Meet the Automoblog compact car of the year winner and Chevrolet’s new hit, not to mention the first ever test of a robot in disguise (anyone who has sat through either of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies will understand. Anyone who hasn’t probably thinks I’m due for my pills about now).
The even better news is that Chevrolet has pitched the price at around R 156 000 which brings the words ‘bang’ and ‘buck’ to mind (and not with reference to a road traffic accident with a deer).
We managed to steal the Sonic for a few weeks, during which we put this sexy little 1.4 compact through its mechanical paces on a long haul Cape Town to Beaufort West stint. The Sonic certainly stands out as it negotiates the meandering roads and the uninviting barren and desolate stretch known better as the N1. Mostly it looks very much like a bigger Chevy spark, just more aggressively angular. Even when looking at it from dead head-on or sit behind one in a traffic jam and it somehow looks very niche, almost in a class of its own
I was slightly fearful that when I opened the door of the Sonic. Scared that I might be faced with a parts-bin interior with lots of hard black plastic and an overriding feeling that the designer went home after he sketched the steering wheel. Not so. The digital dial set into rectangular binnacles are a refreshing and clean addition, but the plastics on the radio and climate controls are a pleasant silver and there’s no sense that they’ve been lifted straight from the dash of a pick-up. In fact the auxiliary controls for the radio are perfectly set for easy access, not lost in the broad spokes of the steering wheel.
The first few kilometres are certainly promising as we slowly negotiate the roads leaving home.. The pedals are well-spaced, and each has a pleasingly instant response – the throttle particularly so. The gearbox is typically smooth and precise, also there’s a slickness to the action and the way it engages each gear that’s satisfying. The steering is also direct enough to thread the small bonnet reassuringly and accurately in whichever direction you need it to go.
Power is certainly there, but the 1.4 needs to be wound up with more revs than you might imagine to extract it, and because the gearing is incredibly long you find you’re grappling with the box more than you’d expect.
But the Sonic isn’t at all about hammering along. There’s a good deal of wallow as you pick up the pace, relatively small bumps creating big, vague, vertical movements in corners. There is a sense of the car shrinking around you, the front-end accuracy never disappears after you turn in, and you’re never left hanging on to a little car travelling quite quickly in a worryingly approximate direction.
Financially, in terms of value for money the Chevrolet Sonic is a serious contender. The Sonic is stylish, sexy and surprisingly quick off the mark. Even more surprising is the interior. Trimmed with an aesthetic appeal. The absolute kicker for me though, is without a doubt the fuel consumption or lack therof. The Sonic literally gave me the impression that it ran on an oil rag.
Of course with all these impressive characteristics, you’d expect the illusion to be gone when you look at the exterior. It isn’t. No. I’m sorry but this Chevrolet Sonic is a great car with a lot of heart and offers a fuel economy to performance ratio I have yet to experience. Automoblog is proud to name the Chevrolet Sonic Compact Car of The Year 2012.
