LTB51

Interior is a big step up. Cadillac just got schooled. LED gauges are a nice touch. That steering wheel has got to go. Of all the sad things to standardize on. Also kind of strange that the interior door handles are at a bit of an angle. I understand why they did it, but it is a bit different to look at. I second the comment on the 4spd on the base V6. They should have gone with a ecotec 4 and the 6spd. That would have been a very popular combo. It kind of worries me that the price was not released.

Civic is at 78.5K, YTD and picking up steam (29K last month). But the Civic is very new so it probably isn't a fair comparison. Assuming that about 1/3 of Cobalt sales are fleet sales (I've got no idea if that is accurate), that is 31.2K Cobalts bought by people who actually wanted them VS 78.5K Civics. I'm keeping the HHR separate, because, although I haven't sat in one, it seems to be a much different (better?) vehicle than the Cobalt. What about counting the G5/Pursuit sales with the Cobalt? IMO, the Cobalt only excels at being a Cavalier replacement.

100 Times is a lot, but likely it would have to be much better. There are a lot of people that GM needs to earn the trust of again. In order to do that you have to make a much better product. The Cobalt is not that product.

You are joking, right? Perhaps some sort of sarcasm tag for the "ignorant" comment? Just in case you are serious... do you think that larger cars would help the parking problem? You do realize that the gas prices are influenced by the government who is trying to encourage smaller cars? And you do realize that the congestion is in large part due to streets designed hundreds of years ago? If you were joking, my apologies.

No one has commented on the best part of the story: "BACK IN SEPTMBER I NOTICED THAT THE RADIO WHICH IS STILL STOCK WAS WIRED INCORRECTLY" Hmmmm..... I wonder how he noticed that?

Anyone who has read these reports can see that most seem to be nothing more than the end of an attempted extortion to be followed shortly by a lawsuit (if one hasn't been filed already). Perhaps it has merit, but it is too early to tell.

You forgot "People will BELIEVE what they WANT to believe."

Please don't until you have some actual information. There is already too much bull being sold as fact in regards to hybrids as it is.

From the "About Us" on the CNW Webpage: http://www.cnwmr.com/sv001data/ I'd really like to see a breakdown of how a Hummer @ 1.949 costs less than a conventional Accord @ 2.18.

I think GM needs to plan towards being profitable at 10-12% market share. Looking at the competition, GM doesn't really deserve any more. That is the new reality, and unless GM plans for it they will continue their death spiral.

Well said. It also doesn't help when the GM execs whine about health care, media bias (CR, etc.) and dollar valuation. They should know better, and it shows a lack of understanding of the real problem. They look extra stupid when GM puts out a vehicle that people want and suddenly the per transaction price goes up by thousands. What they are really saying is that they want to keep on making mediocre products and make a profit. Thanks to capitalism, it doesn't work that way.

People seem to use "irregardless" when they mean "regardless". Even if "irregardless" was a word, it means the opposite of what the author usually intends. i.e. "Irregardless" = "Not without regard" = "Regard" <> "Regardless". If it is snobbish to wish that people not bastardize words so that they have the exact opposite meaning of what is accepted English, then buy me a BMW and call me a snob!

Hood struts are more upscale than props. But how many buyers would have looked at the Cobalt and said, "That's great.... but were is the hood strut?". Especially in this class? I took note of it as a good feature. But then I got into the Cobalt and saw all the cheap touches on the inside. And my next thought was why did they waste the money on the strut that could have been put into the interior.... even something as inexpensive as good buttons/hvac controls? (My next thought after that was the episode of the Simpsons where Homer was so fat he couldn't push individual buttons on the phone!) It is a very poor trade off, and in my opinion it shows some very questionable reasoning. Like the ebrake, it was almost like they created a problem that didn't need to exist. As for the trunk, the baggage won't get crushed, but due to the design of the trunk there is no more space. The hinges (or something) are still there, they are just covered. Maybe I am confusing the Cobalt with the G6 that I drove... but when I displayed other information, such as MPG, the clock was gone. I would like to display both. And again, it is sad that GM's more upscale cars were saddled with this design. Kia does seem to be the master of bad interiors. But that is what I expect from them. GM can do better, especially if they are going to re-use these parts for their higher-end vehicles. I'd rather they gave the cobalt a slightly better head unit rather than bringing the G6/malibu down. Still, nice to see the MPG display and whatnot in a car of the Cobalt's class. [edit] Ah, I found a pciture of the trunk... The hinges aren't in the way, but due to the location of the tires (or the shortness of the trunk) and the side overhangs of the trunk to hold the struts, there really doesn't seem to be much room gained. It may just be the picture, but I wonder if they didn't have to do what they did with the hinges as there wasn't room for conventional hinges. Hmmm... I see that the carpet covering on the right side is coming off. [/edit]

This is different: This is different: In general, the G6 and the Malibu interiors look very similar to me. What I see up there is the same general shape for everything, but with just a few things moved around and changed. Look at the coin holder(?) on the left and the buttons directly above. Same pieces, just moved slightly. Differnt vents. Slightly different transition on the dash. I guess the point I am making is that the G6 concept interior looked so great... and then someone malibued it. If you ask me, it ruined the car.

