers for a year total will not be all that great (lots of city driving, typical editor driving style.) But I at least proved to myself that the Sonic will get good numbers if you want it to. For reference, EPA for our car is 29/40/33 mpg.
We'll also be using our Sonic for a special fuel economy test next month. I'm looking forward to that.
This may sound strange, but I'm intrigued by the Sonic's headlights. More than anything, for their lack of a clear shield covering them. I was surprised when I noticed this the first time I walked around the front of the little Chevy.
So many cars these days have intricate head- and taillight designs, but we're almost always barred from getting close, reaching out and physically touching the headlights, due to a protective lens covering the entire unit.
The Sonic's headlights certainly don't have the most intricate detailing, but for some weird reason I dig the fact that they are devoid of an all-encompassing plastic shroud.
Probably not the most aerodynamic design, though.
They’re making Volkswagens in Michigan, I’m sure of it.
After driving a large assortment of Volkswagens over the last ten days, I’m more sure than ever that the Chevrolet Sonic drives like it wants to be one of them. Packaging, control feel, ride quality, and general dynamics – the Sonic should be wearing a VW badge. And I mean that in the best possible way.
Of course, the Sonic is a little smaller than the Volkswagen Golf, maybe more like the VW Polo. VW would love to bring the Polo to the U.S. as an entry-level $15,000 car, especially since it’s the car that Volkswagen will race in the WRC, but the whole euro/dollar exchange-rate thing makes it impossible for the moment. And who knows what the cool, alpine-white Polo GTI pictured here would cost in 2012 dollars. Probably as much as a Passat CC.
Personally I’d start hijacking Sonics from the parking lot at GM’s assembly plant in Orion Township, Michigan, and put the big VW badge on the grille. A masterpiece of product planning, eh?
Although it's getting better as automakers selectively embrace the "downsizer" trend, B-segment cars and subcompacts are still not known for offering a ton of amenities or conveniences. And that is why the quality of the approach lighting on our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ is shocking.
Click the remote and this thing turns on the headlights, taillights and reverse lights to help you find your way to the car. I've driven cars that cost three times as much that aren't as nicely lit at night. This is definitely on my top 10 list of favorite Sonic features.
A pet peeve of mine (well, of the vehicle design variety) is a cluttered information display. I don't like this "not at a glance" readability that our Fiat 500 displays, nor do I care for it in the Sonic. In particular, it's the trip computer's average MPG function that bugs me.
Do we really need a cute graphic showing a car driving towards a fuel pump? And I think that "MPG" is recognizable enough that it could be used instead of "miles/gal". So I'd rather have it just show "14.6 avg MPG" and eliminate the clutter atop the digits. And before you panic at the number itself, note that this shot was taken just after the Sonic's track testing.
Yes, this is nit picking, but overall I think highly of the Sonic as it has so much in its favor — a spirited driving demeanor, a roomy cabin, comfortable seats and good fuel economy. It would be on my short list if I were shopping or making a recommendation for a subcompact.
No, the mirror pictured above is not from our Sonic, and no, I do not have a French tip manicure.
I hopped in the Sonic last night and started my usual routine of adjusting the seat, wheel and mirrors. When I went to flip the day/night lever on the rearview mirror, I was greeted by something rather unexpected.
Bing bing bing! OnStar.
Whoops. I accidentally hit the OnStar button. I quickly cancelled the connection by tapping the phone icon button. But that led me to the guts of this post.
That OnStar button is right where I rest my thumb to flick the mirror dimming lever with my index finger. That seems like a design oversight. Sure, you could just flick it with resting your thumb, and perhaps there are some drivers out there who operate it in that fashion. But I contend that there are probably plenty of people who have accidentally hit this button when they were reaching for the lever.
I know, I know…I'm nitpicking. But in a car that I'm generally pleased with, I think I'm allowed. After all, if we don't point things like this out, they may never change.
Our longterm 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ's throttle calibration is going to result in premature clutch wear. You read it here first.
Here's the deal. When you engage the clutch from a standstill in any manual gearbox-equipped car, you — the driver — feed in the throttle at a rate you think will both a) avoid a nasty bog/stumble, and b) not excessively slip the clutch. After years of driving manual gearboxes, you — the driver — have a keenly-honed sense for this balancing act. You do it instinctively now. You probably don't even know you're doing it, but you are.
The problem arises when the car — which is not the driver — attempts to execute this balancing act, too, at the exact same time as you — the driver — are doing it.
The resulting bumfight between driver and the Sonic's smarty-pants electronic throttle results in WAY TOO MUCH throttle being applied while you're still letting the clutch in, which in turn prompts the little turbo to start spooling up in earnest and the process just bootstraps itself into frantic, runaway clutch-slipping stupidity. True, I haven't yet smelled that distinctive odor of fried clutch lining when driving the Sonic. Then again, I drive with the windows up.
Apparently the Magistrates of Throttle Manipulation residing in the Sonic's ECU are a conservative bunch and always bang the gavel down on the side of "holycrapdon'teverlettheenginestall" rather than taking the more measured approach of realizing that "hey, this meat bag behind the wheel is taking care of things. I'mma let you finish." At which point it would let you — the driver — drive the car.
Looks like the free ride is over. Our Sonic's three month trial subscription for XM satellite radio recently expired. I've let the keepers of the keys know, and they'll be renewing it. Funny how you can get hooked on luxuries like this. I remember when satellite radio first came out like 10 years ago and thinking "why the heck would anyone pay for radio?" Now I wouldn't think twice about doing so — it's so worth it just to avoid regular radio's annoying commercials and yammering DJs.
Yes, with most new cars that come through here having an iPod hookup, I can just play my iPod. Or, heaven forbid, I could even pop in a CD! But I enjoy the wide variety of music and other programming on satellite radio that's delivered without the aforementioned hassles.
What do y'all think? Is satellite radio worth it or not?
EXT. DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES, DUSK
A 2012 Chevrolet Sonic turns onto Broadway. Once a shining boulevard of vaudeville palaces, the street is noticeably rougher now. But the marquee of the fully restored Orpheum Theater shines into the dusk, signaling that Los Angeles, a city that would prefer to knock down its history than preserve it, has perhaps changed its ways. Tonight, the Orpheum is hosting the Los Angeles Conservancy/American Planning Association's screening of "Chinatown," a dark tale of Los Angeles' determination to grow and forget its past — whatever the cost. The Sonic snaps a smart right turn into a narrow alley.
PARKING LOT
An attendant points the Sonic into a wafer-thin parking place. He's determined to pack as many vehicles as possible (at $10 each) into the lot. The Sonic slips into its place, leaving its passenger and driver just enough room to exit.
PARKING LOT, NIGHT
Hours later, the movie is letting out. Now, every parking place is taken, and some rows are partially blocked. The Sonic's driver has to back up for several rows to find a way out of the lot. The car has no problems maneuvering through narrow rows. It slides onto the street and makes its way through the changing downtown cityscape: bright lights, darkened blocks, the encampments of Skid Row. It's comforting that the doors lock automatically once the car is underway. The Sonic is easy to drive. Nimble. Fun. Unpretentious. What you want in the naked city at night.
LITTLE TOKYO, NIGHT
Another parking lot, not as congested as the first one. The passengers exit. The Sonic rests, awaiting its next action sequence.
A few months ago I posed that the interior of our 2012 Chevy Sonic was disjointed. Some of you agreed with me, some of you did not. Some of you said I was too old to get it, others thought I needed to grow up. This is what happens when things like taste and preference are brought into a conversion. People disagreeing with me is part of the game.
Those of you who think I was wrong can take stock in the fact that Ward's Autos has just named the 2012 Chevy Sonic as the recipient of one of the publication's "10 Best Interiors" awards.
Ward's like the Sonic's "two glove boxes, storage bins on either side of the center stack, a bottle holder in each front door and three cupholders between the two front seats." Ward's also liked the "gear-shaped tachometer and asymmetrical cluster" saying it provides the driver with information "and does it with flair."
One man's flair is another man's distraction. Can't argue with the cupholders in that car, though.
Every time I go to drive our 2012 Chevy Sonic on the highway I forget, for at least 40% of my drive, that it's a six speed. I hop onto the highway, plunk it in fifth and continue with the flow of traffic.
The reasons for this are twofold: 1) I still think small cars always have a five speed. 2) At 70 MPH the Sonic cruises at 2,500 rpm in fifth. 2,500! That's nothing for a small car on the highway. Remember that Acura Integra Type R we tested? It spun 3,800 RPM at 70. That's the kind of highway revs most of us are used to in small, small displacement cars. When the Sonic is driven properly and put into sixth it spins a lazy 2,050 rpm at 70. Barely trying at all.
Thankfully I've only driven the Sonic on the highway a short distance. It shouldn't really have an impact on our overall fuel economy.
As I've said several times, I like our long-term Sonic. It's a great little city car with a decent amount of aggressive styling. But on the highway?
I realized the other morning that I hadn't driven the Sonic on the freeways here. In L.A. we have rain grooves carved into the pavement and that causes the Sonic's rearend to shimmy a little at highway speeds. Motorcycles do the same thing, but you get used to it. After a few times on a bike, you don't even feel it any more.
But not with the Sonic. It feels unsettled and does little to instill confidence. A lot of this, I think, has to do with the tires. Once you're out of the metropolitan areas, though, the rain grooves go away. Likewise, so does the shimmy.
Other than on these specific road surfaces, the Sonic is a perfectly decent long-distance car if you're on a budget.
Mike Magrath is off on some picturesque Mediterranean island this week to drive something fast and fancy. As such, I have no compunction about taking this moment to refute one of his past claims. And to call him a jerk.
But first, Mr. Magrath says that the Sonic's center stack looks like an elephant. On this point he is correct, it does. I half expect it to blow a peanut at me.
However, Mike Magrath also says that the two "ear bins" on either side of the radio controls are "useless." I beg to differ, as the above photo can attest. Have a walkie-talkie and an open bag of Chex Mix? Well, the Sonic makes it that much easier to yell at Takahashi over the radio while safely keeping one's salty cereal safely unspilt.
So there, check mate. Jerk.
If I were an alarmist — which I'm not — I could spend time worrying about whether the odor in our car was something more than just annoying. This infographic shows some of the chemicals used in the manufacturing of some car interiors (not the Sonic in particular). On the surface, it's a little disconcerting.
This article, however, discusses the controversy over the possible health risks of interior materials in more detail. Automakers including GM criticized the study that raised the issue. GM at the time said that it has a good reputation for health and safety leaderships and uses "a strategic selection process for materials based on a health and environmental assessment" that takes into account how materials will affect vehicle occupants as well as employees.
Do you worry about whether the materials used to create car interiors might pose a danger to your health?
Our longterm 2012 Chevrolet Sonic has the same 1.4-liter turbocharged engine as our Chevy Cruze. Last year, the Cruze produced some thought-provoking results when tested on 87 and 91 octane in hot weather. Namely, on a per-mile basis it was cheaper to use 91 (the owner's manual doesn't require octane higher than 87).
