This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Rear window defrost stopped working. Was told by dealer that the connector for the rear defrost was melted. Upon doing research on defective rear defroster on 2007 Chevy Cobalt, this appears to be a common problem with this make/model/year. I believe there should be a recall for this part.
I can not remember the date or mileage of first occurrence. I bought this car in July 2006 new. The main annoyance with this car is the bushings. I have gotten them fixed 3 times since 06, and yet making the noise again when I break which indicates they need to be replaced again. Second annoyance is the radio, I have had my speakers replaced as only the back ones would work. Every winter my speakers go out, one day will be the left front, next day will be front right - they choose when they want to work and when they do not want to, and the other day none of the sound would work! third my RPM's will randomly shoot up while I'm driving, going at a constant speed. Not very happy with this car...
The contact owns a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact received notification of NHTSA recall number: 10V073000 ( steering:electric power assist system) and took the vehicle to the dealer for repairs in September 2010. Shortly after the recall was performed, the contact started having electrical issues intermittently. When the electrical failure occurred she noticed that the power steering warning light was illuminated on the instrument panel, the radio would shut on and off, a picture of a lock symbol would illuminate on the instrument panel and all the lights on the vehicle would flash on and off, including the exterior lights. Once the vehicle was powered off and then on it would reset itself and perform as normal. The failure recurred intermittently. The dealer was unable to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer did not offer any assistance. No repairs were performed. The current mileage was 137,000 and the failure mileages were 83,000.
My husband bought his car Nov.6, 2008 and since that we didn't have a problem anything but that one window on the right of the back seat won't move. Anyway, on Oct.22, 2011, my husband was coming home from work when the power steering went off, thank god he made it safe to our home. On Monday, he made the appointment to the dealer place for the recall we kept on putting off. So the following morning, Tuesday, the dealer replaced the electric power steering. The car was working fine that whole day. The next morning, the car won't do anything at all. The un/lock button won't work as if there's no power and the car won't start.
Purchased vehicle brand new in 2007 and no problems till now. 22 year old daughter driving vehicle, she is a college student. She drives in major city daily and driving home from school gauge cluster went crazy and power steering went out. Scaring her, she parked the car in a church lot and I sent the car to a dealer the next day. I had found on the internet that there was a recall on the power steering assist motor and informed the dealership of such when the work was to be done. They replaced the motor under the recall but also charged me $780 to replace the steering column which they said was bad. I have found 1000 + complaints on the internet of people saying their steering columns were supposedly bad as well with 1 person having theirs replaced 3 times now. She picked the car up and 2 weeks later the same thing occurs again. The dealership looks at it for 4 days and claim they can't find anything wrong so do nothing but investigate. They claim the codes were erased on the computer because we drove it after the fault but the car was parked and immediately hauled to the dealer on a flatbed truck. As I said before there are well over 1,000 complaints on the internet that I have found myself so I am sure there are a lot more. As soon as I can afford it this car will be put in town square with a big lemon sign on it and she will be driving something other than GM.
- Vevay, IN, USA
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Strong smell of gas when im driving the car in and outside. The car has trouble starting, I had it checked and was told there was a fuel leak. Called GM and was told even though their was a special coverage for my state they would not fix the leak. This is a dangerous leak due to a faulty plastic part. I hope my family doesn't die from inhaling fumes or blow up. Kinda makes you think its another pinto exploding gas tank deal. I guess they wont do anything until someone dies. I have had many problems with this car starting a week after I bought it new. Knocking when the engine starts, using oil now, airbags not working, small electrical things keep going wrong. When I take it in im told they cant reproduce the problems.
I have had to replace the sway bar links, control arm bushing and the shifter in order to get my car inspected this year. Another problem I have is the blinkers not making the clicking sound, they work but I was told I have to replace my front speaker. I feel like that is a lot to go wrong with a vehicle in one year. I also think that these problems shouldn't have happened this early. I only have 57,000 miles on my car. Something should be done with these vehicles seeing how there are many other people having the same problems with their cars.
I have a 2007 colbalt lt and had to have the brakes and struts replaced at 40,000 miles. The front of the car was shaking when putting on the brakes and had a loud noise. I took the car to a repair shop when they replaced the brakes and struts. The struts shouldn't go up this quick. Now the key gets stuck in the ignition.
