Cheap transportation doesn't feel quite so cheap anymore.

We just spent a week with a base model 2012 Chevy Sonic hatchback, complete with crank windows, towel-bar seat adjusters and joystick-manipulated outside rear-view mirrors.

And, throughout the experience, we found ourselves squawking far less than we expected — mainly about the right-hand outside mirror, whose joystick is impossible to swivel from the driver's seat. (Having a passenger assist isn't much help, either: "Pull it in a little. No, that's too far! All I can see is you. Push it back out. Too much. Pull it . . . . aaah, never mind, I'll just holler that I'm changing lanes.")

After years of place-holders in the little-hatchback category (remember the Chevy Metro and the Chevy Aveo? That's OK, neither does anyone else), GM's bowtie division is finally serious about competing in the subcompact hatchback segment.

Notably the only subcompact built in the U.S., Sonic, also available as a sedan, is offered in LS, LT and LTZ trim.

We drove a base LS hatchback with just one option: a $350 CD stereo. (AM/FM radio is standard on the base car.)

On the road, the car feels tightly bolted together and the cabin is quieter than you have a right to expect in a small hatch.

Also, interior fit and finish is impressive — as good as anything in the class, and better than most. Only the tiny gauge package, designed to mimic motorcycle instrumentation, is an odd duck. It crams a lot of digital info into a very small display.

But there's a lot here for the money, which is $15,395 to start.

All Sonics come equipped with 15-inch alloy wheels — no steel wheels here — a best-in-class 10 air bags, traction and stability control, ABS, air, AM/FM stereo with auxiliary input, power locks, trip computer, folding rear seat, auto headlights, hill-hold with the manual transmission, which we had, six months of OnStar with navigation and tilt/telescoping wheel.

Passenger room is excellent in front and rear head room is extraordinary in back. Rear leg room can accommodating, as well, provided those riding in front have kind hearts and scoot up just a bit.

Cargo room is only average, with seats-up space just 19 cubic feet and seats-folded room a mere 31 cubes, far less than some others in the segment.

Sharing Chevy Cruze drivetrains — a 1.8-liter four or a 1.4-liter turbocharged four, both making an impressive-for-the-segment 138 hp — Sonic feels peppier than a comparable Cruze, which is larger and heavier. And the turbo gets an EPA highway rating of 40 mpg.

Our base 1.8-liter four, mated as it was to the standard five-speed manual transmission — it's a six-speed manual with the turbo, and six speeds either way with the automatic — provided fine performance by segment standards, while the manual tranny boasted a shifter that felt smooth and precise, belying its econo-car lot in life.

Sonic is handsome, frugal, peppy and well-equipped. Look out Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Hyundai Accent.

The bowtie is back in town.