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?
Took the car in for warrantied recall fix of transmission shaft problem (did not notice any problems but brought it in under recall after receiving the letter).
Since getting the car back from the dealership, the transmission shifts very hard from one gear to the next. The shift points are not the way they were from the time of purchase until the recall work was done.
Taking it to a different dealership (different state), they are telling me the car does shift hard, but that nothing shows up 'wrong' on all their tests, so there is nothing they can do.
Very aggravating. This car used to be fun to drive (even if the tiny engine did not have a lot of acceleration or power), but now it is mildly aggravating. The transmission will shift very hard, and tend to make the engine either rev really high or lug badly with very low rpm's (and no power at all unless you stomp on the accelerator).
Very unhappy with the dealership (Bayird Chevrolet in Covington, TN) - they have had my car over a week and now they are not even going to do anything about this transmission problem that a (different) dealership caused after performing warranty recall work.
Update from Oct 24, 2016: After spending over a week looking at my vehicle, Bayird Chevrolet of Convington, TN did nothing to resolve my transmission shifting hard. They did say they documented the issue in their computer, although the service ticket receipt says "could not replicate problem". So until I actually start having problems bad enough that will show up on their diagnostic computer, they will do nothing. I have read of similar issues with Sonic's and Malibu's that the transmissions suffer from a 'rubberband' effect, and I guess that is what I am experiencing now - the vehicle computer changes the shift points for the transmission as the car ages all by itself.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Took the car in for warrantied recall fix of transmission shaft problem (did not notice any problems but brought it in under recall after receiving the letter).
Since getting the car back from the dealership, the transmission shifts very hard from one gear to the next. The shift points are not the way they were from the time of purchase until the recall work was done.
Taking it to a different dealership (different state), they are telling me the car does shift hard, but that nothing shows up 'wrong' on all their tests, so there is nothing they can do.
Very aggravating. This car used to be fun to drive (even if the tiny engine did not have a lot of acceleration or power), but now it is mildly aggravating. The transmission will shift very hard, and tend to make the engine either rev really high or lug badly with very low rpm's (and no power at all unless you stomp on the accelerator).
Very unhappy with the dealership (Bayird Chevrolet in Covington, TN) - they have had my car over a week and now they are not even going to do anything about this transmission problem that a (different) dealership caused after performing warranty recall work.
Update from Oct 24, 2016: After spending over a week looking at my vehicle, Bayird Chevrolet of Convington, TN did nothing to resolve my transmission shifting hard. They did say they documented the issue in their computer, although the service ticket receipt says "could not replicate problem". So until I actually start having problems bad enough that will show up on their diagnostic computer, they will do nothing. I have read of similar issues with Sonic's and Malibu's that the transmissions suffer from a 'rubberband' effect, and I guess that is what I am experiencing now - the vehicle computer changes the shift points for the transmission as the car ages all by itself.
- Keith R., Atoka, TN, US