A Cobalt GM Deadly Sin is on my To Do list, one of the last left. But I didn’t take enough pictures of this one, and I don’t have the time right now. So this can be a preview of coming attractions.
And why is it up on these wood blocks anyway?
Because there’s a glove stuck in its wheel?
Oh man, do I have a lot to say about these. Like the Cavalier before, a quintessential Michigan car, and one of the last vehicles to follow the predictable, disposable lifecycle of “Old GM”. Everywhere one minute, bought at a steep employee discount, invariably in a low trim with manual windows and plastic hubcaps. They technically sold an “LT” version with chrome and leather but I’ll be damned if I’ve seen more than 3 in my life, living in the GM capital of the world.
In the late-’00s there were rows and rows of these at every Chevy dealer in the state, and don’t forget the cute little bright yellow coupes on the raised display at the corner of the lot! Only $12,995! Then, magically they ALL became $2000 budget-lot beaters in eight years flat. The resale values of the these were just absurdly low – it seemed like by 100,000 miles, they were considered End Stage Beaters(TM) by dealership and craigslist posters, and were priced accordingly. I remember in college (mid-2010s) being astonished at how cheap they were for being so new.
I remember seeing my first one parked on the street way back in 2005 thinking “wow, what a real improvement over the egg-shaped, tuppeware Cavalier” just based on the clean and modern styling, and seemingly decent panel gaps etc. But compared to the decades-old Cavalier, anything seemed higher quality back then. Years later, a friend in high school drove her mom’s late model, already with a litany of supsension and NVH issues at probably 4 or 5 years old. My dad rented a brand new one in 2010 – it drove OK compared to his leased 2010 Honda Civic. Clearly less polished but not that much worse, until you looked closer at the interior, and then shut the driver’s door only to expose 1980s coupe-level of tinny rattling sounds. On a brand new car with maybe 15,000 miles. Half baked would be putting it mildly.
Unlike the much more robust Malibu and Impala, most of these have already vanished from the streets, victims of extreme abuse, neglect, worthlessness, trashed interiors (the seats almost seem designed to collect dirt immediately), and extreme rocker panel rust, here in the Midwest. I can’t think of another vehicle that disappeared so quickly and in such large quantities besides maybe the Dodge Caliber.
My last exposure to one was an extremely tired Uber last summer, and my goodness, could you hear, feel, and loudly sense every single pothole, interior rattle, suspension clank, and mechanical noise. Granted, it probably had over 200,000 miles on the odometer, but I didn’t know a modern car could “feel” so viscerally worn out from the backseat. It gave me flashbacks to my childhood riding around in beat-up Tempos and Corsicas with peeling paint and interior door panels melting in the sun and falling off. Some things never change, I guess. Until their parent company goes bankrupt, and gives up on compacts altogether. The Cruze was such a massive improvement in NVH and initial quality, but even it couldn’t save the sinking ship. RIP Cobalt – you had so much potential.
I hope that the glove stuck in the wheel doesn’t have a hand in it.
I have driven more of these (and the Pontiac Punsuit/G5) than I can count. In the 2007-2011 era I worked a period at a rental agency, and then later at a municipal agency that had a large fleet. Basically the two core customer bases for the Cobalt.
Very mediocre cars. I remember when they first came out it was a big deal that they supposedly benchmarked the Mk4 VWs. And you could see it – they basically carbon copied the interior, except entirely made with brittle hard poorly fitting plastic. They always seemed to have steering shaft issues too. The seat used a fabric that felt like it came out of a transit bus and they always seemed to come in a grey colour designed to show stains as much as possible.
They were certainly better than the Cavaliers though, of which I also drove many. And waaaay better than the Aveo. But I know when I worked for the city, everyone preferred the 2008ish Ford Focus (even with all the gaudy chrome stick on they came with).
