This Car has been the biggest turd I have driven...

[Anonamoose]

As the title says...
Will be selling my Sonic and never looking back. First and last GM car for me.
Had a 2001 Jeep Wrangler
2003 1.4t Passat Wagon
2007 Nissan Versa
and a 2012 chevy sonic 1.4t

First off I don't post much but a long time lurker thank all of you for your time/helpful posts this has been the only plus about this car was the wealth of knowledge I can tap here.
Will be selling it with only 52k miles.

At 12k miles I actually had the water pump bearing go out.
At 23400 I had the Torque Hub give out an pee tranny fluid all over my driveway.
Had one of the bad battery ones. Acid...and cleanup (yay).
Two PVC vales which in the 1.4 means new valve cover/gasket (who the ?#$&^%! designed that ?!)
New wheel bearings and struts already too.

This thing has depreciated soo fast! For example sold my versa in with 120k miles and got 10k for it at a dealor (no trade in/up). Blue book for my sonic for dealer trade in is only 7650 with literally half the miles and same age . Oh and the Versa was only 14k. I got the LTZ here so it was 18500 new. Filed multiple complaints with GM the last straw was the PVC (again) but in military so in Europe. I know that GM doesn't do warranty work in Europe (although they own Opel) I tried my hardest just to get them to pay for the vavle cover as it's a **** design and who needs two PVC valves with literally 51200 miles on a car?! They wouldn't do jack . Wish ya'll many happy miles . The 1.4 T was soo much fun at first but the issues are just too many for me.

See ya'll on the road
Anonamoose

 

[HDG]

As the title says...
Will be selling my Sonic and never looking back. First and last GM car for me.
Had a 2001 Jeep Wrangler
2003 1.4t Passat Wagon
2007 Nissan Versa
and a 2012 chevy sonic 1.4t

First off I don't post much but a long time lurker thank all of you for your time/helpful posts this has been the only plus about this car was the wealth of knowledge I can tap here.
Will be selling it with only 52k miles.

At 12k miles I actually had the water pump bearing go out.
At 23400 I had the Torque Hub give out an pee tranny fluid all over my driveway.
Had one of the bad battery ones. Acid...and cleanup (yay).
Two PVC vales which in the 1.4 means new valve cover/gasket (who the ?#$&^%! designed that ?!)
New wheel bearings and struts already too.

This thing has depreciated soo fast! For example sold my versa in with 120k miles and got 10k for it at a dealor (no trade in/up). Blue book for my sonic for dealer trade in is only 7650 with literally half the miles and same age . Oh and the Versa was only 14k. I got the LTZ here so it was 18500 new. Filed multiple complaints with GM the last straw was the PVC (again) but in military so in Europe. I know that GM doesn't do warranty work in Europe (although they own Opel) I tried my hardest just to get them to pay for the vavle cover as it's a **** design and who needs two PVC valves with literally 51200 miles on a car?! They wouldn't do jack . Wish ya'll many happy miles . The 1.4 T was soo much fun at first but the issues are just too many for me.

See ya'll on the road
Anonamoose

64k on my '13 LT 1.4

so far...water pump, leak in the axle seal, replaced air intake, random vacuum leak, and now, passenger side mirror clip is broken

all under warranty...if it wasn't, I wouldn't own a Chevy Sonic

love the car, not made with great detail

 

[nickalltogether]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. It does seem like Sonics, and particularly the 2012, have a lot of niggling little problems such as what you mentioned. Then again, some people have miles and miles with no issues - seems like a quality control thing.

Happy motoring otherwise!

 

[carsNskis]

Kick rocks Felicia, because my bull**** meter maxed out on two comments so I didn't read anything else:

1) owned a 1.4t Passat wagon.... And how many thousands did you throw into that to keep it running?? At least your Sonic is under warranty....

2) you got $10k for a 120k mile Versa....

Ohhhhhhhhhkaaaaaayyyyyyy.....

 

[The Champ]

2) you got $10k for a 120k mile Versa....

Ohhhhhhhhhkaaaaaayyyyyyy.....

Current dealer retail for a 5 year old Nissan Versa with 120,000 miles is a little over $4000.00. Trade in is about $2,000.00.

So why would your BS meter peg when someone claims they sold their 5 year old Versa to a dealer?

That $7650.00 for a trade in on a 5 year old Sonic looks pretty good...

 

[4g63gst20]

my dealership where I bought 4 new vehicle in the past 6 years offered 5500 for my 2012 sonic 70k miles.

 

[carsNskis]

Current dealer retail for a 5 year old Nissan Versa with 120,000 miles is a little over $4000.00. Trade in is about $2,000.00.

So why would your BS meter peg when someone claims they sold their 5 year old Versa to a dealer?

That $7650.00 for a trade in on a 5 year old Sonic looks pretty good...

He said he got $10k for a 120k mile Versa... As in THEY paid HIM that amount. #neverhappened #ever #inhistory

The Versa barely retails for $10k brand new (exaggerated of course), but it's what you buy when Dodge turns you down for Finance on a Dart...

 

[spacedout]

That $7650.00 for a trade in on a 5 year old Sonic looks pretty good...

I had 95,000 miles on my 2012 cruze and the dealer still gave me top bluebook value for my car, $6,200. To me $7600 seems cheap as low as his mileage was(51,000), probably went to a dealer that is only willing to pay wholesale pricing.

 

[The Champ]

Guys

I was saying that $7650 sounds good for his Sonic vs. what a 5 year old, 120,000 mile Versa sells for retail on a dealer lot.

I don't believe that he got $10 grand for his Versa POS...

 

[eggsalad]

I paid $10k for my 2013 in January 2016. It's worth $6k now, 7500 miles later. Have replaced more parts in 7500 miles (cc switch and end links) than I did in 92k miles of Scion ownership.

Can't wait to get rid of my Sonic.

 

[carsNskis]

All trolling aside it does suck to hear when fellow owners aren't happy with a car that i get a great deal of enjoyment out of. I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with yours.

Everyone gets a different sense of value out of the Sonic, for me I average 26k/yr and I've been really happy with it. I have faith in my service dept so far, keeping my fingers crossed now that I'm just over 36k.

The depreciation is pretty rapid up front but I think it will flatten out as more become available used. It's definitely a car made to own several years before the loan to value settles.

There's lots of good alternatives to the Sonic in the segment, just depends on what you want out of the car. I'd personally like to have a GTI but then again why not hold off on trading until I can manage a Golf R payment... in Colorado the awd would be nice for the winter (even though the Sonic on snows did superb)

 

[2014 Blue RS]

I've replaced nothing but oil and upgrades. No issues and don't care about resale. Gotta drive any car a few years past the loan to recoup your costs.
Been cheap to own so far :banana:

 

[eggsalad]

And now, a P0171 code. Gah! I really find this car unacceptable. Do I take a $4000 loss in 5 months of ownership or just keep fixing it?

 

[Chevrolet Customer Care]

And now, a P0171 code. Gah! I really find this car unacceptable. Do I take a $4000 loss in 5 months of ownership or just keep fixing it?

Hello eggsalad,

We're so sorry to hear you've had such a tough time with your Sonic. Given the opportunity, our team would be glad to contact the involved dealership and review your situation in greater detail. If this is something of interest, please send us a direct message with your VIN, mileage, contact information, and the name of your dealer.

Jasmine
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

[Cyric]

I couldn't agree more. I bought a new 2012 LT with 75 miles. The first major failure was at 1200 miles, and after four years I've had 72 trips to the dealership for repairs.

Buying a Sonic was the worst mistake of my adult life. To anyone reading this, if you can return yours I HIGHLY recommend you do so. Chevy will fight you on repairs and dodge accountability every step of the way.

 

[mitdr774]

Either some of you guys have **** dealers, actually got one of the few lemons, or are looking for faults in the car just to justify hating it. I find that generally the people that complain to no end about their car "settled" for the car the ended up with.

I have had my 2012 LT since 2-29-12 and prior ro being rear ended it has been into the dealer twice. Once was for a new shifter since the knob was coming apart and the other trip was to get a coolant flush. Hardly what I would call a POS.

