G5 Sedan: Respect, but no love

[Tone]

I had a Pontiac G5 sedan today as a renter. And given all the knocks I've read on the G5/Cobalt -- even on this board -- I was pleasantly surprised. It seems to be quite a competent, well-put together little car with no glaring faults. On, the other hand, there was very little here to get an enthusiasts heart pounding. All in all, it's a great car for people who don't care about cars.

Fit and finish seemed very good -- a far cry from the GM of my youth. And, the materials, though mostly hard plastic, were nicely grained and had good-looking finished on them. For the price of the car, I thought the interior was fine. Not as nice as the Mazda3 (the class of this price field, IMHO), but not world's apart, either.

On the road, the car was quiet and competent. The four-speed auto was responsive, happy to shift down when needed. But, the gaps between the ratios mean that sometimes the choice was between a small squeeze of the accelerator and tepid acceleration, or a bit more of a squeeze, a downshift, and a whole lot more noise and acceleration than really required. Still, given the bare-bones nature of the car (manual window!) it was more than adequate.

The engine made good power, was quiet on the highway and was very smooth. Engine sound is a very subjective thing, but the G5 is more of a moaner than a screamer. It has a particular low-register moan when you leg it low in the rev range that I find annoying. But, it sounds quite good at high RPM; I wonder whether after years of producing big V8s, GM engineers seek to give even their fours a little bit of rumble!

Straight line tracking was good, and overall handling was fine, though unexciting. Well, that isn't really accurate -- I pushed the car a bit, but not to the edges of adhesion. The basic handling seems fine. The let-down is the steering feel. There just isn't very much information filtering up from the contact patches. The lack of steering feel makes the car feel much bigger than it is. And it means there isn't as much joy in carving corners in this car -- it'll do it, it just doesn't encourage that kind of driving.

The brakes, on the other hand, felt meaty and easy to modulate. I remember when the power brakes on most GM cars felt like stepping into a pile of thick mud -- the feel here is much improved and, dare I say it, downright Germanic. If the folks who worked on the brakes could take a crack at the steering, the G5 might actually be fun to drive!

Basically, the G5 does what GM cars have always done well -- motor on down the highway at the speed limit (plus 20), quietly, happily and comfortably. What it doesn't do is make me want to take the back roads. GM would suggest moving into a Cobalt SS or G5 GT if that's the kind of driving I'd like to do. But, I think a base Mazda 3 (or even a Focus!) retains a lot of the fun-to-drive qualities of their more expensive siblings, something not-so-true here.

But, if you are looking for an inexpensive, well crafted, comfortable car to commute back and forth to work, the G5 and Cobalt seem worthy of a look.

[King Riffle]

There's one problem with the Cobalt/G5 sedan:


It looks like an old Daewoo (I actually thought it was for a while). It's not horrific or anything, it's just extremely boring to look at.

People seem to be buying them though. I suppose if it's as good as you say I'd consider one too.

(Oh and the fuel economy sucks)

[Slack]

The biggest "problem" with the G5 is that it was never supposed to be built.

[FoMoCo Fan]

The fit and finish may be improved from GM of years ago, but it's still WAY behind the imports. I saw a new Civic coupe parked next to a new Cobalt sedan in the parking lot this afternoon. I was amazed at the incredibly small panel gaps on the Civic, especially where the plastic bumper panels meet the sheetmetal. I don't even think I could fit a piece of paper in between there. The gaps on the Cobalt are at least twice as big. And the plastic panels themselves are kinda wavy on the Cobalt, on the Honda they're smooth and look perfect. The bottom line is, even if you set aside styling, just based on the overall presentation and execution of fit and finish, the Honda simply blows the Chevy away in terms of desirability. That said, to Honda's credit, I looked at the panel gaps on other vehicles in the lot, and the Honda was by far the best that I saw.

[Slack]

Originally Posted by FoMoCo Fan

The fit and finish may be improved from GM of years ago, but it's still WAY behind the imports. I saw a new Civic coupe parked next to a new Cobalt sedan in the parking lot this afternoon. I was amazed at the incredibly small panel gaps on the Civic, especially where the plastic bumper panels meet the sheetmetal. I don't even think I could fit a piece of paper in between there. The gaps on the Cobalt are at least twice as big. And the plastic panels themselves are kinda wavy on the Cobalt, on the Honda they're smooth and look perfect. The bottom line is, even if you set aside styling, just based on the overall presentation and execution of fit and finish, the Honda simply blows the Chevy away in terms of desirability. That said, to Honda's credit, I looked at the panel gaps on other vehicles in the lot, and the Honda was by far the best that I saw.

The panel gaps were twice as big as less than a piece of paper?? WTF are you complaining about? Two paper thickness panel gaps... get real.

[Citation84]

My 05 ION with 2.2 & auto. got 35-37 this last trip [without cruise control]: wind, snow, freezing weather, sea level in AZ to mountains in Utah and has always delivered better than the EPA #s, even when brand new. Mileage doesn't suck. City is consistently 24-26 mpg in LA traffic and the engine does have a nice "rumble" to it as mentioned above.
Styling of the Cobalt is okay and I would actually have preferred one, but couldn't find more than 3 on the local Chevy lot and all of those overloaded with options. {i will gladly take manual windows for fewer problems down the road**.I have gone several times over the past 3 years and the situation remains the same : one or two Cobalts, half a dozen to a dozen Aveos.
Tone: I think your summation is right on target.The Deltas are very competent and make great commuter companions.

[ByTheLake]

Actually, the G5 isn't a bad looking car, especially since it only comes in coupe form, not the 4-door Cobalt pictured above.

Still, the car should have remained a Chevy, something for the masses. A Pontiac should have some truly aggressive styling, but not cartoon-gimicky. The G5 simply has a different grille insert. Was that the best GM could do?

I think GM has forgotten about what Pontiac stood for. When I was younger, people who drove Pontiacs had a different attitude than the Chevy or Olds crowd. Solstice is great, but where are the rest of the cars with 'attitude'? Torrent?? Come on. I don't want to hear about G8 either ... Pontiac has been starved of excitement for way too long.

[01sunfire01]

i have the G5 GT and i love it also. it goest 24mpg around town thats with shifting it at 3500 or 4000 rpms i like to hear the motor. it does have a nice sound to it at the higher rpms for the 2.4L motor. the inside of these car is great there is no gaps everything is set up nice and a guy i work with has a 07 civic SI and i think the inside of the G5 is better. the civic is very ugly inside i dont like is at all. it had way to much going on. the g5 has a nice layout to it and is isint over done.

[LeSabre]

The G5 itself is a problem. Its basically a modern Sunbird....A blantant(bad) Chevy rebadge. The Sunfire(coupe) at least had an exterior look of its own unlike this POS & the late Sunbird.