Back in 2013 I was compact sedan shopping, trying to stay as close to 10-12k for a lightly used fuel efficient car. Ended up test driving a 2010 Cobalt XFE sedan, in addition to a new Cruze Eco 6MT (downright luxurious driving car but $19k for a new one at the time). The Cruze was not bad but still felt notably cheap: really stiff and strangely narrow seats, agricultural shifter and gruff but strong Ecotec 2.2 (I found this aspect of the car endearing). I then test drove a 2012 Civic LX 5spd, yes the maligned cost-cut 2012 model. It felt like a laser smooth spaceship after the Cobalt. Just much better put together, super slick shifter, insanely smooth engine. I paid $15k for the Civic as a one year old car with 11k miles on it.
The Cruzes have started to show up en masse at circle tracks around the country, picking up where the venerable Cavaliers left off. At our local 1/5th mile paved oval there’s a guy campaigning a sedan that runs about midpack. Impressive considering the field of well prepped VTEC double wishbone Hondas that predominate. On longer+dirt tracks where midrange power matters and a longer wheelbase helps, they do even better.
Obviously, the transmission or engine has expired and been removed for rebuild…though I suppose it could just be awaiting a pair of new front axle.
From my very casual observation, most small cars in my area have disappeared from the road but are piled to the rafters (so to speak) at BHPH used car dealerships. There has been a massive shift to SUVs/CUVs…or anything that looks like one. While most of the cars around here look used up, there are a few diamonds in the rough for those of us who like cheap (to buy, anyway) and quirky.
But I can’t remember seeing one of these Cobalts even on Craigslist in months. Apparently, people use them up and throw them away as they are so cheap.
Around here (Harrisburg, Pa.), these have also largely disappeared from the roads. Civics, Corollas and Focuses are still regularly seen.
I am originally from up your way.
Here in north Florida you do see some Focuses on Craigslist, almost never see them on the road, in fact, lately I have seen several Escorts. Civics and Corollas aren’t seen nearly as often as Accords and Camrys…and those 2 mid-sized sedans aren’t that plentiful.
Here, truck-based, or truck-looking CUVs are driven by men with small families, women drive the more car-looking CUVs and pickup trucks are driven by everyone else.
During our visits to the South – we have relatives in Tampa, Florida and Montgomery, Alabama, and a good friend moved to Fort Lauderdale three years ago – I’ve noticed that the region is ahead of this area in the swing towards trucks and CUVs.
I didn’t have any extensive experience with the Cobalt beyond one day’s rental, but did have a relative who owned its platform mate, a Saturn Ion. It wasn’t a car that did anything well, and a lot of things poorly, crudely and noisily. It exuded cheapness. The GM four speed automatic matched up with the raucous, unrefined engine for good first-gear performance for a small drivetrain, and that was about it. GM dropped the Ion shortly thereafter and replaced it in the Saturn line with the Astra, a captive-import Opel on the same platform as the Ion and Cobalt, but it sold poorly, apparently contributing to the demise of Saturn. I can’t remember seeing an Astra in the wild.
IIRC the Saturn Ion was so poorly reviewed at launch that GM delayed the Cobalt for over a year for last-minute upgrades. I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like without them.
Came here to say the Ion would be a better deadly sin than the Cobalt.
After all, Chevy is still alive.
The Ion was one of the last gasps for Saturn.
The Brazilian Cobalt can be worse.
Please tell me where I have gone wrong in life. Yes, I have always marched to a different drummer. I am, at age 72, an individualist. I ride a tadpole recumbent trike. I am in love with my Kia 2020 Rio LX sedan, I live in a manufactured home, I cut grass with an electric lawn mower, and I don’t enjoy music created past 1980. Oh, and I really liked my Chevy Cobalt.
After four years or being tortured by the ride and rattles of my 2005 Scion xB, I went to my local Chevy dealer and made a very good deal on a new, 2009 Cobalt LS sedan. The only option was automatic. I would’ve preferred the stick shift, but the discount was so good, I swallowed my pride and purchased the car. Now, apparently I view cars differently than most “car guys”, but I found nothing wrong with the Cobalt.