There's little reason to believe the Sonic will respond differently in similar conditions. That said, we've not been super-strict about staying with 87 or 91 in the time we've had the Sonic in our care.
Were it your Sonic, though — and assuming you live where summers are truly hot — would you switch to 91 in summer months, having internalized the results at the link above? Or is the psychological hurdle of filling with fuel that has a higher per-gallon cost too great to bear? Be honest.
My colleague Dan Frio and his olfactory-champ wife are so right. Our Sonic does stink like three-day-old fish. I haven't had a chance to try banhugh's baking soda trick, but it sounds like it's worth a try. I also decided to check in with Chevrolet customer service last night, via its live chat feature, and pose the question there. This doesn't seem to be a transient problem, and it really does ruin the ride of an otherwise fun car.
I had an interesting few minutes with Matt, the customer service rep on the other end of the Internet. Of course, since we don't have smell-o-rama on the Web yet, he couldn't appreciate exactly what the stink is, or what it might represent. So he recommended that I take the car into the dealership.
In addition to having instant, 24/7 access to customer service, another great feature of chat is that you don't have to take notes. With a little copy/paste, you have an instant record of the conversation. Here's some of what Matt and I discussed:
Matt: I'm sorry to hear about your problem! What does it smell like?
Customer: It smells kind of fishy or chemicalish. I was reading a review … that described it as "a heavy chemical smell from the vinyl seats." My friend Dan, whose wife has an excellent nose for smells, also isolated it to the seats.
Matt: [The dealership] might be able to help you with the problem and remove it.
Customer: OK. Any idea how they'd do that? We've tried leaving windows open, a shot of Ozium, etc.
Matt: If it's a seat or a panel causing the problem, they might be able to exchange it for another, otherwise I don't have information in my resources to be able to know exactly what they would do. Do you need information on a Chevrolet service center?
Customer: Sure … And if they want to give us leather seats, we'd really like that ;)
Matt didn't pick up on my hint or the emoticon, but he did give me several Chevrolet dealerships to choose from. As the conversation closed, there was this exchange:
Matt: Do you have any other questions for me?
Customer: Well, one more: Does your knowledge base show other Sonic owners having this issue?
Matt: Is your vehicle a manual?
Customer: Yes, it is.
Matt: Okay. It may be your clutch — I would definitely take it to a service center for further assistance.
Now, people here at Edmunds know their stinks, and there's some doubt to the smelly-clutch theory. Nevertheless, there may be an odor-removal service visit in our future.
OK, I'm not totally down on the Sonic. It's slowly revealing some objectionable quirks, but this isn't one of them.
Despite how forlorn that little appendage looks, I'm a sucker for a captain's armrests in an econo-car. It works and immediately makes the Sonic feel like a more expensive car. Cheap date, I guess
This little dashtop panel looks like it opens to reveal hidden storage. Doesn't.
A very real odor problem, a soggy high-engagement clutch, and now this illusory trickery. Starting to get a little sour on the Sonic.
Photo by Rex Tokeshi-Torres
I really like the handling of the little Chevy Sonic. It has quick, precise steering and a relatively stiff suspension. All of which help it get around corners much better than you'd expect from an economy car. And more than that, it's fun to take around those corners.
We had the long-term Sonic at our test track recently the same day as the Scion FR-S. No way it could hang with the rear-drive FR-S around the slalom, right?
Photo by Rex Tokeshi-Torres
Think again. While the FR-S managed 67.3 mph around the cones, the Sonic posted a truly impressive 68.2 mph. On all-season tires.
Yep, the Sonic is an economy car for people who actually like to drive.
Does anyone in the world pay attention to the silly up-shift light that Chevy installs in the Sonic's instrument panel?
I mean, I know it's there to promote fuel efficiency and all, but come on: It's actually suggesting that I upshift to a higher gear when it's already only pulling like 1,700 rpm, which is lugging for this little four-cylinder.
In the wake of yesterday's dealership fail, the homegrown suggestions for ways to end the odor in our Sonic have been pouring in. Here's our first test: baking soda.
I didn't like the idea of having an open box of Arm & Hammer bouncing around in the car, so last night, I decided to put a goodly amount of the powder in a little plastic bowl and cover it with a thin layer of cheesecloth. That would minimize the mess and still allow for the soda to neutralize the smell.
The rear of the Sonic's console has the perfect holder for what I had hoped would be this odor-stopper. Sadly, I didn't notice a big difference after the baking soda had been in car overnight. But we'll give it a couple more days. If there's no effect, we'll move on to another approach.
We appreciate the ideas so far and we'll test as many as we can. If you have a sure-fire stink-sinker that no one has mentioned yet, please tell us about it. Our noses will thank you.
I took our Sonic to a nearby Chevrolet dealership on Tuesday and summed up the problem for the young, bright-eyed service representative: "Our car stinks."
Not what he expected to hear at 7:05 a.m., I suspect. He leaned into the car and said — right on cue — "I don't smell anything."
"Trust me," I said. "It smells." I explained that it's a fishy odor, noted by several people, and that we'd read at least one online description of a strong adhesive smell emanating from another Sonic's seats.
He handed me off to Marco, a more seasoned service adviser. Marco listened, nodded and said that sometimes new cars do have a distinct smell, and that it should dissipate over time.
He said that he'd put the car through a PitStop, which is GM's term for a multi-point inspection: AC, battery, brakes, fluid levels, tire pressure and wiper blades. And then he'd send the car to the service departmennt's detailing shop for ministrations.
Less than two hours later, Marco called: "Your vehicle is ready. You can pick it up at any time." Clearly, I would not be getting new seats today.
Before I got into the car, I asked Marco what the detailers had done to address the problem. "They put some chemicals on the seats," he said.
Chemicals. Isn't that how we got here in the first place?
On the short drive home, it seemed that maybe, possibly, the smell wasn't as intense as it had been. It was hard to be sure. The human nose can lose its capacity to be horrified after repeated inhalations. Ask any cat owner.
But I figured that if the cure was a real one, I shouldn't smell anything the next time I took the Sonic out. Four hours later, I was back in the car to go to a lunch appointment. And the smell was waiting for me, unabated. More like fully baited.
Thinking that maybe I was too focused on any scent in the car, I asked my lunch partner to double-check. "There's a smell all right," she said. "New car, with a dash of fish."
We'll take the car back to the dealership for another try at making the smell go away — probably at its next scheduled service. But before then, we're going to try some home remedies in an effort to make our driving less aromatic. Send us your suggestions.
The front airdam on our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic is low. This is the view of me backing into my driveway, which is not steep by any means. If I creep at a pace below idle there is a hair's-width between plastic and asphalt. If I allow the car to move at idle speeds, it drags.
Not only does its proximity to the ground increase the risk of this piece being removed by physics, but driving over dips and speed bumps can be embarassing too. Scraaaape over an everyday dip and again up your average driveway. It's a head turner, but not in the good way.
Maybe it's a Chevy thing. We've experienced the same on Volts and Corvettes in the past. I realize it serves an aerodynamic purpose... fuel economy and all that stuff too... but I wish it didn't have to be so intrusive. This is not my favorite feature of the Sonic.
A couple days after we brought the Sonic in for a (failed) stink eradication, we realized it was time for its 7,500-mile service. So on Friday, back the Sonic went. In addition to an oil and filter change, safety inspection and tire rotation, there were three technical service bulletins for the car: an airbag inspection, a check on a recall for a possible missing front brake pad — something we'd had looked at previously — and a fuel-pipe quick connect replacement.
This was necessary, according to the TSB, to deal with "an inaccurately installed fuel filler hose clamp." Because the clamp is improperly connected to the inlet check valve, gas vapors can be released into the air. Our local Chevrolet dealer had to order a part; we'll bring the car back for installation once it arrives.
The service took about three hours — which was fine with me. I'd gone off to drive Jaguars at Dodger Stadium. And despite the fact that the Sonic has a perfectly adequate oil-life monitoring system, the service department put this sticker on the windshield:
The myth of the 3,000-mile oil change dies hard.
Cost: $44.84.
Days out of service: None
This is where reverse goes — next to first — and I'll hear no debate on the subject.
It's closer. It makes more sense. There's zero chance of trying to get into top gear and finding out you're driving a five-speed and not a 6 (not applicable here, but you get the idea.)
Even without the lockout (which is a pull-up collar just below the knob — excellent) there's virtually no way to accidentally hit reverse here. You shouldn't be shifting into first that quickly.
I would also accept reverse being dogleg down from first but the point remains: Reverse belongs on the slow side of the shifter.
Oh, wait, I didn't mention the stink....
First, I don't think the smell is that bad. It's noticeable, yes, absolutely, and if someone hadn't mentioned fish I'd say it smells like a hamster cage in a biotech lab. It doesn't really bother me, but if it were my car, I'd probably leave these bad boys up for a few weeks when I'm not driving it. They're glove dogs. Just cheap cotton sacks full of cedar chips designed to suck moisture and stink out of my boxing gloves; they should work here.
One of many things I love about Edmunds is that people here are generous with their expertise. My colleague Jim Chong brought me a special smell-killing product that he felt sure would work in the Sonic.
Jim told me that this unit, Hippo the Odorbuster, is sold in Korean grocery stores to eliminate refrigerator odors caused by such foods as kimchi and fish. "I've used it in my refrigerator for years and it's great. Arm & Hammer has nothing on this," he said.
The product is a two-part, vented plastic unit, with activated charcoal on one side and a deodorizing ingredient suspended in a gel on the other. I removed the outer and inner plastic seals and put it to work in the Sonic, using the car's handy deodorizer caddy/cup holder.
Before we get to the test results, let's talk about Hippo for a moment. How cute is she, with her apron, slippers and polka-dot ear ribbon? Apparently, hippos are very big in Korean advertising.
After I thanked Jim for leaving Hippo on my desk, he did note that the deodorizer is designed for the interior of a refrigerator. "I should have brought two or three," he said. I told him that since the Sonic's interior volume was roughly that of a Fridigaire, one Hippo unit should work out fine. (Kidding, Chevy. Just kidding.)
As it turned out, I don't think a heap of Hippos would have made any difference. The Sonic's smell persists, and worsens in hot weather.
I'm moving Hippo the Odorbuster to my fridge. And I'm stocking up on kimchi.
At 6:20 a.m., I'd just finished fueling up the Sonic and was headed into the office when the radio muted and the car chimed at me. I didn't even have time to ask myself if I'd left a door open or a gas cap off. An ethereal pre-recorded female voice filled the car: "This is OnStar with an important message. Please press your blue button."
I half-thought it was a safety issue (even though Ms. OnStar did sound pretty blasé), so I pulled over and hit the button as instructed.
OnStar connected me with a live human this time. The customer-service rep said the ping was a reminder that our OnStar service was expiring June 1, and if I wanted to renew, OnStar could offer me a special promotional rate. I thanked her and told her we'd think about it. And then I went back to the business of driving the car.
