New member and wife. . . Upper Midwest

[JTee2017]

Old guy here (seems a lot of yunguns lol ) retired and will be picking up a 2017 LT HB 1.8L with the Convenience Package and one or two other options. Will take delivery tomorrow about 6:30PM.
Oh . . is Cajun Red. . . wow. . . hot looking.

So, started looking at Cruze HB with the more powerful 1.5L 153HP turbo, but somehow just didn't like it as much. Rear roof line is too low. Was a tough choice as could have gotten a +$24K Cruze for the same price as this +21K Sonic. . . about $17.5K.
The Sonic seems more comfortable, higher roof line inside and out and wife likes the size and good enough pickup for her daily semi rural drive to work.

The 2017 Sonic HB are hard to find in our area. Lot's of sedans. And some had $3,000 to $4,000 off sticker and some did not. Ours did.

We both like the refresh of the 2017. Really a nice update to the design. Even interior dash improvements and tech stuff.

Well, about it for now. Enjoying reading an lurking. Right off I think I will be checking the spark plug gaps for uniformity. I think 0.030" to 0.032"sounds reasonable rather than 0.023" to 0.028".

Ok, for now.. Greetings and off to look for some add ons.

 

[Natesriv]

Yeah, the Cruze just looks squashed and not as unique anymore....
The new Sonic holds up nicely.

 

[JTee2017]

Yeah, the Cruze just looks squashed and not as unique anymore....
The new Sonic holds up nicely.

Yeah.. . we thought we would like the Cruze hatchback, but no go. Nice interior and ride I guess though.

The 2017 Sonic refresh is really a change. We liked the first version, but this new look and interior improvements took it to another level. I've liked hatchbacks for years.

I do not know what car makers, including GM, are thinking making the rear roof lines "squat" down. Can't get taller items in there and less room over all. Even the new 2018 Equinox has a similare "squat" rear roof line. Also, in the Equinox, the seats are less substantial that the Sonic the way it looks to me.

We have a 2015 Equinox LTZ V6 and i wouldn't trade it for the world. 28 to 30 MPG highway at 65 to 72 MPH. +26 over 70MPH./

Well. anyway .. .

 

[Papasonic]

JTee2017,
It's interesting that you are old, (me too) have a Sonic, and also a V6 Equinox. (ours is a 2016 Black LTZ) We recently were shopping to replace the wife's 2012 Sonic, but found hardly any Sonic's available. We also looked at Cruze's, but noted the same issues as you; besides all the Cruze hatches are made in Mexico. ( as a retired UAW member I try to buy USA products) Then our attention turned to the Malibu that had insane discounts. We now have a really nice Malibu for what it would cost to purchase a Sonic, as the Sonic we would want had to be ordered, and the incentives for the Sonic were on in stock units only. I still have my 2012 Sonic 1.4 manual LTZ hatch, and after almost 6 years, still do like the little car. As discussed in other threads in the Forum; dealers, even large dealerships seldom stock Sonic's. They generally may have 50 Cruze's, 30 Malibu's, and 2 Sonic's.

 

[JTee2017]

JTee2017,
It's interesting that you are old, (me too) have a Sonic, and also a V6 Equinox. (ours is a 2016 Black LTZ) We recently were shopping to replace the wife's 2012 Sonic, but found hardly any Sonic's available. We also looked at Cruze's, but noted the same issues as you; besides all the Cruze hatches are made in Mexico. ( as a retired UAW member I try to buy USA products) Then our attention turned to the Malibu that had insane discounts. We now have a really nice Malibu for what it would cost to purchase a Sonic, as the Sonic we would want had to be ordered, and the incentives for the Sonic were on in stock units only. I still have my 2012 Sonic 1.4 manual LTZ hatch, and after almost 6 years, still do like the little car. As discussed in other threads in the Forum; dealers, even large dealerships seldom stock Sonic's. They generally may have 50 Cruze's, 30 Malibu's, and 2 Sonic's.

Yeah, not too many Sonics out there near us. Also, besides the Equinox, i picked up a 2017 Colorado LT crew cab short bed back in February. Comfy and great for traveling. 30 year GM UAW retiree( for 9 years now) here also and I agree, we found the same insane deals here on the Malibu as well as the Cruze. Maybe I should reconsider, but wife likes the size of the Sonic, plus oldest daughter has a 2014 for 3 years now and love hers. Personally , I didn't think I would like driving or riding in a Sonic, but the seats seemed more comfortable than the Cruze and we liked what seems like a higher seating position and not sitting so low.

I bet the LTZ hatch with manual is fun to drive. I could not even find any manual Sonics within 75 miles when i searched, plus wife wouldn't like it. But I would. . .

