By Lindsay Chappell
Automotive News / April 11, 2005

DETROIT -- Those colorful leather seats in the sports-package Chevrolet Cobalt SS Supercharged coupe have the car's top line executive thinking about using them elsewhere.

Cobalt project leader Lori Queen says the rest of the Cobalt series could get them as an option.

Her thinking: The seats seem to be resonating with younger customers and could draw others to Chevrolet.

"The tuner-crowd tends to go for colors that the rest of us might not put in our cars," Queen says of the seats, which come accented in red, yellow or blue. "None of us has done especially well with the youth market. So why not go for it?"

Queen says the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant that builds the Cobalt is now running on three shifts with no downtime to build the car. The series includes a sedan and coupe. She says that two new engine packages will be introduced in 2006.

 

good to hear--maybe they will add a wheel option to the base coupe and metalic gold sandstone colour.

Two new engine packages? I assume she is refering to the 2.4L automatic and the 2.4L 5 speed.

 

What will the 2 new engines be??? one is the 2.4L VVT but what is the other?

This is the engine the Cobalt needs, the new 140HP 1.8L Ecotec

 

Lordstown is booming right now... good for the local economy.

Also, I REALLY hope they look at offering interior colors other than black, grey, and beige across other lines...

The blue interior on the GTO was a big factor to me... (that and the red) I get tired of looking at the same colors all the time.

 

Well she said, "engine packages" not two engines. Thats why I thought--a 2.4L auto is one package (grouped together) and 2.4L 5 speed.

The Ecotec 1.8L sounds good for CAFE reasons and such but it might be too slow. Unless those acceleration times are off---and they could be.

 

Sounds like this 1.8 could replace the 2.2. Especially if the 2.4 and 1.8 share
the VVT system.

 

a Cobalt SS 2.4 vvt Ecotec Coupe in (Lazer Blue Metallic I heard is replacing Arrival Blue) with the Blue inserts................I'd go for that really easy, and just price it at 17,500 or 18,000 at the most. Get decent preformance, torque in a Chevy compact car not seen since the V6cavyZ24 And have the SS name in a hopefully affordable price. I'm basically sold. Plus you don't get the huge wing but you still get a top preforming model.

 

I like the 2.2 Ecotec. I get 36 mpg highway with my 5 speed cavalier and its pretty quick with 140 hp 150 torque. What they need to do is make a V6 and V8 ecotecs for bigger cars/trucks/SUV's in my opinion.

 

What's this? GM actually paying attention to the young, hip market!?

Great news all around. Maybe this car IS the beginning of GM's turnaround.

 

The 2.2L is 140HP and is a lot of power for a base car.(I drove one for a week) It feels very strong, but doesn't get the milage of the 115HP Civics and 108HP Toyotas. If the Cobalt could get base Civic milage but with 140HP that would be great.

 

Sounds like great news. The turnaround has to start somewhere, why not with Cobalt? Maybe they should offer similar interiors in a 5th gen Camaro as they do with the GTO. I really loved the GTO with the Blue inside/out! I'm a sucker for the metallica colors, specially blues. Same with the Cobalt SS they look sweet with it. Congats again Darth, Those Blue GTO's are killer looking. I did talk to one guy who thinks the Cobalt is another cavalier with a new name. I guess cuz the last cavy's front end treatment is similar to Cobalt. I tried to tell him it wasn't, Oh well you can't win em' all. I'm just dying to see a C6 Z06 in blue. Black is also pretty sweet as well! I've seen a Cobalt SS in black it looked great!

 

Errr... GM's got the best V8 on the planet.

What do they need an Ecotec based V8 for?

 

I think everyone is missing the real point. The success or failure of the Cobalt is irrelevent to GM's financial outlook. Compact cars can't save GM.

 

True. I don't think GM made money on Caviliers, I doubt they make money on Cobalts. So what was the point? I thought it was GM adjusting it's models quickly to increase sales of an already appearent success rather than rest on it's laurals.

 

This is the outlook that prevailed at GM for the 20 yrs that they left the Cavalier rotting on the dealer lots, and it's completely untrue.
First of all, Cobalt is like any car - if you sell a ton of them, you will make a lot of money, regardless of the profit margin. Sure, it's not like selling a Silverado, but they aren't losing money either.
Even looking beyond the immediate financial impact, you are missing the importance this has for GM. This is the next generation of car buyers that GM is trying to get. They missed the last generation - the baby boomers, and have seen their market share slide to the point that they need to practically give away their cars to maintain half of what they had 20-30 years ago. If GM can get young people to buy the Cobalt, and really love their ownership experience, they will come back in 3-4 yrs - with more money. Toyota and Honda got to where they are today by doing this. They got people hooked on cheap Civics and Corolla's. When they needed something bigger, many of these folks just traded up to Accords and Camrys. Now, a lot of these people are in their 50's and are driving MDX's and LS400's. In this sense, for GM's future financial outlook, this little car just might be GM's single most important car release in a LONG time.