Cobalt LS, the Lemon Special
It's a ten year old car. So things will go wrong on it. Some of them were my fault, like loose lug nuts destroying the lugs, and riding on a flat tire (bent rim) because I rolled over a broken bottle in a very bad part of town and drove 5 miles to a police station before changing the tire. The loose lugs were because I lost my temper repairing everything else on the front-end and once in a dozen tire removals I forgot to tighten them.
The mileage on the car is great. Mines a 5-speed and at 86,000 miles gets over 40mpg on the highway. The car is also very stylish considering it was only $13,000 new after incentives and has side airbags and spoiler. The 5-speed took $1000 off the price. I paid it off in less than a year. The engine and transaxle are very reliable; I've only done basic maintenance and they've been great (plugs, belt, oil changes, o2 sensor, fuel / air filters, ATF fluid on a getrag M86, etc). Rust is also at a bare minimum considering I live in the salt-belt and two of the previous three winters were the coldest on record; only a few minor spots on the body.
However, most parts on the front end failed relatively quickly from rust and wear/tear. Bought it new in 2007, very happy with the mileage and performance for about 5 years (up to 50,000 miles). The original tires went very bald in less than 35,000 miles. Since then I've replaced the entire front-end except for the knuckle because of failing components. Most cobalt owners will be familiar with these; warped rotors, steering clunk, control-arm clunk at low speed, failed CV axles, leaking/failing shocks and struts. Rusted / seized U-joint on the intermediate steering shaft causing the car to keep turning even after making turns. Broken left-front speaker. The alignment costs from replacing the entire front-end. Attempting to bleed the brakes caused the caliper bleeder valves to break off. On both sides. Cheap stuff. If I wasn't a shade tree mechanic I could've bought a brand half a new Honda Civic with all the labor that would've gone into keeping the car on the road. Another family member has a 2009 cobalt xfe and it's up to 170,000 miles with zero problems except a failed AC compressor so I dunno what to say.
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