 

[Crumbi]

JTee2017,
...Then our attention turned to the Malibu that had insane discounts. We now have a really nice Malibu for what it would cost to purchase a Sonic..

That is funny. We just got a Malibu for my wife as well. Think it was like 20k new 2017. Her Impala was totaled and ended with a Malibu for how cheap it was.

 

[Papasonic]

Yeah, not too many Sonics out there near us. Also, besides the Equinox, i picked up a 2017 Colorado LT crew cab short bed back in February. Comfy and great for traveling. 30 year GM UAW retiree( for 9 years now) here also and I agree, we found the same insane deals here on the Malibu as well as the Cruze. Maybe I should reconsider, but wife likes the size of the Sonic, plus oldest daughter has a 2014 for 3 years now and love hers. Personally , I didn't think I would like driving or riding in a Sonic, but the seats seemed more comfortable than the Cruze and we liked what seems like a higher seating position and not sitting so low.

I bet the LTZ hatch with manual is fun to drive. I could not even find any manual Sonics within 75 miles when i searched, plus wife wouldn't like it. But I would. . .

Yes my hatch is a nice driving car; it's interesting that 4th, 5th, and 6th gear are all overdrive ratios; that is how it's capable and will attain 40 mpg.

I was in the AG division of the UAW. I started at International Harvester East Moline IL plant; later became Case/IH. We built combines, headers, planters, cotton pickers, and cabs. Worked there 30 years, now semi-retired.

The only reason I got the Sonic hatch I have is that it was earmarked for a GM district representative; it was built in Aug. 2011, but placed on constraint until Nov. 2011. It was to be delivered to Green Chevrolet, East Moline IL. Meanwhile the GM rep couldn't wait any longer, and was put in another vehicle, making the one I have available for sale. When delivered to my dealer, it didn't even have a complete window sticker. The sticker said the vehicle wasn't for sale. It took me months and assistance from GM reps that monitor our Forum to obtain the window sticker.

 

[JTee2017]

Sorry. . didn't see your replies here till this AM. I should have set email notification to "On". I've been fiddling with using Google Photo to get pictures posted here and elsewhere. It seems it worked for quite awhile and now I have to move pictures Google+ in order to get them to be seen in a thread, even though I can see them just by having them on Google Photo. What a pita.

Great story on how you obtained your 1.4L HB. So good to know you have the Sonic this long. A lot of folks trade vehicles every year or two. We usually keep our vehicles 5 to 7 years or whenever one of the kids could use a decent used truck or car. Wife and I don't usually put more than 6K to 8K a year on a vehicle, so the kids get a low mileage used vehicle.

Good to hear about another UAW branch in "vehicle" manufacturing. I think we had a plant manager actually move from GM to IH either in Illinois or Iowa(?) years back. That was about the time IH (I think) made some sort of full sized SUV type vehicle out of a semi truck chassis and he managed that operation .

I worked for one plant building early engine control modules in late '70's to mid '90s and then in a full sized SUV plant a total of 30 years. I turned 60 and retired in 2008 just before "stuff" hit the fan. That was in June and as history concludes, the banking industry "creative financing" tactics crashed both short term and long term business financing a fact not often mentioned or known. GM and Chrysler, along with others, used up millions in reserve cash to cover week to week, month to month, expenses going which only lasted about 6 months before it was not possible to do so anymore. Manufacturing vehicles survives on 30 to 90 day revolving financing to cover monthly parts, inventory, shipping, and operational costs as money comes in from sales to dealers. When credit dried up from 2008-9, so did consumer vehicle sales. Mid 2008 to late 2009 was also the time when both gasoline and diesel fuel went up to the roof ($3.50 to $4.50/gal). This put many shipping companies out of business as well as other businesses. Another often under reported factoid.
So, so dried up credit and unprecedented high U.S fuel costs created the perfect storm for many companies in many industries.

Well, enough 2008-9 history. I think my Google pictures now work.

 

[Papasonic]

The pictures came through just fine; nice color!

You should have great reliability with the 1.8 auto, as we recently traded the wife's 2012 1.8 auto sedan for a new Malibu. The only issue we had in 57,000 miles was a faulty thermostat, that I replaced myself for ~ $65.00, and front stabilizer links; replaced under warranty. Excellent reliability for a first year production vehicle. Even the tires were still very good at that mileage; it had 205/50/17s on the LTZ trim. We would have purchased another Sonic, as I mentioned earlier, but none were available in stock. Ordering one would have been an option, but we ended up with a really nice, in stock, leftover 2017 Malibu, for Sonic money. So far she likes her Malibu quite well, as it gets a little better fuel mileage than the Sonic. It has a 1.5 turbo with the stop/start system. Hopefully your new Sonic will serve your needs for many thousands of miles.