I’ve had no major problems (yet, thank god) with my Sonic, but its the little things that are making me not like this car or want another GM product. Well if you want to call them little things.
I’ve had this car the length of a pregnancy (9 months for those of you that don’t know). I bought it used (I’m a broke millennial. Don’t judge me) with 51 thousand on the odo. Here’s some of the things that’s been going on with it the last few months:
The damn service engine light has still been on, which for some reason makes my remote start not work. Which means I’m freezing my nuts off in the am since I usually have my car running so the interior can heat up before I leave.
I’m still just barley getting 25 mpg, and that’s mixed highway and city driving. I have the 1.8 non turbo I4. People like to tout the RS’s 1.4 turbo and its 40 mpg, but they are forgetting the non turbo is .4 liters smaller and has no turbo. Someone please explain to me how a hatchback that’s barley over 2500 lbs with only 138 horsepower is only getting 25 mpg. Mind you that’s with me driving normally.
My transmission is shifting horribly. Rough up shifts and downshifts. Just this morning there was a 3 second delay for it shifting into drive. And when it did shift into drive it was rough and hard. Not only that, but its holding gears and downshifting like its a manual. I don’t know if I need a transmission flush or what. But even that is a headache and I can only take it to either the dealer or somewhere else specifically because Sonic’s are made with sealed transmissions
The Stabliatrack light comes on on the dash at least twice a day. Mostly when the car is at idle in drive. When it does, engine revs fluctuate up and down a few hundred rpm. The light stays on for up to a minute at a time. It then just goes off and the engine revs return to normal. But then there’s a weird buzzing sound after it goes off that comes from the engine. Kinda sounds like the sound you would hear during a hearing test.
The weird throttle response. Say I wanted to autocross. If I floored the throttle from a standing start, there wouldn’t be smooth power delivery. It comes on lumpy and weird. Like someone that’s attempting to shift a manual trans. Makes the car jerk.
I’m on my second oil change this year.Had the first one back in May. Even though I was told by 3 different Chevy dealers that the car needs no oil changes till 100 thousand miles. I’m at 72,5. I don’t know how true that is.
And lastly, the other night, me and my girlfriend were in the car going to the store. At the light, turning left, I noticed that I couldn’t hear the turn signal clicking. I said to my girl how this was the kind of little annoyances that pissed me off. She then says how come the dash board lights aren’t on. I looked down, and I hadn’t even noticed that the reason I couldn’t hear the turn signal, was because none of the dash lights were on! The only thing that was lit up was the digital speedo screen. Other than that, the large tach, and all radio and ac controls were all dark, even though it was night time and the headlights were on. So I pulled over and tried turning the car off and on with no luck with the lights coming back on. Finally I turned the radio on and, after a weird sort of flicker that’s when all the lights came on and everything was normal. What the hell is going on?
These things may not seem serious to some people, but they are to me, especially when your paying on a car everything month. I don’t know if the engine and trans problems are because of the fact that I drive A LOT (I’ve put over 20 thousand miles on the odo since I got it back in February.) But still, like I said these things are annoying on a car that isn’t even old yet. They tout this car as being the only subcompact that’s built in America. But these problems make that bragging mean nothing to me. Anyone else find a problem with the problems I’m having with this car?
I’ve had this car the length of a pregnancy (9 months for those of you that don’t know). I bought it used (I’m a broke millennial. Don’t judge me) with 51 thousand on the odo. Here’s some of the things that’s been going on with it the last few months:
The damn service engine light has still been on, which for some reason makes my remote start not work. Which means I’m freezing my nuts off in the am since I usually have my car running so the interior can heat up before I leave.
I’m still just barley getting 25 mpg, and that’s mixed highway and city driving. I have the 1.8 non turbo I4. People like to tout the RS’s 1.4 turbo and its 40 mpg, but they are forgetting the non turbo is .4 liters smaller and has no turbo. Someone please explain to me how a hatchback that’s barley over 2500 lbs with only 138 horsepower is only getting 25 mpg. Mind you that’s with me driving normally.
My transmission is shifting horribly. Rough up shifts and downshifts. Just this morning there was a 3 second delay for it shifting into drive. And when it did shift into drive it was rough and hard. Not only that, but its holding gears and downshifting like its a manual. I don’t know if I need a transmission flush or what. But even that is a headache and I can only take it to either the dealer or somewhere else specifically because Sonic’s are made with sealed transmissions
The Stabliatrack light comes on on the dash at least twice a day. Mostly when the car is at idle in drive. When it does, engine revs fluctuate up and down a few hundred rpm. The light stays on for up to a minute at a time. It then just goes off and the engine revs return to normal. But then there’s a weird buzzing sound after it goes off that comes from the engine. Kinda sounds like the sound you would hear during a hearing test.
The weird throttle response. Say I wanted to autocross. If I floored the throttle from a standing start, there wouldn’t be smooth power delivery. It comes on lumpy and weird. Like someone that’s attempting to shift a manual trans. Makes the car jerk.
I’m on my second oil change this year.Had the first one back in May. Even though I was told by 3 different Chevy dealers that the car needs no oil changes till 100 thousand miles. I’m at 72,5. I don’t know how true that is.
And lastly, the other night, me and my girlfriend were in the car going to the store. At the light, turning left, I noticed that I couldn’t hear the turn signal clicking. I said to my girl how this was the kind of little annoyances that pissed me off. She then says how come the dash board lights aren’t on. I looked down, and I hadn’t even noticed that the reason I couldn’t hear the turn signal, was because none of the dash lights were on! The only thing that was lit up was the digital speedo screen. Other than that, the large tach, and all radio and ac controls were all dark, even though it was night time and the headlights were on. So I pulled over and tried turning the car off and on with no luck with the lights coming back on. Finally I turned the radio on and, after a weird sort of flicker that’s when all the lights came on and everything was normal. What the hell is going on?
These things may not seem serious to some people, but they are to me, especially when your paying on a car everything month. I don’t know if the engine and trans problems are because of the fact that I drive A LOT (I’ve put over 20 thousand miles on the odo since I got it back in February.) But still, like I said these things are annoying on a car that isn’t even old yet. They tout this car as being the only subcompact that’s built in America. But these problems make that bragging mean nothing to me. Anyone else find a problem with the problems I’m having with this car?
You live in Ontario, CA - you don't need to warm up your car in the morning. You can't freeze your nuts off if it ain't freezing.
