2006 Chevy Cobalt LS

2006 Chevy Cobalt LS

This will be a rather lengthy review and will not follow my usual positives, negatives, conclusion format; the reason being that I took a rather lengthy drive in this car. So, this will be more of a road test story. I had a job interview in Vancouver B.C. and seeing how it wasn’t really cycling distance from Seattle, a rental car was in order. Being under twenty five, I went with Enterprise because they only charge a ten dollar a day fee for being below that age (Hertz charges something like thirty quid a day!). At the bottom end of the scale you can rent the woeful Chevy Aveo, which is just a rebadged Daewoo, and for a little more the slightly more woeful Dodge Neon which is clearly not worth it. Seeing how I had over a couple hundred miles to drive from Seattle to Vancouver and back again, I decided to pay the extra four dollars a day and try out the latest small car offering from Chevrolet.

The journey into Canada was rather simple… I-5 north until it becomes some randomly named Canadian road across the border and then we reach Vancouver. However, along the way I would encounter city traffic, traffic jams, long straight stretches of highway (of course), curvy bits of highway (I quite liked those), and the annoying queue known as the US/Canadian border.

I started off my rental on Friday, since I needed to leave before Enterprise opened on Saturday. I took my roommates for a light Costco run and a trip over to Target, so I wouldn’t have to pay for campus parking (which is free past 6:00 pm) that day. Fortunately, none of them complained about the back seat not having enough room, but no one praised it as well. The trunk fit everything we needed to fit in it, and I was delighted to find that it used hydraulic tubes rather than manual hinges which can crush your large Costco bought cereal boxes when you try to slam the trunk shut.

The first thing I noticed about the car though, was the much improved interior compared to the previous year’s Cobalt. I always make fun of American cars for their cheap looking interiors, but the Cobalt’s interior trim didn’t look too bad. I have to stress the look part, because most of the plastics are still as hard and cheap as a porn star’s boob job. Of all the cheap plastic bits in the car, the steering wheel was the worst, which is quite a shame because it would be the one bit of the car I would actually have to touch. The steering wheel was made out of the same sort of plastic you would expect to find on a fisher price play house only with a sand paper like finish on it.

The next thing I noticed, which was after about twenty miles of driving, was the rather alarming fuel consumption. During the twenty miles, I complained about the car lacking punch especially for having more horse power and much more torque than the Civic or the Corolla, but over those twenty miles the fuel gauge dropped a quarter tank! I got a phone call from Enterprise asking if everything was going all right, and I complained about the rubbish fuel economy I was getting. The Enterprise guy came up with the thought that the previous renter may have put in cheapest gas imaginable before returning the car, and this turned out to be the case. It was a good thing the car didn’t have a full tank of gas when it was given to me or else I would have had to drive a lot more miles before I could go to a proper gas station and give the car proper gas. After the fill up, the engine had much more punch, but it still felt slower than a Corolla which is way down on power. It’s not as if this car was weighed down by heavy options too, it had manual locks and roll down windows... also, the trunk cannot be released from inside the car. If you go to the airport to pick someone up, you have to shut off the engine, get out, use the key to open the trunk, get back into the car, and start it up again. Not very dignified, but if you’re going to pick up your girlfriend from the airport you can pretend that you wanted to be a gentleman and load her suitcase into the trunk for her… sadly if you’re a girl going to pick up your boyfriend, this action might seem insulting instead, so you can’t use that as an excuse.

The next morning I finally departed for Vancouver. It was going to be a long drive, but fortunately GM fitted an auxiliary in on the stereo, so I could plug in my MP3 player instead of bringing a large stack of CD’s. Another thing that I have to thank GM for is the extra sound insulation they shoved into this car. It’s no Rolls Royce, but for this class of car it was quite nice since I could actually hear the songs being played through the stereo while I was darting down the highway. Speaking of darting down the highway, beware of black Ford F-150’s… I saw one without external beanies and police badging pull a blatantly speeding X-terra over for a ticket.

After a couple of hours I reached a stretch of I-5 north of Everett which I really enjoyed. The road passed through a more mountainous area and thus had some nice sweeping curves and a magnificent view to distract you. The speed limit was reduced in this area, probably because some health and safety people are afraid of you somehow skidding off the road, but I certainly didn’t care because this stretch of road allowed me to probe the fun factor of the Cobalt. Sadly, though the road was a lot more fun than the mundane highway straights, the car wasn’t that fun. The Cobalt handles alright, but the steering feel is a bit numb and the back of the steering wheel rubs annoyingly against the giant slab of plastic behind it. I kept wishing I was in a different car. I obviously would have loved to belt down that stretch of road in an S2000, or a Porsche 911, but I was thinking even a Mazda 3 or a Focus would have made my day.

