GTP Cool Wall: 2012+ Chevrolet Sonic

2012+ Chevrolet Sonic

  • Total voters
    98
  • Poll closed .
Gotcha. And yes, many people do agree with that. But I was simply putting in my two cents about everyone's negative opinion on the Sonic.
 
White & Nerdy
It was more a complaint about how, while no one thinks a lack of output or displacement is a problem, everyone thinks hard-touch plastic is evil and any car that doesn't have a totally luxurious interior automatically sucks.
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Wanna explain the love of the RS200? Or the F40? Or the Stratos?

Do you even think before your fingers touch the keyboard? I'd assume they're just randomly bashing into it, but that'd be the hardest-working autocorrect ever.
 
Might want to distinguish "rude" from "unnecessarily rude" there.
 
It's very bland looking, but that styling does elicit enough disdain to nudge it down from Meh into Uncool. It's the sort of car I tend to ignore on the street, but worse looking. It just looks lazy.
 
SlipZtrEm
Wanna explain the love of the RS200? Or the F40? Or the Stratos?

Do you even think before your fingers touch the keyboard? I'd assume they're just randomly bashing into it, but that'd be the hardest-working autocorrect ever.
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I'm talking about cheap, entry-level cars like this. Interior quality and smooth refinement are far from important, especially since, if you're buying a car like that, you probably can't afford a second car just to have fun with on weekends (I can't). I know most people don't care about fun to drive, but most people aren't here. The part that annoys me is when I come to a car-related forum and promptly get told "you shoulda got an I4 import, they have better interiors and are safer."
 
doodlemonoply
It has a turbo, it's fuel efficient, reliable, it looks good, it's fun to drive. Personally, I think the sedan looks better than the hatchback.

Sub-Zero.


I own one as well.
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I assume this means yours is the sedan? I personally prefer the hatch but the sedan is okay. :P Since I see you're a Marylander, look out for a slammed black hatch Sonic! Saw it a few weeks ago.
 
White & Nerdy
The part that annoys me is when I come to a car-related forum and promptly get told "you shoulda got an I4 import, they have better interiors and are safer."
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Yeah, those gosh-darn American imports.

Also, I don't think anyone here is claiming it sucks just because of its interior. It's the fact that the competition within this segment do everything else a lot better.
 
Seriously uncool.... 0 appeal to me in every regard except maybe gas mileage. But mileage has no bearing on wether something is cool.
 
niky
Seriously uncool, because it's still dull as dishwater to drive. Dull steering, dull throttle response, slow transmission... And I hate the gimmicky motorcycle gauges, too. The LED-screen is flimsy and cheap and there are way too many blank lights in the surround.
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I have to ask, do ya'll get a different version of the Sonic internationally than we do here in North America? The positive press the car got here in the States centered mostly around how entertaining it was to drive. Or does that largely depend on the trims we're talking about here?
 
The slow 1.4 is a letdown, but the real problem is the car just feels numb to drive. Not as bad as the Aveo, but not really class-leading in any regard.

I've driven it on the racetrack once. And it left no impression at all. Not as engagingly sharp as a Fiesta or a Mazda2, and not "so bad it's a giggle" like the Mirage.

You never remember the middle child.
 
That and the selection of subcompacts is relatively small in the U.S. so there's less competition for something that's otherwise fairly average. When you have a dozen extra rivals in Europe or elsewhere the Sonic starts to look a lot less impressive.
 
Seriously uncool. Nothing more than a rebadged Daewoo which has to be one of the worst car makers of all time. (I had one for a short while when I first got my permit, so I know the horrors. :crazy: )
 
homeforsummer
That and the selection of subcompacts is relatively small in the U.S. so there's less competition for something that's otherwise fairly average. When you have a dozen extra rivals in Europe or elsewhere the Sonic starts to look a lot less impressive.
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My only other thought was that, when we do get them, they're often watered down to make them more comfortable or "highway ready." It's an odd group book-ended by the Nissan Versa (without a doubt the worst) to the Honda Fit (largely considered to be the best). The Sonic is normally placed somewhere near the front, along with the Mazda 2, both ahead of the Fiesta, which falls somewhere near the middle, and far ahead of the Rio and Accent. We have a weeeeeird market...
 
