BenM1989
New member
Where to start...
I just bought my new Sonic LT hatch 1.4 two weeks ago and I could not be happier. There really is just something about this car, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I like stories so I'll tell mine.
Some of my best memories since I was a small kid was taking a road trip or flying 1100 miles to visit my family. It was usually once a year and always went by way too fast. My grandfather worked for Chevy for as long as I can remember doing body work. He only owned Chevy vehicles and I will always remember the "Chevy Parking Only" sign that hung in his garage. I remember going to more NASCAR races than I can count and always rooting for #3. (and yes they live in the south) In fact my whole family owned Chevy vehicles. When we would all get together when I was down there the house looked like a Chevy dealership. Not to get all sentimental or anything but to me Chevy became synonymous with good times and seeing family. (my dad was a ford guy and that's all he would buy
)
Fast forward to my first car. A 1992 Chevy S-10 4.3. I still think about that truck every day and wish I still had it. I bought it in 2006 with 33,000 miles on it. Yes the truck was 14 years old and it only had 33,000 miles on it. The best part was I bought the thing for $500. Had absolutely no rust on it and the thing was in epic shape. (pretty much one trip to the grocery store a week and the rest of the time it was in the garage) The previous owner just wanted to get rid of it as her husband didn't drive anymore. A few years later, not being the smartest person in the world, I sold the S-10 and bought a 2002 Chevy Trailblazer. Stupid, I know. Gas mileage was not the best in the world but 4x4 and lots of room inside was enticing.
About a month ago I decided it was time to get rid of the Trailblazer. Gas prices around here are near the all time high and if I had to buy one more set of expensive tires I was going to freak out. It wasn't a matter of what make I would get but which model. My first reaction was to sell the car and find something used. I listed the Trailblazer online and got plenty of interest. But for the heck of it I decided to go to the local dealership and see what they would give me for trade in value. I knew driving up to the dealership that I wanted something small, good on gas, manual, and the cheapest trim level. Up until this point I had only owned automatic cars and had almost no experience driving manual. Well when I got to the dealership they had an Inferno Orange Hatch LS 1.8 parked right in front and I instantly loved how the car looked. It was exactly what I wanted and more. To my surprise the dealership gave me a very reasonable trade in value and I was almost tempted to do the whole deal right then and there. But I decided to wait at least 24 hours before making any decisions.
When I got home that night I decided to do some research on the Sonics. I started by building every option possible on the Chevy website and read constant reviews online. YouTube was a great source also. Then I found this site and read many threads. The general idea that I was getting was the 1.4 was a much better car. I also looked up info on the Mylink system and decided that it would be awesome to have that. So much for getting the Orange one I saw at the dealer. Was thinking about finding an RS but I saw that most of the improvements were small and mostly cosmetic. I went back the next day to check out other stock and they had a black LT hatch model with the 1.4 and Mylink system. Instantly loved the car and decided within minutes that this was the one I wanted. Brought it home, and within a few hours had driving standard down.
I've had the car two weeks and I want to share what I think is great and what I'm not so fond about. Keep in mind this is my opinion and try not to shred it up. Some of these things might seem totally nitpicky.
Start with the bad, why not...
- A lesson learned, black paint and a black interior shows every speck of dirt, smudge, or bits of dust. I'm going to be really busy trying to keep it clean.
- I've had a hard time reaching the estimated MPG but I blame that on living in a hilly area and having short commutes.
- Very limited gauges. I would always check my gauges to see how my battery or engine temp was doing. I find it a little hard to depend on a warning light if I have any problems.
- The first question I get when someone sits in the passenger seat is "Do I get an armrest?" i get the area between the front seats is crowded. Put a couple drinks in the cup holders and things get interesting. But I do wish it had a second arm rest up front.
- Mylink is great but it has its limitations. Like no video when moving? Come on. Some of us are responsible. I've had friends Velcro iPads to their dashboards on long car rides for movies. The passengers are entertained and the driver gets to listen and laugh with them. I get the whole safety thing but I feel like that should be an unlockable option. I can't imagine a situation where I would be sitting in my car stopped and running (not going to kill my battery watching a movie) long enough to watch a movie anyways. In my point of view this is almost a useless feature. The other day I also ran into this problem. You can have an iPod plugged in for music or something Bluetooth connected for music, but you can't do both. What I imagined doing was having an iPod plugged into USB all the time. It would be the dedicated Car iPod. But what if I had some kind of song only on my phone connected by Bluetooth. I thought it would be easy to just change the source to Bluetooth music. Nope, you have to unplug the iPod from the USB first otherwise the Bluetooth option is blacked out. It is just one extra step I don't want to be doing while driving.