For me, OnStar's use of its gadgetry to entice me with a subscription deal was too intrusive. The system is supposed to be there for my safety and convenience, not to sell me stuff. What's next? A deal on ShamWows?
What do you think? Should OnStar use its in-car capabilities to market its service?
Let's step away from the "Sonic smells" posts for a sec. I give you the bad-ass 2012 Chevrolet Sonic doing up some graffiti with the help of muralist Jeff Sotto and a robotic arm that was lifted off the assembly line (yes, it does fit in the Sonic). Together they decorate a brick wall in the world's first street art man-car collaboration.
It seems that GM/Chevrolet might have been reading the saga of our malodorous Sonic. A Chevy rep contacted us and said the company would like to replace the upholstery in the car. We're in the process of setting up the appointment with a dealership now, and we'll let you know what happens.
Meanwhile, we could try driving around with this Takahashi-crafted mega-freshener. Old car couldn't be worse than fish car. Could it?
Frankly, I think this entire "Does the Sonic Stink?" thing has been blown out of proportion. I've been climbing in, out and around new cars since I was a 2-year-old at the Toronto auto show, and I'm here to say that I've smelled FAR worse than the Sonic. Is the cabin pleasantly fragrant? Hell no, but I don't notice after about 5 seconds and I didn't notice it at all this morning. It certainly does not smell like there's a rotten trout under the passenger seat as I think some of our readers are interpreting. Contrast that to our new Impreza or Hyundais from not too long ago — way stronger, way stinkier.
Now, something does in fact stink in the Sonic, albeit in a figurative sense. The throttle response is awful. Actually, to say that would imply it has throttle response when it in fact has none. Magrath likened it to a Fiat or Mini without the Sport button engaged, but I'd offer that the Sonic is worse than that. Those cars, along with ultra-annoying new Volkswagens, have a dead zone of travel followed by some semblance of response. Jay Kav explained in greater detail, but the Sonic has this too — you can literally tap repeatedly against the pedal like a jubilant Thumper and nothing at all will happen — but even when it kicks in, there's zero feel to it, as if the pedal's not actually connected to anything. And this isn't just a manual transmission problem, an automatic-equipped Chevy Cruze feels exactly the same.
A Sport button would probably help as Magrath suggested, but just improving the throttle response would make an already excellent (and not really that smelly) car that much better.
This is my husband sitting in the front passenger seat of the Sonic with our son's rear-facing child seat installed in the back seat behind him. This picture is just for illustrative purposes. Nobody actually sat in the front passenger seat for the duration of the long weekend. It won't surprise you that this seating position is not very comfortable.
If our whole family had to go somewhere together, we took a different car. But I did enjoy driving our two kids in the Sonic when it was just the three of us. It accommodated all of our stuff, including a pack-and-play in the box stuffed into the front passenger seat, and was easy and fun to drive.
Why do all GMs make me do this? Is this some kind of digital nostalgia for the tape/disc eject button? Are we still on Windows XP here? Why do I need to command-disconnect my portable device?
Is OnStar compiling my musical tastes and preferences and sending to Bob Lutz's desk? Or Facebook's Skynet? Is Mark Zuckerberg going to resurrect Joe Strummer and serve me ads for the Ultimate Clash Reunion Tour? Like!
Ah, well. Despite its fish-oil funk (still present) and boggy throttle, the Sonic still charms. Once you get into boost, it's plenty of fun. And it looks like enthusiast tuners are starting to open the ECU and flash new mappings that improve throttle response. Not the preferred fix for a new car, but worth a look if you're sold on the rest of the Sonic.
As I sit and plan my future mogul-dom of some obscure cottage industry, I think about what small car I'd like to putt around the expensive coastal village I'll call home. The Sonic makes the list, although probably behind the Mazda2, which is lively, easy to park and careen down hills, and packs good power for the package. Although if I'm feeling belligerent, a well-kept R32 might be the better call.
Can't a rich man just get a subcompact Bentley?
Our little Chevy Sonic is easy to slide in and out of freeway traffic, and offers a great view out its right side to the rear.
I didn't realize just how wide the Sonic's C-pillar is until I took this quick photo. It certainly doesn't obstruct my rear view while driving.
My daughter has dubbed our Chevy Sonic, "Little Cutie."
Yesterday, when we stopped at the store, she pointed back as we were walking away from the car, "See? It's just cheerful."
I had to admit among all the grayish whales parked near it, the Sonic definitely stood out in the crowd.
If Chevy is marketing the Sonic to 11-year-old girls, it hit its mark.
The scent of the Chevrolet Sonic's interior does not exactly recall the rich aroma of a Connolley leather interior from a classic Jaguar.
But neither does it recall a bad day in Houston.
As a guy who lived through the 1970s, when the vinyl interior of cheap cars would coat the inside of your windows with a film of chemicals for about the first year of ownership or so, probably I'd just crack the windows of the Chevy whenever it's parked outside on a warm day and leave it at that.
The truth is, I've been in new cars that smelled much worse than this.
And no, I don't miss those 1970s Isuzus at all.
Chevrolet is running a country music "Fan Anthem" contest over on Facebook, but I figured we could have our own fun right here.
I'll start a song about our Chevy Sonic, you add a line or two:
"Got a new Sonic hatchback,it's made by Chevrolet, has a spunky little turbo, I drive it most every day..."
The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic hatchback has a raised floor to give you a relatively flat, continuous load surface when you fold the rear seats. There's a small storage compartment under the floor, but I rarely used it day to day.
Over the weekend, I finally found a use for it. While cleaning the office, we found some unused all-weather floor mats that we never installed in our departed GTI (they're the VW Monster mats that you often find pre-installed as an accessory in GTIs on dealer lots). Well, a good friend of mine has a 2011 GTI and an obsession with all-weather floor mats.
The mats fit perfectly in the Sonic's hidden storage well, and I was still able load up the Sonic's hatch with groceries and laundry. This was pretty convenient. Obviously, I could have gotten all that in a Honda Fit, but having it all neatly compartmentalized is worth something.
Above photo by Kurt Niebuhr
Over the weekend, I returned from breakfast to find that an example of the most attractive hatchbacks currently on sale in the U.S. — the Volvo C30 — parked next to our long-term Chevrolet Sonic.
Since parking was plentiful, I took this to mean the C30 owner was drawn to the Sonic's edgy styling (rather than assuming said individual was looking to shorten the walking distance to the nearby OP Cafe).
This is obviously a sparely equipped C30, as you'll note its unpainted lower body moldings, but I think this car looks great in any color with any of the wheel options. It's such a clean design and I love the rake and curve of the hatch.
Next to it, the Sonic has harder lines and looks funkier, and maybe not quite as refined, but I like the pinched look of its hatch. The tail ends abruptly on the Chevy, but the roof spoiler softens the effect. And the longer I look at the Sonic, the more I realize what a critical element that spoiler is to its overall appearance.
Without that spoiler wrapping around the rear glass, this car would look cheap and naked... it would be just another bargain-basement hatchback.
When driving home last night, I noticed that the Sonic's clutch pedal felt sticky at its furthest point of motion as I approached and departed its stopping point. This happened every time I used the clutch pedal, and as traffic inhaled robustly small spherical objects last night, I was using the clutch a lot. It got annoying.
This morning, the stickyness had lessened, but was still there. I wasn't using the pedal as much, however. I'll try and monitor the situation. And despite my illustration above, this isn't a matter of there being gum or pedal glue on the pedal pad itself (or syrup). It seems to be the mechanism; I was just following the old journalism adage "use Mrs. Butterworth whenever possible to illustrate your point. Aunt Jemima is acceptable in a pinch."
And now I want waffles.
I put a lot of freeway miles on our long-term 2012 Chevrolet Sonic over the weekend. A lot of it was light traffic, but I did time in stop-and-go jams as well.
One thing that struck me about it is that it just feels natural to be in this car. It feels like my car. I've never felt that way about a Cruze, Malibu or Equinox.
It starts with a really normal driving position. OK, so you sit a little tall in this car (as you do in most of these short-stuff budget hatchbacks), but there are plenty of adjustments, so it's not bad. Second, there's the interior room. It feels spacious. I'm not bumping elbows with the front passenger, and another (small) adult can sit in back and still have adequate room. Also, the A/C system is up to the task of keeping the cabin cool on a 90-degree day with three aboard.
Alas, when you're running the A/C is exaggerates the one thing I don't like about this car — its pokeyness off the line. Seems to be a combination of an EPA-friendly, this-is-how-you-drive-a-manual-son (read: dead) throttle calibration and the A/C compressor sapping power.
Whatever. It's annoying, but it doesn't ruin the driving experience for me (though, admittedly, you don't have to run the air-conditioner all day, every day where I live). I like the clutch takeup otherwise, and I like how the shifter moves fluidly through the gates. On most freeways, I really like the ride quality — only over the really broken ones does the ride get harsh. And I think the steering is nice and precise.
Add in a nice dose of hatchback utility, and you have an Erin-friendly car.
As much as I like our long-term Chevy Sonic Turbo, there's no denying it has limited appeal. Every time I run through the gears (well, maybe the first four... 5th and 6th are darned tall), I remember that not everybody likes to run through the gears.
However, back in April, Chevrolet began offering a six-speed automatic transmission with the 1.4-liter turbo engine. This month, Senior Editor Bill Visnic spent a week with an automatic-equipped Sonic Turbo. Does the automatic blunt this warm hatch's performance, broaden its reach or a little of both?
Word of warning: This is what happens when you get too close to my dog Mya. Face full of tongue. As happy as she was to get buckled in the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ long-termer, we didn't take her on a long road trip this weekend but rather just across town to a friend's house for a barbecue party.
Still, there was enough material from the excursion to warrant a dog report.
After doing this in numerous cars, I've learned to really appreciate when the seatbelt fasteners protrude from the seat and when her doggy mat can easily be tucked into the seat. Not to say those are deal breakers if those are missing from a car, it's just nice when they are present.
The Sonic doesn't have any storage (no in-door cubbies or cupholders) in the backseat but since this wasn't a long trip it wasn't a big deal. Just threw her leash in the footwell.
There was the issue of the absence of rear vents to cool down the cutest backseat occupant ever but we just aimed the vents on the dash in her direction and she seemed fine with that (no heavy panting).
A couple of weeks ago, Apple announced several planned updates to its Siri personal assistant service that is available on iPhone and iPad. During the same presentation, Apple also mentioned that it was working with nine automakers to install Siri hands-free in their vehicles. General Motors was one of them!
Yup, looks like the two GM vehicles that will be the first to get Siri Eyes-Free integration are the Chevrolet Spark and the Sonic.
GM Authority Blog writes: "Here's the way we imagine eyes-free would work in the Sonic and Spark: the driver will use a button on the steering wheel (likely the push-to-talk button) to initialize Siri, which will then open the car's Bluetooth microphone and feed the audio to Siri on the iPhone or iPad."
