2009 Chevy Cobalt LS Coupe XFE

[MadisonMPG]

EOC is Engine Off Coasting

Most GM cars (that i've road in/owned) cut off at 108-111 ish. The cobalt probably won't redline because of the gearing. I wouldn't drive 100 ANYWHERE for any reason, on public roads. I live too close to a hospital to risk it. Geos are painfully slow, I kind of want one with a V6 in it for my weekend car. :P


My dad is looking to buy this car, any pointers for him? What features to get/not to get?

[Fr3AkAzOiD]

EOC is Engine Off Coast. When I have a long downhill stretch I'll just kill the engine and then when I need to start it again I'll just pop the clutch in 5th gear.

Pulled my front bumper to remove the license plate mount (no front tag required in NC) and I made a plexiglass insert to cover the inside of the lower grill opening and zip tied it in.
Temps used to run 188 - 198 and now they run 190 - 203, though the radiator fan doesn't even kick on till 225 so the slight increase in temp doesn't even matter, over at yourcobalt.com there are plenty of people in places like Florida and Nevada where there normal coolant temps in the summer run up to 212 so I'm not concerned in the least over the few extra degrees.

The current lower grill block is only temp untill I can get to the junkyard and piece together something a little better looking, longer lasting, and more stock looking.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by lusth

I paid the same as you, except I actually paid $2700 less because of my GM card earnings (final price $10,400, woo-hoo!).

My Dealership family (as in they are close to our family, we seem to be real close friends) SAID THEY HAD A POLICY OF not ACCEPTING CREDIT CARDS OVER $500. Now my father has done much business with these guys, and I bet they would go along with the GM Credit Card discount in a heartbeat if he pushed it. BUT, dad said I was getting a good enough price (using my insurance settlement money) and he had just as well wait and save his card for his own next personal car purchase- He is not a hi tech guy at all, he is lure-y of first generation stuff- except for the Pontiac Fiero back in 84 to 85. But something deep inside me makes me wonder if he wont end up with buying one of those Volts- they should be right in his price range! He has seen how excited I am over saving all of this gas without too many hard sacrifices- Like I have a ton of storage area for a sub-compact, it's beyond belief.

I bought my car from the dealer and salesguy because I knew I could trust all of them. Other sales guy tried to pull stuff on me, and dont you know, I caught it- I aint that dumb! But my salesguy had to have ME TRAIN HIM in how to search for XFE on GM's own site!! He was waiting for Chevy to call him back- I told him to search by TRANSMISSION because manuals were XFE and visa versa. Thats how he found my car in another state and he gave me the $1000 from the OTHER dealer that was trying to push the car off the lot because it had sit their too long. (I guess Indiana is not green....)

Today was a challenge for my car. we got hit with flash-floods while I was driving in a city over-ran with traffic due to a local music show called Poppy Mountain- It is the Wood Stock of BLUEGRASS MUSIC! Its nutts, people bringing trailers and beer (not outside or busted) likely drugs, but it's pure BLUEGRASS!! I went once and really thought it was 1969 and I was looking out for the brown acid man. - The point is my car was driven in high wind and hard rain today which knocked my mileage down a lot. BUT- the good news is when the rain stopped I went out for a long cruise and I think I have FINALLY topped of what my car can get. And I think I may be starting a new job that I so badly need right now!! Anyway I did take some time driving the car AFTER the bad traffic and weather went away. Here is the picture from my dashboard:

IF THE PICTURE FAILS TO DISPLAY IT READS "45.2 MPG AVG".

I think thats not bad for a $13,00 new car that has enough power to go 0 to 60 in 7 1/2 seconds("Unheard of for a car of this class"-MotorTrend) and open up to at least 115MPH, or as one says, 140MPH, and looks like it would burn much more gas to drive in such way too. The days of econo boxes all being microscopic with jacked up Lawn and Garden Tractors owners wanting to race, and those tiny 3 cylinder engines will be in the past. I believe there is now NO STOPPING the electric / Hybrid car rush by the world's cars engineers. Another form of electric technology will replace the all gasoline engine, but I do believe in a few years ALL NEW cars sold will have at least some form of hybrid electric, or all electric components within the engine design. America is driving this GREEN thing, and many Americans want to drive a giant 4x4 BigFoot truck and get 80 MPG too. This is why the engineers are trying to combine the two technologies. The idea is to go ALL ELECTRIC in enough time. But we only have liquid fuel pumps so far, we have no FAST CHARGE PUMP at a fuel station YET. - Just my 2- cents.

[Will]

Nice post. I know what you mean about the dealerships having no idea what a XFE is. I talked to several around here, and they looked at me like I was speakin Russian. I finally found mine used at a small dealership. They even had the wrong mpg on the window. They had it listed as 22 city and 30 hwy with a 25 average. Yes, that's the mpgs for the Cobalt SS.

I filled them in on their mistake after I bought the car.

[lusth]

Originally Posted by MadisonMPG

My dad is looking to buy this car, any pointers for him? What features to get/not to get?

The upsides, see Jammer's post, the downsides:

• not the best visibility out the back end
• trunk, while very large, has a small opening
• AC is so good, you can get some serious condensation on side windows when its muggy (not really a downside)

The visibility problem is only for the 2-door coupe. The 4-dr version (Chevy Cobalt only, same gas mileage) doesn't have this problem, but the coupe is such a great looking car. Classic sports car wedge. It doesn't look as nice as a Mustang, but nothing does.