- This might have something to do with this being my first small car. But I was sitting in the back of the car showing it to a friend and he pointed out how close you sit to the back of the car. It actually got me thinking. The passengers in the back sit, what, 2 feet from the back window? I can't imagine what would happen if I was stopped at a light and a truck decides to rear end me going a decent speed. Of course its just not one of those things I've ever worried about as my other cars had tons of cushion space.
- I tend to get a lot of snow in these parts and the ability of the Sonic to drive in it is questionable. Guess I have to wait a few months and find out.
What I love...
- I am so comfortable in the driver's seat. Almost as if I picked out a seat and asked Chevy to build a car around me. It just fits.
- Mylink has its flaws but the reality is there are so many cool features. The ability to talk over bluetooth hands free and siri integration should add another star to the safety rating. Lets face it, the vast majority of people (even if your state bans it) talk or text on the phone while in the car. In this car I can do both without ever touching or looking at my phone. My attention is where it should be, the road.
- I was nervous about buying a new car without mastering manual. But I picked it up so easy with this one. As a side note driving stick seems so much safer once you know what you're doing and automatic drivers are just downright annoying. They slam on the gas, slam on the brake, don't pay attention, and think it's ok to get 1 foot away from your back bumper on a steep incline. Roll back assist has been one of the best features of the car in the first few days of learning. We get a lot of New Yorkers my way too and if you ever want to see someone with an inability to drive just look for that ugly yellow licence plate.
- I almost fell over when I went to fill up my car for the first time. I'm used to spending upwards of $70 on a tank of gas. This time it was $35. Not to mention the $35 lasts me much longer than the $70 ever did.
- Made in the USA. To know that most of the manufacturing and all of the assembly takes place right here in this country puts a smile to my face.
-Last its downright fun to drive again. Now when someone says they need to go somewhere I quickly volunteer to be the driver.
If you've made it to the end I appreciate you taking the time to read my stuff and hear me out. If you're reading this trying to decide to buy a Sonic try to take my word for it and go for it. I can almost guarantee you'll love the car. Seriously, read the reviews, watch some Youtube videos, and schedule a test drive. There is no denying Chevy is now relevant in the small car market.
I just bought my new Sonic LT hatch 1.4 two weeks ago and I could not be happier. There really is just something about this car, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I like stories so I'll tell mine.
Some of my best memories since I was a small kid was taking a road trip or flying 1100 miles to visit my family. It was usually once a year and always went by way too fast. My grandfather worked for Chevy for as long as I can remember doing body work. He only owned Chevy vehicles and I will always remember the "Chevy Parking Only" sign that hung in his garage. I remember going to more NASCAR races than I can count and always rooting for #3. (and yes they live in the south) In fact my whole family owned Chevy vehicles. When we would all get together when I was down there the house looked like a Chevy dealership. Not to get all sentimental or anything but to me Chevy became synonymous with good times and seeing family. (my dad was a ford guy and that's all he would buy
) Fast forward to my first car. A 1992 Chevy S-10 4.3. I still think about that truck every day and wish I still had it. I bought it in 2006 with 33,000 miles on it. Yes the truck was 14 years old and it only had 33,000 miles on it. The best part was I bought the thing for $500. Had absolutely no rust on it and the thing was in epic shape. (pretty much one trip to the grocery store a week and the rest of the time it was in the garage) The previous owner just wanted to get rid of it as her husband didn't drive anymore. A few years later, not being the smartest person in the world, I sold the S-10 and bought a 2002 Chevy Trailblazer. Stupid, I know. Gas mileage was not the best in the world but 4x4 and lots of room inside was enticing.
About a month ago I decided it was time to get rid of the Trailblazer. Gas prices around here are near the all time high and if I had to buy one more set of expensive tires I was going to freak out. It wasn't a matter of what make I would get but which model. My first reaction was to sell the car and find something used. I listed the Trailblazer online and got plenty of interest. But for the heck of it I decided to go to the local dealership and see what they would give me for trade in value. I knew driving up to the dealership that I wanted something small, good on gas, manual, and the cheapest trim level. Up until this point I had only owned automatic cars and had almost no experience driving manual. Well when I got to the dealership they had an Inferno Orange Hatch LS 1.8 parked right in front and I instantly loved how the car looked. It was exactly what I wanted and more. To my surprise the dealership gave me a very reasonable trade in value and I was almost tempted to do the whole deal right then and there. But I decided to wait at least 24 hours before making any decisions.
