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We’ve been hearing rumors about this for a while and now we’re a step closer to confirmation of the end of the line for the Chevy Sonic. The humble subcompact car that replaced the Chevy Aveo back in 2012 will reportedly cease production as soon as this year. The new rumor comes from “people familiar with the matter” according to Automotive News. “Chevrolet is not commenting at this time,” said a Chevy representative in an email to The Drive.
It’s not hard to see why the Sonic is reportedly on death row. It’s outsold by the Chevy Trax, its crossover counterpart, by almost three to one. The Trax costs about the same to build and commands higher transaction prices than the Sonic. If more people want to spend more money on a Trax than a Sonic, then can you blame Chevy for considering the Sonic’s discontinuation?
This might not sound like a big deal, but the alleged discontinuation of the Sonic with no replacement would end a streak of more than 40 years of Chevy selling subcompact cars if we go all the way back to the Chevette and if we count Geo (which we should). We’ve known that subcompacts have been steadily declining in popularity in favor of small crossovers and they’ve never been particularly profitable cars, but for a major volume brand like Chevrolet to abandon the segment would be significant.
This news comes shortly after Ford discontinued the Fiesta in the U.S., a direct competitor of the Sonic. That means that even a bigger market share with fewer competitors in the subcompact segment isn’t enough for Chevy to justify continuing production of the Sonic, assuming this rumor is true. The Chevy Sonic wouldn’t be missed by many, but its demise would be another nail in the coffin of small, cheap cars.
