I'm still here - I know my inactivity might suggest otherwise, but I assure anyone who might remember me, that I'm not planning on leaving the fold any time soon.

Anywho, I have tried going over OEM vs replacement brake parts in two other threads, but they were either focused on pads, or front rotors;
Today's installment is about rear calipers.

Our rear hubs and everything about our brakes are specific to our cars;
Unlike other five-bolt pattern wheel 2005-2010 Cobalts with rear rotors, everything for our cars is unique.... for Cobalts.
The rear hubs are shared with the Pontiac G6 - but that's not what I am here to share...

I am posting today in the hopes of helping anyone else who looks into this...

But first, a tiny bit of background;
Recently I was looking into rear parking brake cables and calipers.
I seem to recall reading in the past that our rear calipers are shared with the Pontiac Solstice, and even though I did multiple searches here and with popular search engines, I came up totally dry;
Nothing on the interweb could shed any light on this...

Well, today I can confirm that they in fact ARE the same parts - but with a little twist...

The Solstice uses a different mounting bracket, and if your caliper bracket is ok, then you can order "the wrong" calipers and save money;
Here's the small twist;
It appears as though the Solstice has the brake cable coming to the caliper from the other side;
So while our parking brake cable comes from the front of the caliper (I mean, that's logical right?) - the cable comes from the back on the Solsitce(!?);
To say it another way, what's "Cobalt-Rear/Left", is "Solstice-Rear/Right".

Here is a picture (my Cobalt caliper is damaged at the parking brake return spring tab):

What you're seeing here is an OEM Cobalt SS left caliper on the left side;
If you look closely you can even see the "LH" in the casting (bottom far left);
This is beside a replacement (new, not rebuilt) right side caliper for the Solstice.

The bag for the caliper is under them both;
On the foreground is the part numbers for both sides;
The card shows:
LEFT C62588
RIGHT C62587 (only the last number is shown because that's the difference)
The bag shows C62587 - so this is a Solstice RH part - but it exactly matches the Cobalt part (once the bracket is removed);
I have the Solstice bracket removed from the caliper, and sitting in the background.

If I shift over to Rockauto (I am Canadian, so Canadian prices will be cited) I can see the following listings/prices:
Cobalt-Left / Cardone (reman): 18B5238 = $128.37 ($78.86 core); $207.23
Cobalt-Left / FVP (reman): 14162610 = $84.10 ($89.93 core); $174.03
Cobalt-Left / Nugoen (reman): 9917415B = $92.40 ($69.18 core); $161.58

Compare that against the same part but the "wrong" application:

Solstice-Right / Cardone (reman): 18B55051 = $73.03 ($62.26 core); $135.29
Solstice-Right / FVP (reman): 14162587 = $64.73 ($76.09 core); $140.82
Solstice-Right / Nugoen (reman): 9917372B = $93.79 ($0.00 core); $93.79

Comparing Cardone parts, the Solstice part is 75.8% cheaper - and the core was 26.7% cheaper;
If you were like me, and had to essentially eat the core (I have been told that trying to return a core to Rockauto which requires cross border shipping is a lost cause - I was advised to order the part and consider the core as a part of the cost);
If you combine the cost of the part and the core together, the Solstice part still offered a 53.2% total savings.
I bought this one local because;
1) I think I need it;
2) to my utter surprise, this was cheaper than any of the Rockauto/Cobalt listings, and comparable to the Rockauto/Solstice listings (I bought it for just under $160 with no core charge)
3) They were able to get me the part to hold in hand and compare against the part I was going to replace

I really hope this helps someone in the future, and if you have found anything in this post which is in error, PLEASE correct me.

And just incase, here is a Cobalt-Rear/Right against the Solstice-Rear/Right:
(you can see the "RH" casted into the OEM part - on the right side)