The 5 star crash rating is accurate. I got into a major accident in one of these the other week, and I got out of the car with minor bumps & bruises. This car saved my life.
@@matthewbowen2345 yeah, point there. my dad owns an old ram 1500 from 2003 ( its older than me by 1 year.), and it only has 100k miles on it, which it hit on the morning of december 13 of last year.
Most common driver? The dude-bro HS kid whose daddy had him on the wait-list for the "Plum Perfect" Charger SRT, but he snow-drifted his Dad's Mustang into brick mailboxes on Xanax, so he gets a V6 Camaro now...
For the parts to do it yourself it costs about $200. It looks complicated, but is fairly simple if you do it step-by-step and have some basic mechanic skills. Oh, and lots of tools, including external and internal torx heads.
If things keep going the way they are for Mitsubishi, they might be able to raid the whole inventory in a few more years. Unless Chrysler still has dibs from the old Eagle days.
I drove one of those in their "Holden Ballerina (or whatever)" incarnation in Australia. Everything in this car said "I'm a bottom of the range rental car so you're not supposed to have fun in here" - and, boy, didn't I. This car managed to make me homesick in Australia - and that's an achievement.
I have an 01 Camaro and an 08 silverado. I've always been a chevy man. When I got a new job that required me to drive well over 100 miles per day, I looked to chevy. The sonic fit the bill perfectly. I bought my 16 sonic brand new and have not had one single minor issue with it. Just oil changes and I just did brakes and rotors for the first time. I feel for this guy, but I would recommend a sonic to anyone. Fantastic little car
+t436 I have yet to get a Sonic LTZ when renting a car. Rental car places have periodically downgraded me at busy locations with limited inventory to Spark LTZs, though... They're usually LT sedans, in fact, for whatever reason.
Yeah you needed to also turn it off in the Cruze. That think will stall at 20 mph if it hit a wall of snow and you had it on. How the hell do you kill the engine of a car doing 20 mph in low gear?
Caleb I was just about to say the same thing, I also noticed a couple things that were inaccurate in this video, hold the button for 10 seconds and you can also turn off Stabilitrak.
I have this exact car, right down to the color and love it. Bought it used several years ago, have driven it from L.A. to Vegas and back many times. Drove from Vegas to Utah in winter, and from Vegas to Phoenix & back a few times, all without incident. Totally reliable and comfortable. A bit sluggish on a steep grade but other than that, no problems whatsoever.
It's not an easy job to change the timing belt. Even seasoned pros who have done it dozens of times will tell you it's a lot of work to do. Easily screwed up too if you do it wrong, serious problems.
My sister had a 2013 Sonic just like that, even the same color, except it was a turbo 1.4 with an automatic. She bought it new. Around 50,000 miles it started having to be worked on at least once a week. At just under 100,000 miles the engine blew when the cam chain broke. The Turbo was also on it's way out, probably because the oil line to the turbo was too small to provide adequate lubrication. Half the engine was made out of plastic. It was well appointed LT model, power windows, cruise control and 15" alloy wheels. By the way, it's not a Chevrolet, it's a Daewoo. She paid $18,000 for it. About 2 months later I bought a 2006 Mercury Grand Marquis with 67,000 miles on it for $7,000. It's still running like new with over 300,000 miles on it. Only problems have been a bad alternator, and the rear air suspension failed. I replaced it with coil springs. New is not always better.
The good news is that the US has a mandated warranty on catalytic converters for 8 years/80,000 miles. Not that big a deal. Now the bad news. It's required to be replaced with a factory catalytic converter. Even if the aftermarket one is cheaper and better.
Sonics are amazing deals on the aftermarket. Got mine for $6400 with only 59 thousand miles. And its the LTZ sedan with 1.4l turbo and 6 speed manual. 82k miles now and running fine.
DragoserakerIT Oh yeah.. I vaguely remember that, can't remember which review he did that on though. This one tripped me out more probably because I was watching it at 5 in the morning, half awake.
I'm pretty sure Mr. Regular knows how to pronounce it. Giving zero F's about stuff like that is part of his schtick on this channel. If he pronounced it correctly, he wouldn't be "regular".
this is probably one of the most in-depth informational videos I've seen out of them I now know absolutely way more information about Chevy Sonics I probably ever wanted to know haha 10/10
I had an Aveo for a short time in 2010 with about 33k miles on it. Air conditioner failed in a similar fashion and being in Florida was required. It wasn't covered under warranty and the cost to fix was more than the car was worth, so I dumped it and bought something else the same week. I had lots of other minor issues leading up to that, no wonder the Aveo model name has such a bad reputation (to me)
I have a Cruze with the 1.4L ecotick, and it's great. Think of this car, but fatter. It lugs a bit more, but it's a fine engine, imo. Peppy when I need it, which isn't often, and sips gas, getting up to 36Mpg average on a tank of gas (mainly in the summer when the air is around 72 degrees F).
