Chevy Cobalt: What a Difference a Body Change Makes

Believe it or not, Chevy's Cobalt has been around for nearly 30 years - in different incarnations, that is. It was part of General Motors' corporate move to regain ground in the compact front-drive segment in the early 1980s when the corporation introduced the Celebrity line. It was a nice, if ordinary, front-drive car.

Direct descendant of X-car

Ever since, the Celebrity has been part of Chevy's lineup (it was called the X-platform back then) - even when it was offering the Prizm, its Corolla twin that resulted from the deal with Toyota and NUMMI (New United Motor Machine International, based in Long Beach). The Celebrity, despite body changes, retained the same basic chassis and driveline, although through the years the body has changed.

Indeed, by 2003 the design team could see the handwriting on the wall. Celebrity sales were in a backward mode and while the car was still a good value; people were passing it up for the Toyota Corollas and Honda Civics of the world.

Enter year 2005 and the Celebrity is no more (actually there were a few 2005s built and even a 2006), and the Cobalt appears. It's really the same vehicle, but totally reskinned and reworked.

At this point, I'll state for the record that our primary vehicle is a Chevy Cobalt and I did sell Chevys a couple of years back, although, believe it or not, I think my review will be pretty even-handed.

Real change in styling

The 2005 Cobalt LT and 2006 LT represented a sea change in styling for the subcompact front-drive line. Indeed, they were essentially new cars - note the word essentially because underneath they were still basically the same front-drive chassis - the body had changed radically.

It's actually a great restyle. The front end looks great, although, I really don't like having a piece of plastic hanging below an already low valance that can scrape up against curbing. It does chew things u and make it look tacky. The nice rounded line of the valance and bumper, sweeping up and through the front fenders and then on through the sedan body and out through the short rear deck to the nicely finished rear is marred, for me, by that one tacky piece.

Our 06 Cobalt LT is nicely styled. The instrument panel is a one-pod design with everything within sight and easy reach of the driver. The other controls are on the center console and easily accessible. I like the position of the gearshift selector because your right hand falls naturally to it. (I will say that I did like the rear light module of the 05 Cobalt better than the little rounded taillights of the 06, but that's what we have).

Because the LT we own is a top-of-the-line model it is equipped with leather upholstery which can stand up to a pretty good beating, and, the driver's seat and can be multi-adjustable but rather than electrical, ours uses mechanical devices such as cranks and such. And, while I appreciate the way I can - and have - tailored the seating, I wish I had the electrically adjustable driver's seat installed.

2.2-liter four

Whatever way you look at it, the 06 Cobalt is nicely styled. Its 2.2-liter four easily delivers 26 mpg-plus either around town or on the highway. With about 150-horsepower available, the Cobalt LT package we own gets into traffic easily and keeps up with.

Of course, you can find contrarian views at www.edmunds.com, but we think the Cobalt we own is a nicely designed vehicle. Their main concern was that it felt like it was too inexpensive, but, when you look at the $11,000 I spent for the vehicle (after my trade), so what? And, the cars they choose to compare it to, such as the Honda Civic - unless you take a time machine and go back to a 2003 or 05 - are more expensive than the Cobalt are more expensive vehicles that aren't finished any better than our 06 Cobalt.Yes, there's lots of plastic and vinyl, but that doesn't detract from the handling of the vehicle, which we liked and the fact that since it has a nice low roll center, it's stable in turns and corners. As you can tell we like our Cobalt and about the only thing we feel badly about is the fact that the 2010 is the end of the line for the Cobalt, after its five-year run. It will be reborn the Cruze (but, we'll be that if you look underneath, you'll still see the Cobalt).