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2008 Chevrolet Cobalt LS Sedan Road Test

There's no doubt that General Motors has covered a great amount of distance

My how you've grown: Cobalt is a giant improvement over the Cavalier. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

with its latest products, such as the Cadillac CTS and Chevrolet Malibu. And while these vehicles have been racking up attention as well as countless trophies, the lowly little Chevy Cobalt deserves praise too. This compact coupe and sedan duo are by no means new, introduced to the public in 2005, but it was one of the first vehicles that GM's North American operations produced in an effort to significantly improve the way people perceive its products, with its positive effects snowballing across the rest of the GM product range with every new model to follow.

The Cobalt isn't the smallest car that Chevrolet offers, but it is the smallest product that was designed and engineered specifically in North America. The Aveo may wear the golden bowtie badge, but it's a Daewoo under the skin, engineered by GMDAT, built in Korea, and sold across the globe with many different brand names. The Cobalt, on the other hand, is only cloned by Pontiac as the G5, in coupe form.

It may not look like the vehicle to incite revolutions, but the Cobalt gets all

If you move up to the 2LT, you get "high flow" 15-inch steel wheels with radial tires. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

the basics right. Its styling, inside and out, is more conservative than the car that preceded it, but that reflects the more mature vehicle it has become. OK, so it's no Volkswagen Jetta, but when you contrast it with what GM was building just a few years prior (ahem... remember the Cavalier?), the message is driven home. Its interior build quality is very good, as panels fit seamlessly together, leaving no unsightly gaps where nickels and dimes might normally be squeezed out by the budgeting department. Though the only soft-touch plastic in the cabin is the rim of the steering wheel, there are flashes of chrome here and there - on the instrument needles, around the gauges, on the door handles - which brighten things up. You wouldn't find that on any Cavalier, and it's still a bit of a treat to find these features in any other compact car.

What the Cobalt could use more of is handy spaces, like bins and cubbies. The glove box is obviously the biggest place to put things, and therefore will be the most used, as there's no center armrest console to store CDs, and the map pockets seem to be designed to hold just that -

It looks a touch plain, but fit, finish and materials quality is much better. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

maps, and no more. And the cupholders, if you could call them that, are very shallow, making it easy for your Timmies to end up in your passenger's lap (or, in a less fortunate case, your own). A nice, big armrest would certainly improve things. Just the same, I found the Cobalt's seats to be quite good; they're very firm, which means even after sitting in them for hours, legs and thighs are less likely to snooze. More lateral support would be good, but overall their comfortable. Upgrade to a 2LT and the seats can be had trimmed in leather and heated, too. Impressive, in a compact.

So what else makes it stand out in its ultra-competitive compact crowd? The Cobalt is practical in ways that you probably wouldn't realize from a walk around the dealership floor. It has, for instance, split folding rear seats, like a lot of other compacts, but the headrests are mounted to the parcel shelf rather than the seat, which means you won't have to fluster and fuss when folding them down. Additionally, the trunk has scissor-type hinges that don't eat away at cargo space, a nice positive plus.

Trip computer comes standard. Chrome rings on the instruments are nice. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

The Cobalt was spawned from GM's Delta platform, which has underpinned a very good car and a not very good car. The good news first: the Cobalt is genetically related to the fabulous Opel (and now Saturn) Astra. The bad news: it's also genetically related to the awful Saturn Ion. More good news: the Saturn Ion is dead, and thankfully the Cobalt errs more on the side of the Astra.

Integral to the Cobalt's on-the-road performance is its very rigid body structure, which shakes off quakes and shimmies. It also plays a helping hand in earning the Cobalt a good crash test rating, which is nothing to scoff at. From there, the frame receives specially-treated Quiet Steel in areas like the firewall, isolate passengers from engine. You neither hear nor feel much in the way of vibration from the steering wheel or pedals either, which is something typical of other compact cars and therefore is rather impressive from the Cobalt, showing that GM is paying particular attention to NVH. At cruising speeds road noise is well abated, and the only wind

Split folding rear seats aren't impeded by the rear headrests. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

noise to be heard is around the uppermost edge of the window and the tips of the side view mirrors.

Compared to Saturn's Astra, the Cobalt is the definitely more comfort-oriented Delta. Its electric steering is set lighter, which makes it easy to twirl the wheel at low speeds, but it weights up as you drive faster; a nice, premium touch, normally found on higher-end cars. And while both cars have struts up front and a torsion beam in back, the Cobalt's ride is smoother. It takes the shock and awe out of disastrous, smart car-swallowing potholes, although this comes at the cost of body roll, which onsets quite early in the corner.

The standard engine in the Cobalt is a 2.2-liter Ecotec four-cylinder, with variable valve timing for 148 horsepower, a respectable figure for an entry level powerplant. And this entry level engine is actually refined. It doesn't wheeze or groan and it always manages to stay quiet and vibration free, even when nearing redline thanks to twin balancer shafts.

More chrome! It brightens up the cabin. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

According to the trip computer (standard), the four-speed automatic-equipped Cobalt with the 2.2 averaged 34 mpg, which is about average in the class. The five-speed manual gearbox is made by Germany's Getrag, and the automatic is GM's own creation. It works well, shifting smoothly and optimizing the engine's broad 152 lb-ft-large torque curve. There's more gusto to be had with the Sport, which uses the 2.4-liter Ecotec engine also found in the Malibu (and others), tuned to make 171 horsepower and 167 lb-ft of torque.

The hottest Cobalt, the Coupe SS Supercharged, is on hiatus, but it will be back starting late spring. In its time off, GM Performance has built up its engine, trading in its supercharger for a turbo and adding direct injection. It's the same engine as in the Solstice GXP / Sky Red Line, and makes an asphalt burning 260 horsepower; it makes you want to hold on even if you're just reading about it. GM tuned it at the Nurburgring, which you can check out on YouTube should you have nine and a half minutes to

At the higher end of the scale, there's the new SS Turbo, which features the Solstice GXP's engine at 260 hp! (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

spare. The original SS Supercharged was only available as a two-door coupe, but when it comes back, it'll be available with two or four doors.

I'm happy to say that air conditioning, which also features an air filtration system, is standard on all Cobalt models. In some other markets, if you order your Cobalt in LS form with a manual transmission, A/C is optional, but if you order the base car with an automatic, which I suspect most people will want, you can't have air conditioning at all.

Discs and drums come standard on LS and LT models, which can be upgraded to include ABS (with traction control when the automatic is specified) for $400, whereas four-wheel discs and ABS are standard on the Sport. Front and head-curtain side-impact airbags are standard across the line.

Sure, the Cobalt might not be the most emotionally enticing car on the market, nor the best equipped, but it's a very level-headed buy. Safe, quiet, and economical, whether being used as a basic commuter machine or a first car for a university student, it's not a bad choice at all.

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