Truly, the Cobalt and Pursuit have been executed to such a high standard that it's quite clear there's more at stake here than
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| With the Pursuit and Cobalt, GM is now showing it can build a small car as good, and in some ways better than its Japanese rivals. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
keeping current compact GM buyers happy and attracting new buyers to the two respective brands, these two cars are about pride. There have been too many Cavalier and Sunfire jabs over the years, and GM is now showing it can build a small car as good, and in some ways better than its Japanese rivals. "This isn't just another small car entry," said Doug Parks, GM Canada's Vehicle Chief Engineer. "This is our big swing at the plate with regards to a small car"
With regards to the Pursuit, the most obvious standard Pursuit feature, which wasn't included in my tester due to its
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| The only performance enhancing feature the Pursuit SE gets over the base model are standard ABS brakes, larger 16-inch alloy wheels and 205/55R16 all-season tires. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
preproduction status, is a rear decklid lip spoiler. Ironically I had a chance to see it fixed to a top-tier Cobalt LT I was testing earlier that day, and really feel it finishes the car off. The Pursuit is available in two trim levels by the way, the base sedan just mentioned and a sportier SE model. The differences between the two mostly come down to features and trim upgrades, including the addition of air conditioning (standard on the base Cobalt), antilock brakes, power windows, locks and mirrors, cruise control, fog lamps, a 3.5-inch chrome tipped exhaust pipe, and a nicer audio head unit. Other than the ABS brakes, the only performance enhancing feature the SE gets are larger 16-inch alloy wheels and 205/55R16 all-season tires, which do help out when pushing the apex of a corner.
