Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Chevrolet Cobalt

What it says about you

Opinion

The car in the middle of the ignition switch recall, which is the first thing anyone says about it. Yours was fixed and you kept it.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

10 model years on record, 7,970 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2006 (power steering). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • rotors 2008, 2009 peak 18.8% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2017 0 recalls 1 complaints
  2. 2016 0 recalls 1 complaints
  3. 2012 0 recalls 1 complaints
  4. 2011 0 recalls 2 complaints
  5. 2010 6 recalls 582 complaints
  6. 2009 6 recalls 900 complaints
  7. 2008 5 recalls 940 complaints
  8. 2007 6 recalls 1,564 complaints
  9. 2006 power steering 2,330 complaints
  10. 2005 6 recalls 1,649 complaints

What does a Chevrolet Cobalt say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.