Ksull72487
Member
Well guys I had a mishap with my 2016 BMW M235i. Totaled. So I wound up with a 2019 Chevy Sonic RS. Nice little car for the money.
Last two cars:
2013 Mini Cooper S
2016 BMW M235i
Now a 2019 Chevy Sonic RS Hatchback
(I’m only laughing since my Coworkers know me too well. They nicknamed me Hedgehog).
Credit was gonna hold up and Covid cranked used car prices. Plus I didn’t want to pay the BMW prices anymore. It’s $1700 for a cup of coffee. I had the Sonic as a rental a lot in the past. I always liked the infotainment system and they weren’t bad cars. Plus it’s GM you can rebuild the thing at autozone cheap. Obviously this is a slow car with a bit of potential. Torquey little thing off the line. I have never heard of a Turbo listing 87 Octane in my life.
Since I’m new to the car I want to tell you what I did. I ran a tank of 87 as that’s what the dealer filled it with. Then ran two tanks of 89 just to see. The ECU did figure it out by the second tank and change the maps. I noticed it. MPGs went up and a tad bit more horsepower. I told myself okay I’ll probably run 89 in this car. Then I said let’s run two tanks of 93 Octane and see what happens since I’m new to it. Probably won’t be a Placebo. By the 2nd tank of 93. Boost was much more noticeable. MPGs not sure probably close to the same but I was in boost more with the 93. I’m used to almost 400HP Turboed and that was a daily driver lol trust me the butt dyno isn’t lieing.
GM was one of the Manufacturers lobbying for higher octane fuel so they can make smaller higher compression turbo engines with more power and MPGs. Most manufacturers are.
For those of you with the 1.4 Turbo I hate to say it. You should be running 89+. Now that’s a draw back for me as it’s a Chevy not a BMW lol. But also probably why Chevy said 87 Minimum. It would hurt sales if this car required 93. For now I’m going to run 93.
The only other reason I can think of Chevy would say 87 Minimum but hint at running a higher octane in the manual. It’s the knock sensors. All cars have them today. Even a BMW M2 will run on 87. But the knock sensors will go nuts preventing things. Higher octane your knock sensors will rarely need to intervene. Let’s say you have a knock sensor fail and your running 87 a bad batch of it. You could blow a rod or ruin a piston.
This is an unbiased review from somebody who’s had a lot of nice cars and is new to this one that did some tests. It’s no different than any other turbo on the market. It’ll appreciate the higher octane. Generally too it does balance out just stay off the boost as that’s where your MPGs go.
Overall I’m kinda impressed with the Sonic. Chevy did good by it. Too bad the Compact Market is dieing lol and they choose to keep that cheap little Korean Daewoo Spark with a CVT. More money for them, higher margin car. That’s why they did that.
Anyways I’m new here read a lot of your posts decided to share. Plans for the car not much really. I did LEDs in the Projectors. They had a nice cut off. So I figured why not. Might do a a ZZP Stage 1 as it’s cheap. Way cheaper than on the M2, just to see what it does and get a little more passing power. But for the most part it’s gonna be a A-B driver kept in good condition until it breaks and I get stupid enough to buy another BMW product lol.
Short story I like the car for what it is. Honestly the handling is pretty nice too. But that’s probably do to the shorter wheel base. Suspension isn’t as stiff as an M2 or Mini Cooper but I thought I’d feel way more body roll. For the money solid little car. I bought the Car through Carvana. Needed something quick as I was paying $290 a week on a rental after loosing the BMW. Found something I could deal with clicked buy less than a week later at door.
This isn’t the first time I thought about buying a Sonic. So far positive experience but I haven’t had it more than a few weeks.
Last two cars:
2013 Mini Cooper S
2016 BMW M235i
Now a 2019 Chevy Sonic RS Hatchback
(I’m only laughing since my Coworkers know me too well. They nicknamed me Hedgehog).Credit was gonna hold up and Covid cranked used car prices. Plus I didn’t want to pay the BMW prices anymore. It’s $1700 for a cup of coffee. I had the Sonic as a rental a lot in the past. I always liked the infotainment system and they weren’t bad cars. Plus it’s GM you can rebuild the thing at autozone cheap. Obviously this is a slow car with a bit of potential. Torquey little thing off the line. I have never heard of a Turbo listing 87 Octane in my life.
Since I’m new to the car I want to tell you what I did. I ran a tank of 87 as that’s what the dealer filled it with. Then ran two tanks of 89 just to see. The ECU did figure it out by the second tank and change the maps. I noticed it. MPGs went up and a tad bit more horsepower. I told myself okay I’ll probably run 89 in this car. Then I said let’s run two tanks of 93 Octane and see what happens since I’m new to it. Probably won’t be a Placebo. By the 2nd tank of 93. Boost was much more noticeable. MPGs not sure probably close to the same but I was in boost more with the 93. I’m used to almost 400HP Turboed and that was a daily driver lol trust me the butt dyno isn’t lieing.
GM was one of the Manufacturers lobbying for higher octane fuel so they can make smaller higher compression turbo engines with more power and MPGs. Most manufacturers are.
For those of you with the 1.4 Turbo I hate to say it. You should be running 89+. Now that’s a draw back for me as it’s a Chevy not a BMW lol. But also probably why Chevy said 87 Minimum. It would hurt sales if this car required 93. For now I’m going to run 93.
The only other reason I can think of Chevy would say 87 Minimum but hint at running a higher octane in the manual. It’s the knock sensors. All cars have them today. Even a BMW M2 will run on 87. But the knock sensors will go nuts preventing things. Higher octane your knock sensors will rarely need to intervene. Let’s say you have a knock sensor fail and your running 87 a bad batch of it. You could blow a rod or ruin a piston.
This is an unbiased review from somebody who’s had a lot of nice cars and is new to this one that did some tests. It’s no different than any other turbo on the market. It’ll appreciate the higher octane. Generally too it does balance out just stay off the boost as that’s where your MPGs go.
Overall I’m kinda impressed with the Sonic. Chevy did good by it. Too bad the Compact Market is dieing lol and they choose to keep that cheap little Korean Daewoo Spark with a CVT. More money for them, higher margin car. That’s why they did that.
Anyways I’m new here read a lot of your posts decided to share. Plans for the car not much really. I did LEDs in the Projectors. They had a nice cut off. So I figured why not. Might do a a ZZP Stage 1 as it’s cheap. Way cheaper than on the M2, just to see what it does and get a little more passing power. But for the most part it’s gonna be a A-B driver kept in good condition until it breaks and I get stupid enough to buy another BMW product lol.
Short story I like the car for what it is. Honestly the handling is pretty nice too. But that’s probably do to the shorter wheel base. Suspension isn’t as stiff as an M2 or Mini Cooper but I thought I’d feel way more body roll. For the money solid little car. I bought the Car through Carvana. Needed something quick as I was paying $290 a week on a rental after loosing the BMW. Found something I could deal with clicked buy less than a week later at door.
This isn’t the first time I thought about buying a Sonic. So far positive experience but I haven’t had it more than a few weeks.
Last edited:
