Ask the Car People.SM


Chevrolet Cobalt

2240 messages,  Last post on Dec 23, 2012 at 7:37 PM

You are in the Chevrolet Cobalt Forum.

What is this discussion about? Chevrolet Cobalt, Coupe, Sedan

Messages Page 91 of 225

#893 of 2240 Cobalt scores! by vanman1

Mar 06, 2005 (7:45 pm)

Dateline NBC story..
 
"So, of the 16 cars in this round of testing, 14 — some of them with side airbags and some without — rated "poor." But, remember, when optional side airbags were added to the Chevy Cobalt and the Toyota Corolla, they got the second highest rating, "acceptable".
 
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7088736/
 
The Institute also put two of these cars through a high speed "frontal offset" test
 
"The 2005 Kia Spectra was rated "acceptable" And the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt earned the Institute's highest rating, "good." The Cobalt was also named a best pick".

#894 of 2240 Cobalt scores AGAIN! by alpha01

Mar 06, 2005 (8:50 pm)

The Cobalt review in the April issue of Car and Driver is an excellent one. Check it out, it should be on newsstands now, or very shortly.
 
~alpha

#895 of 2240 alpha by vanman1

Mar 07, 2005 (6:41 am)

Now if they can keep the initial quality up (with no recalls), get a "recommend" from CR and get people to drive a Cobalt.. sales could make GM smile. The car certainly has a lot going for it.

#896 of 2240 best pick by dan165

Mar 07, 2005 (6:56 pm)

Great news for Chevy. "Cobalt best pick for small car" was a headline I saw in a local paper. Best press GM can get and it's all free.

#897 of 2240 also by bigdaddycoats

Mar 07, 2005 (9:58 pm)

Great review in the new Car and Driver. They really seemed to like the Cobalt.

#898 of 2240 USAToday by npgmbr

Mar 08, 2005 (7:39 am)

There is an article in USAToday about the test today and I thought it was very odd that the author of the article made no mention of the Cobalt at all.

#899 of 2240 Cobalt by vanman1

Mar 08, 2005 (10:41 am)

On the CTV 11pm news (a cdn national network), there was a piece on the test and Chevy was mentioned as the top pick. Nice!

#900 of 2240 Cobalt Crash Tests by bporter1

Mar 08, 2005 (4:44 pm)

I am very happy to hear that the Cobalt did well in the offset crash, and pretty good with side airbags in the side impact test. It is good to see GM get an atta-boy now and then.

#901 of 2240 Only Two Small Cars Passed the IIHS.org side impact tests by micweb

Mar 09, 2005 (2:50 pm)

The Insurance Institute's test involves crashing a pickup truck or SUV height vehicle, with contoured front end, into the side of the tested vehicle at 31 mph. This is different from the NHTSA's side impact test, which uses a mid-size passenger car as the impacting vehicle. Since the point of contact with an SUV is higher than that of a car, and since they weigh more, very few vehicles can pass the test regardless of their size (for example, the Honda Element, 2004 CR-V, and Chevrolet Impala fail). Some cars have passed, like the Camry and Accord, but only with curtain airbags (one of the reason the industry is going to voluntary adoption of curtain airbags by 2007) and probably only because they are recent re-designs and were probably anticipating this test. The 2005 CR-V was upgraded to standard side curtain and torso airbags and a reinforced door frame area in response to the failed 2004 test so that it now passes.
 
Traditionally, side impacts are MUCH harder to deal with that frontal or frontal offset impacts, due to the smaller amount of space in which to absorb the impact and the small amount of material to absorb the impact.
 
One major issue that is emerging with the IIHS's test, is that the impact in this type of crash is so severe that frames are bending and the passenger safety zone is severely impacted. Nowadays, very few front crashes (NHTSA or IIHS) involve such a severe deformation of the passenger area that serious injuries (crushing) results. In front crashes the main issue nowadays is how to reduce deceleration forces, not how to avoid intrusions into the passenger area.
 
Not so with side impact crashes. While the NHTSA has passes most cars in their much less severe side impact test, it has also highlighted some cars (Focus ZX3 is one I know about) for poor protection with risk of injury due to intrusion(rear seat in the ZX3). On the other hand, the NHTSA has given some cars up to 5 star ratings (Golf sith side curtain, I believe) which has created a false sense of security which this new, more severe, IIHS test deflates. In fact the IIHS so ups the ante that of the 16 small cars tested, only two barely passed; the rest were poor with life threatening injuries for the occupants. Keep in mind that a small car has a much more severe weight disadvantage in a side impact from a truck/SUV than a mid or full sized car (and not all mid or full sized cars are passing either).
 
Now, here's the punchline: Toyota Corolla and Cobalt, each with side curtain air bags, both passed, albeit barely (acceptable, not good). I am amazed that a two year old new model (the Corolla) was able to pass and that anything small from GM is able to pass.
 
Wait, there's more, and this is the part that blows me away: the Ion failed miserably. I don't mean failed due to an unexpected head impact, but due to extreme intrusion and almost collapse of the body structure.
 
Whoa, what happened? I thought the Cobalt and Ion were both on the same global GM "platform". I thought that the Cobalt and Ion were identical under the skin. But apparently that is not so. I am very grateful I didn't buy an Ion last year. And this year, although the Ion is supposed to be tweaked to be closer to Cobalt quality (body integrity, noise, etc.) it clearly isn't strong were it counts.
 
Kudos to Chevrolet for spending extra time on the CAD/CAM computers and supercomputers to get the body strength of the Cobalt to such an amazing level. Shame on Chevrolet and Toyota for not making curtain airbags standard on these small cars already. (I expect a little more from GM since they made ABS standard on the Cavalier for years.) I am hoping that GM will make curtain airbags on the Cobalt, Malibu, and Impala standard for the 06 model line, since they have stated their goal is for universal adoption.
 
I think based on the test results, Chevy needs to promptly discontinue the Ion and rebadge the Cobalt to sell as an Ion. If other people pick up on this IIHS report, sales of small cars are going to plummet - this is the first solid evidence that mid-sized cars are significantly safer than small cars.
 
I think it would be a great career move for GM to announce, in light of the IIHS test results, that all remaining 05 Cobalts will come with side curtain airbags standard.
 
One final note. If you read the reviews on some cars, the Camry I believe and the Malibu, you will see that the IIHS notes "running" or mid-year safety upgrades; I belive the Malibu was given additional door padding (some manufacturers believe better door padding is as effective as, or more so, than actual torso airbags).

#902 of 2240 Cobalt vs Ion by vuefor2

Mar 09, 2005 (6:56 pm)

I was sad to see our Ion failed while the Cobalt passed. I guess this won't help Ion sales out much. I am tempted to buy a Cobalt now but I guess at least our Vue gets top rating and thats the vehicle we usually go out with the baby in.

Messages Page 91 of 225

To POST a message, please Sign In.

Advertisement

Browse by Category

Browse by Vehicle
   View All Vehicles

Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
View All Topics

Edmunds Community

Advertisement