nkaufman

Hello,

Looking at the following car from dealer:

2014 Sonic LT (no turbo), 39K miles.

Out of Base bumper-2-bumper warranty
Still under 60 months/Drivetrain warranty which seems to be good enough.

Car was serviced throughout at dealer.

Do I need to get any used car warranty etc.? Or is Drivetrain warranty good enough?

Thanks,

tech2

consider a civic or corolla.
the sonic is improved once chevy put their 1.4 and 1.8L engine in it but the car is not a nice driving vehicle. imo

oilcanhenry

Too small for me too. I heard sales of the Sonic are very slow. The real Aveo was larger. Best think Cruse would be better.

nkaufman

Thanks for your comments.

This model - LT - has 1.8L engine. Turbo has 1.4.
Size of the car is fine for us, no issues there.
Are there are performance issues OR anything that I should look into as far as Warranty is concerned?

nkaufman

Thanks for your comments.

Size is fine for us.

Sonic - Even if sales are slow, as you indicated, I don't see dealers going down on prices. :-)

oilcanhenry

The Cruise only weighs in at 300 pounds more and is more roomy, meaning more crush to save the occupants in a crash.

Those tiny cars bother me, but then I drive Semi-Trucks (not "trucks" as in a pickup truck) , so what do I know?

According to the reviews the 1.4 is faster and gets better gas mileage then the 1.8, but if the 1.4 turbo goes south, its
going to cost some serious money. Back in my day Turbos were only used on high performance muscle cars, along with
superchargers.

tech2

if you get a 1.8...it has a timing belt; that is a maintenance item. both engines put out the same hp...the smaller displacement direct injection turbo will have better mileage. there are better driving vehicles out there in this class. if your looking for reliability, spark, sonic, cruze are not on my list.

if you must get a car this small make sure it has 10 airbags

nkaufman

I've driven Civic/Yaris, hence Sonic is not an issue as far as space is concerned.

Not looking into turbo engine per se, was giving that information just in case someone had a suggestion/input.

Thanks

nkaufman

Timing belt - was told that will need to replace at around 100K which is 60K away and a few years, this is going to be a errand/commuter vehicle.

Reliability - Looked at
Consumer Reports - https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/chevrolet/sonic/ and
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/...ubcompact-cars and
Edmunds
and they indicate good safety and reliability for Sonic

tech2

hey if you like it; go for it. make your own decision as you gotta live with it. Its just not for me. before you pull the trigger test drive a civic. just driving in the parking lot you can tell its the better vehicle. the higher purchase price will pay for itself in repairs on the sonic.

I drove the sonic when it first came out (i worked at a gm dealership), bad handling, noisy...when it was the aveo with the korean 1.6L it even got bad gas mileage. the sonics mechanically are better than the crap bomb aveos.

I checked out the reports link...pretty much the entire subcompact class is a lemon. step up to a compact.
a great crash rating for a subcompact is still bad...hit a large car or pickup in it and not good...there is just no space to absorb the impact...the rear passengers sit 1 foot from the rear bumper...10 airbags is a must.