 

[Cyric]

Crappy dealership service is a direct result of a crappier parent company. All 4 of my local Chevy dealerships are overwhelmed with service requests due to GM's terrible QC.

I sought repairs under warranty, GM pushes back on the dealership techs to say they can't find anything wrong; especially when it comes to electrical issues, which accounts for damn near everything on the car.

I'm glad you had a good experience, but the class action lawsuits, recalls, and tens of thousands of unhappy customers should make it pretty clear that quality issues with their cars are FAR from unusual.

I deeply regret giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Either some of you guys have **** dealers, actually got one of the few lemons, or are looking for faults in the car just to justify hating it. I find that generally the people that complain to no end about their car "settled" for the car the ended up with.

I have had my 2012 LT since 2-29-12 and prior ro being rear ended it has been into the dealer twice. Once was for a new shifter since the knob was coming apart and the other trip was to get a coolant flush. Hardly what I would call a POS.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

We've got 14K on ours and so far so good. Plan to keep it another 5 years or more until it dies, so got a while to see. Basically it will be a part time commuter. Got a 13 Focus with 40K and the Sonic with 14K, My wife works in town, I will soon be working about an hour out, currently about 40 minutes out. So we trade them off every couple weeks or so.

 

[mitdr774]

Crappy dealership service is a direct result of a crappier parent company. All 4 of my local Chevy dealerships are overwhelmed with service requests due to GM's terrible QC.

I sought repairs under warranty, GM pushes back on the dealership techs to say they can't find anything wrong; especially when it comes to electrical issues, which accounts for damn near everything on the car.

I'm glad you had a good experience, but the class action lawsuits, recalls, and tens of thousands of unhappy customers should make it pretty clear that quality issues with their cars are FAR from unusual.

I deeply regret giving them the benefit of the doubt.

One of the reasons I left the dealership world was due to lack of work. Overall I would say the quality of the GM products I worked on was far superior to the Nissan products I worked on. A few friends worked in Toyota or VW dealers and would not own those products but went with GM ones instead. They are still driving GM products. I have driven GM products since I started driving. I have never come across this supposed lack of QC.

When a tech says they cant find the problem it could be one of many reasons. One of those is not GM telling them to say they couldnt find it. I have had GM engineers come out to look at a car with me when I couldnt find the issue. Sometimes it cant be found because its so random, the customer failed to give all or the correct information on how to recreate it, or its computer related and only happens when the exact perfect conditions happen.

Go sell your GM and buy an import. It wont hurt my feelings and it sounds like you didnt want a GM product to begin with. Keep in mind that this car is the Metro of 2012+. I went in with lower expectations than my car has produced. I cant complain about mine.

 

[The Champ]

Crappy dealership service is a direct result of a crappier parent company. All 4 of my local Chevy dealerships are overwhelmed with service requests due to GM's terrible QC.

I sought repairs under warranty, GM pushes back on the dealership techs to say they can't find anything wrong; especially when it comes to electrical issues, which accounts for damn near everything on the car.

I'm glad you had a good experience, but the class action lawsuits, recalls, and tens of thousands of unhappy customers should make it pretty clear that quality issues with their cars are FAR from unusual.

I deeply regret giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Well, my personal experience is different from your's.

And the experience of the majority of new car owners is also different from your's.

In the most frequent study (2016) of long term dependability, JD Powers found that Chevy (and GM as a whole) to be much better than the average car manufacturer.

This study is a compilation of research of the 2013 model year and is based on information received from original owners that still currently owned the cars.

Before you say that was just the 2016 results, here is the same info for 2015 (2012 model year results):

And just in case, the 2014 study....

Need more? 2013 study of 2010 models:

I'm not trying to say that GM has not had some issues in the past (every manufacturer has had problems at times). But Chevy and GM have been one of the top manufacturers as far as vehicle dependability this decade.

Ten's of thousands of unhappy customers is not a real big deal when you sell over 3,000,000 vehicles in the USA alone in a single year (that's over 400,000 more than second place Ford last year).