Model years › Chevrolet Cobalt

2006 Chevrolet Cobalt

Complaints about this year name power steering far more often than the model's other years — 48% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 13.2%.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

Also unusual this year

• fuel pump — 11% of complaints, 20× usual
• chevy cobalt — 19% of complaints, 3× usual
• gasoline — 7% of complaints, 15× usual

What owners wrote

STRONG GASOLINE FUMES; NOW I'M TOLD IT IS A CRACKED PIECE ON THE FUEL PUMP ASSEMBLY JUST AS DESCRIBED IN GM RECALL NO. 090226. $750 TO REPLACE; AND IT IS APPARENTLY YET ANOTHER KNOWN PROBLEM WITH THIS VEHICLE.

WHILE PARKED, SHE NOTICED A PUDDLE OF GASOLINE UNDERNEATH OF THE VEHICLE. A CERTIFIED MECHANIC STATED THAT THE FUEL PUMP WAS FRACTURED. THE VEHICLE WAS BEING TOWED TO THE DEALER FOR INSPECTION. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 65,000 .

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.
• 09V419000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
• 10V073000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
• 07V014000 STRUCTURE

Own a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt? What happened to yours?

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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.

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