Chevrolet Sonic

[PowerShift]

It's not the Aveo anymore.

And it looks good too...
Hedgehog, Drive-in, Compact Car: Chevy Officially Ditches Aveo in Favor of 'Sonic'

[Corvair]

Chevy has never built a good subcompact car in their many attempts. As for looks, beauty is only skin deep. We'll know how good it is in five years.

[eRic]

has that ever worked? renaming a vehicle. remember the Pontiac J2000 -> 2000, 2000 Sunbird -> Sunfire -> G5. Chevy Cavalier -> Cobalt.

[Shepski]

I love it - but I hate the giant bowtie that Chevy has to slap everywhere. It's like an unwelcome reminder of Chevy's ultra-cheesy past...

Sent from my Samsung Intercept™ via Tapatalk

[dirtyblueshirt]

I like the styling too, I know Chevy's trying to step up the game to compete with the interior quality of the Fiesta; But in the end it IS a Korean subcompact (Built by GM Daewoo), and anyone who's driven a Hyundai or Kia, no matter how they try, there's something about them that feels like... what's the word I'm looking for? I can't categorize it, but especially with the last-gen Sonata I rented once, everything felt nice, and worked well, but something was just... off.

[chromal]

I actually disagree with the above poster in that my experience has been Kia and especially Hyundai are "way nicer" than Daewoo. A friend of mine made the unfortunate choice of buying themselves a 1998 Daewoo Lanos new from a new Daewoo dealer during the nine or so months they were open for business. The car had an extremely unrefined ride and interior construction feel, especially at Interstate speeds.

That said, all the South Korean brands have shown improvement in the last decade. The Aveo looks passable on paper, with variable valve timing, a 6-speed manual transmission. It's apparently spec'd for premium gasoline, which probably means more compression and a little more power than one my expect from a 1.4l I4 engine. But one cannot ignore the consumer reports scoring on the Aveo. Historically, it's been at the bottom of the scale for reliability in the engine, engine cooling, engine 'minor,' engine 'major,' fuel system, electrical... The only system on the Aveo that has been consistantly average or above average has been 'transmission major.' Which, I mean, that's important, you certainly wouldn't want to go without a reliable transmission, but all the parts built around the transmission should be reliable too. :P

That all said, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. It seems to me like the Koreans makers are working to improve their reputation, from small cheap cars to vehicles that go compete in more segments. They're getting better, and I'd definitely pick some Hyundais (Genesis Coupe) over most of what Chevy/GM manufacture and sell. But that's just catching up with the quality of a Honda/Nissan/Toyota/Mazda from the 80s, really.

This is a little bit of a side tangent to the topic, so you may want to skip:

Consumerreports.org:
Chevy Aveo score: 36 out of 100. (there's not much about this car that's worthwhile)
Ford Fiesta score: 65 out of 100. (would've been higher with better acceleration they say)
Mazda mazda2 score: 60 out of 100 (less refined auto tranny, choppier ride, cheaper interior: than fiesta)
My Mazda Mazda3: 77 out of 100 ( \o/ woot! )
US-spec (2010 and earlier) Ford Focus: 65 out of 100

Of course, boiling a car down to a number and then comparing cars on the number isn't without its own perils. The Honda Fit? 76. Suzuki SX4? 66. Scion xD? 60. Nissan Versa? 69. A lot is left unsaid with a number, etc. Maybe road noise isn't an issue for you, but sporty handling is a priority. Maybe a good manual transmission and power-to-weight ratio is your thing. Maybe MPGs are king for you. Etc.

[dirtyblueshirt]

Originally Posted by chromal

I actually disagree with the above poster in that my experience has been Kia and especially Hyundai are "way nicer" than Daewoo. A friend of mine made the unfortunate choice of buying themselves a 1998 Daewoo Lanos new from a new Daewoo dealer during the nine or so months they were open for business. The car had an extremely unrefined ride and interior construction feel, especially at Interstate speeds. That said, all the South Korean brands have shown improvement in the last decade.

I should clarify, I wasn't comparing Daewoo to Hyundai/Kia, I was comparing Hyundai/Kia to other cars in the price range, notably Japanese and European (esp. Fiesta) quality. I still hold my ground on the build quality of most Korean cars, while they may look nice, sometimes, as I said, something just doesn't feel right about it...

[Audrey]

This car is great for collecting gold rings and loop-de-loops. Otherwise, it's a Chevy ;b

[js69351]

Few things make me shudder as much as answering the phone on Job 1 and hearing someone say "I've got a Daewoo...."

For the sake of those who buy these, I hope the Automotive end is better organized than what's become of the Industrial Diesel end, now part of Doosan.

But really, Daewoo goes bankrupt, the government tears it apart, GM buys the automotive end, GM goes bankrupt.....

[FiestaFan]

Originally Posted by chromal

Consumerreports.org:
Chevy Aveo score: 36 out of 100. (there's not much about this car that's worthwhile)
Ford Fiesta score: 65 out of 100. (would've been higher with better acceleration they say)
Mazda mazda2 score: 60 out of 100 (less refined auto tranny, choppier ride, cheaper interior: than fiesta)
My Mazda Mazda3: 77 out of 100 ( \o/ woot! )
US-spec (2010 and earlier) Ford Focus: 65 out of 100

Of course, boiling a car down to a number and then comparing cars on the number isn't without its own perils. The Honda Fit? 76. Suzuki SX4? 66. Scion xD? 60. Nissan Versa? 69. A lot is left unsaid with a number, etc. Maybe road noise isn't an issue for you, but sporty handling is a priority. Maybe a good manual transmission and power-to-weight ratio is your thing. Maybe MPGs are king for you. Etc.

In fairness, the Fiesta that scored a 65 was a manual SES and the Mazda2 that scored a 60 was an automatic Touring. The manual 2 scored a 64, and the auto Fiesta scored a 61, so the difference is only a point. (Fiesta's still ahead, though )

This new Aveo/Sonic/whatever will undoubtedly be a vast improvement over the current car; the 2010 Aveo's score has little to no bearing on how well the Sonic will do. It is worth noting, though, that in Europe the Sonic will be marketed as a budget rival to the Fiesta, competing largely on price; the Opel/Vauxhall Corsa is GM's direct Fiesta rival there, being rather more upscale than Chevy's offering (the next-gen Corsa is supposed to use the Sonic's platform in upgraded form). Make of that what you will.