Chevrolet Cobalt — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 20,918 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Steering7,858 (37.6%)Official recall records for this system: 5, covering model years 2005–2010.
• Fuel system3,270 (15.6%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 2006–2009.
• Electrical system3,014 (14.4%)Official recall records for this system: 4, covering model years 2005–2010.
• Air bags (restraint system)1,256 (6.0%)Official recall records for this system: 3, covering model years 2005–2010.
• Brakes990 (4.7%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 2010.
• Engine940 (4.5%)

Other / uncategorized: 336 classifications (1.6%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (15,932 records, model years 2005–2010) are most frequently classified under: steering, fuel system and electrical system.
• Manufacturer communications (6,810 records, model years 2005–2010) are most frequently classified under: equipment & accessories, electrical system and engine.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 13,262reports included a mileage
• 74,956average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 2005 2,306 records for 2005 2,306
2. 2006 3,138 records for 2006 3,138
3. 2007 2,457 records for 2007 2,457
4. 2008 1,907 records for 2008 1,907
5. 2009 1,929 records for 2009 1,929
6. 2010 1,739 records for 2010 1,739

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 1,132mention a crash
• 148mention a fire
• 1,090mention an injury
• 96mention a fatality

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 46
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 6,810
• Investigations NHTSA 12
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 41
• Owner complaints NHTSA 15,932

Explore the underlying evidence records

Diagnostic codes found in evidence for this vehicle

These codes appear by explicit identifier in official records matched to this exact model and year.

• P0442 in 32 records · 2005–2010
• B0081 in 18 records · 2006–2009
• P2138 in 15 records · 2005–2010
• P0521 in 8 records · 2005–2010
• P0300 in 6 records · 2005–2010
• P0301 in 6 records · 2005–2010
• P1516 in 6 records · 2005–2006
• P0011 in 5 records · 2009–2010
• P0299 in 5 records · 2008–2010
• P0446 in 5 records · 2005–2010
• P0014 in 4 records · 2009–2010
• P0016 in 4 records · 2009–2010

A code appearing in a record means the code was named in that document. It is not a diagnosis of this vehicle, not a fault this vehicle has, and not an indication of urgency. Diagnosis requires reading live data from the vehicle.