Chevy Aveo / Sonic

[Wyr Twister]

We bought a new 2015 Chevy sonic in late June 2015 . Mostly on price , but also , it is large enough ( inside ) to accomidate my wife and myself ( barely ) . We are both large economy size senior citizens .

This product line started as a Korean economy car made by Daewoo . It seems GM purchased Daewoo ( or at least the car division ) . Reportedly to sell a high MPG car , in an effort to raise the corporate MPG / CAFE rating . And to make Uncle Sugar happier .

From what I can tell , the first Chevy AVEO’s were almost completely made with left over Daewoo parts . They had numerous problems . As time went by , the AVER was built with fewer Daewoo parts and more GM / Chevy parts . The name changed to Sonic , in the USA , in 2012 , I think . May still be sold over seas as the AVEO ?

The first common failure has been the air duct / hose between the throttle body & the air cleaner box . It seems the chemistry of the rubber had problems & it was prone to split . Sometimes under 35,000 miles . This produced an air leak , pirate air , since it had not passed through the air measuring device ( closer to the air cleaner box . This eventually set a CEL / SES lite code . Fix is / was to replace the duct / hose with a newer part , that hopefully had improved materials .

Next fault . The thermostat was made into a plastic thermostat housing , that also contained electrical / electronic components ( which drove up the cost of replacement thermostat housings . These plastic parts leaked , again at 35,000 or less . Metal thermostat housings are available now .

Not sure if these problems have continued to my 2015 sonic 1.8l automatic .

Another common fault that did occur on our car . The automatic gear selector stick resides in the center console . There is a button on the stick , that when depressed , allows the stick to move from Park to the other gears and back to Park again . This causes problems getting the stick to stay in the gear you wish , sometimes will not go into Park and when in Park , sometimes can not remove the key from the ignition .

This did happen to our Sonic . Luckily , under bumper to bumper warranty .

All in all , we like the little car . Low in cost , compared to other cars . American assembles with a mix or American & foreign parts . But has an American name plate , lots of Chevy dealers in the USA . Lots od parts houses that stock after mark ( cheaper than dealer parts ) in the USA .

Rides pretty well and is reasonably quiet , for an economy car . Tipically gets 24 – 35 MPG on plain unleaded gas .

So far , not bad for what it is .

God bless
Wyr

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[Mike]

This page has the history of the Aveo/Sonic.

[Wyr Twister]

Thanks , 🙂
Wyr
God bless

[Author]

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