New Sonic initial quality

[Chazzz]

Just bought my 2018 Premier Hatch a couple weeks ago and I must say I am very impressed with the initial build quality of this car. The fit and finish is flawless, all body panels line up perfectly, zero orange peel in paint and the car is tight as a drum with no squaks or rattles. This is my 5th GM car in the last couple years including two Cruzes and two Camaro's, and the initial build quality on the Sonic seems far superior to all the others, even the Camaro. Hats off to Orion assembly for building great initial quality into an entry level product!!!

 

[dannyg]

Just bought my 2018 Premier Hatch a couple weeks ago and I must say I am very impressed with the initial build quality of this car. The fit and finish is flawless, all body panels line up perfectly, zero orange peel in paint and the car is tight as a drum with no squaks or rattles. This is my 5th GM car in the last couple years including two Cruzes and two Camaro's, and the initial build quality on the Sonic seems far superior to all the others, even the Camaro. Hats off to Orion assembly for building great initial quality into an entry level product!!!

I'm up to 35K miles on my 2015, bought February 2015, so far zero squeaks/rattles. OK that's not a ton of miles but no "quality" issues on car at all except for thermostat replaced at 30K under warranty. So yes I'm an Orion fan!

 

[GaryMeer]

High Quality for low bucks

I have had my 2013 Sonic LT Hatchback 1.4T since 12/31/2012. The sum total of work done including warranty work) has been:

Bad heater hose - Jan 2013 - Warranty

Turbo - May 2016 - Warranty

Water Pump failure - Feb 2017 - Warranty

Engine Coolant Inlet - cracked - March 2018 - me

Battery - May 2018 - me

2 sets of tires - at 60 and 109,000 miles

Brakes, shocks, struts, and a new front sway bushings - June 2018 - me

I now am trying to track down an issue where the right side headlight shuts off after a few seconds, which I now suspect is the body control module.

For a small car with 110,000 miles on it, it seems like a very short list. The fact that someone let me buy a service contract on the engine, trans, A/C, and some other stuff out to 200,000 miles says a lot.

 

[shoey]

I've got a few rattles in my 2017 with 8k miles on it.. I attribute it partially to the terrible Michigan roads, but it's still somewhat disappointing. My 2000 Accord w/ 240k miles had less rattles when I sold it. The Sonic is superior in every other way though.

 

[shibbs]

I mainly do freeway driving.

12,xxx miles and I've got a squeak from the passenger side dash (trim ring around the vent), glove box area, and the right rear door area. I'm not super impressed.

 

[shoey]

I mainly do freeway driving.

12,xxx miles and I've got a squeak from the passenger side dash (trim ring around the vent), glove box area, and the right rear door area. I'm not super impressed.

I have some similar rattles to the ones you described. I had noticed that something in all four doors rattle if you play music with any sort of bass in it. I opened up the doors and the most obvious cause was the window switch which is clipped into the door panel. It has some room to move around. I taped mine down better which has helped some but isn't a permanent fix.

 

[jbcsoniclt]

2016 Sonic Hatchback

I have a 2016 Cdn spec Sonic hatchback with 30,000 km. The car was perfect as delivered when new. Fit, finish and paint were outstanding. There is a slight hatch cover rattle on really bumpy roads. Otherwise, change oil, rotate tires, wash and wax, repeat.

 

[Pak4now]

2018 1.4 Hatch versus 2013 1.4 hatch

I had my 2013 1.4 Hatch for a little over 4 years and had very few issues. Had a water pump issue at 86,000 but powertrain warranty covered that. The clear coat on the hood and roof did start to go at about 95,000. Other than that I did nothing other than maintenance items. The car was fun to drive and gave me good fuel economy. 34+ on average. So upgrading to the same thing for 2018 seemed like a no brainer. And while I will agree paint quality and fit and finish are outstanding, that's about all the good I can say. With 15000 miles since April 2nd, my best fuel economy has been 32.1. The vehicle doesn't handle as well, especially in the corners. Don't get me started on the radio. It's had 2 software updates and it still isn't fixed. Though some of the connectivity issues have been fixed, it goes completely dead at random times for anywhere from a minute to 10 minutes. It is a know issue and "Engineering is currently evaluating the condition" No fix currently available.

I am a die hard Chevrolet fan. The last 8 vehicles have all been Chevrolet. I've been selling Chevrolet products for well over 15 years. But I'm a little frustrated at this point.

 

[shoey]

I had my 2013 1.4 Hatch for a little over 4 years and had very few issues. Had a water pump issue at 86,000 but powertrain warranty covered that. The clear coat on the hood and roof did start to go at about 95,000. Other than that I did nothing other than maintenance items. The car was fun to drive and gave me good fuel economy. 34+ on average. So upgrading to the same thing for 2018 seemed like a no brainer. And while I will agree paint quality and fit and finish are outstanding, that's about all the good I can say. With 15000 miles since April 2nd, my best fuel economy has been 32.1. The vehicle doesn't handle as well, especially in the corners. Don't get me started on the radio. It's had 2 software updates and it still isn't fixed. Though some of the connectivity issues have been fixed, it goes completely dead at random times for anywhere from a minute to 10 minutes. It is a know issue and "Engineering is currently evaluating the condition" No fix currently available.

I am a die hard Chevrolet fan. The last 8 vehicles have all been Chevrolet. I've been selling Chevrolet products for well over 15 years. But I'm a little frustrated at this point.

Regarding the fuel economy... Were those numbers calculated at the pump by you or by the onboard computer? Another thought, maybe additional emissions regulations have reduced the fuel economy with a more restrictive cat?

 

[Chazzz]

I had my 2013 1.4 Hatch for a little over 4 years and had very few issues. Had a water pump issue at 86,000 but powertrain warranty covered that. The clear coat on the hood and roof did start to go at about 95,000. Other than that I did nothing other than maintenance items. The car was fun to drive and gave me good fuel economy. 34+ on average. So upgrading to the same thing for 2018 seemed like a no brainer. And while I will agree paint quality and fit and finish are outstanding, that's about all the good I can say. With 15000 miles since April 2nd, my best fuel economy has been 32.1. The vehicle doesn't handle as well, especially in the corners. Don't get me started on the radio. It's had 2 software updates and it still isn't fixed. Though some of the connectivity issues have been fixed, it goes completely dead at random times for anywhere from a minute to 10 minutes. It is a know issue and "Engineering is currently evaluating the condition" No fix currently available.

I am a die hard Chevrolet fan. The last 8 vehicles have all been Chevrolet. I've been selling Chevrolet products for well over 15 years. But I'm a little frustrated at this point.

According to the onboard fuel economy computer I have averaged 34+ MPG and as high as 36+ on every tank thus far running 87 octane fuel in my 18 1.4 A6 Premier Hatch. Also my car handles like a go cart, the stereo sounds better than the $1K Bose system in my Camaro and the backup camera is much higher definition than my Camaro. No complaints or issues to this point...