Hello all,
having recently purchased a Chevy Sonic to use as a daily driver, I have been searching for a good Sonic Forum. With that being said, I have found that all of the sonic forums I have found are severely lacking when compared to the excellence here at Camaro5. Another thing I noticed is that some Sonic Enthusiasts are a little delusional when it comes to the greatness of the Chevy Sonic. while reading through some of the threads on a little used Sonic Forum (Chevroletsonicforum.com), I came across a post that had me laughing hard enough to bring tears to my eyes. The thread was titled "What really grinds my gears." For your reading enjoyment, I quote the opening post...
"I hate it when I see punks on the highway flying by me like I'm sitting still. I am cruising at 75mph getting 40mpg thinking to myself, look at this asshole in this camaro blowing by at over 90mph. I casually flip him the bird knowing if he doesn't slow down, I'm going to pass him while he is at the gas station filling his stupid tank, while I sit back and drink my Starbucks and listen to the quite sounds of life as I pass by.
Camaro guy...If you wanna meet me at some twisties, I will gladly take off traction control over boost my manifold, and speed shift through the turns looking like Mario Andretti, while you fish tail and wonder how I beat you. So go on with your bad self.
Besides, if I decide to get a flash tune, turbo pressure regulator, electronic exhaust cutouts, and a engine management system, I could easily hit my switches and keep up with you while my engine sips on gas around 38mpg. So in your face!"
Now, most of us instantly recognize that this post is full of fail. I was unable to allow this post to be thrown onto the internet without having some corrections made to it. So I created a response...
"Dear Sir,
I appologize that you seem to have an issue to Camaros... Allow me to enlighten you. In addition to my Sonic, I have a 2013 Camaro SS convertible. While I enjoy and appreciate my Sonic for what it is, it is far from performing anywhere near my camaro.
I will first counter your remarks regarding milage. While it may be true that you get 40mpg on your sonic at 75, the best I have done with mine (while trying my hardest to hyper mile and squeeze out every ounce of MPG possible) is 34.4mpg at 60-65mph (calculated using math, not the inaccurate vehicle estimate which is typically conveniently high). Granted I have the auto in the sonic and I hear the manual would be good for a few more. now, using this math, I would be absolutely empty after approximately 412 miles. In my Camaro at 75, I almost always get 24.7 mpg. I'm not sure what a full tank at 90 would get me, but a good estimate would be about 19-20. considering the gas tank is 7 gallons larger, the Sonic would be empty after 470 miles. If I'm only getting 19 in the Camaro, I'd get about 362 miles. If we split the difference, I'd still get about 391 miles out of a tank.
Now let's even figure it out further and assume the worst case scenario, that I would be stopping for gas 50 miles earlier because I was dumb enough to be driving 90mph over the entire tank of gas, and you were cruising at 75. you would cover that 412 miles in 5.49 hours... I would cover my 362 in 4.02 hours. That would give me 1.47 hours to fuel up, and grab lunch followed by starbucks and then drive the 50 miles further that you will cover before you stop for gas.
Your comments are entertaining regarding the performance of your sonic on the twisties. It is obviously apparent that you do not understand the shortcominings of the sconic as a performance car. The handling on the sconic is decent up to around 50-55mph, at which point the rear begins to float and become unstable. The camaro handles very well at almost every speed it is capable of. Certainly there are drastic suspension upgrades that could be performed to the Sconic to improve the handling, but to be fair, I'm compairing stock vs stock here, because there are upgrades that could be done to a camaro as well. If comparing all new vehicles for 2013, the sonic would receive a below average rating for overall handling. Having many years of driving experience, under high speed and at times, high stress conditions, I can tell you that the Sonic's handling performance is nowhere near that of a Camaro Convertible, let alone a Coupe (which has an upgraded suspension over the Convertible). In other words, twisty or straight, my Camaro will dust my Sonic in a matter of seconds.
Now, regarding your final comments regarding your "upgrades," you would need far more than that to keep up with a Camaro. The upgrades you mention would bring your 1.4T to, at best 165-175 hp. I traded in a Subaru BRZ on my Sonic which ironically had an almost identical curb weight with a 200hp 2.0 4cyl. That car, at best, would run 0-60 in 6.5 and was in the high 14s for a 1/4 mile. Which is significantly quicker than a stock Sonic. My convertible hits 60 in 4.9 and can run a quarter in 13.5. As far as comparing MPG, I am probably, at best, getting 6-7mpg on a 1/4 track... But a Sonic would probably get a whopping 6.5-7.5mpg.
In conclusion. I love my sconic. They are wonderful cars for sure. One of the best sub compact (if not the best) cars on the market. It's actual MPG performance is somewhat lacking when comparing it to the competition, but there are many other advantages in other areas (comfort, handling, fit and finish) where the competition does not stack up. I'm sorry that you are frustrated by someone driving like a "punk" on the highway. I love my Camaro and more often than not, am enjoying the view from the slow lane as the faster drives blow by me. I do understand your frustration there... What I do dissagree with is your assumption that the Camaro and the Sonic could even be compared to one another. They are drastically different cars build for drastically different purposes. And they each perform very well at their intended functions. Try not to confuse your Sonic with a Camaro in terms of performance, and I will not make any absurd claims trying to make a Camaro out to be an economy car.
I'd recommend if you wanted a car to keep up with a Camaro in performance, buy a Camaro... Or a Mustang... Or a Challenger. After all, they are build to compete against it. Your Sonic is not..."
I'd like to invite, and encourage anyone who is remotely interested to head over to
www.chevroletsonicforum.com, go into the forum category of "Sonic Lounge" and find the thread (being as the forum does not have much activity on a daily basis, it should be near the top of the list for months). Feel free to post your own corrections to the OP's fail of an opinion. Enjoy, and Happy Hunting
.