Hey guys!

I am looking to buy a new car and I am stuck between the Cobalt SS and the Mazda 3 Sedan. I went to the dealership today and test drove the Cobalt SS (Auto / Sedan) and am just wondering;

- overall what do you think about this car?
- reliability?
- common problems?
- etc, etc.?

I know you all are on these message boards because you own and like this car but I am just wanting to know the pros and cons of owning the vehicle that the dealers *obviously* wouldn't tell me.

Any and all information that could help me with my decision would be greatly appreciated...

 

All the problems that I've heard of with the N/A balts are cosmetic. Door trim fabric pulling away from the door, paint chipping off the plastic around the door grab handle (interior).
My 2.4 is pretty snappy. But I dont know about an automatic sedan.... Blugh.
If you can drive stick, its well worth the little bit of extra cash to buy the SS/SC. 4 doors are fugly.

 

buy the Mazda 3, way better car IMO. I was considering buying a mazda 3 but i wanted performance, if you're looking for a great all around car the 3 is a good car.

 

Hey Kitten are you talking about the Mazda Speed 3? Or just a regular 3?

 

I was looking at just the regular 3

 

I haven't driven the Sedan version... but I did have a SS Auto coupe for about a year.

Honestly, the Mazda has 3 things going for it... interior, transmission, and fuel.

The SS looks better from the outside, lovely 17" chrome wheels... nice shiny exhaust tip.

The 2.4 Ecotec is a wonderful powerplant. Plenty of power and torque to spare... no problems handling any kind of situation you'd ever run into... fast merging, passing, you name it. You can even show those annoying boys with their ugly loud civics who's boss for a grin.

With the 4-wheel disc brakes the car stops on a dime... seriously. I can't tell you how many times these brakes have kept me out of trouble. You put that pedal down... the car stops, end of story. No skidding, or horrible nose-dive.

Honestly the Cobalt's interior is nice... the all black setup w/leather and heated seats is appealing and comfortable. But I think you may find the Mazda's setup to be better.

The only thing that annoyed me about the Automatic Cobalts is just that... the automatic. 4 gears just isn't up to par in today's modern world. Every other automatic out there is a 5-speed unit... and some cars have 6 or even 7 speeds. 5 gears to use would make the Cobalt unbeatable in my books. Why GM kept the 4-speed... I don't know.

Also, it is strongly reccomended that the SS Cobalt use premium fuel (91 octane or better). The car will get 27MPG or so in the city without much trouble. But it will be a few dollars more expensive to fill up than the Mazda would. You could use regular (87) or mid-grade (89)... but then you're sacrificing the performance edge that the car has in the first place. Using cheaper fuel won't hurt the engine b/c the computer will dial back the timing so nothing really bad happens. You will just lose performance.

So... there ya have it... I haven't heard any real horror stories out of the 2.4 Cobalts... and a lot of us on here beat these cars like mad. If I was looking for a small sedan to be a reliable daily driver. The SS sedan would definately be top on my list.

 

Yeah don't make the same stupid ass mistake I did.


"I dont want to buy the SS/SC cuz I'll have to put premium in it!" God I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and slap myself.

 

You watch your mouth!

I love the 4dr SS's....looks 100x better than a regular cobalt 4dr, and its one of the best looking 4 doors ive ever seen...

 

I own a 07 SS sedan and LOVE it! IMO the sedan looks waaaaay better then the coupe. The rear glass and the 1/4 piller just don't look right to me. And the mini me Corvette tails not my cup of tea sorry.

Anyway now that I countered the sedan hate with a little of my own I can tell you this is a great little car! I got mine in sport red with the sunroof and automatic trans so the wife could drive it. True a 5 spd would be more fun but all in all I love the car. Its quiet inside the interior looks great IMO the ride is sporty but not too harsh, chrome 17's and 4 whhel discs. All for under $20g's! You can not beat it for the price!

 

i looked a 3 myself, and personally, i didn't like the way the interior or exterior looked. that's opinion, but as i used to drive a 03 protege, i do like mazda cars.

the engine in the 3 is very nice, at least the 2.3 litre is... but i kinda feel that you're paying a lot for what you get.

i'd say, drive both and see which you like more. the 3 is a little more polished riding, but the SS beats it in sporty feel.

 

Hmm. Most automatics out there now a days are 4 speeds with an o/d.

 

yeah, i never got the whole "more gears is more better" thing. i have a 6 speed auto in my VW and it spends more time shifting than going.

 

The flatter your torque curve, the less gears you need. Also the less gears you have, the wider those gears can be = more strength. So if you drive a typical import, you could probably get better performance bolting up a 10 speed bicycle tranny. A blown big block dragster can get by nicely with just 2.

 

sushi, i've been meaing to ask. wtf is "dual e-rams"

 

hey Kitten81, you should check out the p[ontiac dealer also, they also have the 2.4ss sedan but its called the G5 GT and its a little better looking with much better rims.the cobalt/g5 is a better power plant,I like the interior of the mazda3 sport hatch better though,its transmission is having problems with the car going into reverse though and mazda has still not resolved this yet

 

Dual e-rams are low boost electric supercharegrs that only run at wot, sort of like a sneaky pete boost of nitrous. They cost me $600 and yield about a 9% boost in hp from 1.7lbs boost.

The top one is visible in this photo. The bottom one is on the end of my CAI under the f bumper.


For more info, go to: http://www.electricsupercharger.com/

or PM me for the scoop on installation and how well they really work.

