<img src="http://cobaltss.net/articles/engine.jpg" align="left" border="0" hspace="5" vspace="2"><b>11-23-04 - After months of waiting, the 2005 Chevy Cobalt’s are now available at your local dealer.</b>
Upon receiving the news that the local dealer received there first Cobalt, I decided to go out and give it a closer look. Gallucci Chevrolet in Medina Ohio was one of the first dealers to receive a Cobalt, and thus far, they only have a base model sedan with the automatic transmission, stickerd at $15,495.

According to salesman Doug Wilkinson, the Cobalt has been quite a hit. Many have inquired about it anxiously awaited to take it for a spin. “It is rarely here since everyone wants to drive it” Doug noted.

Exterior:
Being this was the base model there was not much to see on the exterior. The silver car was sitting on 15-inch steel wheels, covered with bolt-on wheel covers and wrapped in P195/60R-15 tires. No fog lights or spoiler. The nice thing about the exterior is that even on the base model, the exterior door handles are painted to match the car color.

Interior:
Opening the door to the new cobalt, I immediately noticed the interior door handles. GM decided to replace the cheep plastic handles with a better looking chromed handles that resemble those of a luxury car. The seats are quite comfortable and easy to adjust for a nice driving position (height adjustable). The dash is covered in hard plastic and I still don’t know if this is better or worse then the padded dash present in other GM vehicles. The instrument cluster in neatly centered above the perfectly sized steering wheel which features the cruise control buttons. Closing door made a nice “thunk” sound again reminding me of a more luxurious sedan. The one thing I did not like about the interior is the leg room for the back seat. If the front seats are all the way back, there is barely any room left. I tried to get in the back with the seats in this position and I couldn’t manage to do so.
The trunk room in the Cobalt is really impressive. It is of a decently large size, but the trunk opening is relatively small. The opening looks just big enough to squeeze a suitcase in.


The Drive:
This was the most impressive part of the car. The 145hp engine has a really good pickup and no hesitation when exaltation. The ride was extremely smooth and a lot quieter then any Cavalier. Yep, it is true. The 2.2L engine behind "quiet steel" and under the plastic cover makes for one quiet ride. As I drove through the county roads I could not help but notice the lack of all the road noise. Due to a better weight distribution, the car also brakes evenly and does not dive forward as much as other GM cars in past. The steering noise is also eliminated thanks to the speed sensitive electric steering technology used on the Cobalt. The automatic transmission shifted unnoticeably.

<img src="http://gozips.uakron.edu/~jdz1/Cobalt/co1.jpg">

Overall:
At the end of the day, the new Cobalt is definitely a winner. The quality of the car may not be the top of the line, but it is a major improvement form the Cavalier. This base model managed to put a smile on my face and will no doubt grow on all those that are resistant to the change.

By the end of the test-drive I was even more eager to get my hands on the SS, so Doug took the time to build a fully loaded Supercharged SS in the GM database. The total with XM, OnStar, and side airbags came to $24,195. There is still no official word as of when the Supercharged SS will arrive at the dealers, but according to Gallucci, it is not expected before the 1st of the year.

On a last note, for all those sentimental for the aged Cavalier, Chevrolet is now offering a clearance special with 0% APR financing and $5,000 cash back on select 2005 models.

<img src="http://gozips.uakron.edu/~jdz1/Cobalt/co2.jpg">

bout damn time jonel, geez i had ride your butt to get this out of you.

nice review. can't wait to test drive one. looks nice, i'm sure a carbon fiber engine cover will be available soon for base trims ie. coupe if it has plastic engine cover. looks nice and clean. to bad u didnt get a few more interior shots. damn you jonel. lol good none the less.

The other cobalt my dealer had was a silver base sedan. I wonder if they just minted one of those for every dealer.

Me Must Test Drive Me Must Test Drive...............

There's a Chevy dealership right down the street from me. Everytime I drive by on the way to work, I nearly rear-end someone straining to find Cobalts. :D Nice write-up man.

