Joe: Hi, I'm Joe Wiensenfelder of Cars.com, very happy this week to be
driving a Chevrolet Cobalt. I don’t often say that, but this one is a
Cobalt SS, it means SuperSport. It is a pocket rocket. Basically,
that means it’s a powerful quick small car. Now, the heart of the
Cobalt SS is its engine.
Now, it delivers a whopping 260 horsepower and also 260 pound
feet of torque. It is a small two-liter four cylinder but it’s direct
injection and it’s turbo charged. Because of that it gets not just a
good amount of torque but it gets it at very low engine speed 2000
RPM and there's almost no lag from the turbo.
I have to give Chevrolet credit for not putting a big ugly wing on,
this is a pretty tasteful spoil. You can get a bigger one as an option.
Other than that, the car isn’t too exciting looking, it’s a Cobalt. The
wheels are 18-inch alloys start. The brake is actually pretty big
calipers here four piston Brembo calipers, they do a really nice job.
They're linear. They stand up the heat all right. The tires are
summer performance tires.
Now, the transmission because there’s enough torque at low engine
speeds, five-speed is not so bad. I don’t think I’d mind having six.
And also when you go between gears, you don’t have to lift up on
the accelerator. You can pretty much leave your foot down and
keep shifting. This is a no lift feature. It’s interesting but in my
mind if I wanted an automatic transmission, I would get one, I'm
just saying it.
Now the ride quality is pretty comfortable for a car of this type, it’s
a little firm but certainly livable. The handling is also quite
impressive, pretty neutral balance not a lot of body roll. I found I'm
able to bring the tail out just a little bit. There’s not too much under
steer, impressive because this car has a semi-independent rear
suspension.
One thing I’m not crazy about is the steering. It’s a faster ratio than
the regular Cobalt and that’s good but it is electric power steering.
Still hasn’t been perfected, some manufacturers do it better than
others. This one is a little under assisted and I also find it snaps
back the center way too quickly, it feels unnatural but in terms of
the precision, quite good.
There are features that distinguished the SS from the regular
Cobalt, inside the most notable of course the boost gauge on the A
pillar here for the turbo charger. The seats also are specific to this
car. They have nice side ball string. I find them pretty comfortable
overall. The material is a little bit rough though and even though
there’s a seat height adjustment which is great to have in an
affordable car, I would like an adjustment for the pitcher at least
for the front of the cushion to be lower. I'm close to the steering
wheel than I want to be, so I can get full extension on the clutch
pedal.
Now, the biggest shortcoming in the SS is definitely the interior
quality. The Cobalt itself is way behind the class leaders and that
regard the Mazda Speed 3 is better, Honda Civic is better. And
there are some things that make it different but still quality things
like gaps between panels, jagged edges and this drawer on the side,
really rough and plasticky.
Now, sometimes manufacturers will put a lot of power in a car to
make up for other shortcomings. I actually found the Cobalt SS to
be much more balanced, much more engineered as a package than
I expected. It has its shortcomings and it’s not even close to the
interior quality that GM has shown it can do just hasn’t made it to
this class yet.
For the money you’re paying under $23,000.00, this amount of
power is probably the best bargain out there and you can even get
22 miles per gallon city in 30 highway.
Male: For additional information on this car or any other go to Cars.com
and our blog Kicking Tires.
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