2008 Chevrolet Cobalt
This year drew an ordinary 940 complaints for a Chevrolet Cobalt — the model's median is 582. What they were about is the unusual part: 9% of them mention rotors, against 2% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 940 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 582 |
| Involving a crash | 76 |
| Involving a fire | 15 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- rotors — 9% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the model's other years (4.6×). Owners wrote it as: rotors, pads, rear brakes, wear.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
1. NORMAL DRIVING CONDITIONS SINCE PURCHASE OF VEHICLE IN JULY 2008. 2. FAILURE INCLUDES EXTREME PREMATURE WEAR AND SCORING ON REAR ROTORS AND UNEVEN WEAR ON REAR BRAKE PADS. 3. ORIGINAL DEALERSHIP TURNED AND MILLED REAR ROTORS AT 7800 MILES. VEHICLE IS NOW BA…
REAR BRAKES WEAR THE PADS UNEVENLY AND SCRATCH THE ROTORS. COMMON PROBLEM THAT MOST 2008+ COBALT SS OWNERS EXPERIENCE. DUE TO THE FAULTY BRAKES, THE HAND BRAKE WILL OFTEN NOT WORK, WHICH IS A LARGE INCONVENIENCE IN A CAR THAT IS ONLY AVAILABLE WITH A MANUAL TR…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V171000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
- 14V047000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 14E021000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 12V459000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 10V073000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chevrolet Cobalt was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt? What happened to yours?
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