New owner from NW Ohio...

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AlwaysBadLuck

New member
Hey all, my name is Mike and I’m picking up my Sonic on Friday. It’s a 2012 hatchback with the 1.4 turbo and a 6 speed manual. It has ~86k miles on it. Had a new clutch installed at 59k miles, and all the upkeep has been done at their local Chevy dealer. After browsing this forum for a few days, I’m now scared about buying a 2012! I’ve got garage space, plenty of tools, and am mechanically inclined, so I can spin a wrench if need be.

I guess I’m posting in regards of what to look out for when picking it up? The car is 4 hours away, and I’ve already put a deposit down on it. (It’s a private seller, not a dealer.) The owner says he has a folder packed full of receipts from the dealer on work that was preformed, so that helps ease my mind a hair.

Also, I plan on going heavy on the mods. After looking At some things online, I can’t get over how easy it is to make “big power” (that term is relative to the car), and how cheap the mods are!! A sub-3,000 pound car with ~200HP would be an absolute BLAST! I made a shopping list with prices. After it was all added up, it costs LESS for all the Sonic goodies then I paid for my full Corsa exhaust for my SRT Grand Cherokee!!!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and possibly replying. I’m sure I’ll be posting more after this weekend!
 
TboneMinister

TboneMinister

New member
Look forward to watching your journey! Welcome to the forum. I can't personally speak much about the '12 models, but there's lots of info on here about common issues. I would look at the wrap-up thread. Happy modding!
 
cwhaiyan

cwhaiyan

Member
Welcome to the Sonic Family! 2012's were hit and miss as they were the first year of production but there's lots of people who are 100,000 or more on their sonics many of those are 12's. one of the first things I would recommend is getting some gauges hooked up. probably the weakest point on these cars is the coolant system I recommend hitting up DDMWORKS and getting a set of silicon hoses, and keep a eye on your Water outlet and coolant reservoir both are known to crack. Tuning and other parts will get you close to 200 on the stock turbo without any problems. Pist up some pics when you get it and if your on Facebook there's a couple groups for the Sonics

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk
 
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AlwaysBadLuck

New member
Thanks for the welcome, guys! No Facebook for me. Deleted my account 3-4 years ago and haven’t looked back!

The plan is to go get it tomorrow afternoon. I’ll make sure I post a few pics when I get it back home! Nothing like driving 4 hours to pick up a car you’ve never seen in real like! But hey, at least it’s a 4 hour drive home to get the feel of it!
 
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AlwaysBadLuck

New member
Well, here it is! This was taken last night outside of Chicago on my way home!
 

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AlwaysBadLuck

New member
Thank you! Just washed all the bugs off of it and wiped down the inside real well. 4 hours of seat time yesterday really helped me get a feel of the car. Learning on when to up/down shift and getting a good feeling of the handling was awesome! Averaging 37.2 MPG while having the cruise set at 74 MPH is AMAZING to me. I guess that’s one of the perks of driving such a little car!
 
TboneMinister

TboneMinister

New member
Dang! The auto RS's just don't get that kind of mileage. Best average I've seen on the highway w/ cruise control is about 35.
 
cwhaiyan

cwhaiyan

Member
That sucks those are just a appearance package you should be getting better mileage

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