Ford Focus vs Chevy Cobalt?

Would like to hear your opinions. Cheap little cars. The Chevy has a stronger engine and the Ford apparently has independent rear suspension. Otherwise about similar.

Which would you buy if you could only choose one or the other?

Let's also constrain this to 00-06 models, not the new latest and greatest fancy, more expensive models.

Hd an 01 Focus, eats break pads and rotors, other than that it was a pretty decent car.

I owe the Focus for almost 2 years but its EU version and im not sure about the difrence.
Well, main diffrence is the engine

Are you set on getting an American car? Both of those cars are pretty nice, and between the two, I'd opt for the the Focus (and that's with me being a Chevy person!). However, if you'd consider foreign cars, there are better bang for your buck options out there. If you want american, that's understandable.

Neither. Get a 04-09 Mazda 3. Much better than either of these with fit/finish, handling and overall quality, but will cost more due to the better resale value. You can also get the 3 with HID headlights, heated leather seats, and pop up nav if you really want a premium small car. The 2008-2009 Mazdaspeed 3 is a 260hp sledgehammer. Replacing the turbo downpipe alone is supposed to be worth 25+hp. Its a real shame, but the american manufacturers have ignored the small car market for years. The Cobalt in my opinion is barely better than the super crappy Cavalier it replaced. Sit in and drive a Mazda 3, especially the re-designed 2010, and then sit in and drive either of those two. No comparison.

Thanks for the discussion. Let's keep it going.

I do have to say I don't necessarily have to have either brand. I have a Honda with 296,000 on it and it has had very few repairs since 1984 - most all of which I have done myself.

Granted, the new cars aren't as simple as the little carbureted Honda 1.5; more to go wrong on the new cars. But the Honda engine on my car is undeniably well-engineered. It's been very hard for me to look past Honda or Toyota but I am trying to be open minded.

I don't have an opinion about the Focus, don't know anything about them.

If the new Cobalt is really just a rebadged, reskinned Cavalier then I do have an opinion on them.

I bought a 2004 ex-Avis rental four door Cavalier for my Daughter, it had 45,000 miles on it and was in pristine condition.

We sold it with 90,000 miles and as a complete total after she hit someone from behind and a few weeks later someone else (thankfully) hit her from behind and totalled it, although the car was still running fine, got more from the insurance company than I paid for it and bought it back with a salvage title bought some body pieces to fix it, lost interest, and re-sold including the body pieces for even more profit...

The drive train in this car (hers was a 2.0 wiith an Automatic) was excellent, never had a single issue mechanically with the car.

Interior fit and finish, and material quality, was absolutely horrible, I assume becasue it's such a cheap car, since all my chevy trucks I've ever had had excellenty fit and finish and material quality.

The interior was completely falling apart, rattling and the plastic pieces, including the dash, were all splitting and cracking as well......it was a real piece of crap on the inside, but under the hood it was bulletproof....

Heretic said:

Neither. Get a 04-09 Mazda 3. Much better than either of these with fit/finish, handling and overall quality, but will cost more due to the better resale value. You can also get the 3 with HID headlights, heated leather seats, and pop up nav if you really want a premium small car. The 2008-2009 Mazdaspeed 3 is a 260hp sledgehammer. Replacing the turbo downpipe alone is supposed to be worth 25+hp. Its a real shame, but the american manufacturers have ignored the small car market for years. The Cobalt in my opinion is barely better than the super crappy Cavalier it replaced. Sit in and drive a Mazda 3, especially the re-designed 2010, and then sit in and drive either of those two. No comparison.

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I agree totally with this...

But if cost is the issue, which it was for me when I bought my daughter a starter car that I knew would get wrecked anyway, I couldn't touch a solid foriegn compact for what I bought the Cavalaier for...I really wanted to buy her an S10 but those were about twice the price of the cavalier unless they came equipped with an odometer with 100,000 or more on them, same as the better foriegn compacts.....

I gave $3500 for the Cavalier when it was 3 years old with 45,000 miles.....

But like I said in the earleir post it's a very cheaply made car with a good drive train...

I'm usually a Ford guy, but I picked up two Cobalts in my fleet last year and I've had no probs whatsoever to date. Cheaply made , yes, but that's the point , as long as they remain reliable.

After being a long time Chevy owner, I switched to Honda in 2002 after my last to Chevy's (99 Alero GTS & 97 Grand Prix GTP) were complete pieces of ****. Since 2000, Chevy poor management overlooked quality in the name of profit and at it's customer base's expense. It took 9 years for it to catch up to them and put them in bankruptcy.

My 2000 Honda Accord has 275,000 kms and is the longest that I have ever kept a car - why, because it's bulletproof - body is mint (that's saying alot up here in Northern Ontario) and the powertrain is rock solid.

My other vehicle is a 2004 Honda CR-V with 182,000 kms and I can happily say, the same quality and reliability as the Accord

Just my 2 cents

Mike

maxcruiser said:

My 2000 Honda Accord has 275,000 kms

My other vehicle is a 2004 Honda CR-V with 182,000 kms

Just my 2 cents

Mike

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Ya just don't see American cars getting that kind of mileage on them.

