JonyyB

Sunday, February 20, 2005
By TOM KEANE

Chevrolet just introduced the Cobalt, a new sport compact car that’s destined to shine — in its price class. It’s loaded with magnetic qualities to make it glitter.

I learned from Chevrolet’s PR people that Chevy engineers were directed to develop the best compact in its class. They came up with 150 components, systems and other items to produce performance, refinement, driving satisfaction and quality. The result: four Cobalts offered as either a sedan or coupe. There is the base model, the LS and LT models, plus the SS Supercharged model.

I drove the LT model, a sharp-looking sedan with a rear-deck spoiler to give it great eye-appeal. Immediately, I got the feeling this car would be fast on the road. I wasn’t mistaken. But I was surprised at how much power and speed the Cobalt could produce with an engine lacking the usual credentials of high performance.

Under the hood is a 2.2-liter, four-cylinder engine that produces a modest 145 horsepower and a mere 150 lbs.-ft. of torque. Yet the Cobalt reacts like a powerful car. Better yet, it gets good mileage: 24 miles per gallon city and 32 mpg highway.



The engine on my tester was linked to an automatic transmission. The LT tester also had traction control. That’s a good buy for $18,195. Actually, the price starts at $14,190 for the base model. My tester, however, had a number of worthwhile options, bringing the total to $21,325. The options included a sunroof, OnStar, XM Satellite radio, and the rear-deck spoiler.

One reason the Cobalt has such good acceleration is that it’s comparatively light in weight. Yet it doesn’t bounce all over the road as it has good stability, which is a credit to the engineers who utilized a stiff body structure and didn’t compromise the suspension. The result is a car that holds the road in a similar manner to a much heavier vehicle. It even offers the ride comfort of a heavier vehicle. That’s just one area that impressed me.

The exterior design also gets more that a casual glance. The door handles, wheels, and roof molding have a quality, finished look and even the tail lamps have attractive appeal. Again, a lot of engineering and design thought went into the makeup of the Cobalt.

I particularly appreciated the view from the driver’s seat. I had excellent visibility of the road. Another pleasure: on cold days, both front seats could be heated and the heater worked quickly. Best of all, the Cobalt is a small car and very easy to handle, especially when it comes to parking. One reason is the Cobalt has Electric Power Steering. The result is very precise steering response.

This car has vented disc brakes and comes with 15-inch wheels, but 16- and 18-inch wheels are available. Surprisingly, considering that it is a small lightweight car, the interior is quiet. I’m told the engineers used “quiet steel,” composed of two layers of steel with a thin layer of plastic between them. This creates an ideal environment for listening to the XM Satellite radio. Also, OnStar provides reassurance in emergency, direction and roadside assistance.

As with most cars of current vintage, safety features are found throughout. The Cobalt contains such things as dual-stage airbags, front safety belt pretensioners, impact protection in the door pillars and roof, and the rear is designed to protect the fuel tank from a 50-mph impact.

It’s obvious, the engineers had a field day in designing this gem. I’m sure everyone will soon be seeing a lot of shiny Cobalts in his or her travels.

SilverCSS

If that's the LT..imagine the SS S/C.

Drenz

whos the author - GM vice president ... just another joe shmoes opinion

SilverCSS

After some very limited research, it seems as though he writes for the Boston Herald. Although..there's also a pro football player, musician, and a plethora of other guys with his name out there, heh.

http://www.tomkeane.com/

I don't see a link to this particular column, so there may be another Tom out there. :shrug:

JonyyB

ups, I forgot the link. Here it is:
http://www.kpcnews.com/main.asp?Sear...SectionID=&S=1

SilverCSS

And there you have it. Thanks Jonel.

BlueVillain

Most newspaper reporters are often poor reviewers of certain products. I once red a review of the SSR in a national paper that said that it didn't have a glove-box. I wondered who earned money to write that crap.

And I agree, this article wasn't very critical at all.

Villain