Bopop4
Voted meh.

It looks decent for a compact car, and I bet it has lots of LED's.
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This I can confirm in the negative. The only LED lights that I know of are in the third brake light.
 
White & Nerdy
I'm talking about cheap, entry-level cars like this. Interior quality and smooth refinement are far from important, especially since, if you're buying a car like that, you probably can't afford a second car just to have fun with on weekends (I can't). I know most people don't care about fun to drive, but most people aren't here. The part that annoys me is when I come to a car-related forum and promptly get told "you shoulda got an I4 import, they have better interiors and are safer."
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Because they are. The market under $20-25,000 is typically dominated by European & Japanese cars because in their respective countries, those are the types of cars that the public generally buys, thus the cars must meet a certain criteria of overall build quality. In the US, that's not really the case because we typically buy mid-size cars & pick up trucks, hence why US manufacturers typically fall behind in that sub-compact market, yet find much more success in the others.
 
Having been able to actually ride in a '10 Aveo, that particular one was seriously uncool.

* the ride felt like you were on a buckboard. You felt everything underneath you going down the road.
* rattle trap, noisy interior, and exterior noise was not much better.
* gutless wonder, can't get out of it's own way. Attempting to merge on to a highway with a 70mph. flow was damn near impossible. That Mack truck was getting bigger and bigger in the mirror with each passing second.

Is the '12+ any better ? IDK ... If it's anything like it's predecessor, then it remains seriously uncool. I'll be nice and give it the benefit of the doubt and bump it up 1 notch to just an uncool.
 
Nicksfix
Having been able to actually ride in a '10 Aveo, that particular one was seriously uncool.

* the ride felt like you were on a buckboard. You felt everything underneath you going down the road.
* rattle trap, noisy interior, and exterior noise was not much better.
* gutless wonder, can't get out of it's own way. Attempting to merge on to a highway with a 70mph. flow was damn near impossible. That Mack truck was getting bigger and bigger in the mirror with each passing second.

Is the '12+ any better ? IDK ... If it's anything like it's predecessor, then it remains seriously uncool. I'll be nice and give it the benefit of the doubt and bump it up 1 notch to just an uncool.
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It's a completely different car from the Aveo. It's like night and day.

When I still lived in Oklahoma, I worked as a courier picking up medical records. We had the turbo model Sonic hatchbacks. They were a very impressive drive and ten times more solid than the Fiesta that was replaced. Plenty of power to get up and go in traffic when needed. Awesome sound system with the MyLink too. It was a bit weird to see a new car without a CD player though.

To whoever said they are unreliable is just making a baseless claim because of older models. I used to own a Suzuki Reno, another Daewoo model from the past, and this Sonic is totally different. While my Suzuki was in and out of the shop, this car is used on a 667 mile a day trip without any major mechanical issues is a VERY reliable car.

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It wouldn't shift out of park countless times, and the paint would melt off of the doors for no apparent reason. I filed a lemon law suit and Suzuki bought it back, along with giving me back all the money I'd already paid in. I didn't even have the car for a year. I took my money and went to Toyota.
 
disinfected
It wouldn't shift out of park countless times, and the paint would melt off of the doors for no apparent reason. I filed a lemon law suit and Suzuki bought it back, along with giving me back all the money I'd already paid in. I didn't even have the car for a year. I took my money and went to Toyota.
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Odd. I've never heard of paint melting off of a car. Good to know you didn't have any issues with the car engine-wise.
 
I didn't have it long enough to get any major engine issues. It was awfully odd to pull your hand off the door and your palm be covered in orange paint. "The shift knob won't move" isn't the best excuse for being late to work, either.
 

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