I had previously owned three Cavaliers, and other than the 2003 that was a real lemon, my 1983 and 1993 were really good cars. The Cobalt was tight. Doors did not rattle when closed, panel gaps were acceptable and the seats had better quality fabric than the 2003 Cavalier. Pep, handling, gasoline mileage and styling were fine. Great in the snow. Good headlights. And the XM radio was out of this world. I liked the DIC. Heating and AC were great. I received good service at my local Chevy dealer and I had no issues whatsoever mechanically. I did get a dent in the door when a large truck parked next to me slammed his door into my right side mirror. Didn’t hurt the mirror, but dented the door around the mirror.
So what did I miss? Body stiffness and quality were light years better than the Scion. No mechanical issues ranked the same as the Scion. Much better in the snow than the Scion. Cheaper routine maintenance than the Scion. Tire wear as good as the Scion. The interior did show dirt more than the Scion.
My brother bought a used 2007 Cobalt coupe for their daughter in 2010. She sold it in 2018 to a guy who still has it and loves it. My neighbor has a 2010 Cobalt that appears to be going strong. I can assure you the body integrity of my Cobalt was better than the Fit I recently traded in.
Let the attacks begin.
I won’t attack, as there’s nothing wrong with liking a maligned car particularly when it has given good service. However, your cited reference points are lightweight subcompact cars and Cavaliers, not the Civics, Corollas, and Elantras that it competed with in the marketplace, and the extra refinement and tactile quality of those competitors probably wouldn’t be as important to you given your list of Cobalt pros. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it may explain why you liked the Cobalt and others did not.
I have an electric lawmower as well. Fairly sure it has added a few years to my life through avoiding the noxious fumes of the old gas clanker that preceded it.
I’m glad your Cobalt provided good service for you. A GM DS doesn’t mean that the car is necessarily crap, but that it failed to stem GM’s decline and/or had other issues that relegated it to also-ran status.
I understand about the noise from the xB, as I have one too. It’s based on a smaller and lighter platform (Yaris) than the Cobalt. But in terms of their resale value, there’s no comparison. A 2005 xB can still fetch $3 to $5k. The newer Cobalts have mostly been junked and have essentially no resale value to speak of.
I don’t know if the point of DS status is ever going to stick, it seems that most simply cannot wrap their minds around it.
DS status really is death by a thousand cuts. Ever cheaper materials, lack of adequate testing prior to release, slap dash assembly standards, contempt for customers. I could go on.
The less said about the Cobalt the better, but I have something to say about gloves.
Back when I worked for an auto equipment supplier we got an urgent call from one of our customers, I think it was DCX Twinsburg Stamping in Ohio. One of our rack transfers was down and we’d better get our asses out there right away and fix it.
So several of us jumped in a pickup with parts and tools and headed down, when we got there we got the covers off the machine and found that the operators had been throwing garbage into a gap, and the level had built up sufficiently that a leather glove had got wadded up in a sprocket and jammed.
We cleared the jam, got a tongue lashing for designing a machine with such an obvious flaw and went home.
Is this mainly a Deadly Sin because the vice president of Global Manufacturing Engineering put the ignition switch that killed people into production after the issue was known and before it was corrected, or is it because of the litany of reasons in the comments above? I haven’t lived anywhere that people were still buying GM cars in meaningful numbers during the past two decades, so I haven’t seen anywhere near as many issues with these as I have with Mustangs, for example. On paper, at least, these were far more desirable than Cruzes. They had infinitely better engines, from the worst Cobalt option to the best Cruz one.
I do recall that GM was very proud of cracking the VW twist-beam-bushing code for the Cobalt. VW responded by going to IRS for the Golf and Jetta. Eventually VW went backwards, and now Mazda has.
