My son will be 16 soon so I'm looking at vehicles for him. I'm considering a late-model Cobalt (2008 or so) and he wants a 4-door, so I would like to do a little reseach and have a couple questions:

• Are there any maintenance or reliability issues to consider?
• What is the real world fuel economy for the 2.2? What about the 2.4 in a Sport model?

Any other feedback is welcome. Thanks.

 

i think for the money they are a good choice for kids. we have 3 in our family fleet. my 05 4 door 2.2 gets 28-30 around town and 34-35 on a trip. seems one of the biggest issue is the electric steering so try to buy one with factory warantee left on it in case you have problems. otherwise pretty much a low maintainence car.

 

I have a '08 model Cobalt XFE (extra fuel economy) with 98,000 miles on it. I keep all of my fuel records on the "Road Trip" app on my i-phone and my average is 31.83 mpg. The very best that I have gotten was 42 mpg and the worst was about 25 pmpg. All of my driving is on the hwy to work and back driving about 68 mph. The wind has a lot to do with the mileage and it has been steadliy blowing here in SE Texas forever. As for the power steering motor, there was a recall issued last year to have it replaced. The problem is that the electric motor goes out while drivng making it harder to steer. Mine is still owrking fine so I am going to wait until it goes out before I have it replaced. All in all, it has been a pretty good car and I would not be afraid to get one.

My parents have a '08 Honda Civic with less than 30,000 miles on it. They have had the right rear tire replaced twice already and it rides like a box car. There is a issue with the right rear corner of the Civic.

Thanks, Steven