Hey everyone. I'm new on this site. I joined to see if any other Sonic owners have experienced the problems I've been having. It's going to be a little lengthy and apologies for the lack of technical terms.. I'll try my best to describe in detail whatever I don't know the proper name for. Here are the details:
I bought the car a week ago on Friday, July 13th. It's an orange hatchback, LTZ, automatic transmission. This is my first car and I've been eyeing the Sonic since it came out so, naturally, I was very excited. Drove it around Friday, Saturday, all no problem. Went to go out Sunday morning (day 3 of owning, 138 miles on the car), used the key fob to unlock the car, put the key in the ignition and tried to start the car. The lights on the instrument panel all lit up, as usual, but the engine didn't turn -- not a sound. The tire pressure light and the check engine light stayed on but everything else turned off. The key became locked in the ignition and I had to use a screwdriver to press the lever located on the underside of the ignition to release the key. For the hell of it, I decided to try the remote start (didn't work) and that's when I discovered that now the key fob doesn't work, either -- can't use it to lock/unlock the car. Now, with the key in the ignition turned to 'on' the lights on the instrument panel light up (tire pressure/check engine stay lit), the radio works, the passenger side window worked (driver side window did not), AC did not work, back hatch wouldn't open. We tried to jump the car with a battery pack 3 times (Chevy roadside sent someone, we tried once with our own battery pack, and the tow company tried once with theirs) all with no success. In order to get the car into neutral we had to press a little button to do some sort of manual override to get the car into neutral so that we could push it out of the driveway and into the street to get it up onto the tow bed (luckily this happened at home!) Sonic went up to the dealership where they determined that there was a bad cell in the battery causing the problem. They replaced the battery and all was fine... or so I thought. I got the car back on Monday, July 16th. The rest of Monday was fine, Tuesday was fine, Wednesday, Thursday, all fine. Driving it was good, took it on a 3 hour round-trip drive on Thursday, no problems. Now today (Friday, July 20, ~420/430 miles) I go out in the morning, use the key fob to unlock, key in ignition, SAME problem as Sunday. Same strange things working/not working.
So now, in the course of my first week of having this car, it's been towed up to the dealership twice for the same problem. They're keeping it over the weekend to see if they can figure out what the problem is.
My question to you all: has anyone experienced any or all of these problems? I'm really hoping this an isolated incident, just some bad luck (Friday the 13th curse? jk), some kind of defect specific to this particular car, not Sonics in general. Because if I need to replace the car, I'd really love for it to be another Sonic... I'm in love with the car (when it starts up and drives!).
Thanks!
I bought the car a week ago on Friday, July 13th. It's an orange hatchback, LTZ, automatic transmission. This is my first car and I've been eyeing the Sonic since it came out so, naturally, I was very excited. Drove it around Friday, Saturday, all no problem. Went to go out Sunday morning (day 3 of owning, 138 miles on the car), used the key fob to unlock the car, put the key in the ignition and tried to start the car. The lights on the instrument panel all lit up, as usual, but the engine didn't turn -- not a sound. The tire pressure light and the check engine light stayed on but everything else turned off. The key became locked in the ignition and I had to use a screwdriver to press the lever located on the underside of the ignition to release the key. For the hell of it, I decided to try the remote start (didn't work) and that's when I discovered that now the key fob doesn't work, either -- can't use it to lock/unlock the car. Now, with the key in the ignition turned to 'on' the lights on the instrument panel light up (tire pressure/check engine stay lit), the radio works, the passenger side window worked (driver side window did not), AC did not work, back hatch wouldn't open. We tried to jump the car with a battery pack 3 times (Chevy roadside sent someone, we tried once with our own battery pack, and the tow company tried once with theirs) all with no success. In order to get the car into neutral we had to press a little button to do some sort of manual override to get the car into neutral so that we could push it out of the driveway and into the street to get it up onto the tow bed (luckily this happened at home!) Sonic went up to the dealership where they determined that there was a bad cell in the battery causing the problem. They replaced the battery and all was fine... or so I thought. I got the car back on Monday, July 16th. The rest of Monday was fine, Tuesday was fine, Wednesday, Thursday, all fine. Driving it was good, took it on a 3 hour round-trip drive on Thursday, no problems. Now today (Friday, July 20, ~420/430 miles) I go out in the morning, use the key fob to unlock, key in ignition, SAME problem as Sunday. Same strange things working/not working.
So now, in the course of my first week of having this car, it's been towed up to the dealership twice for the same problem. They're keeping it over the weekend to see if they can figure out what the problem is.
My question to you all: has anyone experienced any or all of these problems? I'm really hoping this an isolated incident, just some bad luck (Friday the 13th curse? jk), some kind of defect specific to this particular car, not Sonics in general. Because if I need to replace the car, I'd really love for it to be another Sonic... I'm in love with the car (when it starts up and drives!).
Thanks!
lol 
