I will now eat my hat (bought a Cobalt)

[Xist]

In 1,998 I told a coworker "Mom has a 1,988 Taurus."
"Did it die at 80,000 miles?"
Had it died, I would have used the past tense...

It tried though, it kept breaking down. I borrowed it for Homecoming and had my basketball shoes in the back in case I needed to push.

I do not know much about the Cobalt, I just thought that it was interesting that the Cavalier hardly changed for ten years, they gave it a completely new engine and made other significant changes, and then they replaced the model with the Cobalt.

As for eating your hat, I recommend a nacho sombrero. ¡Olé!

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by The Other Andy

Ah, the Chevrolet Cobalt.

I just bought one.

Wow, that's harsh. Still, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Skip the nacho sombrero, though. Chocolate viking helmets are where it's at!

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by ME_Andy

That's a good-looking car. Should've gotten the manual though! You would pick it up fast.

A Manual transmission Cobalt XFE typically costs 2x -3x as much as a generic automatic.

I guess the nobody wants a manual transmission statement wasn't correct.

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

A Manual transmission Cobalt XFE typically costs 2x -3x as much as a generic automatic.

I guess the nobody wants a manual transmission statement wasn't correct.

People that want them, WANT them, whereas everybody else doesn't much care.

[The Other Andy]

LTs have different seats?

As for XFE prices, I didn't see any. I'm thinking it's a bit like the Ford Focus wagon; there's a very hardcore group of individuals that fight over the ones that make it to market.

Originally Posted by Iexpedite

I owned a Taurus from that generation. I know what you mean about it being a good driver. My wife and I ran all over California in ours and were never uncomfortable. It was an effortless drive. I traded it in for a new 03 Mustang GT...hated it. I am an experienced stick shift driver, but I had trouble being smooth on the shifts with that car. It bucked and jumped and was way more dramatic than a V8 needs to be. I think that generation Taurus was a great car as long as you had less than 120K on the clock. Beyond that be prepared for surprise engine failure.

You forgot surprise spring failure

Originally Posted by Xist

In 1,998 I told a coworker "Mom has a 1,988 Taurus."
"Did it die at 80,000 miles?"
Had it died, I would have used the past tense...

It tried though, it kept breaking down. I borrowed it for Homecoming and had my basketball shoes in the back in case I needed to push.

I do not know much about the Cobalt, I just thought that it was interesting that the Cavalier hardly changed for ten years, they gave it a completely new engine and made other significant changes, and then they replaced the model with the Cobalt.

As for eating your hat, I recommend a nacho sombrero. ¡Olé!

They changed the styling a bit, and the engine. Did they do anything else to the Cavvy?

So far the as yet unnamed Cobalt is doing well. Not a bad driver. No fe numbers yet (my fleet special doesn't appear to have a trip computer, and I have yet to get some velcro for the sg). I'll have to give this thing a good cleaning, and have a bit of fun with the worn interior trim. Stickerbomb it?

The dealership "technicians" have either studied common hypermiling techniques or, more likely, don't know what a tire pressure gauge is. When I checked Sunday morning all of my tires were well beyond my gauge's 60psi limit .

[The Other Andy]

Originally Posted by roosterk0031

Do you have the DIC & cruise control buttons on the steering wheel, left side. My LS
XFE doesn't have cruise but has 2 buttons, KT's LT has 4 buttons, 2 for cruise fuctions and 2 for DIC controls. LT has remote entry so it uses that controller to reprogram TPMS, I have to look it up everythime to reprogram.

Should be able to toggle through each tire and get pressure readings, OD, 2 trips, distance to empty, average mpg, average mph, instant mpg, oil life remaining, tire pressure and back to OD. If button's aren't working sorry to say a new BCM might be in your future.

LT seats have a better fabric and better padding than LS.

KT's LT I assume is a LT1, no ABS, TC or stability control.

Ah, I rarely ever use cruise control so it hadn't occurred to me that there were other buttons there. This is a very thorough trip computer, do any Cobalt owners even use a scangauge?

Average mileage is showing as 22mpg, albeit with an average speed of 20mph. I'll go ahead and reset that before leaving for work tomorrow.

Thanks Rooster!

Btw, the owners manual states that some models came with tire slime and a compressor instead of a spare. Is that just the XFE?

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by The Other Andy

The dealership "technicians" have either studied common hypermiling techniques or, more likely, don't know what a tire pressure gauge is. When I checked Sunday morning all of my tires were well beyond my gauge's 60psi limit .

Shipping pressure. Every Toyota I checked in off the trailer had as much as 80 psi in the tires. That was one of the first things I checked, getting the tires down to the placard rating.

That "dealer prep" you pay $400 for at the dealer, negotiate out of that. I was 18 and paid $3.50 an hour, it took me 20 minutes to do all the dealer prep and they charged $400 for it even then. Sounds to me like these guys are skipping steps - doing even less dealer prep than I was - so it's even more of a BS charge than before.

[The Other Andy]

I am floored. Tire pressures at GM recommended 33 psi, no mods of any kind. My drive to work (uphill, roughly 18 miles) got me 34mpg according to the trip computer. My drive back? 37. Granted, trip computers are generally a bit optimistic, but that's a very nice number, especially compared to the 26-27 I could usually pull out of Norm on that drive.

I filled up tonight, so we'll see what the extra weight does.

Originally Posted by elhigh

Shipping pressure. Every Toyota I checked in off the trailer had as much as 80 psi in the tires. That was one of the first things I checked, getting the tires down to the placard rating.

That "dealer prep" you pay $400 for at the dealer, negotiate out of that. I was 18 and paid $3.50 an hour, it took me 20 minutes to do all the dealer prep and they charged $400 for it even then. Sounds to me like these guys are skipping steps - doing even less dealer prep than I was - so it's even more of a BS charge than before.

Oh I'm 90% sure every charge the dealership comes up with is bs. I'm very glad to be done dealing with those a#$clowns for a while.

The "technicians" today probably assume that if the tire pressure light isn't on, everything is good.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by The Other Andy

I am floored. Tire pressures at GM recommended 33 psi, no mods of any kind. My drive to work (uphill, roughly 18 miles) got me 34mpg according to the trip computer. My drive back? 37. Granted, trip computers are generally a bit optimistic, but that's a very nice number, especially compared to the 26-27 I could usually pull out of Norm on that drive.

I filled up tonight, so we'll see what the extra weight does.

My XFE was averaging 50mpg in the summer But 50psi in the tires.

Maybe an XMSN swap is in line

Also on my cobalt at least the trip meter was +/- 3mpg close enough to say it was neutral.

[The Other Andy]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

My XFE was averaging 50mpg in the summer But 50psi in the tires.

Maybe an XMSN swap is in line

Also on my cobalt at least the trip meter was +/- 3mpg close enough to say it was neutral.

Very nice. I probably won't go that high with my tire pressure, as I dislike the ride. Are you using a Scangauge? Where do you have it mounted?

Also, do we know what the cd is on the coupe vs the sedan?

So far Coby is doing well. I've been rather consistently getting between 34 and 37, with it mostly near 37. I'm excited to see what this will do on a longer trip.