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CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2006 Cobalt continued to carry the torch first lit by the 2005 model year. To be clear, that torch is burning bright with widespread power steering issues, electrical curiosities and a dangerous ignition switch defect which led to a massive recall by GM. This isn’t a great torch to carry.

The 2006 added it’s own special flare with gas leaks due to cracks in the “return portion of the modular reservoir assembly.” A recall of 2006 Cobalts was issued to fix the problem, but only to vehicles sold in or current registered in Arizona and Nevada, leaving other owners to pay for repairs themselves.

Between this car stalling while driving, giving owners fits with power steering failure and having it be a potential tinderbox because of gas leaks, we felt we had no other option than to award it our “Avoid Like the Plague” badge.

10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
6 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
2 / 0
Average Mileage:
74,536 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

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.

2006 Chevrolet Cobalt engine problems

engine problem

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2006 Chevrolet Cobalt Owner Comments (Page 3 of 3)

« Read the previous 20 complaints

problem #1

Dec 232005

Cobalt 4-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 300 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

2-incidents of sudden acceleration at freeway speeds: The first time the cruise was activated and on hitting resume the car took off on it's own. The coast function did not slow the car and turning off the cruise did not slow the car. I was in fairly light traffic and was able to steer and brake out of trouble until the accelerator returned to normal[the brakes only partially slowed the car because of the high speed involved]. about an hour later I was entering a freeway and at about 40-45 mph the accelerator went to the floor on its own again and I had only partial control of the car's speed. The cruise was off this time and again after a few minutes and miles the engine revved down to normal on its own. Again traffic was fairly light so I was able to steer and brake through without a crash but in heavier traffic this would be a serious problem. The dealer test drove the car for about 18-miles but could not replicate the incident which is random and intermittent and their diagnostic tests showed these incidents never happened but believe me this is a real problem when these computers or electronic systems malfunction. General Motors has opined that this is impossible which is a cover up since everything is controlled electronically. This is particularly dangerous since it happens at freeway speeds and the pedal goes to the max.

- National City , CA, USA

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