cobalt loaner
 

i was expecting the worst and came away pleasantly surprised.

the powertrain is what it is. it's not thrashy, it's actually pretty refined. no vibration or harshness, but just not a lot of power. the automatic kicks down pretty well, though.

brake pedal feel was amazingly good. my memories of non-Corvette GM vehicle brake pedal feel are not good. this one was solid.

steering feel was artificial and light. sway resistance was minimal.

the interior: here's where i was blown away. this interior is as nice as a recent Camry, Scion, Civic and Mazda MX5 and Mazda 3 (brand new one) that i've been inside. it's no longer the case that the interior of a cobalt is so terrible. it's simply on par with the rest.

and that simple little thing was a happy find.

some of the plastics were far nicer than what can be found inside an R56 MINI (which is not difficult to do).

I had an STS for a loaner last week when the CTS was in for an oil service...

Compared to the CTS, I was surprised at how crappy the STS interior was. Certain parts were exactly the same (like the steering wheel). But the rest of the dash was pretty horrible. GM really made an impressive stride with the new CTS...

i've read so much pure crap about how much the cobalt interior sucks that i was astonished to see that it was exactly the same grade of plastics and fit/finish as in a brand new Scion, Camry, mazda 3, etc.

EXACTLY. no worse. not better. same.