Chevy Cobalt Vrs Chevy Cobalt XFE

[Jammer]

Hi folks, long time.

I am a General Motors fan-boy, because my father and uncle retired from a couple of Chevy factories in Flint Michigan. I am likely about the only person on here that fully supported the low interest loans the President gave G.M. to keep them in business- mainly because I have personally seen enough factories, many out sourcing ones, that employed something like a million jobs in the mid-west and I did not wish to learn of all of my old friends in Michigan being fired, as they never had it as easy as the media told us in the first place. I worked for a parts company here in Kentucky that had over 85% of the parts made shipped to GM in Michigan, my hourly wage was less than $9.00 an hour- so the media distorted much with most of their claims of unskilled workers making $80.00 and hour etc.... But I do not wish to argue politics, I only wish to paint a picture of WHY a Chevy lover would be on a forum such as this one.

My 2009 Chevy Cobalt XFE was purchased and fully paid off by my insurance money I got when I totaled my previous 2005 Colorado pickup- My brakes warned me over and over and often did not work, yet the dealership advised me that intermittent problems could not be fixed by them unless the problem was acting up when in their garage!! -- We are speaking of brakes here, and within a few weeks my brakes went out as I tried to take a corner at about 38 MPH on a dip in the road going up a large mountain. I thank God I survived, the truck flipped about 6 times. I now fully support seat belt use, as it helped to save my life.

Anyway, I was sick of getting 17MPG, often my 2WD mode when gas was hoovering over $4.00 a gallon. I got a large discount via my retired father's GM discount, plus other cash back programs, so my out the door cost was under $11,000 for a bright red 2009 Cobalt XFE with only a spoiler and spare tire for options. There were NO XFEs in this state, I had mine ordered from out of state! I never regretted getting this car. I got as much as 45.7MPG using the hyper-milling techs listed here, but when I drive in a typical fashion in good weather my mileage hoovers from 37 to 41 MPG- doing very little ECO use. Compared to Domestic hybrids I see no reason to pay almost twice the price for a car that may only give me a few more MPGs.

A couple weeks ago I had another accident- Police Report reflects it was another driver's fault. It was heavy traffic just after dark when a full size extended cab Chevy long-bed pickup tore straight out of a liqueur-store / gas station's parking lot. I braked as hard and as fast as I could, but a lot of damage was don't to my left front fender area. Again, as the police report said the guy admitted he did not see me (my lights were on, cant understand it) and did not heed the right away to me. He might of got a DUI, as they retained him after I was set free.

I took my car for an estimate as I waited for the police report to first be reported and it was the same dealership. The body shop guy was very very nice and we got some good laughs. I mentioned my previous pickup and how I felt I could of sued over the mechanical problems that they did not attempt to fix and the next thing I knew he demanded I take a loaner car for FREE from them (because my car was "too unsafe to drive"). At that time I was only getting an estimate, it surprised me to be offered a free loaner Cobalt. I now wait for the insurance companies to sort the details out as my car sits at the dealership.

I believe this loaner is a 2008 OR 2009 Cobalt Sedan with an automatic trans. My car is a 09 Cobalt XFE with a smaller engine and 5 speed stick. Here is the kicker.....

I have tried driving as smooth as I can and yet this Cobalt's MPG sticks near 25.1 MPG. My XFE model averaged closer to 39 and 40 when drove the same way.

For their 2011 model, Chevy has already replaced the Cobalt with the widely bragged up "The Cruise" which has a front end like The Volt and a Chevy Bow-Tie on the front grill which is about 20 times larger than their older model cars. Yes The Cruise appears to be one kick ass easy on the gas car, but just like the Cobalt, no dealership in this state seems to have a single Cruise of the gas-saving model. I have been told the gas saving model of The Cruise gets 40 to 41 MPG and is a bigger car than my Cobalt, and the inside is greatly improved without so much of that dull single color plastic feel to it.

Well, the point of my story is for people buying used cars you can save a fortune in fuel if you can score a XFE Cobalt rather than a regular Cobalt. In my experience the difference can be 25MPG to 40MPG. And that, my friends, is a large swing in mileage.

Peace.

[SentraSE-R]

A good argument for manual transmission cars when you're hypermiling. Glad to hear you're okay, and thanks for the comparison story.

[Jammer]

It still baffles my mind why no dealer here wanted to stock any Cobalt XFEs. Just like other owners of this model of car, when I asked about it the sales people had a puzzled look as to what I was speaking of. Then the G.M. data base the dealers use to search for cars on the lots had no obvious means of searching for the XFE. Finally I discovered one had to search for a stick shift model and all of them were XFE cars. This was July of 2009, no new XFE could be located in my state but finally two were found on a couple of lots within a 350 mile search. Still I have yet to even once see XFE stamped on the back of the many Cobalts that travel on our roads.

Now the first Cruise the Dealer has is being pitted for it's engine and speed. I seen the EPA of 35, and thought "Gosh my XFE had an EPA of 37 and I get better". I have read a lot about The Cruise being a 42 MPG plus car, (Now I read EPA is 40) but it appears the car lots will be pushing the faster ones instead of even trying to go after the gas-sipper market. I wonder if it has something to do with some of these GM cars getting mileage close to some of their hybrids. I must admit, I still admire the Toyota Prius hybrid, and they are quickly becoming popular here in the foot-hills of the Kentucky mountains (normally an area better known for large 4X4 pickup trucks). It seems so odd to see the Prius cars suddenly being driven side by side with all of our "good ole boy's" extra large 4x4 trucks that sometimes get less than ten miles a gallon. But many people here must drive many miles daily to work and back, so I think the price of gas and low paying jobs is forcing many here to park the 4x4 and get anything they can afford that pulls in 40 mpg and better..... IMHO.

If GM had kept the new Cruise the size of the Cobalt and lost some weight, I see no reason they could not of came close to building a gas car that would come close to having an epa of 45 mpg. But 45 for an all gas car would take away some motivation to buy some of the more expensive domestic hybrids I guess. Again, I'm only speculating.