Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Sedans Chevrolet Cobalt Chevrolet Cobalt Real World MPG
295 messages, Last post on Nov 23, 2009 at 4:23 PM
You are in the Chevrolet Cobalt Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
Consumer reports ratings mean little to the average consumer. Remember the Cavalier always had some of the worse write up's and still was a top seller for GM for years. What sells these cars is Price. People look for cheap cars and that's what keeps them selling.I work with many people who travel long distances to and from the job and always look for the cheapest new car they can get. There great commuter cars or first new cars for the kid going to college or a second car to bang around town in.
|
|
|
Replying to: gerald41 (Nov 25, 2006 7:07 am) While I do agree with the majority of your post's content, especially the last sentence, I have to respectfully disagree with the actual subject line itself. By working with a room full of mechanical and electrical engineers and engineering managers, I can assure you that these guys all take CR's opinions into consideration whenever they are cross shopping vehicles. But not solely. They do more research than simply read CR's rating of a vehicle that they are interested in. But again, they do actually take CR's reviews seriously and use it as a part of their overall evaluation of a prospective vehicle. And I really don't think it's just engineering types that do this. CR isn't the automotive bible, but it's still a respectable resource for many people in the U.S. With that said, you are indeed correct in that many other people are simply looking for cheap transportation--regardless of a vehicle's reputation on paper so to speak. When the total cost of ownership gets low enough, pretty much anything will sell fairly well for a few years. Ron M. |
|
|
Replying to: ron_m (Nov 24, 2006 3:05 pm) Unfortunately for GM, Consumer Reports has the sedan's reliability rated below the industry average; This is an "Emperor has no clothes" issue these days. CR used to report on test cars that had 10 defects per vehicle whereas today car quality has improved so much, across the board, that you are talking more like 10 defects per 100 vehicles. This year in order to create more of an appearance of differences in quality than actually exists, they use a scale of poor to excellent where a poor vehicle, like the Cobalt, has 40% more defects than an average vehicle, and an excellent vehicle has 40% fewer defects than "average." If 10 defects per 100 vehicles is average (sorry, I don't have the exact number that is average), that means that Cobalts have, say, 14 defects per 100 vehicles and a Corolla has 6. Sounds like a big range, right? But if you average it out per vehicle, it is a range of 1.4 defects per vehicle vs. .6 defects per vehicle. SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH IN MY OPINION TO BASE A PURCHASE DECISION ON. Note that these are "non-serious" defects - the Cobalt is "excellent" in engine and other major areas. CR isn't dishonest - but they make all their money on the car buying issues and guides. These were meaningful "bibles" in the '60's and 70's in terms of opening people's eyes to the problems in Detroit and the fact that Japanese cars weren't junk. BUT that era is long gone, although CR's influence isn't. I've bought mostly American cars since 2000, and as odds would have it, the imports I bought during the same period had more defects than the domestics (with the exception of 2001 Focus). I think it's better to look at overall price, features, and costs and availability of dealer service. In these areas, I like the Cobalt a lot - it has good crash test results (excellent body integrity), great gas mileage (35 mpg consistently on my 70 mile daily freeway commute), and I LOVE that powerful 2.2 liter engine. It feels pretty good to support American industry post-911 too. We have a LOT of deficit to pay off over the years, and it would be good to recycle our $$$ over here. I get a kick out of buyers who want to break our dependence on "foreign oil" by buying small import cars that only get a few mpg better than domestics - the money they are shoving out the door to Japan o their car purchase far outweighs the dollars they are saving the US on foreign oil imports. |
|
...I think we've lost track that this discussion is for Cobalt owners to post their actual MPG. Remember? 
|
|
|
Replying to: KarenS (Nov 28, 2006 9:26 am) However, I think that Edmund's decision to break the threads into WAY too many subsections is too inflexible. Now I have to scan dozens of threads for stuff that was in just one thread. And there are only a few posts, most getting stale, in many threads. In the oldStuff often veers off topic, but is still interesting. Have you considering consolidating the threads but requiring people to choose one or more "tags" before making their post - you could have gas mileage tags, repair tags, purchasing tags, review tags, etc.
|
|
|
Replying to: micweb (Nov 28, 2006 3:16 pm) Thanks! |
|
|
Replying to: jaxs1 (Sep 28, 2006 4:56 pm)
|
|
|
Replying to: gman55 (Jan 06, 2007 8:20 pm) You still don't have to drive 75 in a 65 zone. Just don't drive in the fast lane if most people are going faster than you and let them pass, waste their own gas and take their own risk of getting speeding tickets. Of course if you really wanted to go 75 anyway and are just using "everyone else is doing it" as an excuse, then don't worry about fuel economy.
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Sedans Chevrolet Cobalt Chevrolet Cobalt Real World MPG
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
2010 Chevrolet Cobalt
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