Sounds like it's supposed to make for a more intuitive hands-free system. At least that's the hope. As an iPhone user myself, I hardly use my Siri function. She never can seem to understand what I'm asking of her. Maybe her hearing will improve in the car's system.
I'm just back from driving some Fords around and it reminds me again that the Chevy Sonic is pretty notable for its expansive field of view.
It's easy to understand why the front bulkhead might loom above you, like it seems to do in the Ford Fiesta. Much of the structure for a car depends on the rigidity provided by the bulkhead, so it's understandable if it occasionally seems as if the thing has been designed to be more like a railway bridge than a simple dashboard.
Plus there's the added complication of packaging electronics, ventilation hardware and also the airbags within the bulkhead structure. Car engineers tell us that there's no real estate in the automobile more difficult to package than the front bulkhead.
As a result, it seems all the more remarkable that it's possible to peer over the hood of the Sonic without having to jack the seat as high up as it will go.
It's easy to think that the field of view over the hood doesn't really matter that much, but after a back to back experience in Ford and Chevrolet, I can report that you can place the Sonic with more confidence in the corners. Also, you simply see more of the road and traffic in front of you, which helps you relax, feel safe, and do a better job of driving.
Yesterday I received an email regarding our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic. It read something like this:
"Just a heads up that the tire pressure monitoring light came on in the Sonic this morning. The right rear was indeed low (20 psi versus the required 35 psi). I put air in it and the rest of the tires were OK. I didn't see any obvious puncutres or damage, but wanted to let you know."
We stopped by the tire shop to confirm our fears. There was a screw on the inside shoulder of the tire. It was not repairable. And nobody in town carried a replacement Hankook Optimo H428 in stock. We asked the shop to install the donut while we wait for the new tire.
Shortly after posting that we ordered a new tire for our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic, the shop called. Stokes Tire Pros found the Hankook and their cost came in ever-so-slightly less than their local competition. We drove the Sonic over.
We did not wait long. Frankly, the experience was uneventful. And we're okay with that. Stokes took care of the basics. The correct spec tire was mounted. Lugnuts were tight. The spare was returned to its storage perch. It worked for us. Now the Sonic is back on the road.
Total Cost: $177.65
Days out of Service: None
Here's a look under our long-term Chevy Sonic courtesy of our 2-post Rotary Lift. Gotta love the beam axle.
We've had lots of calls recently from journalists who are trying to figure out whether or not cars with manual transmissions are really making a comeback, or whether the manual-mania is largely a creation of carmaker marketing departments.
The sales figures for cars with stick shifts do indicate a slight uptick: a nearly 7 percent "take rate" as of the end of May 2012 versus 3.8 percent in 2011. But that trend might not hold up, and it will be interesting to see where stick shift sales land by December. For those who are interested in stick-shifting, we've put together an excellent story and video, How to Drive a Stick Shift.
One reason people cite for buying cars with manuals is that they wring out better fuel economy, and while that's not true in every case, it's certainly true for the Chevrolet Sonic. Our six-speed manual with its 1.4 liter, 4 cylinder engine is EPA rated at 29 city/40 highway/33 combined. The automatic version is 27/37/31. In our actual driving, the Sonic is averaging 29.2 mpg. You can see a comparo below of the different Sonic engine/transmission fuel-economy numbers (as shown on fueleconomy.gov):
If you own a car with a manual transmission, what drove your decision? Was fuel economy a factor? And if you've forsworn the stick (as so many drivers have), what made you go automatic?
I love compact hatchbacks. Love them. If I didn't have two kids still in car seats, I'd buy one right now. Easy to drive. Super easy to park. Lots of usable cargo space when you put down the rear seats. Love it!
But I do have two kids still in car seats, so putting the rear seats down ain't an option these days. And I had our Chevy Sonic last week. Last year, I couldn't fit our big stroller in the Countryman, but nowadays our stroller of choice is an older (and much smaller) Maclaren umbrella stroller. Would it fit?
You can see from the picture above that it did fit. It's touching both sides of the cargo area, but it definitely fits, and I didn't even have to wedge it in there. There was room for a midsize diaper bag and a moderately full Ikea bag. I could have fit a bit more stuff back there, too.
Back in the '80s, when I was first learning to drive, I was taught that my hands should be at the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions on the steering wheel. But the professional driving schools I've attended (thanks to my job here at Edmunds) suggest 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock, so I've adjusted. (They also suggest 8 and 4, race car-style, but I just can't seem to make that comfortable yet.) There are some steering wheels that accommodate this positioning nicely, but the Sonic is not one of them.
Maybe I have tiny baby hands, but the 9 and 3 positions on this steering wheel feel way too chunky for me. Looks to me like the designer didn't expect Sonic drivers to have their hands at 9 and 3.
What about you? Where are your hands when you drive?
GM's monthly sales were down 6 percent compared to last year, but the Chevrolet Sonic itself had a strong July.
News reports said GM sold 6,278 Sonics last month.
Did you buy one of them?
Our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ now has nearly 8 months of long-term service under its belt. It is short of the mileage accumulation goal we set for test cars, so we have some ground to make up. Still, we've been through a fair amount with the Chevy to date.
A quick summary of the notable items:
(1) The shifter boot fell off, then snapped right back into place.
(2) Its first service set us back $45.
(3) There was a missing brake recall issued. Thankfully it did not apply to our car.
(4) We got a flat tire, and then a new tire for $178.
(5) We tried numerous remedies for a smelly cabin. None of them worked. GM offered to replace the seats altogether as a solution. The seats just arrived. We'll have them installed this week.
We're at the halfway point. Only 10,000 miles to go.
I copied James and also went to Palo Alto this week (yeah, right after I got back from my Seattle trip in the BMW X3). Although James and I were bound for the same destination, in true SoCal fashion, we drove separate cars — as you can see, I picked our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic.
I didn't plan as well, though, so I enjoyed a numbing drive on Interstate 5 there and back. This was one of my few stops — a hole in the wall ramen place I found while trying to escape the Silicon Valley office parks. I never met a bowl of hot noodles I didn't like, but man, I wish I'd gotten the tonkatsu broth instead of the miso.
The Sonic hasn't gotten much road trip love thus far. I've taken it on a couple 200-mile drives before, but this was a half-day, 375-mile haul each way. I knew the Sonic's tall gearing might come into play on I-5, which gets contentious (angry L.A. drivers mixing it up with truckers) and hilly (the Grapevine/Tejon Pass), but it was a little more of an issue than I thought.
Nearly every single passing maneuver necessitated dropping out of 6th gear. If I happened to be in a long line of cars passing a truck (as I was on perhaps 30 occasions), I needed to drop to 4th to stay in the power. On the Tejon Pass, I often needed 3rd, and in a couple instances on California Highway 152's Pacheco Pass, I reached for 2nd gear.
I like shifting... actually, I love shifting manual-gearbox cars. Even when I know a computer could do it better. And had I been on a back road, or U.S. 101 like James, or Highway 1 near the Hearst Castle, I would have been happy to do all these gearchanges. But when you're just trying to make time on the interstate, it gets a little old. I'm all for lowering fuel consumption, but please, let me a have few more revs.
On the upside, the shifter is a precise piece and the clutch work is easy, so it certainly wasn't wholly unenjoyable. I just tried to imagine I was driving in Europe stirring the gears in a car with a diesel engine and a narrow power band.
Also, ride quality was plenty compliant for the long trip — more so than just about any other car in the Sonic's class. And its spacious cabin makes you feel like you're taking a road trip in a larger car. Other motorists may have been seeing a red subcompact, but the Sonic rides and feels like a car built on a larger, C-segment chassis.
We finally got the call we'd been waiting for: The replacement seats for the Sonic arrived at Harbor Chevrolet. The Sonic was on holiday and then on assignment with Erin for a few days. When Erin returned, we took the car in. The installation should be finished today.
The service advisor let Erin take some photos of the seats, still in their boxes.
As the shipping label shows, the seats came directly from GM seating supplier, Lear Corp., in Rochester Hills, MI. (As an aside, GM this year named Lear Corporation of the Year for its contributions to GM's success in 2011, choosing it from 20,000 GM suppliers. It was also General Motors Supplier of the Year for Seat Assemblies in 2011.)
We’ll report back soon on whether the replacement has cured the funky, fishy smell in the Sonic. Our noses are tuned up and ready to go.
It's interesting how a road trip can change your perspective on a car. After my 750-mile trip, I'm still a fan of the turbo Chevrolet Sonic, I still like its packaging, but I'd be hesitant to buy one myself.
One reason is the seats. They feel fine for a couple hours, but once I was past that threshold, the flat seat-bottom cushion was a problem. Definite case of dead butt, and I was still in some discomfort for about an hour after I arrived home. It's hard for me to lobby for Chevy to put more expensive seats in an inexpensive car, but I could use more firm support.
Also, while the manual air-conditioning is up to the task of cooling the car in triple-digit heat (although I'm not a good judge of this... I never set any auto climate control system below 72 degrees, and I never went past the "2" fan speed in the Sonic), the car has a lot of upright glass area — because it's a tall hatchback. And the single visor doesn't extend. So when driving north on Interstate 5, the afternoon sun came streaming in from the west and there was no way to shade my face.
So what did I like?
Well, I like the instrumentation and the control layout. The steering wheel buttons work well, and the cruise buttons are pretty much the same as what you get in the X3. I also think you get an awfully nice stereo display, considering there's no factory navigation. Pressing the info button while you're on any of the active XM/MLB stations shows you who's playing and the inning, number of outs and the score.
I also was pretty content with the fuel economy, or at least I was until I compared notes with James. I got 31.6 mpg (running 91 octane)... which is about what he got in the BRZ. Why am I driving a practical car again? Oh, yeah, because I like hatches.
We got the call Saturday morning that Harbor Chevrolet had completed the swap-out of seats in our Sonic. By 10 a.m., the car was vacuumed, washed and ready for pickup. The service folks and I went back to a bay for some photos of the old seats before they were boxed up for return to GM (where a team will doubtless apply "CSI"-like forensics tests to find the source of olfactory unpleasantness.)
As I shot, we talked about what the problem might have been and a service advisor described his own smell nightmare: He once had truck tires that, as he put it, "smelled like plumber's crack" when they'd sat in the sun for a while. So I guess things with the Sonic could have been worse.
But now came the moment of truth.
I got into the car and like a sommelier, I drew in a deep draught of air. The seats smelled better. Way better. As much as 90 percent better.
My keen-nosed husband agreed. "Now it just smells like a new car," he said. Not like a boatful of decaying fish at the Salton Sea. And even after sitting in 91-degree temperatures Saturday afternoon and Sunday, the car did not stink.
Mike Schmidt added his nose to the assessment this morning: "I don't think it's nearly as bad," he said.
The acid test, of course, will come when Dan Frio brings the car home for his wife's verdict. Still kusai or no?
Before you answer, let me explain. Of course the turbocharger matters in terms of performance. What I'm curious to know is whether it matters to buyers of the Sonic. In other words, does the "Turbo" badge on the back actually mean anything to most buyers in this class?
