Chevrolet Sonic: Easy to Enjoy The Hatchback or Sedan Form

The Chevrolet Sonic is quickly becoming one of the most popular and sought after subcompact cars for a crowd that is both budget conscious and desires a car that has lot of personality and equipment to enjoy. The Sonic competes highly with the Toyota Yaris and Ford Fiesta makings its way to the front of the pack with a very energetic performance and below $20,000 price tag that gives owners the comfort of knowing they have found a great vehicle for the back to school crowd, as a daily commuter car, or as a great car to drive around town.

The Sonic has a surprisingly roomy interior that offers plenty of room for carrying a party to the party or hauling a few desirable items home from a shopping excursion. The Sonic can be fitted with a long list of awesome features and technology to please even the most tech savvy crowd and is really a lot of fun to drive. For the new 2015 model the Sonic adds only a few minor updates such as the OnStar with 4G LET and Wi-Fi as a standard feature for the first three months of ownership and an addition of a 1.4-liter turbocharged engine for the LTZ model as well as a new color to the pallet, Blue Velvet.

Taking the Sonic for a spin offers a brand new perspective on subcompact cars that once were all about dialed down features and not being equipped with any fun or comfort. Chevrolet Sacramento tells us that the Sonic really a lot of fun to drive and shows up with a very capable suspension and highly responsive steering that allows this little car to zip in and out of traffic and handle curves and turns with ease and pleasure.

In the engine compartment two options are now found for owners to take advantage of. The base engine that is fitted into the LS and LT trims comes in the form of a 1.8-liter inline four-cylinder engine that offers 138 horsepower and 125 lb.-ft. of torque. Even though these numbers seem small, this is a small car and easy for this engine to carry around with a very peppy and aggressive nature. This engine is paired with either a five-speed manual transmission that offers fuel efficiency of 26 city/35 hwy mpg or a six-speed automatic transmission that brings in fuel efficiency numbers of 25 city/35 hwy mpg.

The second engine choice is the all-new 1.4-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine that is an optional choice for the LT but comes standard on the LTZ and RS models. This very cool engine carries the same 138 horsepower as the larger engine but reaches up and gives more torque coming in with 148 lb.-ft. of torque to be enjoyed. This nice engine is partnered with either a six-speed manual transmission that offers 29 city/40 hwy mpg of fuel economy or a six-speed automatic transmission that brings in a 27 city/37 hwy mpg of fuel efficiency to be enjoyed.

The cabin of the Sonic shows off with a lot of style and motorcycle inspired gauges to let the driver know this is a car that is built for fun. Even though this is a car that comes with a low price Chevrolet did an awesome job finishing all details inside the car leaving nothing undone or questionable. The materials throughout are soft and comfortable and the dual glovebox helps with simple storage and connectivity needs having one of the auxiliary and USB ports inside the upper glovebox. Plenty of cargo room can be had by folding down the 60/40 split rear seats, especially in the hatchback model making this a very good choice for parents sending their offspring to college for the first time.

On the outside the fun and funky style continues. The sedan is sharp and classic looking while the hatchback moves the rear door handles up high and hidden from view. The overall shape of the hatchback looks like a bullet on wheels and with the performance underneath feels like one too. The front end shows up with a split grill that has the bowtie in the center. Flanking this grill are a set of four round lights for the headlights and high beams as well as two lower circular fog lights giving the look of a six-eyed alien when all are turned on and in use. Even though this is a model on the lower end of the pricing spectrum the Sonic has aluminum-alloy wheels on all but the base LS model making it very attractive indeed.

The standard equipment for the Sonic includes air conditioning, Bluetooth connectivity, steering wheel audio controls, a four-speaker audio system, three months of OnStar with 4G LTE Wi-Fi and a six-month subscription to turn-by-turn navigation and ten airbags. The higher trim levels come standard with power windows and mirrors and a premium six-speaker audio system is also offered as a standard feature on all but the LS model. The LTZ comes standard with remote starting allow the car to be heated or cooled before the driver enters the vehicle.

As for optional equipment for the Sonic this list includes leatherette seating, heated front seats, a moonroof, cruise control, 17-inch wheels and the Chevrolet MyLink infotainment system. The RS trim adds leather seating, four-wheel disc brakes, a performance suspension, 17-inch alloy wheels and a sport steering wheel. Advanced safety options for the Sonic include Forward Collision Alert and Lane Departure Warnings. The LTZ can be had with what is called a Dusk package that adds metallic Ashen Gray paint, ground effects and 18-inch aluminum wheels with a Pearl Nickel finish to them.

The starting price point for the 2015 Chevrolet Sonic comes in at just under $15,000 for the sedan and the hatchback begins around $15,500. The LT trim will bring in a $17,000 price and a loaded Sonic RS tops the charts at a still very affordable $24,000. With these easy to enjoy prices and a ton of great features to enjoy it’s no wonder the Sonic is such a popular choice with the next adult generation.