Midnight_Rider wrote:Cobalt is one of only two GM products that I like (the other being the Solstice). This is high praise coming from "Mopar or no car" me. My family did have some GM cars before my Dad's employment with Chrysler as my mother was working at a Cadillac dealership until I arrived on the scene in 1959.
I personally like the Saturn variant of the Solstice, the Sky:
Anyways, I drove an Ecotec engine w/ 5 speed manual once, and it was awesome. Solid. And the shifts were crisp. I drove an Ion Redline, which is the Saturn sistercar to the Cobalt. It has the 2.0L SC engine or the 2.4L NA. I was very impressed. Needless to say, these new power figures for the Cobalt Turbo are very nice. And as far as looks go, I'd be happy with them.
I always thought 2GN should have been offered in a 2-door coupe. Who knows? Maybe instead of my original plans I will plop down on one of these new turbocharged ones. Anyone locate any engine pics of it yet? Does the new one have the same trimmings as the previous SS pictured in my post?
Edit: I read a review of the 2007 (current) Cobalt SS, and this jackass had the audacity to say the GM 5-speed was inferior to the 6-speed of the Civic Si.
I was invited to a car test event, and I got to drive both cars (as well as others) on a test course. The Civic Si's shifter is rubbery, and the shifts are not positive. What is more, the shifter is on the DASH, something Honda decided to do out of a gimmick. Needless to say, you can't put your seat back a bit without sacrificing shifting comfort.
The GM on the other hand shifted smooth, crisp, and there was a positive register in your hand when the linkage when into gear. The bushings aren't rubbery, so it has a very solid feel once in gear. In contrast it is a superior feel to the Honda Civic 6-speed. Perhaps the Honda transmission might be stronger (but this is only speculation, who really knows???), but the SS transmission is more desireable from a driving point of view.