This argument goes back decades, as there's always been a split between buyers who know what's under the hood and those who couldn't care less. In this case, I'm guessing that the Sonic's artificial aspiration means little to its intended audience. Sure, maybe just the sound of the word "turbo" conjures up images of high performance, but Chevy might might as well be promoting the engine's Bin 4 emissions classification as that will likely mean just as much, if not more, to the target audience.
Sometimes it seems our Sonic spends more time in service bays than on highways.
We had hoped to get a couple of small recall matters resolved while the car was having its seats replaced two weeks ago. And while we were almost certain a part had already been ordered and was waiting for us, it turns out it wasn't — or so our service guy said.
Four days after we got the car back with its new seats, we got the call: The part is in!
On Tuesday, the dealership took care of two recalls: a fuel-pipe quick connect replacement and a racheting-down of a windshield washer hose that has a tendency to separate.
Unfortunately, the Sonic's key came back a little tweaked. I don't know if it was abused, or if its spring has just worn out, but it no longer snaps back into its case like a jackknife, nor does it stand up straight without a little push. Annoying.
Days out of service: 0.5
Even though white and silver are counted as the most popular car colors, that's not the case where the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic is concerned. Turns out that after black, the Inferno Orange is the second-most request color for the hatchback.
Car buyers and automakers tend to choose car colors based on longevity, which can be on-trend for many years. But Sonic's design team took "cues from the fashion, architecture and furniture industries...to identify hues with longevity that best fit the Sonic attitude." (GM press release) Apparently orange is the color of driving fun. "The design team wanted to visually express its fun-to-drive personality."
Don't tell that to BASF chemical company, though, who came out with a report about upcoming trendy car colors. They're looking to earthy tones like green and brown.
Our Sonic, however, is in Victory Red. Trends schmends.
Pricing has just been announced for the 2013 Sonic RS, the performance-oriented variant in the Sonic family.
From Edmunds.com News: "The 2013 Chevrolet Sonic RS starts at $20,995, including a $795 destination charge, making it more expensive than the 2013 Honda Fit Sport with navigation and the 2013 Ford Fiesta Titanium Hatchback."
The Sonic has been around here so long that it's become easy to take its looks for granted.
Then I met a guy for business over breakfast and he told me that he spotted me right away, since the red Sonic looks like a magazine test car, as if it doesn't really fit with the kind of cars you usually see in traffic.
And after thinking about it, the Sonic doesn't have the low, lean look that makes a Volkswagen GTI a sporting ride. Instead it's a little too tall, as if it were some kind of pod from France.
Last year Dan Edmunds drove our Chevy Cruze, which shares its 1.4-liter turbo engine with our long-term Sonic, to Phoenix in June. Turns out, Phoenix is hot in June. Dan observed frustratingly poor low-speed performance from the little boosted engine.
And yesterday, when temps hovered around 100 degrees in Southern California, so did I. In fact, this thing is downright hard to drive when it's this hot.
So significant is the change in power delivery at this temperature that a large adaption is required from its driver. Constant attention must be paid to engine speed so as to not stall when leaving a signal or stop sign. And getting caught a gear or two too high is a regular occurence. Plan on stuffing the Sonic down a few gears often when driving in the heat.
Our car was last filled with 87 octane, which doesn't help. I'll mix in some 91 soon.
August auto sales at General Motors were up 10 percent from a year ago, thanks in part to extensive national advertising during the Olympic Games. The Chevrolet Spark, Sonic, Cruze and Volt all posted their best-ever monthly sales.
"Small car performance is what's most impressive about GM's numbers today," said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds senior analyst. "Cruze, Sonic and Spark were all unknown nameplates just a few years ago, but now they almost equal the volume of Silverado, the core of Chevy's identity."
This weekend I put both car seats in the Sonic. Nearest the Camera is a Britax Boulevard — a convertible child seat which must be one of the largest on the market. In the forward-facing position it fit fine. And you can see that the four-year-old had enough leg room once she was in the seat. The front seat is adjusted to my preferred driving postion and I'm 5'9" with a 32-inch inseam.
On the other side is a Graco Snap N Go infant seat, which is, of course, rear facing. Its depth forced my wife to sit closer to the dash than she would normally, but she still had ample leg room.
Honestly, the compromise in comfort for all is no worse than we'd make in a Mazda 3, which is a bigger car in the next segment up.
Another reason to like the Sonic. Nice work, GM.
This will not come as a surprise to some of you — nor did it to me. But there are those who insist on using the least expensive fuel they can find. That stategy will work in the Sonic, but you'll be driving a different car.
Last week I posted about driving the Sonic in the heat and the various maladies this weather creates with its tiny turbo engine. After emptying the tank of 87 octane, I refilled with 91 and was immediately impressed with the difference. Not only was I less likely to stall when pulling away from a stop, but fewer downshifts were required for adequate accleration. The difference was more dramatic than I thought it would be. Weather remained a persistent 95 degrees.
If I owned a Sonic with this engine I'd use 91. Always.
Our Sonic LTZ features two auxiliary audio jacks. One is hidden away under the upper glovebox panel along with the USB port, while the other is out in the open attached to the head unit. I can see how both setups can be useful at different times and I appreciate that the Sonic gives you such redundancy. Choice is good.
I've expressed doubt about our long-term 2012 Chevrolet Sonic Turbo's desirability as a road-trip car, but after a couple 30-mile commutes in moderate to heavy traffic this week, I'm ready to take up its cause again.
The ride isn't perfect (the suspension feels outmatched over certain ruts), but overall, I don't think there's another car in this class that offers the Sonic's compliance and substantial feel. If the Sonic weren't so narrow, you could fool yourself into believing you were driving a car that's one class up — I've never had that thought in a Honda Fit or Mazda 2.
The clutch takeup in the Sonic is also pretty nice and bearable in traffic. It engages about when and how you think it will, so you can kind of mindlessly trundle along in stop-and-go traffic. Of course, it would be better if the car had quicker throttle response, but you learn to drive around the initial delay.
I still think the Chevy's 6th gear is too tall for all but the steadiest-state cruising on level ground, and for commuting, I don't feel bad leaving it in 5th, as this still has it revving around 3,000 rpm at 65-70 mph — plenty reasonable.
I enjoy using the air-conditioning controls in our long-term 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ Turbo. For one thing, the dials feel very solid and turn fluidly — they feel higher-quality than the dials in some more expensive General Motors products.
Secondly, I like how the interior panels line up so nicely around the A/C controls. They're straight and the gaps are even — again not something I see (to this day) in every GM vehicle.
And that gets to the heart of the Sonic's appeal for me. I never have to make excuses for it when discussing it with friends who ordinarily wouldn't buy American-brand cars (and who aren't inclined to give our red hatch the time of day). It's just a good car, period.
Be carfeul adjusting the rearview mirror in our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic. I drove the car last night and the mirror assembly is feeling a bit flimsy. It remains firmly attached to the glass and the mirror will hold when adjusted to a given position. But it is on the verge of something bad. Let's hope it lasts until the next scheduled dealer visit.
It was that moment in valet parking that you dread.
The press conference has ended and there I am talking with no less than the chairman of the board, the CEO and the director of engineering plus the pr director and we're all waiting for our rides, and of course I'm completely cringing at the idea of the Sonic rounding the corner.
It's a great car, but it looks like it was designed by a small group of unruly adolescents from Korea, so I was expecting to be totally cooled out.
Lucky for me, the execs got their cars and disappeared before the Sonic showed up. But then the valet guy said as he handed over the keys, "Cool car. Love the way it shifts."
This is the third time I've heard this about the Sonic from a valet parking guy. (Hey, it's L.A., and valet parking is like our regional sport.)
Partly this is interesting because it suggests that the Sonic is being seen by guys under age 30, which is good for the car and good for Chevrolet. And partly this is interesting because what's being noticed is the shift linkage for the manual transmission, which should supposedly be the most irrelevant part of the car given the low installation rate of manual transmissions in automobiles these days.
But all of these valet guys have been telling me that they liked the smooth, mechanical action of the manual transmission's shift linkage. Maybe there's some kind of thing percolating beneath the surface here, a kind of reaction against cars that drive like electronic pods. Or maybe life is so tedious as a valet parking guy that just being able to select your own gears for a few yards can turn around your entire night.
Well, maybe. I'll have to take the Sonic to valet parking a couple more times to make sure.
Early this morning I pressed the driver's window switch down in our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic. It didn't come back up. Not without me pulling it back up, at least. It looks like we may need to schedule a dealer visit prior to its next scheduled service at 15,000 miles.
I like our little Chevy Sonic. It's fun. It's comfortable. And it has room for my family. And it gets great mileage even when I drive it like a teenager.
This past Saturday night I combined the Sonic's other attributes with its great burgers, fries and shakes. Wait, what?
That's right, the Oldham's went to Sonic in a Sonic. Good times. We even did the whole car hop thing and ate our dinner in the Sonic. At Sonic.
Had enough? Me too.
I just spent a day in the Bay Area driving a bunch of new Chevys; one of which was the new Sonic RS. I'm sold.
It's got more perceived pep, thanks to shorter gear ratios and rides 10mm lower than our long-termer. It also comes with a cool leather and "suede" interior. The best part, all of this stuff is standard on the RS.
At $20,995, yeah, it's three-grand more than our long-term base price, but I think it's worth it. The shorter gears really liven things up and it feels a lot more tossable into turns.
So as usual I’m telling someone that he’d really like the Sonic because it’s like a VW Golf. Then he tells me that he’s never driven a Golf. Aargh, now what?
So this is what a Golf is like.
The Golf is a square-rigged hatchback, a shape we take for granted now but almost completely new in 1974 when VW introduced it in Europe. Ital Design’s Giorgetto Giugiaro penned the shape as the latest in the long, long line of concept cars that VW had commissioned as it tried to figure out something to replace the Beetle.
It’s kind of fashionable to remember Giugiaro for the shape of the mid-engine Lamborghini Miura, but actually he’s had a more lasting influence on the course of design with the simple space-efficiency of the hatchback. It’s just a two-box design that lets people sit upright, which turns out to be way more comfortable and way more cargo friendly than the traditional longer, lower, and wider shape of a sedan.
Also like a VW Golf, the Sonic has a long-travel suspension and not a lot of roll stiffness in the front. The suspension rates are relatively soft, so the Sonic feels supple as it rides over the bumps. When you crank on the steering, the body heels over a lot (a lot!). Some people think a lot of body roll means poor handling but actually it’s all a matter of taste really, and the body roll lets the car telegraph its intentions to you in a way that makes it very predictable and natural to drive. The Sonic is good enough on the skid pad and in the slalom to prove that this approach works. I don’t know if the Sonic corners with its inside rear wheel cocked in the air like an old Golf, but I kind of hope it does.
