Here's an interesting (yet very rudimentary) observation I have made:

Let's say we build a ratio of total forum members to reported problems using the total post count for each forum's "Problems and Service" sub-forum as an indicator.

What do we get:

8thcivic.com
12,717 Members
19,216 Posts on Problems
--------
0.6617

cobaltss.net
14,675 Members
20,062 Posts on Problems
--------
0.7314

In this case, a higher number is better then a lower number (imagine if there was 1 member and 10 posts on problems = 0.1) indicating fewer members of Cobaltss.net have complained about problems then on 8thcivic.com. This leads me to believe a few things, either civic owners are bigger whiners, or there have been less problems for the cobalt reported.

Now I know there is no way of rating the severity of the problems, this is a sheer volume of complaints analysis. I find this very intriguing.

Discuss!

 

What were some of the more prevelent complaints the Civic owners were saying?

And this goes to show everyone that Imports aren't necessarily more reliable.

 

From my observations I found a lot of complaints with interior quality (rattles, cracks) also complaints about the transmissions (especially auto), honestly, the complaints are pretty similar to what happens around here.

You can almost take any post and swap Civic for Cobalt or vice versa.

I found this really interesting and I like using statistics from forums as most industry ones are skewed badly.

Ryan

 

i have owned 2 mustangs, a camaro, and this cobalt ss/sc. I have driven my pops chevy cargo van, and been in an impala very often. in my opinion, american cars do not compare to the quality level of imports when it comes to interiors. My girlfriends 03 celica is just a very solid, sturdy car. my moms 3 series bmw never has 1 single squeek or rattle. The interior of a honda is so much better engineered when it comes to panels not shaking or squeeking. My cobalt has 3 or 4 noises that **** me off so much. i believe american automakes do a pisspoor job on interiors

 

Very interesting indeed. Good infor.

 

how much of the civic owners problems are manufacture, and how many are from mods? I have noticed that a lot of the cobalt problems are from people tuning their cars themselves, and the clutch on the ss. not many problems for the ls guy that i have seen posted, but then again we barely have tuning. Im not slamming the ss/sc guys, just saying you are pushing it a lot harder than anyone from the other trim levels, and nobody really knows the limits of their cars yet. b/c these cars are not very old and the market is just catching up w/ the demand for parts.

 

This is intresting, but did you look at the time frame of the posts?

 

No, time frame does not concern this experiment, it is simply a ratio of members to complaints, time does not matter in this instance.

Also, many factors such as "how hard are people driving thier cars", etc.. should average themselves out over so many posts. The population is large for both forums and thus anomalies will be so minimal they should not skew results.

I think all too often people look at statistics from a much too narrow perspective. The bottom line of this analysis is that less Cobalt owners have complained about problems then Civic owners. I find this very very appealing!

 

This really proves nothing

 

It proves something, less Cobalt owners have complained.

 

Or perhapps (GASP) the Cobalts are built to a level = to that of the Honda's. I guess all this does is show that Chevy is finaly building cars that can compeat with the imports!

Yeah Chevy!

 

your assuming all the members have Cobalts or Hondas

 

Yes, that is a fair assumption! The majority of NSX owners wont complain in a Honda specific forum, come on...

Ryan

 

No this really proves nothing. Look how many cobalts have been sold. Now look at how many members are on this forum. Not to mention 98 percent of the people on here are here because there modding there car.

 

Thats what I was thinking too. How many of those members really have a Cobalt? How many members are trolls from other forums? How many people still own a Cobalt? Also, is every single one of those posts related to a specific problem? I doubt it. They may be replying to a problem, but that doesn't mean they share it.

I wouldn't call this an experiment as stated a few posts up either. I wouldn't even go as far as to call it a quasi-experiment due to there being no set controls or situations. If anything its an archival study and a highly reductionist and presumptuous one at that.

 

Last I heard, the cobalt was the worst rated car in terms of reliabilty in its class.

 

True story.




Except maybe this proves the OP is taking basic statistics or failed basic statistics.

 

you wouldn need to compare a thread count to member count instead of a post count to member account....thread=how many problems, post=how much help was offered

 

No, because that could reflect how well the site is ran. One site could have more stickied threads of a reoccuring problem.

It is very hard to get a fair/unflawed(or one that makes any sense) statistical analysis from a message board.

 

the problems i had/have i just never made a post about. some cobalt owners just may never complain about their problems same with honda.

also as far as interiors are concerned when i first pulled off the lot in my cobalt i swear it felt like a luxury car. i dont remember hearing one squeak or creek until about 2days later. the noises bother me a bit now because other wise its such a nice car, but we have to remember its not a luxury car nor cheap/ eco car just nice. some people act like all cars are grouped into either cheap cars or luxury cars but there is a such thing as just a nice car. but i plan on eliminating all the little noises i just dont know where to start

 

Well. They do have a 95,000 mile warrenty on them. Which is better than my 36,000. But not as a good as new cobalts.

 

Well most of my friends are either driving base civics or Si and they are having their fair share of problems also,cars quality is so identical today,I really dont think one is better than the other