TIEfighter
New member
So today I drove my Sonic on the highway to go to an event that was out of town. Here in Charlotte a lot of the entrance ramps and exit ramps have tight turns and steep incline and declines. This was going to be my first time seeing how fast or slow my Sonic performed while traveling on the highway.
About a week or two I was driving up a local hill and around 40ish I would floor it to go a little faster. My foot was to the floor and the car decided to not accelerate to go up the hill at an increased speed. So I thought, when I go on the highway I'm going to have to shift from 'D' to 'M' if I want any acceleration.
Today on the way to the event about 30-40 mins away I see the entrance ramp. I try to divert all power too the engine so I turned off the a/c, shifted my car from 'D' to 'M' so I can make it up the entrance ramp. This entrance ramp has about a 50%-60% incline. I figured if I shift it to a lower gear it will accelerate with some speed.
Man was I right! I shifted down to 3rd my RPM's went up from about 2 to 4 and I could make it up the hill. Then shifting to 4th gear near the top of the hill to the merge lane. There is about 150 feet at the top of the ramp before you have to merge or....end up on the wrong freeway. So after I get to the top of the hill I shift to 5th and merge successfully onto the freeway.
While on my way back I had to do the same thing when I was merging from one entrance ramp to merge to a different freeway. Shifting to 'M' helped out a lot from a 30-40 roll because 'D' will just leave you standing still after pressing the gas. I was able to merge onto this different freeway from a 30-40 roll to about 60-65mph to flow with traffic.
Note that I have the 15" aluminum wheels (less grip than bigger wheels) and the 1.8L engine which doesn't have a turbo. I really aprreciate the Sonic having a 'M' gear because when you have to actually accelerate to not get rear ended to by the oncoming traffic while merging is very appreciative.
I understand why people like the automatic Sonic and I like mine. But without having this 'M' gear I would have been in major trouble and would have probably made it up the hill at 25mph to merge without any acceleration. Now I understand why some people got the 1.4L turbo Manual because I am guessing the acceleration up a hill is more controllable and higher performance possibly.
Has anybody else had this type of experience with this when driving their 1.8L auto? Does this story make any sense or no? Thought it would be interesting to post what happened when I drove today...lol
About a week or two I was driving up a local hill and around 40ish I would floor it to go a little faster. My foot was to the floor and the car decided to not accelerate to go up the hill at an increased speed. So I thought, when I go on the highway I'm going to have to shift from 'D' to 'M' if I want any acceleration.
Today on the way to the event about 30-40 mins away I see the entrance ramp. I try to divert all power too the engine so I turned off the a/c, shifted my car from 'D' to 'M' so I can make it up the entrance ramp. This entrance ramp has about a 50%-60% incline. I figured if I shift it to a lower gear it will accelerate with some speed.
Man was I right! I shifted down to 3rd my RPM's went up from about 2 to 4 and I could make it up the hill. Then shifting to 4th gear near the top of the hill to the merge lane. There is about 150 feet at the top of the ramp before you have to merge or....end up on the wrong freeway. So after I get to the top of the hill I shift to 5th and merge successfully onto the freeway.
While on my way back I had to do the same thing when I was merging from one entrance ramp to merge to a different freeway. Shifting to 'M' helped out a lot from a 30-40 roll because 'D' will just leave you standing still after pressing the gas. I was able to merge onto this different freeway from a 30-40 roll to about 60-65mph to flow with traffic.
Note that I have the 15" aluminum wheels (less grip than bigger wheels) and the 1.8L engine which doesn't have a turbo. I really aprreciate the Sonic having a 'M' gear because when you have to actually accelerate to not get rear ended to by the oncoming traffic while merging is very appreciative.
I understand why people like the automatic Sonic and I like mine. But without having this 'M' gear I would have been in major trouble and would have probably made it up the hill at 25mph to merge without any acceleration. Now I understand why some people got the 1.4L turbo Manual because I am guessing the acceleration up a hill is more controllable and higher performance possibly.
Has anybody else had this type of experience with this when driving their 1.8L auto? Does this story make any sense or no? Thought it would be interesting to post what happened when I drove today...lol
