Lest one get carried away, its chassis is still set up for comparison with unrefrigerated Jell-O. Even before highway speed is reached, uncertain body control, witless steering, and classic understeer rein in confidence. Low-ball, low-rolling-resistance all-season tires, the bane of driving enthusiasts everywhere, exacerbate matters, as you explore the limits of adhesion while driving straight.
That said, the XFE's EPA-combined 30 mpg nips at the heels of the smaller, 31-mpg Honda Fit, as does its low price ($15,710 before giveaways). I'd have said the trip computer was rigged, because you just don't imagine 155 horses, 2780 pounds, city driving, and 30-plus-mpg fuel economy in the same sentence.
The Cobalt XFE is but a few aftermarket purchases away from being a really good car. Best of all, GM finally has a small-car drivetrain for North America that's up to scratch. So key, yet still maybe not enough to save the company.
Although we might wish it weren't so, there's no law that says the losers in the current downturn can't be American. And, frankly, there's a lot about Detroit that can't go forward, if it is to go forward at all. But the media pile-on fails to reflect what's actually right and wrong in Detroit, and it affects the outcome by unfairly dragging down decent cars.
Bad things happen to good people. We know that. But if you believe in karma, you might observe that bad things sometimes happen to bad people, too. Could it be true for that fine legal fiction, the corporate person? Is there corporate karma? So much in the Big Three's past is ignoble: Fighting unions, mass transit, environmental and safety regulations. Sticking up for leaded gasoline, Freon, and bad gas mileage, to name a few infractions. Are the Big Three finally receiving their karmic due?
Maybe if they'd started to build good, safe, fuel-efficient cars without argument, things would be different. But, like the rest of us, they believed it when the media said they were doing great, even when they weren't.