Climbing into a subcompact car carries all the thrill of doing your taxes. Surveying the economy dash materials, built to a budget, and slipping the nondescript key into a column-mounted lock lifted from a model at least 10 years older has all the satisfaction of a Special K cereal bar. Let’s be honest with each other: Most of the time you’re doing all this because you have to, not because you chose to.
It’s OK. And to be more frank, the very best an automaker can do is convince you, for a short time, that you’re driving something at least marginally more expensive than the econobox unceremoniously parked in your driveway on this very cold morning.
The 2014 Chevrolet Sonic then has a very steep hill to climb to overcome our dour expectations. How can a small, sub-$20,000 compact keep our attention longer than the gaps between its gears?
For starters, it’s that the Chevrolet Sonic is a cut from the same cloth as other stellar subcompacts out there. Like its competition, the Honda Fit, Ford Fiesta and Mazda2, the Chevrolet Sonic is a genuinely good car. It’s hard to imagine a better period for small car aficionados than present day, with a few exceptions (Mitsubishi Mirage, I’m looking at you.) But for modest money, you can get a respectable bang, like the Sonic.
The Sonic replaces the outgoing Aveo, which offered little and delivered less. The resulting car is apparently different, both on the surface and underneath. The Sonic is offered with the same engine options as the bigger Cruze: a naturally aspirated 1.8-liter four and a turbocharged 1.4-liter four. The latter engine is offered in the Sonic as a sportier option, despite the relative sluggishness of both engines (both accelerate from 0-60 mph in more than 8 seconds.)
But much like the other cars in its class, the Sonic gives the impression that its traveling much faster than it actually is. Our weeklong tester, a turbo 5-door LT model with 16-inch alloy wheels and rear spoiler, looked the part of a fast hatchback. The throaty warble at idle inspired confidence at the line, even if the 138-horsepower engine didn’t deliver. It’s not a knock on the Sonic — all the subcompacts in the range like the Fiesta and Fit require drivers to mash the right pedal everywhere you go — it’s a reality for the market. Most buyers place a premium in the subcompact market on fuel economy rather than how fast you can drain the tank.
The Sonic doesn’t disappoint in mpg figures either. The manual option, like our tester, is rated at 29/40 mpg in city/highway driving respectively. Even lead-footed drivers like ourselves found it hard to break below 30 mpg in combined driving, and the six-speed box managed well, despite longer than expected throws between gears. Chevrolet offers the Sonic in a six-speed manual, but we found that the $700 or so is better spent on the turbo mill rather than the automatic slush box to keep driving lively when you’re not looking to shuttle from home to work and back again.
And that’s where the Sonic really lives anyway. The convenience of 19 cubic feet in the rear before the seats folded down is paramount to most younger drivers who will ask the Sonic to move between apartments every six months. The rest of the interior is just as functional. Front seats are comfortable without feeling too cheap. Rear seats can comfortably accommodate two adults or three in a pinch without being too cramped. For 2014, Chevrolet added a rear backup camera, a $200 option, that most people could probably do without considering you could likely reach all the way into the rear from the driver seat. The noticeable improvement is Chevy’s MyLink system, which leads the pack in convenience and polish from other systems like Ford’s MyTouch and others.
That is to say that conveniences don’t add a lot to the Sonic’s bottom line. The sub-$15,000 compact doesn’t reach stratospheric costs like some within the segment and our tester, fitted with nearly every option for the hatchback including alloys, rear camera and spoiler, barely reached $20,000.
Which is really what this car is about: affordability. With the average new car purchase in America topping more than $30,000, it’s refreshing to meet a car as well balanced and fun to drive like the Sonic. Despite it’s inherent bent toward practicality, Chevrolet has a small car that can actually compete in a segment that’s relatively crowded with little to no payoff for manufacturers other than brand identity. The Sonic has the distinct ability to distract you from the mundane traffic surrounding you.