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Santa
Barbara is an awfully luxurious place.
And the city's famous Four Seasons Biltmore
is one of the loveliest properties there.
It is a popular place for new car introductions,
particularly among luxury brands. So why
did Chevrolet choose this opulent place
to launch its all-new Cobalt, the replacement
for its very entry-level Cavalier? Because,
in a word, it's not so entry-level anymore.
Not
that it's a full-boat luxury car, but
it is a significant step up from its predecessor,
which had long ago started to become less
and less, um, cavalier in spite of regular
styling and feature updates. So as the
Cav's replacement was being contemplated,
a decision was made to bring an even cheaper-and
far better-entry-level car from Daewoo
into Chevy showrooms, rebadged as the
Chevrolet Aveo. This allowed Chevy to
move the Cavalier replacement upmarket
a bit, which warranted, among other things,
a classy new name. Thus the Cobalt was
born.
Sounds
like a decent strategy, sure. But doing
this propels Cobalt into a pretty heady
competitive set that includes the Toyota
Corolla, Honda Civic and even the slick
new VW Jetta. For those who've owned,
rented or evaluated Cavaliers in the past,
it may seem like a stretch to see a Chevy
in the mid-to-high-teens being qualified
to take on such stalwarts, but after touring
some of the fast, sweet roads around the
Santa Barbara region in a variety of Cobalt
coupe and sedan models (there are six
in total)-as well as that set of competitors-the
car proved itself to be nothing short
of a revelation, surprising pretty much
every driver with its packaging, styling
and perhaps more than anything else, its
quality. The Cobalt, my friends, is a
truly outstanding vehicle. Read on.
I
have to admit that I was one of the skeptics.
We at ROAD & TRAVEL Magazine spent
a year with a Cavalier Convertible some
eight years ago, during which I personally
put thousands of miles on it. To be fair,
the car proved to be pretty good for 1997,
but the art of the small car has advanced
at a pace that, quite frankly, the old
Cav just couldn't keep up with. The updates
it got in its later years were really
nothing more than putting coat after coat
of lipstick on a pig, so Chevy took a
genuine clean-sheet approach with Cobalt.
This starts with a much, much stiffer
structure, which translates into interior
quietness and less road vibration that
can shake things loose over time. Better
aerodynamics help maximize fuel economy
and reduce wind noise, while the incorporation
of a gallons of insulating foam and other
sound deadening materials make Cobalt
one of the quietest cars-if not the quietest-cars
in its segment.
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The
tight new structure is also designed to
minimize intrusion from severe impacts,
whether from the front, side or rear.
Dual front airbags-including a passenger-side
weight-sensing air bag-are supplemented
by available side-impact airbags on the
front seats, which also come with curtain
airbags providing head protection and
management of flying glass for both rows
of occupants. Also on the safety front,
ABS is standard on all but the lowest
trim levels of Cobalt coupes and sedans,
while three-point safety belts with pretensioners
are installed in all five seating positions.
(CONTINUED...)
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