The key can not be removed from the ignition switch. Eventhough the shifter is in the park position. The key does not return to the remove position. You can turn the engine off, but the key remains in the accessory position so the battery runs down. Repeated efforts of cycling the shifter and turning the wheel does not rectify the problem. When I took it to the dealer the shifter was replaced at a cost of $287. Fortunately, this happened when I returned home and was able to park in my own garage. It would have been unfortunate if I had been on a trip or an important errand and would have to left the key in the ignition in a public area. When I "googled" this problem on the internet in an effort to find a simple solution, I found numerous similar complaints in regards to the Cobalt car.
The contact owns 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that the key became stuck in the ignition while the vehicle was shut off. The contact was unable to lock the doors to the vehicle when the failure occurred. The dealer advised the contact to bring the vehicle in for diagnosis. The manufacturer was contacted and attempted to walk the contact through manually releases the key but to no avail. The key remained stuck in the ignition. The vehicle was not repaired. The current and failure mileage was 50,058.
Driving down the road the power steering light comes on, power steering goes out, RPM, speedometer and fuel gauges go to zero then rapidly move back and forth, transmission slips, check engine light and auto theft lights come on. I have had the power steering recall fixed. This has happened multiple times now. At first it would go away if the vehicle was restarted, however, now I have to have it towed to the dealership to have it fixed. This will be the second trip to the dealership in 1.5 weeks.
The contact owns a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds the indicator sound is not functioning. He stated that they are functioning but the noise that occurred when signaling is the failure. The vehicle has not been inspected by a dealer. The failure mileage was 37,000. The VIN was unavailable.
The left front speaker started going out (couldn't hear words or music well). Soon after it completely quit working and when it quit so did the right side. It's only the door speakers. The back ones work fine.
Since vehicle was new issues with radio and left speaker, dash lights flashing on and off, complaints to dealer went un-resolved until warranty was over then they wanted to look at it. Now at 52,000 miles instrument panel and tail lights went out, static on radio. Found blown fuse, replaced and it blew out again, leaving me with no instrument panel lights or tail lights. Have found similar complaints on other web sites. As of present time no solution to the issue. Failure occurred at 5am while driving on the interstate.
The contact owns a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that in December 2008, the ignition failed and the dealer replaced the ignition cylinder. March 2010, the contact heard a metal grinding noise while driving. The vehicle was taken a local repair shop where the contact was informed that the front struts, bushings, control arm shaft and stabilizer bar needed to be replaced; the mechanic replaced the bushing. The contact also stated that the front two tires needed to be replaced because of defective struts. The contact called the manufacturer who stated that the vehicle was outside the warranty and offered no assistance with repairs. The failure mileage was approximately 20,000 and the current mileage was approximately 63,000. Updated 01/12/11 updated 03/28/11
The left front speaker started going out (couldn't hear words or music well). Soon after it completely quit working and when it quit so did the right side. It's only the door speakers. The back ones work fine.
The contact owns a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that the vehicle experienced a heating core failure which was repaired. The instrument panel also malfunctioned along with the signal sound, seat belts, air conditioning unit, speakers on the driver side door, and passenger side air bag. The air bag was repaired. The dealer advised the contact to take the vehicle in for other repairs. The current mileage was 47,269. The failure mileage was approximately 42,000.
The gear shift is loose and will not always disengage the key lock. The lights on the gear panel flash off and on. I have already had the dealership replace this once before and it is in the process of going out again. The last time it gradually got worse until I was unable to get the key out of the ignition at all. I sometimes have to move the gear around until it makes a connection and then it will release the key. The first time this happened was in 2008.
I was driving and the power steering light came on, the all of a sudden the steering wheel was hard to turn, and I was unable to make a right or left turn. When I did try turning, my car almost hit another car that was stopped at the light because I did not have enough strength to turn the wheel all the way. It has progressively got worse and when I took the car into a Chevy service dealer, I was told this is a common problem with the Cobalt and they had many of them coming in for service with the same problem and the whole system would have to be replaced. The cost I was quoted was $1,000. GMC customer service was contacted by the dealership service manager and the dealership agreed to pay a percentage of the repair cost which would still leave me paying $475. I've only had the car for 2 years and purchased it used with $14,000 miles. I was also told that this issue is occurring when and if the car has been jump started because this is a main cause of which triggers the major safety and costly issue. The first question that I was asked of me is: "has the car been jump started with cables at any given time?" this issue has caused some hardship in my family as well as transportation issues for a single mom as myself. I am currently upside down on the vehicle by 7 thousand dollars so trading it in is not an option for me. I am currently paying for a Chevy Silverado as well.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Franklin, WI, USA