I know a bunch of people got to drive the Cobalt and we have a few owners on here. Lets hear your review.

I test drove one. base sedan auto tranny. loved driving it. I felt a little sqeezed in it though (being 6'3 and used to driving a gmc sierra, so it is something Id have to get used to) overall had a nice smooth ride, real quiet. I didn't get to do much quick acceleration. the salesman was about 70 years old, didn't want to give him a heart attack... but overall it was fun.

I drove an LS Sedan with Sport Appearance Package and the Pioneer sound system.

Exterior

I wasn't expecting much from what I had seen of the sedan in pictures, but in person I was both surprised and impressed. Pictures definitely do not do this car justice. Overall the Cobalt has a much more solid and upcale look not only than the Cavalier that it replaces but also much of it's competition. The Sport Appearance Package looked very good on the car, starting from a more agressive front bumper. The lower rear bumper and small decklid spoiler helped to complete and fill out the rear-end, and I think the 16" Aluminum wheels really finished of the "premium" compact look of the car.

Interior

I was driving for most of the night, and even with up to 6 people crammed into the car the room was very good. I am 6'2", and I really had no problem with leg room even with people behind me. I also sat in the back for a while, and found it comfortable and fairly roomy, compared to the small cars that I am used to. The front seats were comfortable and fairly supportive, even if I didn't like the fabric print that was used on them. Inside the car I was very impressed by the design: modern and simple. As Jonel said, the chrome trim pieces are subtle but definitely add a more premium look to the car, I especially liked the chrome rims around the guages and the on the radio controls. Gauges in the car were nice and big, and very easy to read. The DIC was a very cool feature to have, especially since it was damn cold and I wanted to see what the coolant temp was. I liked the look and feel of the steering wheel and the function of it's redundant audio controls.
While the hard, black plastic that makes up the upper dash does look gloosy and feels cheap the rest of the materials were pretty good, and fit was tight for the pieces. The audio controls had an excellent tactile feel which I'd compare to that of much more expensive cars, but the while the HVAC controls looked and worked very good, the motion felt cheap and rubbery, a lot like the HVAC of the Equinox.
The stereo was very good, I can't think of any other car or truck that we had on the lot that pounded as well as the Cobalt. Apparently when the car first came in the salesmen were pounding tunes out on the lot, and the boss came out to see what was going on and was completely surprised that the noise was actually coming from a factory car.

Driving Experience

Like I mentioned above, it was really cold the night that I drove the Cobalt (like -25* Celcius), and the roads were fairly icy so I didn't really have a chance to wind the car out. In comparison to other Ecotec powered cars though the Cobalt was much quieter and more refined sounding. The 4-speed auto did the job (although I hate autos in small cars, it seemed much more in place in the more upscale cobalt then it did in the J-body), and the traction control actually worked really well.
Since I couldn't really test out acceleration, I put more time into testing out the chassis feel and ride/handling balance. And since it was winter, this meant a lot of e-brake induced oversteer, (LOL) including one inadvertant slide through the police department parking lot (at least they didn't see that little manuever!). From this work, as well as more normal driving I can tell you that the Delta chassis feels GREAT compared to the J-body, and even more solid then the recent Grand Am and Grand Prix chassis. The car was very controllable in corners and the chassis did a really great job of isolating bumps. It felt solild throughout, no quivers at all, and not a hint of a squeek from the interior trim or dash. Although this LS sedan is oriented more towards good ride then firm handling, it was responsive and had a lot less body roll in the corners then I was used to from other cars in this class.

Conclusions

I came away from the drive of the Cobalt very much more impressed with the Sedan then I had been coming in. The look is attractive and upscale, the interior is very well designed with good ergonomics and has relatively few cheap touches for a car in it's price range, and the chassis felt incredibly solid, making for a great foundation for both great ride and great handling characteristics.

I think a customer that was there the day after summed it up best. After taking both a base Pursuit and a Cavalier VL out, he parked them beside each other and remarked, "There is no comparison between these two cars, they can't even be in the same class! I want the Pursuit."