When I got home that night I decided to do some research on the Sonics. I started by building every option possible on the Chevy website and read constant reviews online. YouTube was a great source also. Then I found this site and read many threads. The general idea that I was getting was the 1.4 was a much better car. I also looked up info on the Mylink system and decided that it would be awesome to have that. So much for getting the Orange one I saw at the dealer. Was thinking about finding an RS but I saw that most of the improvements were small and mostly cosmetic. I went back the next day to check out other stock and they had a black LT hatch model with the 1.4 and Mylink system. Instantly loved the car and decided within minutes that this was the one I wanted. Brought it home, and within a few hours had driving standard down.
I've had the car two weeks and I want to share what I think is great and what I'm not so fond about. Keep in mind this is my opinion and try not to shred it up. Some of these things might seem totally nitpicky.
Start with the bad, why not...
- A lesson learned, black paint and a black interior shows every speck of dirt, smudge, or bits of dust. I'm going to be really busy trying to keep it clean.
- I've had a hard time reaching the estimated MPG but I blame that on living in a hilly area and having short commutes.
- Very limited gauges. I would always check my gauges to see how my battery or engine temp was doing. I find it a little hard to depend on a warning light if I have any problems.
- The first question I get when someone sits in the passenger seat is "Do I get an armrest?" i get the area between the front seats is crowded. Put a couple drinks in the cup holders and things get interesting. But I do wish it had a second arm rest up front.
- Mylink is great but it has its limitations. Like no video when moving? Come on. Some of us are responsible. I've had friends Velcro iPads to their dashboards on long car rides for movies. The passengers are entertained and the driver gets to listen and laugh with them. I get the whole safety thing but I feel like that should be an unlockable option. I can't imagine a situation where I would be sitting in my car stopped and running (not going to kill my battery watching a movie) long enough to watch a movie anyways. In my point of view this is almost a useless feature. The other day I also ran into this problem. You can have an iPod plugged in for music or something Bluetooth connected for music, but you can't do both. What I imagined doing was having an iPod plugged into USB all the time. It would be the dedicated Car iPod. But what if I had some kind of song only on my phone connected by Bluetooth. I thought it would be easy to just change the source to Bluetooth music. Nope, you have to unplug the iPod from the USB first otherwise the Bluetooth option is blacked out. It is just one extra step I don't want to be doing while driving.
- This might have something to do with this being my first small car. But I was sitting in the back of the car showing it to a friend and he pointed out how close you sit to the back of the car. It actually got me thinking. The passengers in the back sit, what, 2 feet from the back window? I can't imagine what would happen if I was stopped at a light and a truck decides to rear end me going a decent speed. Of course its just not one of those things I've ever worried about as my other cars had tons of cushion space.
- I tend to get a lot of snow in these parts and the ability of the Sonic to drive in it is questionable. Guess I have to wait a few months and find out.
What I love...
- I am so comfortable in the driver's seat. Almost as if I picked out a seat and asked Chevy to build a car around me. It just fits.
- Mylink has its flaws but the reality is there are so many cool features. The ability to talk over bluetooth hands free and siri integration should add another star to the safety rating. Lets face it, the vast majority of people (even if your state bans it) talk or text on the phone while in the car. In this car I can do both without ever touching or looking at my phone. My attention is where it should be, the road.
- I was nervous about buying a new car without mastering manual. But I picked it up so easy with this one. As a side note driving stick seems so much safer once you know what you're doing and automatic drivers are just downright annoying. They slam on the gas, slam on the brake, don't pay attention, and think it's ok to get 1 foot away from your back bumper on a steep incline. Roll back assist has been one of the best features of the car in the first few days of learning. We get a lot of New Yorkers my way too and if you ever want to see someone with an inability to drive just look for that ugly yellow licence plate.
- I almost fell over when I went to fill up my car for the first time. I'm used to spending upwards of $70 on a tank of gas. This time it was $35. Not to mention the $35 lasts me much longer than the $70 ever did.
- Made in the USA. To know that most of the manufacturing and all of the assembly takes place right here in this country puts a smile to my face.
-Last its downright fun to drive again. Now when someone says they need to go somewhere I quickly volunteer to be the driver.
If you've made it to the end I appreciate you taking the time to read my stuff and hear me out. If you're reading this trying to decide to buy a Sonic try to take my word for it and go for it. I can almost guarantee you'll love the car. Seriously, read the reviews, watch some Youtube videos, and schedule a test drive. There is no denying Chevy is now relevant in the small car market.
