Inside, it's also decked out with a 7-speaker premium enhanced sound system including a 228-watt amplifier and 10-inch rear subwoofer with AM/FM stereo and CD/MP3 player. Again, a tuner isn't a tuner without a good source for tunes. Good thing the Cobalt SS had a great stereo
system, otherwise I would have been stuck with all treble and little bass for my excursion up to a local ski resort. The hour and a half drive never sounded so good.
I know it's not ski season yet but I had more important things to take care of, well not things but kids. I decided that I wanted to spend as much time behind the wheel of the SS as possible, so the hour and a half plus drive to my gremlin-sitting gig was a prime opportunity to put the Cobalt to the test on the curvy Sea-To-Sky highway up to Whistler. It's rigid but sporty front independent strut-type suspension, with a stabilizer bar, and rear semi-independent torsion beam set up, also with a stabilizer bar, was adequately nimble to handle sharp turns yet comfortable enough so that I wasn't feeling every chunk of gravel that had been spewed onto the pavement by previous corner cutters. So if I'm going to continue using the story analogy - as I've been doing so effectively throughout - it would be like the Princess and the Pea, only that I'm a queen and I wasn't asleep at the wheel!
During my drive up, the weather was overcast but the roads were still dry, enabling me to really test out what the SS has to offer. Like the ION Red Line, it handled fantastically. The leather-wrapped steering wheel is comfortable to grip and the power rack-and-pinion steering system made tackling turns easy, while the all-season performance tires did a good job of gripping the road. On my way back home, the continuous rainfall made
the roads quite slippery. Regardless of the less agreeable weather condition, the Cobalt handled well. And when putting the 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS to the test, they too performed well.
Back to the gremlins, and I don't mean to conjure up any long lost memories of AMC's Gremlin or to suggest that there are any gremlins in the Cobalt's ointment, but rather shuttling kids around is only a given when taking care of them. And the Cobalt SS doesn't make the job of transporting young 'uns from A-C to point D. Even though all the kids are under ten, they still felt, and I quote, "cooped up" in the back. The joke got old very fast. The coupe configuration is ideal for me, myself and my purse, and sometimes another passenger. I wouldn't attempt to cram anyone adult-sized that I liked back there, if this were my car, but wouldn't have much opportunity to anyway. It comes down to priorities. Chevy offers a sedan version of the Cobalt that does a good job of swallowing up rear passengers. The abbreviated rear seating area in the coupe is the price paid for riding in style. So while the back seats are cramped, it was nothing that a little ice cream bribery couldn't fix.
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| The Cobalt SS is decked out with a 7-speaker premium enhanced sound system including a 228-watt amplifier and 10-inch rear subwoofer with AM/FM stereo and CD/MP3 player. (Photo: Alexandra Straub, Canadian Auto Press) |
I know it's not ski season yet but I had more important things to take care of, well not things but kids. I decided that I wanted to spend as much time behind the wheel of the SS as possible, so the hour and a half plus drive to my gremlin-sitting gig was a prime opportunity to put the Cobalt to the test on the curvy Sea-To-Sky highway up to Whistler. It's rigid but sporty front independent strut-type suspension, with a stabilizer bar, and rear semi-independent torsion beam set up, also with a stabilizer bar, was adequately nimble to handle sharp turns yet comfortable enough so that I wasn't feeling every chunk of gravel that had been spewed onto the pavement by previous corner cutters. So if I'm going to continue using the story analogy - as I've been doing so effectively throughout - it would be like the Princess and the Pea, only that I'm a queen and I wasn't asleep at the wheel!
During my drive up, the weather was overcast but the roads were still dry, enabling me to really test out what the SS has to offer. Like the ION Red Line, it handled fantastically. The leather-wrapped steering wheel is comfortable to grip and the power rack-and-pinion steering system made tackling turns easy, while the all-season performance tires did a good job of gripping the road. On my way back home, the continuous rainfall made
 |
| The leather-wrapped steering wheel is comfortable to grip and the power rack-and-pinion steering system made tackling turns easy. (Photo: Alexandra Straub, Canadian Auto Press) |
Back to the gremlins, and I don't mean to conjure up any long lost memories of AMC's Gremlin or to suggest that there are any gremlins in the Cobalt's ointment, but rather shuttling kids around is only a given when taking care of them. And the Cobalt SS doesn't make the job of transporting young 'uns from A-C to point D. Even though all the kids are under ten, they still felt, and I quote, "cooped up" in the back. The joke got old very fast. The coupe configuration is ideal for me, myself and my purse, and sometimes another passenger. I wouldn't attempt to cram anyone adult-sized that I liked back there, if this were my car, but wouldn't have much opportunity to anyway. It comes down to priorities. Chevy offers a sedan version of the Cobalt that does a good job of swallowing up rear passengers. The abbreviated rear seating area in the coupe is the price paid for riding in style. So while the back seats are cramped, it was nothing that a little ice cream bribery couldn't fix.