After an annoying hour and a half spent queuing at the border, and another half hour of driving down some Canadian tarmac, I arrived in Vancouver! I now had to drive into downtown to get to my job interview. I followed my Google maps directions to the tee for fear of getting lost in a city I’ve never been to. Unfortunately the road it had me go down was being dug up for some public transit system, so there was plenty of stop and go traffic as well as potholes and bumps. The cobalt did quite well in these conditions; the car didn’t break my back and jar bits of trim off their mounting points as it went over the road irregularities, even the plastic wheel covers stayed attached.

I eventually reached my destination and started to attach my tie and swap my running shoes for uncomfortable dress shoes. It had been a long drive and surprisingly my @$$ wasn’t sore or numbed over and my back didn’t need a trip to the chiropractor, so kudos to the Cobalt’s comfy seats.

After bombing my four hour interview (it was in an annoying group format) I just wanted to get to my hotel room and relax. There was something I noticed about the Cobalt after leaving the interview, but I’ll get back to that later since it’s a big one. I was going off of four hours of sleep, and thanks to the convenient 1:00 interview time and the slow traffic down Cambie Street, I skipped out on lunch as well making me more lethargic. To get to my hotel I had to use Cambie Street, and unfortunately, the downtown portion of it isn’t quite connected to the Cambie Street Bridge to get out of downtown and I got a bit lost. This fortunately gave me a chance to look around the lovely city of Vancouver and I suggest to my readers to visit this city one day because it is breath taking.

Once I finally found my way to the hotel, I had a new worry. I booked an airport hotel because they’re usually the cheapest without having hookers and drug dealers outside, but the neighborhood didn’t exactly seem posh. To add to the ambiance the hotel wisely (add sarcasm with water) put up massive signs saying that hotel patrons are parking at their own risk, and that there are no security cameras, and no security what-so-ever really. This made me empty out everything in the car, because the locks on the Cobalt are about as flimsy as a rope bridge in Indiana Jones, and if someone tried to break into the car the locks would probably surrender faster than France.

I woke up early to try and avoid border traffic, and decided to fuel up the car first. I saw a gas station selling gas for 2.8 Canadian dollars which looked pretty cheap and decided to pull in… then I remembered that unlike the Brits, the Canadians only use metric, and $2.80 was the price per LITER! I glanced at the fuel gauge and decided to wait until I was back in Washington to fuel up. By the time I crossed the border and did fuel up I was in for a bit of disappointment. The car, while doing only a tiny bit of city traffic and a lot of highway, only got 29 mpg. Sure Chevy advertises 33 mpg and I wasn’t expecting to get that, but 29 mpg is what I get in the city when I drive a Corolla or a Civic! What makes the fuel figure more amusing is the fact that the Cobalt uses an engine with technology GM calls “ecotec.”

Eventually, I made it back into Seattle without crashing and started to reflect a bit more on the car. Is the Cobalt a good car? I didn’t hate it, and it’s not bad; but, it’s not that great. This car is average in every way possible, so nothing about it was really special. In comparison to the old Cavalier, this car is light years ahead, so if you’re a Chevy man this car will not disappoint you; however, if you’re not a Chevy man, this car just isn’t as good as the Japanese competition.

Now I have to get back to the major downfall I noticed about the Cobalt after the interview… the styling. This isn’t a bad looking car, but it doesn’t look modern and would look more at home in the late 90’s. The car itself looks a little flimsily built as well, which adds onto the aesthetic kick in the groin. What I’m trying to get at is that it isn’t necessarily the looks, but the presentation that’s the issue. At the interview there were a few attractive girls there and when we were all leaving two of them were parked next to me. One drove to the interview in an Acura TL, and the other drove in the new Hyundai Elantra. I suddenly felt a wave of embarrassment getting into the Cobalt because it just looked so cheap next to these cars… and one of them was a Hyundai! This might have been a little different if I was driving the SS coupe with alloys and a spoiler, but the basic sedan just lacks the quality look the rest of the cars in its class now have. I’m certain that if Enterprise rented me a Civic sedan, I would have proudly gotten into the car and set off.

Conclusion:
So if you are a Chevy man, and you’re going to ignore all the negative things I’ve said about the Cobalt, what are you getting in the end? Well to list the good stuff, this car is a quiet and comfortable car perfect for commuting. The Cobalt doesn’t roll too much in tight bends, and overall has decent handling. So you’re pretty much buying GM’s version of the Corolla only cheaper; however, this car, like most GM cars, will depreciate faster than a laptop. If you plan on running the car until it has to be towed to the junk yard, the depreciation might not bother you and since this is an all American car, insurance will be less than other cars and spare parts will be astonishingly cheap. Personally though, unless your Chevy dealership offers massive rebates and slashes another couple thousand dollars off the price tag after that… get something else.

Summary:
The good: It’s like a Corolla only less expensive…
The bad: And without the quality, the charm, the excellent fuel mileage, the reliability, the value retention…
Verdict: Much better than the old Cavalier but not good enough.

Random Stats:

Engine: 2.2 Liter I4, 145 hp, 155 lb-ft torque

EPA fuel estimate: 24/33

Observed highway mileage: 29 mpg