2009 Chevrolet Cobalt
This year drew an ordinary 900 complaints for a Chevrolet Cobalt — the model's median is 582. What they were about is the unusual part: 18.8% of them mention rotors, against 2.4% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 900 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 582 |
| Involving a crash | 67 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| EPA combined | 28 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- rotors — 18.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the model's other years (7.7×). Owners wrote it as: rotors, rear brakes, pads, rear brake.
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
HIS REAR BRAKE PADS WERE [VIN] WEARING OUT RAPIDLY. THE ROTORS AND BRAKE PAD NEVER MADE ANY NOISE ALERTING THE CONTACT THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG. WHEN THE VEHICLE WAS BEING SERVICED THE MECHANIC SHOWED HIM HOW THE ROTORS AND BRAKE PADS WERE WORN. THE VEHICLE W…
THE REAR BRAKES WOULD SQUEAK WHEN APPLIED WHILE DRIVING AT ANY SPEED. THE CONTACT ALSO STATED THE BRAKE PEDAL WOULD VIBRATE WHEN THE FAILURE OCCURRED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN AUTHORIZED DEALER WHO STATED THAT THE REAR ROTORS WERE WARPED AND THE BRAKE PADS…
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.
- 09V073000 POWER TRAIN 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 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt? What happened to yours?
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