The Sonic’s engine has a VW-style personality as well, as the powerband seems very, very wide, and you’re always surprised at the way it pulls from very low rpm to very high rpm with an elastic sort of rush. This is a sign of great drivability, although the very, very tall gearing of the Sonic when the turbocharged inline-4 and six-speed manual transmission are matched together (a measure to squeeze every last mpg from this powertrain package), will catch you out sometimes when you inadvertently let the revs fall below 1,000 rpm.
So this is what it means when someone (I can’t possibly be the only one), tells you that the Chevy Sonic drives like a VW Golf. Now that we're seeing images of the latest VW Golf from the Paris auto show, it's kind of a reminder that the Sonic is part of a kind of tradition — an approach to practical mobility that is international in scope.
Our Chevy Sonic reminds me of an energetic summer intern. Its tasks can be inglorious, but it's intent on performing them well with minimal fuss. It wants to earn your respect.
The Sonic didn't have anything exciting to do this weekend. It was just quotidian stuff: commuting from work to home, going from home to the gym, home to supermarket, home to breakfast and back. But it handled pockmarked streets, met the challenge of highway speeds, squeezed into parking spaces and hauled bulky groceries.
It's good at cooling down on hot days (a little quicker response time would be nice, but hey: Everyone has room for improvement). It's good at clearing its fogged windows. The fun of its manual transmission doesn't get old. If I had a permanent position for such a determined performer, I'd hire it in a heartbeat.
How about you — have you ever had a car that you took from temp status (borrowed or rented) to a full-time spot in your garage?
Believe it or not, I hadn't driven the Chevy Sonic LTZ until I pulled out of the garage for a 1,400-mile road trip to the High Sierra, over to northern Nevada and finally back home through Las Vegas. That's a lot of road to cover in a little car and I wondered how it would perform. I was pleasantly surprised. It struck me as a little car with a big car cruising feel to it.
For the open road, a big, heavy car usually feels right. It lumbers along pleasantly, masking the bumps by giving little road feel and damping out excess vibration and noise. I was afraid the Sonic would be loud and jittery. But it wasn't. In fact, it was geared so tall that even at high speeds it was quiet. But I did find it lacking in a few areas.
As I drove the lonely highways of central Nevada, I kept comparing the Sonic to my 2007 Honda Fit Sport. I loved that car. But I really like the way the Sonic's 1.4-liter 138 hp turbocharged four-cylinder performs. Climbing from Lone Pine, Calif., to the Mount Whitney Portal, from 3,700 feet to 8,400 feet, there was little drop off in power, despite the oxygen-starved air.
One place where the Sonic comes up short is storage. The rear cargo area was barely big enough for two small duffle bags. Forget about golf clubs. My Fit not only handled multiple golf bags but the seats folded like Origami and I could stow bikes, climbing gear, tall potted plants and luggage for four.
More gripes: the driver's side window switch is still sticky, the climate control buttons feel cheap and the clutch pedal is now squeaking. I zeroed out the on-board gas mileage computer so when I get back home I'll let you know how it delivered in that department.
So far, despite some caveats, I am impressed with this feisty little Sonic.
The onboard mileage computer shows I got 36.1 mpg over the 1,589 miles I drove on my Nevada road trip. But when I ran the numbers myself, based on the amount of fuel used, and the distance traveled, I actually got 32.3 mpg. I wrote about this in Your Fuel Economy Gauge is Fibbing if you want to read more. The point is, these gauges are often off by even 10 percent.
I did run this little guy on 91 octane which supposedly provides slightly better fuel economy because it has a turbocharger. Since I had the numbers in a spreadsheet, I calculated what it would have cost if we had run it on regular, at $4.30 a gallon and got 31 mpg, instead of premium at $4.50 a gallon getting 32.1 mpg. The answer is it would have cost about $1.50 less in gas to travel the same distance.
I know you're all dying to know the significance of this picture. I wanted to see if anyone out there has an opinion about "top tier" gas as referenced in this picture. Basically, a bunch of oil companies got together and decided that the EPA doesn't require enough detergents in gas. So they put more detergents in and charge a more. Is this necessary? Anyone?
Pulling up to a stop sign, depressing the clutch and slotting the transmission into first gear isn't usually something you can hear from the outside of a car. But in the Sonic, it's loud and clear. Driving with my windows down allowed me to hear the sound of the clutch being disengaged, the sound of the shift linkage moving and gears swapping about. With the exception of the noisy flywheels in Corvettes, and the mechanical black magic noises that a GT-R makes, I've never heard quite as much drivetrain noise at low speeds in any other car
I wondered if I was the only one who could hear it, so I drove around my neighborhood and tried to see if pedestrians would notice. The Sonic is a pretty quiet car, quiet enough not to warrant a glance as it drives by, but sure enough, several people looked up from their walk as the Sonic's linkages clanked away, to confirm that I wasn't imagining things.
Mind you, it doesn't make the Sonic sound cheap, it just makes that, you know, linkage-y sound.
I hadn't driven the Sonic since we had the seats replaced. I wasn't the only one who noticed the smell, the same smell that caused us to replace the seats. So when I opened the driver's door for the night's drive home, I got a whiff. The fishy smell was still present, but much more pleasantly attenuated. You caught the whiff, then it passed, then you adjusted once you were inside the car for a few minutes and didn't notice.
So I took the wife for a ride, since she helped catalyze this chain of events. She didn't remember the car and I didn't remind her. Finally I asked: does it still stink? She was surprised that it was the same car, and immediately recalled her initial reaction. The old-seats Sonic, she said, would've sickened a pregnant woman with her finely-tuned senses. But she largely agreed with the sentiments of another spouse: the new Sonic simply smells like a new car, with a slight funk.
Also makes me realize how sensitive we, on staff, can be when moving in and out of different cars all the time. You notice a funky car, largely because the last one you were in didn't smell. The new seats haven't totally eliminated the odor; I can only figure some of its just coming from the dash and door panel plastics. But it dissipates quickly once you're in the car for a few minutes. If you owned this car, I doubt you'd notice it after a week. Not ideal, and we went to some lengths to correct it, but generally I'd say problem solved.
I was a big fan of the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ Turbo at the beginning of our long-term test. At that time, I lived close to our office and rarely had to commute in traffic.
Then, my affection for it cooled during an August road trip to Northern California, as I coped with its heat-sensitive turbocharged 1.4-liter engine (really, though, anyone would be sensitive when it's triple digits in CA's Central Valley), EPA-friendly tall gearing and flat seats.
Now, it's autumn, and considerably cooler outside, and I have a longer commute to work, and I'm getting enthusiastic about our turbo Sonic once more. Let's talk about the seating position.
In every other B-segment based car I've driven and liked (except for the premium-priced Mini Cooper), there's always something funky about the driving position that I've just had to accept. In the Honda Fit, it's a minivan-like driving position coupled with not a lot of seat-track travel. In the Mazda 2, it's a non-telescoping steering wheel and even less seat-track travel. In the Fiat 500 (which is built on a sub-B chassis), it's a barstool-like seating position. (I haven't driven a Ford Fiesta lately, nor have I had enough seat time in the Hyundai Accent/Kia Rio to have an opinion on those cars.)
In the Sonic, I don't have to make any concessions. There's a huge range of steering-wheel telescope adjustment, a huge range of seat-track travel (you can pretty much sit in the backseat if you want) and a huge range of seat-height adjustment. In our Chevy, I'm as comfortable as I would be in a larger compact or midsize car. And when you're commuting, this is a big deal.
After my road trip experience, though, I'm still not sure I'd want the Sonic to be my only car. But if I owned one, I could always rent something else when I wanted to take a long road trip. Alternatively, if the Sonic is part of a two-car household, it could be the daily driver with the other car designated for long-haul journeys.
After picking up the Sonic for the weekend I saw that it had snuck by the 15k mark without notice, hence the belated celebration. Sure, we've had a few issues with the little Chevy, such as the since-cured smelly seat syndrome and a few recalls. But in spite of that it remains one of my favorite subcompacts thanks chiefly to its impressive combination of energetic performance and exemplary fuel efficiency.
The heated seats in the Sonic LTZ are a simple on/off affair. There's no "low, medium, high" here, let alone a thumb wheel with like seven levels of adjustment. But that's ok, as their singular toasty temperature setting works for me. What doesn't work right is the switch. Normally you press once to turn 'em on and again to turn 'em off. But to shut the heater off, I discovered you have to press the button three times.
At first I thought I didn't press it hard enough (there's no tactile "click" action) and figured it was finicky and just took several attempts. Also, I don't remember it being faulty the last time I drove the car.
I checked into it further. with the key turned on but the engine off so I could maybe hear when it went off. Sure enough, I heard a faint "click" when I hit the button to turn the heater on (and the orange light kicked on to indicate so). When I deliberately pressed the button again to turn it off, the light went out but the heat stayed on. A second attempt yielded nada. A third and I heard the faint click as the heater shut off.
I repeated this for both seats to see if the action was consistent and it was — it always took three presses to turn off both seat heaters. Wondering if this was a wide-spread glitch, I checked for a TSB but there wasn't one. We'll get it checked out next time we bring it in for service.
Looks like our Sonic could be part of a recall announced today by NHTSA. It covers roughly 3,000 Buick Veranos, Chevrolet Cruzes and Chevy Sonics. Turns out there's a little problem with the driver's side airbags that needs to be addressed, something about a short that could cause the airbag to not deploy during a crash. So yeah, that could be a problem.
We'll check the VIN and see if matches the affected cars. We don't need a bad airbag to ruin what has been a nice little hatchback so far.
A friend of mine recently got a job after having been out of work for about a year. Her last car was an Audi A4, which she'd leased for a couple of years. She's currently looking for something smaller, cheaper and more fuel-efficient so she can dig herself out of the hole created by all those months of lost income.
Her plan, she says, is to find an econobox that she'll keep for no longer than two years. After that, she hopes to be able to upgrade to something nicer.
She came to me with her eyes all lit up about the Scion iQ, and she was also considering the Ford Fiesta. I recommended the Fiesta, but gently suggested that from a price and versatility standpoint, the iQ might not be the best choice.
I also suggested that she consider the Chevy Sonic, the Chevy Spark and the Hyundai Accent. Her top lip curled a little bit when I mentioned the Accent — which just goes to show that despite all the strides Hyundai has made in recent years, there are still folks out there who remember the Excel.
Anyway, which models would you add to this list?
If I were considering a subcompact 4-door car that offered the choice between a sedan and hatchback, I'd go hatchback every time. Sure, I like the more upscale look that a sedan body style typically provides. But when you're talking about a vehicle segment where practicality is paramount (and it's usually the buyer's only car), I'll forgo that and take the hatch. With the rear seats in use, the Sonic hatch offers 19 cubic feet of cargo space to the sedan's 14.9 cubes.
The big advantage of course is when you flop those rear seats down. Although specs are not available for what the sedan provides in that mode, it certainly couldn't touch the hatch's generous 47.7 cubes nor its ability to transport much bulkier objects thanks to that squared-off, wagon-like roofline.
Our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ Turbo passed the 15,000-mile mark sometime in the last couple of weeks. A quick glance at the maintenance schedule indicates it's time for our second oil change.
