King Riffle Drives the Chevy Cobalt

[King Riffle]

Well tonight I got to take a short drive in a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt sedan. The car has about 1500 miles on it, and is equipped with an automatic transmission. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of it. My notes:

-The interior is very well lit.

-For a four-door sedan, rear seat leg room is non-existent. Adults won't last long in the back, although there is plenty of head room.

-The steering wheel is a rather odd shape. It's flat on the outside, instead of round like most. I'm not sure if I like that or not, I'd have to take a longer drive.

-Staying on the subject of the steering wheel, the cruise control buttons are a bit close to the rim. I found my hand covering up a few of them.

-The interior looks very nice for a compact sedan. Everything is placed where it should be. Supposedly the team who designed it benchmarked the Volkswagon Jetta. I don't think they've gotten it quite right though. Many of the materials in the Cobalt felt rather cheap. There were few soft surfaces, although to Chevrolet's credit those soft materials were where the driver is most likely to feel them. The armrest, shifter handle, and steering wheel were all covered in a nice, almost rubbery material.

-Driving the Cobalt was a very pleasant experience. The car is about as quiet as you could expect a compact car to be, and the suspension soaks up the bumps quite well. No chance to explore the Cobalt's handling, with the base suspension of this test car I expect it to be about average for its class.

-The engine wasn't short on power around town. I'm told by the regular driver that it's powerful enough on the highway too.

-Visibility all around was quite good, which is becoming a rare treat as designers keep raising the beltlines of their designs.

-There were two rattles. One came from somewhere near the back window, and was probably the result of some ice. The other was coming from somewhere underneath the dashboard. While nearly all of the GM vehicles I've driven have had some interior rattles, I would hope that this wouldn't be an issue with one of their new products (especially with such low mileage).

-According to the trip computer, the Cobalt is averaging 27mpg (Mostly highway driving from what I'm told). This is rather pathetic. Hopefully as the car get's broken in a bit more the mileage will get a bit higher.

So there you have it. I thought it was rather nice. Would I buy it? I'm not sure. I'd have to take it for a longer drive and drive its competitors. I would most certainly consider a Cobalt coupe' though.

[Old Dood]

King Riffle I have always thought of you are a 'Fair Minded' person.

Your 'review' seems to be fair as well. I know you take some flak here from time to time but so be it. It is a Economy Car and that always has to be taken for what it is. An Affordable Car. It will not be perfect and I believe even the higher end cars will have some issues in regards to rattles and squeaks. These can be fixed if the correct person takes the time to do it well.

What I would like to see are reviews of cars after they hit 40-50K miles.(And/Or more then that)
I would call them 'Real Life Reviews'. Meaning we as consumers will keep our cars at least THAT long and to see how a car holds up after many miles to me would be a real test of it's overall build quality.
Mainly for me anyways in 'Ride Quality'. That is why I kept my Buicks for so long. I might have had some odd repairs but the ride quality has always been there. Yes, I had to change out the struts at 70+K (rears) and 100+K (fronts) but that to me is fairly normal with Michigan roads beating the HELL out of my cars.

A lot of people like/want all that suspension 'stuff'. How it handles in a tight curve, etc. To me it is the 'Ride' and will always be the Ride. After all when I travel somewhere I want to show up as refreshed as possible. Sure being able to corner might come in handy but, I don't want something 'stiff' all the time. It wears me out. I enjoy the 'float ride' so I can experience my trip in comfort. Drinks are not jumping out of the cup holders and so forth.

To quote a well known phrase:
"The Journey is all, the End is nothing..."

To bad you didn't have a camera with you. I thought YOU were a Tech-no Geek of some sort. Not even a phone camera? Tisk Tisk...hehe.

[solman98]

You can't go by the DIC, my mother has an 06 2.2 auto and she has never gotten under 32 in town. She usually averages 34-35 in her's.

The DIC in my HHR is just as bad, it is usually 1-2 MPG off as well. You just can't trust a DIC can you.....

[King Riffle]

Originally Posted by Old Dood

King Riffle I have always thought of you are a 'Fair Minded' person.

Your 'review' seems to be fair as well. I know you take some flak here from time to time but so be it. It is a Economy Car and that always has to be taken for what it is. An Affordable Car. It will not be perfect and I believe even the higher end cars will have some issues in regards to rattles and squeaks. These can be fixed if the correct person takes the time to do it well.

What I would like to see are reviews of cars after they hit 40-50K miles.(And/Or more then that)
I would call them 'Real Life Reviews'. Meaning we as consumers will keep our cars at least THAT long and to see how a car holds up after many miles to me would be a real test of it's overall build quality.
Mainly for me anyways in 'Ride Quality'. That is why I kept my Buicks for so long. I might have had some odd repairs but the ride quality has always been there. Yes, I had to change out the struts at 70+K (rears) and 100+K (fronts) but that to me is fairly normal with Michigan roads beating the HELL out of my cars.

