I'm not in love with this Sonic yet,,,

[tainopayute]

Hello to all my new peeps here at the forum. I'm new to this forum and I hope it helps me make the best of my ride. I own a 2013 Black Chevy Sonic RS. I like the car but I'm not in love with it. Here's why. About 9 months ago I drove in to a Chevy dealership with the thought of wanting to buy a Chevy Camaro but because the payments would have been to high, I drove out in a Chevy Sonic instead. I gave a 2007 Saturn Ion Redline as a trade in for the Chevy Sonic and I have been wanting to kick my self ever since because my new Sonic simply does not have the same power I had in my Ion Redline. So my only option now is to continue to make payments and find a way to tune and improve this little Black Sonic.

 

[Breezybro]

I'm sorry but you traded in a 200hp 205tq vehicle for a 140/150 sonic and you want to complain about power.. You got yourself into it without research, this is what happens.

Sonic =/= race car

If you want to buy a tune and the necessary things needed to run e85 red pill you'd almost be back to what you want, but that is like $1500

 

[tainopayute]

Yeah, I know I got my self in to this set back, but at this point, I have no choice but to make the best of my miss-step and take a step in the right direction now. I'm all for that tune and mods. The one thing I just could not get used too in the Ion was the dashboard, and this little Sonic has a way better looking dashboard. I just need the power now.

 

[rdss]

I think you would be much more happy with a tune, it makes the car way more fun to drive. The small add ons help but in the end tuning will net you the most bang for the buck

 

[whitesmoke]

rdss is right

put a decent tune on the car and it will be faster than the Saturn. don't go buying a bunch of aftermarket crap like intakes and exhausts or anything else that may sound good. my 2014 rs goes 15.35@ 90 bone stock with just a superchips scr 8040 tuner, that's 1.5 seconds faster than it goes stock. we have tested intakes and exhaust so far with no power gain from them by themselves. with a tune they will help. the intakes and exhaust will give you the same power gain you would get by simply taking a good crap and losing 3 lbs. lol

 

[sonic_braaappp]

Depends on what you consider fast and where you consider it to be fast really. my cobalt ss has 280whp and 260-ish wtq, yet it couldn't even come close to keeping up with my sonic on the tail of the dragon last october (brother was driving the balt, me in the sonic, and yes he can drive lol). straight line the balt would walk off obviously, but at the dragon, after every turn i got a little further ahead until i couldnt see or hear him anymore xD

also to note, at the dragon, my sonic was (and still is) on the stock tune. Also Just sold my cobalt, and i don't regret it one bit, but thats also because im about to buy an LNF sedan, but either way, IMO, different cars excel at different types of driving.

 

[tainopayute]

Tune over parts?

put a decent tune on the car and it will be faster than the Saturn. don't go buying a bunch of aftermarket crap like intakes and exhausts or anything else that may sound good. my 2014 rs goes 15.35@ 90 bone stock with just a superchips scr 8040 tuner, that's 1.5 seconds faster than it goes stock. we have tested intakes and exhaust so far with no power gain from them by themselves. with a tune they will help. the intakes and exhaust will give you the same power gain you would get by simply taking a good crap and losing 3 lbs. lol

So you would recommend a tune over a complete aftermarket exhaust or a cold air intake? If I go with a tune or re-flash, should I also get an intake and exhaust or in a tune enough to wake this little car up?

 

[tainopayute]

Is a tune enough?

I think you would be much more happy with a tune, it makes the car way more fun to drive. The small add ons help but in the end tuning will net you the most bang for the buck

About how much power do you think I can gain with a tune? Also, is a tune enough to get closer to pushing 200 HP?

 

[$ub$onic]

About how much power do you think I can gain with a tune? Also, is a tune enough to get closer to pushing 200 HP?

This is a cruze on a BNR efi custom tune.

 

[tainopayute]

Wow, that's a big jump, just by doing a tune...

 

[tainopayute]

I noticed that I can buy a tune from Bad News Racing, is that tune the best tune I can get for the Sonic or is there a better one out there?

 

[$ub$onic]

I noticed that I can buy a tune from Bad News Racing, is that tune the best tune I can get for the Sonic or is there a better one out there?

The custom BNR one's are pretty much the best ones on the market. They offer custom tuning though diablo and EFIlive.

With this said, the new members section is for introductions only, let's move all tech questions to there appropriate thread.