Or does it?
Read carefully and you see this is not necessarily the case. The schedule does not require an oil change at this point, it merely reminds us to check the oil level and oil life percentage and make the change if the oil life monitor so indicates.
This, of course, is the normal service schedule, but a quick look at the severe service schedule reveals the exact same language and interval. In other words, if your driving amounts to severe service, the oil life monitor reading will read low, accordingly.
With that in mind, I performed the checks indicated by the check mark.
A few presses and tweaks at the end of the turn signal stalk are all that's required to conjure up the relevant screen. The display is somewhat bifurcated top to bottom, but the bottom line is this: our Sonic's oil retains 58-percent of its life.
With 7,500 miles on this oil so far, the oil life monitor's reading suggests we can go another 5,000 miles or so before we need to make a change. Clearly, our driving is nothing like severe service, which makes sense if you consider our temperate climate, lack of steep grades and our propensity to choose another vehicle when we need to tow something.
As for L.A.'s notorious traffic, the reality is you're more likely to creep along at 25 mph in a slow-and-go fashion, grumbling and frustrated because this freeway has a speed limit of 65 mph and at this rate I'll never get home! Drivers accrue more stress than their cars, which are not, in fact, idling for hours like a taxi or police car or making a career out of stops and starts like a UPS truck.
So, yeah, it looks like this oil could last 12,500 miles. If so, why did we make the first change at 8,000 miles? One of us probably glanced at the maintenance schedule too quickly and assumed a 7,500 mile fixed interval, and the dealer we visited didn't correct us. In reality a tire rotation was the only thing our Sonic really needed.
What's more, the "next service" reminder they stuck to the windshield called for the next change at 3,000 miles or 3 months. This contrasts sharply with the Sonic's owner's manual, which says to go by the gauge on the dash, the single caveat being we should never stretch it longer than a year no matter what the oil life monitor says at that point.
Whether you are comfortable with the oil life monitor approach or not, the stark difference between the factory and dealer positions on the issue is yet another reason why I don't trust dealers. And if you decide to play it safe and split the difference, perhaps 7,500 miles is where you'd land after all.
A couple of weeks back NHTSA announced a small targeted recall involving about 3,000 Chevrolet Sonics, Chevrolet Cruzes and Buick Veranos due a potential short in the driver's side airbag that could prevent it from deploying when it should. After a check of our 2012 Chevy Sonic's VIN number and build date, we can report that our vehicle is not affected and will need no further attention.
That's great, but as long as we're on the subject, let's take a quick tour of the 10 standard airbags that have been arrayed inside this B-segment sub-compact car.
Number 1, of course, is the driver's side airbag shown above.
Squint really hard and you might just make out the faint lines that define the exit window for airbag Number 2, the passenger-side front airbag. The dash top is scored from the inside so the airbag can burst through.
Airbags Number 3 and 4 are contained in the front seat outer seatback bolsters, and that stitch line looks like a handy place for them to burst through.
Number 5 is a knee airbag hidden just below the steering column behind a door.
The passenger's knees are not to be left out, and airbag Number 6 lies hidden behind a panel that extends below the main glovebox.
Airbags Number 7 and 8 are the side curtain airbags that run up the A-pillar and along the roof, all the way to . . .
. . . the rear D-pillar. When they deploy they cover all of the side window glass and keep the occupants' arms inside.
The final pair of airbags, Number 9 and 10, reside in the outer side bolsters of the rear seats. But these airbags are not physically connected to the seats; they're a fixed part of the bolsters that stay put when and if the rear seat backs are folded down to carry cargo. And like we saw up front, the obvious stitch line provides a means for the airbag to burst through.
Yeah, the Sonic is a small sub-compact car, but it does have a comprehensive set of airbags, and all 10 of them are standard.
My family and I spent Thanksgiving weekend running around in our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ. Along the way I was able to confirm a couple of things about the seats.
As JDP pointed out recently, the seat heaters work great, but it takes three presses of the button to get the relay to trip and shut them off again. It's very like having a one-way bulb screwed into a three-way socket. The effect is consistent and repeatable, too, which makes me think that our alert readers are right about it having something to do with the programming (or lack thereof) of the control module in our Sonic's replacement seats.
Because of the special nature of our situation, I'm convinced that this isn't likely to be a widespread Sonic issue and it's certainly no hazard of the faulty circuit variety. It can wait until the next time we need service.
On the seat smell front, I am pleased to report these new buckets are not stinking up the place; I detected nothing, in fact. But at one point my wife — who is a neutral observer that isn't aware of this car's seat saga — did scrunch up her nose a bit and say that she smelled something funny.
This is a scenario I've encountered before, and I trotted out my standard response: it was the dog.
Kobe, our Labrador puppy, is currently shedding something fierce, and he rode in the car a couple of times before my wife did. It's possible that she picked up a faint whiff of something else, but it's pretty safe to say the scent situation in here is much, much closer to normal than it has been in the past. Especially after I vacuumed out the dog hair.
I found a good use for one of the Sonic's rather unorthodox, dash-mounted cubbies. The one on the left has become a perfect place for my garage door opener. The cubby keeps the control within easy view and reach, and holds it securely as the compartment is angled downward towards the front of the car, has a rubberized surface and has a small lip. I doubt even the acceleration of a Veyron would be enough to dislodge it.
Along with the handy garage access card holder fitted to the center stack, it's one of those little things that eliminates needless hassles.
It's no secret that our staff generally likes the Sonic, a lot. And it seems that savvy consumers have also taken notice of Chevy's fun yet practical little runabout. Year-to-date sales (through November, so for nearly the whole year) show that the Sonic has simply spanked its rivals, big time.
The hard numbers:
Sonic: 75,257
Fiesta: 51,163
Fit: 45,666
Yaris: 28,590
The weather recently changed in sunny Southern California. I know, I know. I can hear the littlest violin playing for us. The first morning after a good rain with outside temperature in the low 50-degree range, I started the Sonic and drove down the street. A glance at the instrument panel showed a tire-pressure monitor system (TPMS) alert. Continuing down the road, the car didn't pull in one direction indicating a drastic difference in pressures. The steering felt normal.
Just in case, I pulled into the nearest gas station and pulled out my pressure gauge. Sure enough, the first tire I checked was five psi under. The next was the same story. It turned out, all four were exactly 5psi low and the lower-than-normal ambient temperature caused the tires to dip below the TPMS threshold. I set them all to the recommended "cold" pressure.
Funny thing is, I've talked to a number less-than-car-literate friends recently who have all told me that their TPMS lights have recently turned on after months of being dark.
You know that solid door thunk that car journos are always going on about? The one that German luxury sedans have mastered to perfection, that lauded "bank vault" shudder that writers and salesmen always gush over? Here's the switchgear equivalent: the Sonic's turn signal indicator. I'm not kidding. First off, this is a typically thick GM stalk. And the detent action pleases in both sound and feel, fostering a perception of quality and solidity you never expect at this subcompact level.
Considering the problems we had with the upholstery (which seem largely abated), this small detail makes clear how a car, particularly its interior, is the sum of multiple suppliers, some better than others.
Usually, when you hear Ford versus Chevy, it relates to the long-fought battle between the Mustang and the Camaro. Or maybe F-Series versus Silverado. Today, however, I'm talking about the econoboxes fielded by these two long-time foes — Fiesta versus Sonic.
First off, I really like the Ford Fiesta, mostly because of its enjoyable, involving handling and its sharp styling. But for me, the Sonic tops it for several key reasons. The Chevy has more intuitive controls, a lot more cargo/passenger space, and with the spunky turbo 1.4, considerably swifter acceleration.
Yes, the Fiesta may beat it in the MPG derby, but I'll take the Sonic's still-respectable fuel economy and the fun of its added kick, thank you. I've signed out our Sonic quite a few times, and even as it nears the end of its tour of duty with us, I still enjoy its spirited performance, slick-shifting 6-speed, quiet highway ride and comfortable cabin.
Sure, you can tow any car behind a motorhome if you have a trailer, but that's not the preferred method. The ideal situation is pictured above: a so-called "dinghy" vehicle rolls behind on its own four wheels, ready to be disconnected and driven around on side trips while the motorhome sits parked with its awning unfurled and its sliders popped out in full relaxation mode. The extra towed weight and storage hassle of a trailer puts an unwelcome damper on such proceedings.
This activity goes by many names: dinghy towing, flat towing and four-down towing to name a few. As you can imagine there are mechanical implications for the car involved.
Some transmissions depend on a rotating input shaft driven by a running engine for lubrication, others don't. Some all-wheel drive systems can deal with it, others can't. Manual transmissions are generally less troubled by this activity than automatics, to the extent that such use in many cars is restricted to manuals only. Others warn against dinghy towing altogether. The owner's manual usually has the details.
Where does this all leave the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic? Can you tow it behind a motorhome?
The short answer is yes. And it doesn't matter if your Sonic has an automatic or a stick-shift gearbox.
This is good news because the Sonic has a few other things going for it that are appreciated by dinghy towing folk. It's inexpensive, costing between $15,000 and $20,000. You can get it as a hatchback or a sedan. It's fuel efficient to the tune of 33 mpg combined and as high as 40 mpg on the highway. And it doesn't weigh much. Our 2012 Sonic LTZ turbo weighs 2,743 pounds, well under the 3,000-pound threshold that triggers the need for a remote motorhome-to-car braking system in some places.
Of course Chevrolet does want you to follow a few specific procedures before you head out.
Before hooking up (nose-first only) they want the automatic version to have its engine run for at least five minutes to fully lubricate the innards of the transmission. This step isn't necessary if the Sonic in question has a manual gearbox, like ours.
After latching on they ask that you shift to park (or first gear in a manual) and set the parking brake as a precaution against someone else in your party climbing into the motorhome and driving off as you rummage around in the Sonic's fuse box to remove the DLIS fuse.
Why remove the fuse? Because the next crucial step is to turn the ignition key to the accessory position, which unlocks the steering so it can turn freely while towing. You'll leave the key in this position all day, and certain lights will burn the entire time if you don't pull the DLIS fuse. It's not good form to arrive with a dead battery.
Now it's time to shift the transmission back into neutral, release the parking brake and double-check both of these a couple of times before you finally lock the door with a second set of keys you'll want to carry. Your Sonic is finally ready to roll, but GM warns that damage could occur if you tow it at speeds greater than 65 mph.
Beyond that, Chevy warns that each time you stop your motorhome for refueling you should get back in if your Sonic (if it's an automatic) and run the engine for five minutes to circulate transmission fluid once more. You'll want to do this every morning, too. And when you do unhook at your destination you'll need to reinsert the DLIS fuse you pulled out earlier on.
These sorts of precautions will sound familiar to dinghy towing regulars. The main thing is any Sonic can be a dinghy regardless of transmission, and this compact has a lot of other things going for it that make it a good choice for the job.