@Ben Kuyt Anything weighing 105 pounds oughta get fantastic mileage. Instead of a desperate fat joke attempt, one about the shitty car itself would be genuinely funny.
Recalls don't mean your shit's broke. It means your'e actually fixing things. A company can just do 0 recalls on shit products and by your logic that would mean they have the most reliable cars. A company doesn't have to recall. They do it to keep customers and their cars on the road and prevent lawsuits.
I was thinking the same. In denmark, one of the more popular engines for any opel is the 1,4 turbo 6 speed. its just a better engine and so much more fun.
Hey. Thanks for the heads up on the timing belt. I had that cracked intake hose issue as well maybe a year after I bought it. I’ve had it for seven years now. Been a solid car very little issues with it. Did the plugs last spring to give it a little love. Liked the review. 👍
I just bought a black 2014 rs 6 speed last week that has been lowered evermore then factory. It came with a typhoon k &n cold air intake, Zzp performance, slotted and crosses drilled front and rear brakes sunroof and onstar and Xm radio leather seats, heated front seats and power everything and traction control can be turned off lol. Fantastic ride and the previous owner was an older guy who knew what he was doing and didn’t drive it like an 18 year old lol.
I had one of these as a rental car in Hawaii - within 3 days I broke the whole key fob by just *pressing* the unlock button. I'm serious, I pressed it like a normal human being and the whole faceplate collapsed into the chip. It was in pieces. The door handle then broke pulling the driver door open after a couple days of using the physical key to gain entry since, you know, the fob shattered. I pulled and the spring didn't pull it back. It just remained "open" so the door could swing around as I drove. As a fun little easter egg, if you floor the accelerator it sounds like the engine is a sentient being that is attempting to rip its way out through the top of the hood and put an end to itself all over the road like Kurt Cobain did to his bedroom walls.
The turbo gets better mpg. 30 in a small city, and 40+ on the highway ranging in speeds from 60-80. I find it's actually pretty happy going from 50-80 in traffic as opposed to 65 on an open road. I don't know why.
this was the most reviewiest review ever. it actually felt like i was watching a car review and not a clusterfuck of famous RCR banter. i enjoyed the quirkiness of RCR past
The video game references kept me in stitches, along with your voice work, as usual. However my head just about exploded at the very end when the song from Final Fantasy 10 was turned into a hymn about a timing belt. If you ever want to review / riff on a high mileage manual transmission 2004 Scion xB, ring me up. :)
I've been pretty happy with my 2014 sonic. I did have an issue with the thermostat leaking from the block and lost all A/C and heat. Just like this, it was under warranty though. I like mine a lot and love the looks. It's a touch too small though. When I go out shooting I have to lean my rifles up against the back seat because it is too narrow to lay down any of my long guns. Beyond that its a pretty fun car.
Those are vents in the other cars that use that same dashboard (like the Cruze) but the vents get removed for the Sonic in order to cut costs. So Sonic drivers are stuck with the empty vent holes. ,
I have a 2014 Sonic RS, so I was always fearing the day he would do a sonic review. But it wasn't that bad, as usual Mr Regular was pretty agreeable. The intake piping is a common sonic problem in both the 1.8 and the 1.4T, so I replaced that with a metal k&n intake pipe early on. I have a 2014 so I do have a button to turn off traction and stability control. And when it comes to it being a world car, I love it, I shipped in some 18in Vauxhall Astra VXR wheels from the UK and slapped them on for my summer wheels. But it does have its share of problems. He was right about the shifting, can't slam it, and the engine doesn't want to rev (yes, even the 1.4). All considered, it was a pretty good review.
dont EVER underestimate the humble arm rest on a car. Why they arent standard on everything i dont know Also your description of all the warranty is right on par with anything to come from the opel makers - as an australian I can attest that the Astra + barina are just a non stop shit parade of things breaking during and well after warranty
I have the 09 Aveo hatchback that preceded this car.... It makes the Sonic look perfect. ...Yeah, that bad. My air pipe did that too! ...It cost $300 to replace. For a $40 part. Because it wasn't under warranty. My dealership garage totally ripped me off.
One good thing about a timing belt, when u buy the kit you prevent other failures belt/chain related. Like water pump, tensioner, pullys n what not. If u can do it yourself like i did (1994 gs300) its a win. Cause ur good for 8ish years after that.
It's probably slightly less fragile. It just has Daewoo grade small car engineering like the Aveo... At least they switched to an engine with a reasonable timing belt change interval...
Chevy Aveo has MUCH more get up and go. It puts the Sonic to shame, the Aveo is like a V6 compared to this cluster fuck. Aveo lasts a lot longer too. lol