A lot of people like/want all that suspension 'stuff'. How it handles in a tight curve, etc. To me it is the 'Ride' and will always be the Ride. After all when I travel somewhere I want to show up as refreshed as possible. Sure being able to corner might come in handy but, I don't want something 'stiff' all the time. It wears me out. I enjoy the 'float ride' so I can experience my trip in comfort. Drinks are not jumping out of the cup holders and so forth.

To quote a well known phrase:
"The Journey is all, the End is nothing..."

To bad you didn't have a camera with you. I thought YOU were a Tech-no Geek of some sort. Not even a phone camera? Tisk Tisk...hehe.

Why thank you.

Some people don't mind a few rattles and squeaks. Personally, I hate them. It can take quite a bit of work sometimes to track them down. I love what Ford did with my Taurus. It's such a simple idea that I'm surprised others haven't done it. Where ever two interior pieces meet, there are little felt pads glued to those panels. A rather cheap solution maybe, but it works. 123,000 miles and not a single rattle or squeak.

Reviews of a car after a good 50k would be helpful. You'd run into issues though. How well had the car been taken care of? How would you know? Have things that needed to be fixed been fixed? Is there a car magazine that does 50,000 mile long-term tests? I thought that there was but I could be wrong. They'd be a great source for information like that.

I wouldn't describe the Cobalt's ride as "Buick like," but you might be surprised at how well they do ride. I myself prefer great handling in a car, but a smooth ride is nice sometimes too.

I did have my phone along, but I can't find a cord to connect it to my computer to upload the pictures. If you can find me a cord compatible with a Pantech C120 I'd greatly appreciate it. It wouldn't have done a whole lot of good since it was dark out.

[Old Dood]

I think ALL cars ride pretty well as new. Sure some more then others but for the most part they all ride well...because thay ARE new.

That is why I would like to see a test after X amount of miles to see how the 'ride' holds up. Yes, they do some testing up to a certain amount of miles but, to see how a car holds up down the road would be helpful.

I can't stand squeaks either. They slowly drive me nutty.

[F14CRAZY]

I had an Enterprise Cobalt LS for about a month, which actually gave my mom the idea to buy an LTZ for herself.

If I reset the DIC with the cruise control on (foot operated in the LS) at 75 mph I'd get 32-33 mpg. Didn't calculate the real mileage out but that sounds about right. I drove to Grand Rapids and back as escort for my dad towing the backhoe, and doing 60 mph I got over 41 (according to the DIC).

The 2.2L is not at all slow at any speed. It's pretty smooth and quiet compared to the Chrysler 2.4L I'm stuck with now.

I wish the interior was a bit quieter. My mom's LTZ isn't any different than the LS (no power locks, power windows, nothin, but it has a DIC and automatic headlights) even with dealer undercoating.

[KingElvis]

Originally Posted by Old Dood

King Riffle I have always thought of you are a 'Fair Minded' person.

Your 'review' seems to be fair as well. I know you take some flak here from time to time but so be it. It is a Economy Car and that always has to be taken for what it is. An Affordable Car. It will not be perfect and I believe even the higher end cars will have some issues in regards to rattles and squeaks. These can be fixed if the correct person takes the time to do it well.

What I would like to see are reviews of cars after they hit 40-50K miles.(And/Or more then that)
I would call them 'Real Life Reviews'. Meaning we as consumers will keep our cars at least THAT long and to see how a car holds up after many miles to me would be a real test of it's overall build quality.
Mainly for me anyways in 'Ride Quality'. That is why I kept my Buicks for so long. I might have had some odd repairs but the ride quality has always been there. Yes, I had to change out the struts at 70+K (rears) and 100+K (fronts) but that to me is fairly normal with Michigan roads beating the HELL out of my cars.

A lot of people like/want all that suspension 'stuff'. How it handles in a tight curve, etc. To me it is the 'Ride' and will always be the Ride. After all when I travel somewhere I want to show up as refreshed as possible. Sure being able to corner might come in handy but, I don't want something 'stiff' all the time. It wears me out. I enjoy the 'float ride' so I can experience my trip in comfort. Drinks are not jumping out of the cup holders and so forth.

To quote a well known phrase:
"The Journey is all, the End is nothing..."

To bad you didn't have a camera with you. I thought YOU were a Tech-no Geek of some sort. Not even a phone camera? Tisk Tisk...hehe.

Amen brother. It seems now you can't get any V8 car without a 'sport' suspension (even the Crown Vic is only sold as 'fleet' model now). The 'sport' suspension is just a poison pill around Chicago too - the roads are terrible - even with the base suspension the car suffers and the stiff one beats the interior up so you've got all these squeaks and rattles.