I'm usually not a fan of customized economy cars. Civics with exaggerated ground effects, oversized double-tiered wings and 20-inch wheels strike me as silly. Don't get me wrong, I've got a soft spot for the '99-'00 Civic Si, but that's a factory hot rod that was tastefully done. When fitted with the feisty turbo 1.4 however, the little Chevy Sonic has enough personality (and performance) to get away with an attention-grabbing paint scheme and some tasteful styling tweaks.
This souped-up (there's an old-time expression for you) Sonic sedan was done by Design Rides and Gurnade for the '11 SEMA show (this is the first time I saw it). The candy yellow paint — a hue I would normally deem too much — works well as do the handsome double-spoke wheels and discrete rear spoiler. I'd probably go without the hood stripes, but otherwise think this is a sharp little pocket rocket.
The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic's tenure in our long-term fleet has come to an end. We took it to Carmax as part of our usual sale-evaluation procedure. The Sonic had a little less than 17,000 miles on it and according to Edmunds trade-in TMV, its value was about $12,955. But did Carmax offer us anything close to that?
Carmax made us an offer of $13,000. This was $45 above our trade-in TMV. We paid $18,018 for the car when we bought it new, which means that the Sonic depreciated about 28 percent in a year. That's a bit on the high side compared to the average of about 22 percent.
Now, with the Carmax offer in hand, we had to ask ourselves, "Should we sell it ourselves or sell it to Carmax?" Edmunds private-party TMV value was $14,393. We couldn't list it at $15,000 because it would get no replies: The Sonic would look too pricey and too close to the cost of a new car.
If we listed it at $14,500 we'd probably end up at $13,500 after some haggling. Maybe even less. We decided this was too small a margin to justify a private-party sale. And by selling it to Carmax, we save ourselves the hassle. We brought it back the following day. Time is money.
We bid farewell to the Sonic, a car that I hope is remembered more for its driving characteristics than its smelly interior.
Final Odometer: 16,977 miles.
Wrap-Up
What We Got
The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic was on our radar as soon as GM announced it as the successor to the compact Aveo. This was an important car for Chevy in a growing segment. It wasn't a question of would we get one, but which trim level.
Standard equipment on the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic was a 138-horsepower, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine. Also standard was a five-speed manual transmission, but that's not a very desirable combination so we went with some options.
We passed over the base LS and midgrade LT trims in favor of the top-tier LTZ. A 1.4-liter turbocharged inline-4 is optional in the LT and LTZ trims, and it was our preferred choice. The engine generates the same 138 hp but torque is up to 148 pound-feet. It's available with a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic gearbox. We chose the manual to get the most fun out of the turbocharged engine. We also went with the more utilitarian hatchback over the standard four-door sedan.
Our 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ included leatherette upholstery, 17-inch wheels, heated seats, steering-wheel-mounted controls and prewired connectivity for Bluetooth and iPod. After negotiation, we purchased our Sonic at the invoice price of $18,018. It was time to hit the road.
Our Chevy Sonic Impressions
"The Sonic LTZ isn't a hot hatch, but 'warm hatch' probably isn't too far off the mark. The steering has pretty good feel to it, and there's respectable grip from the Hankook 205/50R17 tires. It reminded me a little of our old GTI long-termer, actually. The suspension is compliant in that long-travel sort of way, but you can press on in the Sonic up to a certain point and still enjoy yourself.... The turbocharged 1.4-liter engine and manual transmission are a big draw as well. Together, they make the Sonic feel pretty lively as I powered out of corners. It does make me wonder how a regular Sonic with the normally aspirated engine, automatic transmission and non-LTZ wheels and tires would be. You know, the Sonic a lot of people will probably buy." — Brent Romans
"Alas, when you're running the A/C, it exaggerates the one thing I don't like about this car: its pokiness off the line.... It's annoying, but it doesn't ruin the driving experience for me.... I like the clutch take-up otherwise, and I like how the shifter moves fluidly through the gates. On most freeways, I really like the ride quality. Only over the really broken ones does the ride get harsh. And I think the steering is nice and precise.... Add in a nice dose of hatchback utility, and you have an Erin-friendly car." — Erin Riches
"Our Sonic's throttle calibration is going to result in premature clutch wear.... When you engage the clutch from a standstill in any manual gearbox-equipped car, you feed in the throttle at a rate you think will both a) avoid a nasty bog/stumble, and b) not excessively slip the clutch. After years of driving manual gearboxes, you have a keenly honed sense for this balancing act.... The problem arises when the car attempts to execute this balancing act at the exact same time you are doing it.... The resulting fight between the driver and the Sonic's smarty-pants electronic throttle results in way too much throttle being applied while you're still letting the clutch in.... the process just bootstraps itself into frantic, runaway clutch-slipping stupidity." — Jason Kavanagh
"Last night, I realized why I like the Sonic so much. It reminds me a lot of the GTI, a car I like for similar reasons. Yes, the turbo engine has a lot to do with it, but I found my driving style and level of enjoyment to be reminiscent of one of my favorite cars on the road. Heck it even has a VW-esque long-throw shifter, though it's less damped in its motions and the one-two shift can be notchy at times." — James Riswick
"Despite its small size, the Sonic fits my 6-foot-2-inch tall frame very well. It has more than enough of every adjustment I could need or want. Its telescopic wheel pulls back far enough, the seat height adjuster drops low enough and the seat goes back more than far enough... and then there's the gauge cluster. Love it. It's small, cool-looking yet very readable, with a design that simultaneously emphasizes the tach and speedo in two different prominent ways. Compact and well-placed, I find it very easy to gather the information I require in a quick glance. It's everything Toyota's center-mount Prius gauge layout is not." — Dan Edmunds
"I'd be hesitant to buy one myself. One reason is the seats. They feel fine for a couple hours, but once I was past that threshold, the flat seat-bottom cushion was a problem. Definite case of dead butt, and I was still in some discomfort for about an hour after I arrived home. It's hard for me to lobby for Chevy to put more expensive seats in an inexpensive car, but I could use more firm support." — Erin Riches
"You know that solid door thunk that we're always going on about? The one that German luxury sedans have mastered to perfection, that lauded 'bank vault' shudder that writers and salesmen always gush over? Here's the switchgear equivalent: the Sonic's turn signal indicator. I'm not kidding. First off, this is a typically thick GM stalk. And the detent action pleases in both sound and feel, fostering a perception of quality and solidity you never expect at this subcompact level." — Dan Frio
"...Remove the 'rough shifts' part of that and you have the Chevy Sonic. It cuts off the first second to half-second of every song when played through an iPod/USB device. It's maddening, especially on albums where one song's end is the next song's intro.... Please stop doing this. Thanks." — Mike Magrath
"At first glance, the hatch area at the back of our Sonic looks fairly standard. 60/40 fold-down seat? Check. Rigid tilt-up cargo cover? Check.... But it does have a couple of tricks up its sleeve.... The floor, you see, is also the lid of a hidden basement storage compartment that you can remove altogether to increase the total size of the storage space.... If you drop the floor into the basement and stow the security cover, the Sonic easily becomes the two-bag hatch Mags and the Riz were hoping for. There may even be enough extra room for a laptop bag or two, to boot. OK, it's no Honda Fit, which has no equal in this class when it comes to cargo flexibility or outright capacity, but the Sonic hatchback nevertheless offers some decent storage tricks of its own." — Dan Edmunds
"Notice how close the OnStar buttons are to the lever. When we first got the Sonic, I spent a long weekend with it.... I really enjoy driving it. It has a good ride, good shifter and good torque. During that time, I accidentally called OnStar four times. After the second incident, I learned to use the cancel function that comes up on the car's head unit. OnStar buttons on a manual day/night mirror... not a good combination." — Erin Riches
Maintenance & Repairs
Regular Maintenance:
Our Sonic LTZ was equipped with an oil life monitor, and the manual asked that we follow it. So at roughly 7,500-mile intervals we found ourselves at the dealer for fresh oil. Two visits occurred during our nearly 17,000-mile test, averaging an affordable $45 each.
Service Campaigns:
Open recalls and service campaigns kept our Sonic busy during its first year. There was a recall for missing brake pads, which did not apply to our vehicle. But other items did affect our car, including an issue with the airbag module insulator, windshield washer hose and fuel pipe quick disconnect. These were handled during normal service (http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/sonic/2012/long-term-road-test/2012-chevrolet-sonic-ltz-first-service.html) visits.
A few issues required special attention, and sometimes multiple trips to remedy. We had the driver window switch replaced after it stuck in the down position. Foul-smelling front seats led to their replacement about six months into our test. All repairs were paid under warranty. In fact, the only out-of-pocket expense incurred was $178 to replace a tire after an errant screw punctured it near the sidewall.
2012 Chevrolet Sonic Fuel Economy and Resale Value
Observed Fuel Economy:
The EPA prepared us for 20 mpg in the city, 40 mpg on the highway and a combined average of 33 mpg. Over the course of 16,977 miles we averaged 29 mpg in the Sonic. Our best single tank of 40 mpg was repeatable, however. And the range on that tank was more than 389 miles.
Resale and Depreciation:
One year ago we purchased a Sonic LTZ for $18,018. We didn't quite put 17,000 miles on the car before it was time to sell. Edmunds' TMV® Calculator valued our car at $14,393 based on a private-party sale.
As part of our usual pre-sale evaluation, we stopped at CarMax for an estimate. It returned a price of $13,000. That wasn't bad. We figured that we could not list it at $15,000 since that was too close to the price of a new car. And if we listed at $14,500 we'd probably end up at $13,500 after haggling. We decided this was too small a margin to justify the private-party sale and cashed out at CarMax.
Summing Up
Pros: Well-tuned suspension, eager motor once it gets going, able to return 40 mpg with a light foot, useful cargo area, plenty of room for tall drivers, simple interior controls.
Cons: Finicky clutch pedal, meager power at low engine speeds, seats aren't supportive enough for long drives.
Bottom Line: The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic is a solid, compact hatchback that delivers competent handling, impressive mileage and plenty of interior room for a reasonable price. It's competitive in its segment and deserves consideration if you're shopping for a well-rounded four-door that doesn't cost much to run.
| Total Body Repair Costs: | None |
| Total Routine Maintenance Costs: | $89.68 (over 12 months) |
| Additional Maintenance Costs: | $177.65 |
| Warranty Repairs: | Relocate airbag insulator, replace front seats, replace fuel pipe connector, attach windshield washer hose, replace driver window switch |
| Non-Warranty Repairs: | Replace one damaged tire |
| Scheduled Dealer Visits: | 2 |
| Unscheduled Dealer Visits: | 5 |
| Days Out of Service: | None |
| Breakdowns Stranding Driver: | None |
| Best Fuel Economy: | 40.2 mpg |
| Worst Fuel Economy: | 21.8 mpg |
| Average Fuel Economy: | 29.0 mpg |
| True Market Value at service end: | $14,393 (private-party sale) |
| What it Sold for: | $13,000 |
| Depreciation: | $5,018 (28% of paid price) |
| Final Odometer Reading: | 16,977 miles |
Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.