Cobalt is a dissappointment. It should have been the cavalier replacement 4 years ago. The replacement for the Cobalt should have come out next year. GM fell a generation behind with the too-long life of the Cavalier. We can only hope they don't try to get more than 5 years out of the Cobalt. The new civic is already showing it up. In Feb, Cobalt sales were at ~14K (twice that of feb 2005) and Civic was already at ~25K. and I can only imagine what will happen when the new Corolla and Sentra are in the mix. The cobalt is generally average (which isn't good enough), but there are some very strange things that Lutz (or whomever) should have corrected: 1) Why is there a strut instead of a prop to hold up the hood? No one would have questioned a car in this class having a prop. Wasted money that could have been used to make the interior less cheap looking (See below). 2) Same thing with the trunk... although I like the fact that I dont' have to worry about the hinges crushing my cargo, the opening of the trunk seemed small and akward. Two more struts required. 3) The door lock/unlock buttons are not meant to be teeny-weeny little pieces of plastic with nothing more than a slight line between the lock/unlock toggles. Use a prop on the hood and then use the extra money to buy good buttons... especially the buttons that are used regularly. The power window buttons show that they can make real buttons... why cheap out here? 4) I shouldn't have to lift the center storage to use the ebrake. I shouldn't have to give up center storage if I want an MT (I don't recall... is it even an option to have both?). That is just stupid. Don't we know better than that by now? 5) I test drove one, and the cloth on the doors ended before it made it under the plastic piece holding the power window buttons. I guess poor build quality can happen on any car, but still, this car was supposed to make a statment in this regard. (Both JD Powers and CR rate it average or below in quality/reliability.) 6) HVAC controls.... they shouldn't feel like they are off my crappy boombox from the 80's that I bought when I couldn't afford anything else. Use a prop, and then spend an extra dollar or two on better plastic. 7) Give me a clock separate from the multi-display. I shouldn't have to give up my clock when I want to display other information. Even a Kia Rio has a separate clock. Oh, and while I am on the subject, the display is horrible.... reminds me of a dot-matrix printer in a laser printer world. It might pass in this class (though others in the class don't have to suffer it), but why is this same poor display forced on the Malibu and the G6? Rear leg room. It is very poor. Especially considering the Cobalt's external size is relatively large... where did all that space get wasted? 9) 4spd auto. Give it a 5spd. The fuel economy might then be comparable to other cars in the class. You may argue that a lot of those things are minor. But they add up. And there are cars it is competing against that don't have these problems. As a result, the cobalt doesn't compare well. But the worst part is that they are all problems that there is no reason for. Did Lutz or Wagoner think this was acceptable? Or was Lutz to busy worrying about some body cladding on a Pontiac? What do you think Toyota or Honda would do to an exec who allowed this to pass?

That sounds like speculation again. Do you have an example? I have no doubt that Honda (and even more so Toyota) was using all the latitude in the existing rules, but at least they retested and restated all their engines. GM didn't do that. Although one could argue that they shouldn't have to as their engines didn't seem to be affected in the same way (but the conspiracy theorist in me wonders how much GM's influence on the new ratings system helped them). Still, tighter regulations are better. It is my understanding that it was more than a gentleman's agreement... there were laws and insurance implications.

While not as big as GM, Ghosn showed what a good leader can accomplish in a short time. Wagoner is five+ years into a slide that they are just starting to address.... maybe. Buickman and Josh are right, most other companies would have fired him long ago. I think his major accomplishment has been to convince people that boogeymen such as legacy costs, health care, dollar valuation, media bias, etc. are what are causing GM's slide. Most people seem to have bought it. In the meantime the real problems have gone mostly unaddressed. The reality is that it is all about the product, and GM's product under his watch, other than a select few, has lagged the competition. One only has to look at the Tahoe to realize that all it takes is good product to turn thing around. What is $1,000 (?) more per vehicle of legacy costs when you can sell a better vehicle for $7,000 more? Where would the G6 be right now if they hadn't put the malibu's interior in there? Not replacing Grand Ams at the rental agencies, I imagine. Wagoner certainly had enough opportunity to make sure that was done right, but he saw an opportunity to save some money by sharing the malibus lackluster interior. Good choice!

Yes, that is him. 1) Cramer is rich, so buying him off isn't like buying off some reporter. 2) Cramer has made is money of his knowledge of the stock market. Now his job is to make other people money off the stock market. His past performance indicates that he is more often correct than not. I'm not going to make judgement until I see the actual quote. But if Cramer said it, regardless of what you think about the media, odds are it is true. Perhaps he isn't ANTI-GM, just correct?

Cramer? The guy is stinking rich (self made off the market) and now runs a hedge fund for charity. You should pick a different target. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/conte...44/b3957001.htm

What exactly is you definition of "quality"? Three major problems (and in such a short time) sounds more like "lemon" than "quality" to me.