WARNING: If you expect to read all the widely published and generally available specifications for the Cobalt SS in this review, you're going to be disappointed. Go to http://www.tuningnews.net/news/040405a/chevrolet-cobalt-ss.php
for that. Life is too short for me to waste your time and mine rehashing quantitative data that's already accessible elsewhere.
If you want to read unique, previously unpublished and otherwise unavailable impressions of the first 1,000 miles in a Cobalt SS by an experienced driver and new owner of the car, then stick around.
DRIVING IMPRESSIONS:
Let me start by saying that my new, black 2005 Cobalt SS with 5-speed manual transmission is the most joy-inducing motor vehicle I've ever driven or ridden in 40+ years on the road. It's nimble, responsive, comfortable, and a more than a little head-turning.
With a background of decades of sport/performance car and motorcycle ownership including everything from a Fiat 850 Spyder to a Jag XKE V-12 to a Pontiac WS6 TransAm (the model with the Corvette drive train), I've only experienced the adrenaline rush induced by a short test drive in the Cobalt SS once before: at 200 KPH - in traffic - on the autobahn in Germany on a BMW K1200RS motorcycle.
A fifteen minute test drive of the SS in high speed traffic around Austin, Texas made a believer out of me. At just under 3,000 pounds, with over 200 HP, the car is instantaneously responsive to driver input - steering, braking and acceleration – and the driving sensations are more like that of a high performance motorcycle than a car like the Trans Am WS6 or Mustang GT – or even the Jag for that matter.
The sensory transition from the past five years in a WS6 to my first ride in the SS was almost enough to induce a case of the bends! After my test drive in the SS – the WS6, at nearly 4,000 pounds, with 305 HP, an awesome exhaust note and powerful straight line acceleration, seemed to handle like a locomotive – turning as if on rails, but with a lot of inertia resisting rapid changes in direction or speed.
The Cobalt SS implementation of "electric steering", pioneered by Honda in 1993, seems flawless to me. It delivers the most responsive steering I've ever experienced on 4 wheels. An on board computer senses speed, torque and rate of turning and adjusts turning assist levels and steering wheel responsiveness accordingly. It works perfectly!
The combination of a high-revving engine, slick shifting, rapid acceleration, very responsive braking, and highly responsive steering – with great road feel – makes the Cobalt SS handle more like a high-powered sport motorcycle than a 4-wheeler – but with infinitely more creature comforts: A/C, satellite radio, adjustable seats with solid lumbar support for the driver, and the many amenities of On-Star service.
APPEARANCE:
To me the SS looks like a dozen other sport coupes, from an unnaturally truncated front end to a high-backed rear end with an ungainly spoiler and a 24 oz. beer can sized exhaust tip. The array of antennas on the roof and rear deck (XM radio, OnStar, and AM/FM) lend a high tech aura to the external appearance of the vehicle. Generally limited availability of SS inventory limits color choices. I ended up with a black one, (I wanted red) with black and red interior.
A gaping and unprotected lower air intake on the front end opens directly into the radiator – an unfathomable design decision on the part of GM that resulted in dinged cooling fins within the first 200 miles on the road! As of this date, GM has no plans to offer an aftermarket grill to prevent damage to the radiator – which seems inevitable given the increasing amounts of debris found on public roads. See a photo of this glaring oversight at http://img166.exs.cx/img166/5135/img11820it.jpg
At the back, four relatively small round tail and brake lights seem lost on the vast expanse of the huge, vertical slab presented by the trunk lid, bumper and rear body panels. http://img187.exs.cx/img187/4054/img11789md.jpg
The modish (if ungainly) spoiler effectively blocks a good deal of rearward vision, and creates a blind spot across the center section of the rear view mirror.
I'm still in the process of acquiring a taste for the "Fast and Furious" look – I still miss the classic lines of the Trans Am.
Nonetheless, almost every time I stop for gas or at a convenience store, someone offers a compliment or a favorable comment about the car. (Texans are friendly – but the WS6 was only good for one comment every few weeks.)
AMENITIES:
Although there are 4 cup holders, paired at the front and rear of the hand brake, they are small and close together so as to render them nearly useless except for the smallest coffee cups (or 12 oz. beverage cans). The left front holder butts up against the most accessable of two 12V power outlets, further reducing its utility if one drives with a portable radar detector and cell phone charger in use.
SUMMARY: The Cobalt SS is comfortable and fun to drive. Although supercharger boost is continuous, real power kicks in at about 3,500 RPM, a little more than half way to the 6,500 RPM redline. Fuel economy is a little disappointing – I was only averaging 21.5 mpg – when using 87 octane, but a tank of 92 octane has boosted mileage to over 25 mpg!
I love this car! (But I'm still getting used to the appearance…)
You can read the 2500 mile
update to this opinion elsewhere on epinions.
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