Thanks for the replies. I'd like to keep this discussion alive for awhile to get more input. The more research I have done on both vehicles, the more problems I have uncovered. I like to check forums so that actual owners can provide a "real world" sample of experiences. This is a good forum to check on the Focus:
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125090

I've also been to Edmunds.com to check reviews. Granted, there are many really good reviews on both vehicles. But the sample size I am looking at is very small, so I assume I'll get a small number of negative AND a small number of positive reviews. What I am focusing on (no pun intended) are the negative reviews because I am looking for failure patterns. Even if the sample size is small, it may be useful if I see patterns.

What I have found so far in a week's worth of research is that both cars have a set of pattern problems, both cars are cheap, and it becomes a pick your poison scenario with them. For example, I have researched and found:

Ford Focus problems:
ignition system - faulty key cylinders / stuck keys
brake system - warped rotors, sticking brake calipers, brake noise/squealing, excessive brake pad wear, etc.
transmission - complete failures, loss of individual gears, fluid leakage, shift linkage/cable problems, etc.
electrical - blown fuses, lighting failures, control module failures, etc.
fuel - fuel pump issues
chassis - water leaking from somewhere and onto the floor mats
cooling system - plastic thermostat housing cracking and breaking, A/C compressor failures, A/C compressor cut-out during acceleration, etc.
engine - stalling, surging, rough idle, vibration
fit and finish - interior parts breaking, cheap build
safety recalls - numerous for the 2000 model

Chevy Cobalt problems:
ignition system - faulty key cylinders / stuck keys
brake system - warped rotors, sticking brake calipers, brake noise/squealing, excessive brake pad wear, etc.
transmission - complete failures, loss of individual gears
electrical - blown fuses, lighting failures, control module failures, CD player/radio failures, trip computer faulty MPG readings, cruise control failures, faulty fuel guages, fuel tank sending units, electric power steering failures
fuel system - faulty fuel tanks
chassis - water leaking from somewhere and onto the floor mats
cooling system - mold in A/C system
engine - stalling, surging, rough idle, plastic timing gears
fit and finish - cheap plastic everywhere, breaking plastic parts, broken knobs and buttons, cheap fabric apholstery, fading paint and door panels, clear coat breakdown

Both cars have disappointed me so badly that I've stopped my research of the two vehicles at this point. Unfortunately, since all vehicles have some issues, so this process of looking for a vehicle may turn into choosing the lesser of two evils - or in this case, the car with the fewest pattern failures.

My own experience tells me that you can't go wrong with a Honda but it is really hard to find one in the same price range that isn't cancered or beat on and I don't really want to have to go as far back as 2001-2002 years to get a Honda sedan in the $5-6k range in my area.

Nonetheless, it's off to look at some other sedans and I will post back with what I find.

The basic criteria I am looking for is:
1. reliable - few if any serious failures (my CRX is an example of this - still on the road since 1984)
2. economical - 30+ mpg (my CRX is an example of this - still getting 35-42mpg)
3. reasonably safe - airbags, ABS
4. enough room for adults or kids in the back seat
5. $5-6k starting point

ksnick said:

Ya just don't see American cars getting that kind of mileage on them.

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That's not true. My F150 has that mileage on it.

Toyota matrix, pontiac vibe, mazda protege, Honda Civic, 2000-2005 nissan maxima, nissan altima, toyota corolla, suabru impreza, etc.etc.

The japanese cars have the best selection and best cars in this particular category. Can't go wrong with any of them. i've got a Matrix XRS. It's a little four door hatchback. gets 30+ mpg highway and upper 20's in town. Has a peppy 190 hrose motor and a 6 speed transmission too. 100% dead on reliability and has more than enuogh room for a family. Also has the added feature of folding down the rear seats and getting a surprisingly large amount of cargo area!

ksnick said:

Ya just don't see American cars getting that kind of mileage on them.

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Wow, are you wrong. Between my mother and myself, over the past 25 years of me driving, we've only owned 3 jap piles of ****, only one made it to 100K miles, on the other hand we've had at least a dozen US made cars and other than the fact i was bored with a 2 of them, we traded in or scrapped with 150K+ on the clock. My favorite was a 95 Chevy Caprice 9c1 that i sold for more than i paid for it, ate a $75000 "high performance" BMW on the top end and idled smoother than ANY brand new honduh.

my first vehicle was a 91 chevy S-10 i paid 600 bucks for with 160,000 miles on it. sold it 2 years later with 225,000 miles on it for $800

Ford trucks and Subaru cars......

Subaru might not be real prevalent in your area tho.......

If it makes any difference......Ford at least did not take taxpayers money to continue to sell overpriced boring junk like GM did....

Look at the common failures (brakes, tires etc.) and price out replacement parts.......if one costs $150.00 for pads and rotors and the other is $300.00 the choice is obvious....

$0.02 deposited

Focus all day long... The new American version is butt ass ugly IMO as they put chrome on it to "fancy" it up. They ruined it from the previous design IMO.

The Cobalt has NEVER gotten a good review and most mags are hoping the new Cruze that's replacing it is better. (it will be)

Chris

kaboom said:

If it makes any difference......Ford at least did not take taxpayers money to continue to sell overpriced boring junk like GM did....

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I hate to admit it because I've tried to be objective, but the whole bailout thing does creep into one's thinking..... so it's hard not to agree with the above statement.

Agreed! Ford S-H-O may be in my future in a couple of years... I really like it.

Chris