 

I just very recently went through a similar decision process and went with the Cobalt. For a number of reasons I found it to be a much better deal than it's import competitors. Now my reasons for shopping were maybe a bit different from many on here - I wasn't looking for an all out performance toy (I have another car for that purpose ). But rather, a comfortable small 4 door sedan with a decent load of options, good gas mileage, and a respectable amount of power/torque. In short, a small car that would get reliably and safely from point A to B, and deliver at least some driving fun/comfort while doing it. The car I picked up - a fully loaded LT with power everything, sunroof, antilock, traction control, alloys, fog lights, Pioneer stereo with sub, progamable DIC, etc etc etc was FAR less expensive than comparably equipped imports. Why pay extra money for no good reason - better interior plastics? Nope. Cobalt worked for me.

 

why 600hundred??? they have the E-ram advertised at 299.99

 

I've got 2 for twice the boost. It's called the super e-ram.

They even have an ultra e-ram coming out shortly for about $1,000. It spins at 40,000rpm and makes 2.5lbs of boost on our 4cyl engines. It's mainly for v8s. They claim it produces about 35hp on a v8 from 2lbs boost.

 

I'd have stuck that $600 into a set of cams or a real NOS system. Electric superchargers? Come on... please.

He's got two for twice the rice factor... you want a turbonator or three to go along with it?


Most automatics out there are 5-speed now. Especially in cars that are really competing in the top tier of the Compact market... like the SS Sedan. 4 speed automatics have been around forever and in these 4-cylinder engines you really need as many gears as possible to make the best out of the available power and torque... especially high up in the RPM range where these engines excel. If nothing else... leave 4th 1:1 and have 5th as a really good overdrive for highway cruising. Instead of having 4th as a barely overdriven gear and 3rd at more than 1:1. You'll find that even if the car has to shift more, the transmission is picking the best gear ratio available to make use of how far you are pressing the pedal.

True there are still a decent number of cars out there with a 4-speed auto... but would you really think of getting one of these? Strictly speaking of sedans in the same "class" as the Cobalt here.

Ford Focus
Mitsu Lancer (non-Evo)
Toyota Corolla
Hyundai Elantra
Kia Spectra

Some of these cars... like the Focus... have been around for 7 years. Most are pretty dated by now

Or would you rather have...

Mazda 3
Honda Civic
VW Jetta
Dodge Calibur
Nissan Sentra

All these are new design cars like the Cobalt... they're the ones really eating up the sales of new Compact cars.

Every GM car has a 4-speed automatic. From the $10k Aveo to the $30k Impala SS with it's 300hp V8. Even Pontiac's performance coupes the G6 and GTO have 4-speeds. Bet ya' the new Camaro will have a 4-speed.

So maybe by 5 vs 4 is more of an opinion. But had my 2.4 been a 5-speed automatic... I would have been 100% pleased with it. I really think the 4-speed auto is what's holding a lot of GM cars back period.

 

Whatever floats your boat man. I'll be getting her dyno'd next week both with and without e-rams.I'll post up the numbers for everyone to see. I think my 1/4 mile time speaks for itself - it's the second quickest 2.4 auto on the board (missed #1 by .002sec.)- and that was my first time out with zero traction (in the rain). On a dry day, I think she'll break into the 14's.

My e-rams put about as much power to the ground as I'd expect from some decent cams (we'll know exactly how much soon), so that's a good comparison. Plus, they are not putting any wear and tear on my engine or burning any extra gas when not in use - which is 99% of the time. Cams burn extra gas and put extra stress on your engine - especially your valvetrain 100% of the time.

I'll be getting cams soon (probably a JBP), but I'd like to see some numbers first.
As for N2O, I may be adding that in the future too - but it's just for the track as it's illegal for street use. I like the concept though - only costs you when it's in use.

As far as rice goes - the e-rams are American made, so how can that be rice? Oh, maybe it's because the e-ram people just won 7 awards at this years SEMA for the e-rams. I guess that makes them no better than the turbinator, huh?

They've been making and racing e-rams for the last 9 years. I have the 6th generation model that's been race proven, tested by many top car magazines and has dozens of dyno sheets to back it up. Soon you'll see mine.

If you want 3rd party verification, just PM EthansCobalt. We met the night I ran my car at No Problems Raceway. We don't really know each other, so he'll give you an unbiased report as to how well they perform.

 

right on!

The NA SS looks alot more sporty then the regualr 2.2L and better then the Mazda 3, IMO, of course.

 

Okay... okay... maybe the "rice" was a little bit too much. I just can't take electric F/I seriously. If it works for you... meh... I'd still stick to some real performance mods.

 

sorry but I have to take issue with some comments as I feel your exagerating some points.

1. NO compact car has a 6,7, or 8 speed auto

2. Very few even has 5 speed auto. Honda Civic and Mazda 3 have it. Everyting else uses 4 speed auto. (ok the Sentra has CVT--no thanks)

This will lilkely change in 1-2 years. GM is tooling up capacity for their new 6 speed auto. They have a RWD version and FWD one. Cadillacs, trucks and Eplson chasis cars, Lambadas, mostly at the moment. (G6, 08 Malibu, Aura)

Incedenatly--the 08 Malibu will have a 2.4L WITH then new 6 speed auto. I would guess that as long as it fits in the Cobalt---it could show up in a year or two.

3. GM makes among the best automatics in the world. Even auto magazines acknowledge this. So yes 4 speeds but its a great transmsiion.

I just wanted to set the record straight here.

This is my 2nd Cobalt. The first was a 5 speed coupe--now an 4dr SS auto. It is slower but for a 4cly auto its got some *****.

The 3 has a slightly better interior--I will admit but interioores aren't number one thing for me. The Cobalts is farily good I think--nothing bad. As fas as I know--there are no big outstanding issues with NA Cobalts, like the 2.4L--GM has made big strides in the last few years and the delta platform is very competitve.

 

i like my 2.4 coupe so id say go for it