SONIC BOOM
Chevrolet surprises with a small car that can
THE problem with shopping in Bangkok is you never know what you are getting. Especially when you’re inside one of those electronics malls with five storeys and a million different stalls. It’s like a scene from Dante’s Inferno: a strange and terrible consumerist limbo in which shady characters tempt you with amazingly well-priced gizmos.
No matter where you might be in this fluorescent super maze, somebody is testing your willpower with the promise of a cut-price Samsung Galaxy or Apple iPhone. The man will tell you it’s the real deal but doubt lurks in the back of your mind. Does Sony package their best digital camera in cling wrap? Did the Mac Mini really come in a brilliant neon pink? And how come we haven’t heard about this all-new GoPro 5 camera back home?
Enthused by the sales pitch, you’ll cast these reservations aside, whip out some baht and head back to your hotel with the latest in technical innovation. And only then, once you start playing with it inside the lobby, will you realise that you’ve been conned into purchasing something that, to put it rather lightly, is not what it seemed.
This scenario is not dissimilar to what shelling out for a Chevrolet used to be like in South Africa. Your brand new Spark or Aveo may have worn a great big golden bowtie on its bonnet, but underneath that veneer of honest Americana and the promise of braaivleis and sunny skies lay nothing more than some flaky old Daewoo — a product legacy leftover from when General Motors snapped up the faltering South Korean automotive group back in 2001. These early cars were great pretenders that didn’t do the rootin’tootin’, Corvette-shootin’ Chevrolet brand any great favours. Label me a snob but I really expected something better than just a rebranded kitchen appliance. Which is why I have never had much time or respect for the budget offerings lurking inside the Detroit firm’s glossy sales catalogue.
So I didn’t start shivering with anticipation when a Chevrolet Sonic arrived at our offices last week. In fact I wasn’t sure what the hell it even looked like. I was pleasantly surprised. Obviously caught out by a sudden change in wind direction, its face is fixed in a permanent scowl. It has interesting headlights that are exposed and three-dimensional and vaguely reminiscent of the afterburner nozzles on a jet fighter.
Being the range-topping RS model (the RS badge stands for Rally Sport and was first seen on the 1967 Camaro), it comes with big 17-inch alloy wheels and dropped suspension for impressing bros and cornering faster.
Inside, things were equally perky. The Sonic RS isn’t built like an Audi but for a small hatch it is more than acceptable. There are racy leather/alcantara bucket seats and a nice leather steering wheel that (or so I am told) is a dead ringer for the one in the Camaro. While my inner 10-year-old thrilled at the motorcycle-inspired instrument cluster, my technophile instincts were impressed by the
UNDERNEATH THAT VENEER OF HONEST AMERICANA LAY NOTHING MORE THAN SOME FLAKY OLD DAEWOO
TuneIn streaming radio app. Using the 3G connection on your iPhone, it lets you tune into any radio station in the world: the rest of gormless Johannesburg may have been listening to Highveld Stereo — I was enjoying the vibes of shock-jock Howard Stern.
The humble pie had been slowly baking inside the oven. And it was eventually thrust down my throat after I took the Sonic for a heated drive through the night-time streets. Powered by a small turbo engine, this Chevy ain’t no hot hatch. But it’s no lethargic grannymobile either. Treading a line between the two, the RS packs just enough usable speed to make you happy. Built atop a proper GMsourced platform (there’s no longer any Daewoo DNA to speak of), it handles nicely too. It’s light and zesty and scampers through corners like a fox terrier chasing a rat. Seriously, the Sonic feels as good as a Ford Fiesta.
Of course there were a few things that weren’t as good as the Fiesta. Some of the interior plastics, for instance, looked and felt like they’d been moulded from melted-down takeout containers. Those headlights had to be operated manually and the USB port was located inside the glovebox.
There was also no temperature gauge. Which is, as we all know, probably one of the most important things to have inside a modern motor vehicle. Weird. Otherwise, the Sonic RS etched a permanent grin on my face. In fact I was rather sad when it finally went back to wherever it came from.
So well done, Chevrolet, you’ve redeemed yourself. You’ve proved to the world (and one of your harshest critics) that you can actually construct a small, fun and reasonably priced car that doesn’t suck. A car that lives up to your esteemed, century-old brand image and leaves that dreaded Bangkok Buyer’s Remorse Syndrome choking in its wake.