My Sonic LTZ turbo review

[Subcompact Culture]

I had the '12 Sonic LTZ Turbo for review on Subcompact Culture. I spent a week with the car, and I must say: It's one of the most fun subcompacts I've reviewed. You can check out the review below. It's great to see the Chevy stuck its neck out and released a small, turbocharged hatchback here in the U.S. Really, just a couple things that I didn't like. Overall, I think Chevy hit the nail on the head with this car.

Subcompact Culture - The small car blog: Review: 2012 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ: A great American hot hatch

- Andy

 

[Danny5]

Nice review, but a little on the short side. Would have liked to read about some experiences you had while driving.

 

[AndrewGS]

Nicely done!

 

[fl4kk]

The car & engine are so quiet and there's so little feel in the peddle that i can't tell when I'm engaging the clutch when starting from a stop in 1st gear. I've also found that the hill holder feature doesn't seem to engage when the peddle isn't pressed with sufficient pressure. still makes me nervous on hills, definitely gonna take some practice.

 

[gines418]

the pic of this car is identical to mine.

For fun I when showing it to my kids (14 and 17) for the first time as we walked up to it I asked them to get in the back seat and each of them were initially perplexed trying to find the door handle! Both of them thought the car reminded them of a go-kart!

joe

 

[rodslinger]

I test drove one last night and was honestly impressed. It was a 1LTZ sedan with the 1.4t. I am looking for another small car and so far am putting this at the top of my list. There are a few items that to me are less than perfect but hoping these are bits the aftermarket can handle.

1) I liked the overall feel of the car and handling however the rear suspension felt a little soft compared to the front. The stiffness, compression and rebound control just didn't feel balanced between the front and rear of the car. Otherwise very nice.

2) Motor mounts felt a little soft. In slower traffic or lower gears I could feel the motor bounce off the mounts when the A/C cycled on and off. I guess that's the compromise for sound isolation. Lended to a slight jerky feel as the air conditioner cycled. Annoying but not a deal breaker.

3) Seat mounted armrest moved with seat and didn't seem to align well with door mounted armrest. Would have been better with a center mounted armrest and storage bin combo. No center armrest for passenger due to this also.

4) Shifter was a little sloppy. Long throws and spongy feel. Not bad enough to not know what gear you are in and you can definately feel the engagement but not as good as others.

Overall a good car though. I'm just a picky bastard.

 

[laborsmith]

You may be interested to learn member TravSonic has dismantled a Cruze shifter (we believe the Sonic uses the same shifter) and is developing a fix. He posts both here and at Cruzetalk and does an excellent job of keeping us up to date.

Laborsmith