CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic is fairly new & is already showing an early trend of transmission problems.
Owners report hesitation when shifting & grinding/hard shifting into gears. Some dealers are calling the condition "normal". Another owner reported his dealership replaced the transmission under warranty, but the new transmission had the same exact grinding problem. Design defect?
I bought this car back in March of 2017. It was used but was still under warranty with 50,000 miles. I also did research about the car before I bought it and the previous owner had all the regular oil changes and checkups so I was pretty confident on buying the car. I was hesitant on getting since my previous Chevy I owned gave me a ton of troubles but it was a well used car with a lot of miles on it. At the end of October 2017 I was driving on the highway and it overheated really bad and it died. I couldn't figure out why at the time, It had been just checked out by a mechanic. So after paying around $400 to tow it, $100 or so to have someone look at it. It was determined that the water pump locked up and was the cause of the overheating. In the ended up with it warped the cylinder head, broke the timing chain cover where the water pump was mounted, destroyed the thermostat, and left the engine full of coolant mixed with the oil. Altogether its cheaper to find a used engine than it would be to replace all the parts and labor. It was at that point out of warranty as well. Through research of finding out what to do I found the water pump on my particular car was under a recall that was part of a Chevy Cruze recall. I called GM directly and (very nicely) explained my problem and the recall but in the end I was told there is nothing they could do for me. I will never buy a GM product again. I've always treated my vehicles well with oil changes, checkups and general maintenance. An engine should not fail at 66,000 miles for any reason. In comparison, I also own a 2001 Nissan Xterra that is just about at 300,000 miles and its hardly ever given me any troubles over the years. Next time, I'll buy another Nissan.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I bought this car back in March of 2017. It was used but was still under warranty with 50,000 miles. I also did research about the car before I bought it and the previous owner had all the regular oil changes and checkups so I was pretty confident on buying the car. I was hesitant on getting since my previous Chevy I owned gave me a ton of troubles but it was a well used car with a lot of miles on it. At the end of October 2017 I was driving on the highway and it overheated really bad and it died. I couldn't figure out why at the time, It had been just checked out by a mechanic. So after paying around $400 to tow it, $100 or so to have someone look at it. It was determined that the water pump locked up and was the cause of the overheating. In the ended up with it warped the cylinder head, broke the timing chain cover where the water pump was mounted, destroyed the thermostat, and left the engine full of coolant mixed with the oil. Altogether its cheaper to find a used engine than it would be to replace all the parts and labor. It was at that point out of warranty as well. Through research of finding out what to do I found the water pump on my particular car was under a recall that was part of a Chevy Cruze recall. I called GM directly and (very nicely) explained my problem and the recall but in the end I was told there is nothing they could do for me. I will never buy a GM product again. I've always treated my vehicles well with oil changes, checkups and general maintenance. An engine should not fail at 66,000 miles for any reason. In comparison, I also own a 2001 Nissan Xterra that is just about at 300,000 miles and its hardly ever given me any troubles over the years. Next time, I'll buy another Nissan.
- waderain, Yuma, US