Since pontiacs are heavily discounted, you can usually get a higher trim level at the same price as a Cobalt. Avoid automatic transmission, since it's not a six-speed, but MT is very hard to find (not so hard with the Cobalt). Wish I had ABS and Stabili-Track, but those are the only two things I'd want that doesn't come with the base trim level. I have cruise which is sweet, but I don't use it much (the wife does).

I started out wanting a Kia Soul, great gas mileage and a way funky look, but the wife nixed that idea. The Ford Focus was a close second in my search and the Mazda 3 is up there too, very nice looking. IMHO, the corolla and civic are just too darn ugly, but I'm sure are good choices. But nothing beats the quality/price ratio of the G5/Cobalt.Plus better gas mileage than all of the others.

GM has a 60 day return policy if your Dad doesn't like the car.

[MadisonMPG]

Originally Posted by lusth

GM has a 60 day return policy if your Dad doesn't like the car.

Ah thank you, I think we may go car shopping today.

[cfg83]

Jammer -

Originally Posted by Jammer

... Here is the picture from my dashboard:

THE PICTURE WAS SHOWING, BUT NOW IT WONT DISPLAY. IT READ 45.2 MPG AVG.

...

That's a really cool picture. I saw a Pikachu-Yellow Cobalt a month ago that was mighty tempting. I think my engine shares some DNA with your Ecotec :

Saabnet.com: 9-3SS BB Post: L850/Ecotec (2.0L)

The L850 engine program at GM (which was eventually branded the Ecotec) was designed to be a Universal block for 4 cylinder GM passenger cars. Short note: I worked for a few years for a Tier 1 supplier of internal engine components for GM, so I have some knowledge/background on the L850 engine program, though by no means extensive. It was planned for all of the GM brands at the time (late 90's) including Saab, Opel, and Lotus, along with Chevy, Saturn, Olds, and Pontiac to use this basic L850 block (yes it is cast Al, and I believe it is also lost foam cast, which was/is a Saturn innovation). Because this block was designed from the beginning to be used in robust applications, it benefited from relatively high design limits. It was engineered for turbocharged/supercharged applications at the get go (with handy features like passages for oil jet cooling of pistons, rather than splash lubrication).

CarloSW2

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by MadisonMPG

Ah thank you, I think we may go car shopping today.

I'm so sorry that I did not read your question before now, some how I overlooked your last sentence. lusth is right on the money, spot on in all ways. The condensation issue is a problem for me if I use the air conditioner or not, but we all know that all we need to do is to turn on the defrost (rear defogger is standard) on either windshield. Sometimes cracking the window can help, and the rear view is not so much a problem for me personally, but I'm used to driving large 4x4 trucks, so anything beats that view!The thing that sets this problem apart from most other cars is it can happen in temps as high as the mid 60's, so it takes getting used to when it comes time to turn on the defrost. It's true about the trunk being large for a sub-compact yet has a rather small opening. - However the rear seats do fold down and things can be stored through the doors into the trunk area if needed.

lusth is also spot on when it comes to price/performance ratio. I could not find a better buy for my $13,000 and I searched hard. Always ask about discounts, because sometimes GM will have them out their and not advertise them very much. The new 60 day program is great too because it allows one to return the car with less than 3,000 miles and get back their money (for the most part). You wont lose anything if you buy the car and find out you hate it because GM is throwing all they got into marketing and WILL take a car back within 60 days of use now. There is some fine print involved, but the customer does not lose out on anything considering they use the car for 60 days or less.

[Fr3AkAzOiD]

Originally Posted by Will

Nice post. I know what you mean about the dealerships having no idea what a XFE is. I talked to several around here, and they looked at me like I was speakin Russian. I finally found mine used at a small dealership. They even had the wrong mpg on the window. They had it listed as 22 city and 30 hwy with a 25 average. Yes, that's the mpgs for the Cobalt SS.

I filled them in on their mistake after I bought the car.

lol, I have gone through the same problems.
When I went looking for mine they kept trying to sell me an automatic and I had to explain that the manual is more fuel efficient and has low rolling resistance tires.
Strait faced the sales guy then told me that I shouldn't have to worry about rolling over an automatic Cobalt.
I nearly died and had to explain to him what rolling resistance was in a tire.


Awesome run on the Cobalt, I was so happy when I had my first 45+ mpg run!



That is untill I found out it could do something like this........
(warning e-peen moment)
















This was a 72 mile run to and from work after filling up on Labor Day morning, there was no one on the roads and I drove 42 mph all the way to and from work in perfect weather.

Rain and traffic on the following days lowered it but I still ended up with a 50 mpg tank.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Fr3AkAzOiD

Awesome run on the Cobalt, I was so happy when I had my first 45+ mpg run!



That is untill I found out it could do something like this........
(warning e-peen moment)
















This was a 72 mile run to and from work after filling up on Labor Day morning, there was no one on the roads and I drove 42 mph all the way to and from work in perfect weather.

Rain and traffic on the following days lowered it but I still ended up with a 50 mpg tank.

I think I will have to add more pressure to my tires to come close to your mileage. Thats the first difference that comes to mine between our cars, I tend to run almost 10ppsi lower than you claim.

Thats a cool site seeing an odometer reading that high for that many miles! My picture was an average of more miles than I can remember, ' not sure I even tried re-setting the MPG meter yet.