The Cobalt’s numbers looked better than the less powerful Civic Si and matched or exceeded the mighty Dodge SRT-4 in overall handling. Not too bad for a compact car, but still not to Subaru WRX standards. The transmission was a Sabb 5-speed or an off the shelf GM 4-speed automatic. It produced 205 hp and was good for a 5.9 second dash to 60 from a stop light and had a top speed of 158 mph, all while getting about 30 mpg on the highway. It had been used in Saturn’s ION Redline the previous year and was happy to find a new home. The first SS Cobalt used a supercharged version of the standard 2.0 L engine. In essence there are three types of SS Cobalt distinguished by their engines as in normally-aspirated, supercharged or turbocharged. SS cars went through many major changes, almost one for each model year, usually under the hood. After all, Chevrolet could have just called it a Z24 and expectations might not have been so high. Chevrolet often used the SS label for its highest performing cars so the model created much anticipation among the tuner car crowd that GM was hoping to lure out of their Hondas. Later in 2004 a sporty variant called the SS was launched. Unlike the Cavalier, the Cobalt had a modern fully independent suspension, even in the base models. A version of the 2.0 liter 4 cylinder ECOTEC that had appeared in late Cavaliers was the base engine. The sedan was just downright frumpy looking. As a coupe, the Cobalt was attractive enough, but somehow did not look as sleek as the old Cavalier. Here it was also shared by the Chevy HHR, Pontiac G5 and Saturn Ion. In Europe, the Delta platform formed the underpinnings of the Opel Astra. In reality what rolled out to dealers in late 2004 was a line of competent but unassuming two door coupes and a sedan based on the GM Delta platform. Anything would be better than a Cavalier, but the high expectations that came with a replacement for the Prisim suggested that the new car would have fit and finish standards close to Toyota’s. Replacing the Cavalier and Prisim meant that the Cobalt had big shoes to fill. The Cobalt represented all the current thinking at GM, and showed that it was serious (to some extent) in making a genuinely competitive compact car. When introduced in 2004, if was GM’s answer to critics who had long complained that the it’s small cars suffered in the wake of all the attention given to trucks and SUVs. In SS form the Cobalt might have been one of the most underrated performance bargains out there. In many ways they succeeded, but ultimately low sales figures told another story. This was their chance to finally get it right. Interestingly the Lordstown factory was the home of GM compact car production including the Vega, Monza, Cavalier and a host of their forgettable clones. Although a drastic improvement, over the 20+ year old J Car platform that the Cavalier was based on, it ended up being an overall disappointment for those looking for a true Civic fighter from Lordstown OH. As the long overdue replacement for the Cavalier, it offered fans of American compact cars something to look forward to besides the Neon. The Cobalt just couldn’t get any respect.
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