Fresh from my Christmas trip to the Dallas area, here is a review of the rental car we had, a Chevrolet Sonic Sedan LT. I usually go for hatchbacks in this class, but we were moving presents around to and the Sonic hatchback on the lot was missing the luggage cover.

Specs:

4-door sedan
1.8 litre four cylinder 138 horsepower@6300 and torque 125 lb.-ft@3800.
6-speed torque converter automatic transmission
Weight about 2750 lbs

Performance:
Scoots well when pushed. The engine does get a bit vocal as the revs climb but is generally smooth and quiet in normal driving.

Transmission is very smooth but did find it VERY eager to get into the higher gears, probably to game the EPA mileage. That meant I had to dig into the throttle and have the car shift down two gears when following my girlfriend's son around town.

You can select the gears manually using a funky switch on the side of the gear lever. It's one of the worst MMI interfaces I've ever suffered in a car. It made as much sense as coating the steering wheel with honey then releasing Fire Ants into the cabin. What is wrong with a side gate manual shift pattern like many other car makers use?

Gas mileage was about 28-29mpg, which is fair enough as we were doing a bunch of short runs.

Ride and handling:
The ride was very good for a small car. Even the large divots on the area roads resulted in noise rather than tossing us about. I suspect that the moderate profile tyres helped a lot. Grip was sufficient for the driving I was doing.

Directional stability was not the best when it got windy. This adds weight to previous observations that hatch and wagon versions of small sedans are often more stable in the wind than the vanilla 4-door.

Interior noise was well controlled on the Dallas area roads. However, a real test is to drive it on the ultra noisy stretch of US-95 in NV.

Interior:
Seats were good, although the backrest adjuster is in an odd place. The wheel telescopes and I was able to achieve a good driving position with it all the way out. This is in contrast to the Yaris that we sat in that required my knees to contact the dash so I could reach the wheel. Just no.

The digital speedo won't please everyone and I never found how to get the trip meter to show. Also, the compass display shows in the binnacle, not on the rear view mirror. Took me a couple of days to notice. I REALLY needed it trying to escape DFW at 11pm on our arrival.

Other:
Trunk is huge for a compact car. Headlamps were very good. A/C worked just fine fighting off the Christmas Eve heat and the humidity and rain that followed at the weekend.

Conclusion:
Better than the Corolla and Nissan Versa. I'd only own one as a town car because of the 1.8 naturally aspirated motor. You really need the 1.4 turbo model out here because of the altitude in many parts of the West.

Attached Images

	SonicFront01.jpg (102.7 KB, 13 views)
	SonicRHS01.jpg (113.7 KB, 18 views)

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You have to start introducing pictures so with these reviews

Gimme a chance to get them out of the 'phone.

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My wife drives a 2015 Sonic sedan, has about 12000 miles on it. no problems with it so far. average mileage (combined city/hiway) according to on board computer is 37.5. She really likes the car. I can't give an honest opinion as I have only drove it once.

GM must have improved the refinement of their 4-bangers. A friend had a Pontiac Vibe years ago, the engine in that sounded like it was full of gravel.

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The irony there is that the Vibe is a badge engineered Toyota Matrix, and the motors were 100% Toyota designs.

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Jumped the gun did i?

Yep its a Toyota.

I don't know about full of gravel but having owned nothing but 4 banger Toyota for the last 15 years I can tell you they are a little noisy

My son drives a '14 Chevy Cruze LT that had the same 2 engine options. The 1.4L turbo is a much more refined motor. The power delivery is much quicker and linear. The specs, performance and milage are very similar, but the 1.8 felt more sluggish and over-worked when we test drove both side by side. The up-charge to get the turbo (along with the other options that came with it) was well worth the price.

I like the Sonic too. It's a cool little car (especially in hatchback form).

Another great review Steve! Happy New Year!

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I've not driven a 'cheby' in many years - but I'm with you on 'I know it's Christmas, but it's 80 degrees and we have to turn on the AC'. And, no, that's NOT normal for DFW in December.

Back to the 1.8 vs. 1.4 turbo point; is/are there any longevity issues on the 1.4 turbos yet? I'd think the 1.4 turbo configuration, especially in a U.S. made engine, would have a really short lifespan. My expectation would be that, at higher RPM's, it would wear out the rings before it needed brakes. Likewise on the Italian made 1.4 turbos in the new Jeep models. I can't imagine it would go 100K - 200K like any ordinary 1.8L Japanese (think Corolla) engine.

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But then, what do I know?

Toyota must have also improved their 4 bangers. The 1.8 in the Corolla rental I had last year was smoother and quieter than the Vibe. A bit anemic though.

LVSteve: how was the quality of the interior? That has always been a weak point with GM.

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The 1.4 turbo generally needs LESS revs to get down the road in my experience. As for long term issues, I have no clue. Maybe a trawl of the car forums would reveal an answer. For sure there is a Chevy Sonic forum. The #1 point of failure in turbocharged cars is the turbo itself. The bearings get sloppy and stuff starts to rub where it shouldn't.

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I personally dislike the styling of the instrument binnacle. It looks like a cheap electronic toy from the clearance aisle of a convenience store. However, it all worked and for night driving the instrument dimmer brought the light levels down to a sensible gentle glow from the "nuke test" setting that seems the norm used by most other folk.

The rest of the interior was similar to the Kia Soul and Corolla in terms of quality. Yes, there is a lot of plastic and the top of the door trim is hard, something many journos gripe about. Try keeping your elbows in the vehicle and driving with both hands is my response to that non-issue.

One thing GM did get spot-on is the HVAC system. They stayed with the standard 3-knob setup and fitted nice big vents.

One maddening ergonomic issue arose early on with the manual rear view mirror. I always put my thumb on the lower edge of the mirror when flicking the lever on manual mirrors. Do this in the Chevy and your thumb triggers the OnStar. Guess it's like staying off the slide lock on certain pistols, training is needed.

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I love when you do these - thanks!

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