PREVIEW: Chevrolet Sonic and Orlando

NAZA Quest Sdn Bhd, the official distributor of Chevrolet vehicles recently invited a select few of the automotive fraternity to the LITAR Go-Kart Speedway track where three new upcoming Chevrolets were made available for us to have a quick spin around. They were none-other than the Chevrolet Sonic (Sedan and Hatch) and a 7-seater Chevrolet Orlando.

It was a morning that was perhaps a little too early for most of us when a technical over-view was presented to help get us all relatively acquainted with what Chevy Malaysia was going to introduce in the supposed coming months.

According the Chevy folks, the Chevrolet Sonic is equipped with a 1.4L NA inline-4 cylinder petrol engine that’s armed with a meagre 99bhp at 6,000rpm but with a whopping 130Nm of pull at 4,000rpm – providing a respectable sprint time to 100kmh in just 12 seconds. Not too bad for a sedan that weighs in with a kerb weight of 1,237kg (1,220kg hatch).

This sort of performance seems attributable to the rather compact engine, which they’ve also managed to sink it lower and away from the hood to help improve pedestrian protection, and because it’s gone deeper, it’s also provided for a lower centre of gravity (CoG), which usually translates into better handling characteristics.

If you happen to own a Chevrolet Cruze, then you may find the cabin to be a familiar one in the Sonic’s, till you notice an interesting looking instrument cluster that may have been initially designed for a performance bike but has been adopted by a car.

It did seem to be a welcomed sporty addition to the eyes though, what with everything you need to know simplistically crammed into a small digital-analogue combo cluster that’s well illuminated in blue (only). We can only wonder if the instrument cluster was initially designed by an engineer who finds it necessary to pay tribute to their love of performance bikes.

Thanks to a more compact engine design, there’s been a significant amount of weight savings for the Sonic in both sedan and hatch guises – since the entire engine happens to weigh less than 100kg and not to mention the significant use of stronger and lighter high-tensile steel for it’s body, all of which has helped the Sonic achieve a respectable Euro NCAP rating of 5-stars.

With such use of materials, the Sonic does seem to feel rigid straight out of the box on the narrowly twisted track as we tried to put it though its paces by pushing the 16” alloys wrapped by 205/55 rubbers a little beyond their limits before having reached the next braking point into another tight corner.

Since the track was rather tight, and the Sonic having been quipped with a 6-speed A/T, it didn’t seem to make sense that the Sonic had buttons on the right side of its shifter instead of something a little more preferred, such as a tip-tronic shifter (found in the Orlando) or better yet, paddle shifters. Sometimes causing us to keep our hand on the shifter more often than on the steering wheel.

Admittedly, the tight track layout didn’t seem to be the best way to ideally test out the front ventilated discs and rear drum brakes combo, but it’s not as if the Sonic was particularly made to enter track competitions such as…Oh I don’t know…Time-to-Attack perhaps?

There was also the inclusion of a short brake-test section on the track that allowed us to try the Sonic’s as well as the Orlando’s ABS with the use of not just water, but soap as well. All we had to do was accelerate from stand-still and slam on the brakes hard, but the distance from start to stop didn’t seem all that long enough to really feel the Sonic’s nor the Orlando’s ABS performance all that well, but at this point, we’d go so far as to say that they’ve been performing well without being too sensitive and over-reacting all the time.

As for the 7-seater Orlando, admittedly we weren’t exactly all that keen at first; already carrying a preconception that it would probably not be all that great to begin with, but none-the-less we did try it out and might we add, we were quite happy with what we found.

Equipped with a larger 1.8L engine that’s able to literally haul its 1,528kg kerb weight to 100kmh in just a tickle under the 12 seconds mark, the petrol engine has been rated to produce 139bhp at 6,200rpm and 176Nm of torque at 3,800rpm. With a 6-speed A/T mated to the engine with tip-tronic functionality, we’re pretty certain it would bring out the speed demon within any soccer-mom/dad who’s in a rush.

Since the Orlando is significantly greater in heft that the Sonic, which was basically the root cause for our initial reservations and after all, it has been specifically designed to fit a full load of 6 passengers and one driver. Hey, someone’s got to drive.

We did expect a rather sluggish experience from it all, rather than something that felt nimble and still able to keep its composure even fully laden with a total of seven precious lives. It has been designed for carrying payloads that don’t include people at times so the rear suspension had to be a little stiffer, translating into a lighter rear-end or that ‘floaty’ feel. Instead, it wasn’t all that apparent though it seemed as though it did want to sway at times, only it didn’t.

In this case, the Orlando actually has a sporty handling nature about it, which in no way gets represented through its border-line boring looks, so not only can the Orlando haul, it’ll haul quite quickly too.

Coming back to the Sonic hatch and sedan, which admittedly performed admirably, even though we had our reservations after having seen its performance figures from its rather small 1.4L displacement engine. After all, we do come from the “there’s no replacement for displacement” mindset, but in all honesty, both of their suspension is comfortably firm with a lot of travel and not too much roll that’ll have you feeling rather apprehensive. But knowing that there’s a turbo variant of the Sonic in existence, it made us question why NAZA Quest didn’t bring it in, since it’ll be able to unleash all that 138bhp at 4,900rpm and 148Nm of torque at 2,500rpm.

Their justification for introducing the 1.4L NA engine here was purely to be price-competitive within the B-segment market, going up against the likes of Toyota, Honda, Ford and Mazda. Something we felt that may have been a little on the conservative end of the spectrum.

After-all, the Sonic does have a sporty instrument cluster, coupled with the fact that is an undoubtedly fun-to-drive car. But with a turbo unit, that would then put them in direct contention with VW’s 1.4L TSI equipped Golf/Scirocco and Jetta. However, depending on how well the Sonic gets received here in Malaysia, the turbo mill could become Chevy’s trump card, but in any case we hope it does find its way here and soon. NAZA Quest is keeping tight-lipped about pricing and their expected availability, but it shouldn’t be too long till they take their official bows to the general public over the next few months.