I’ve always been curious about why there is so little attention focused on the SECOND defect, or at least I call it a defect, that is what actually made the ignition switch really deadly. The problem wasn’t just that the ignition switched off if you hit a bump or had too many keys on your key ring. The problem was that the airbags became immediately inoperative, even if the car was still moving, so the driver who lost control after being surprised by the ignition cutoff had no airbag protection. Why was that not considered a design defect on its own? Seems to me that it would be a simple piece of software code to specify (a) the air bags are live whenever the car is moving and a seat is occupied, and (b) once a seat is occupied and the engine is started, the bags remain live for some interval after engine shutoff, or the drivers seat no longer being occupied, whichever comes first.
I recall that it was a popular London pastime to kick parked senior BMWs in the bumper, which would fire the frontal airbags while unlocking the doors. Maybe GM didn’t want the high insurance rates that went with armed safety devices in cars that were not in use. It would have been a great strategy, provided they didn’t cheap out on the ignition switch. Did the steering column lock engage when the car switched itself off too for added panic?
I call BS on that, like so many other of your recalls, since air bags will not deploy if the ignition is off, obviously.
Obviously if you turn off the ignition, you don’t expect air bags or any other function of the car to work, right? That would have been a major workaround, and might have all sorts of its own implications. No air bags (or any other system) works when the ignition is off.
Air bags might typically work for some 150 milliseconds after the ignition is turned off, but not longer. All this came out during the GM ignition key issue. It requires a microcomputer to process all of the information to trigger the air bag igniter. It might retain enough power for that brief window, but then that’s it.
Why would anyone expect a car system to operate when it’s turned off?
Not to argue just posing assumptions…
1. It was popular and actually encouraged during this time period by law enforcement for people to pull off to the side of the road and talk on their cell phone or look at it or a map for directions.
This practice was popular at the exact point in time this car was built… After the invention of the cell phone but before Bluetooth, CarPlay, and GPS became “Standard Equipment.” Items such as GPS are still not “Standard Equipment” on most vehicles.
Depending on how long the car was pulled-over or parked, the driver may have decided to turn the car off. If another car happened to hit the pulled-over car and it was off the airbags would not deploy. Maybe that is a good thing? Because people are usually not buckled in or kids are moving around and the explosion of the bag may kill them? I’d still rather take my chances with airbag deployment.
2. For years American car headlights stayed on when the car was off and you opened the door. It was a revelation in my 1985 Toyota Camry when I accidently left the headlights on and opened the door. The lights turned off automatically! The only American cars that were able to turn off lights automatically were equipped with “twilight sentinel” and usually only equipped on Cadillacs and Lincolns of the day.
Even as late as 2016, on the Lincoln MKS, if you set the headlights to “ON” instead of “AUTO” the headlights will stay on as long as the battery has juice.
Obviously headlights are not airbags but the point remains.
If you pull off the side of the road, if you get hit, it’s inevitably from the rear, in which case air bags aren’t going to do you any good.
The tradition of having a direct live wire from the battery to the light switch was a very old one. I suppose there were some good justifications for it, although I always though it was stupid, given how commonly folks used to run their batteries down because of having left their lights on. I wondered if the battery makers were in cahoots on that idea.
In any case, a live wire to the lights is a bit different than leaving power on to the car’s computer(s) and other systems. As in the case of CJ’s false memory, if the airbag system stayed on, it would have been prone to possibly activate from parking bumps, etc. An activation is an expensive thing to deal with. And of course it would mean that it might be activated accidentally when someone was not sitting in the car properly or other wise. Dangerous.
There’s simply no good rationalization for leaving this sophisticated and dangerous system active when the car is turned off.
I worked as a GM service advisor at the time the Cobalt was released. We all cringed when we saw the same deadly ignition lock as the Crapalier (as we called it). To be fair, if one didn’t hang 5 kg of stuff of one’s key ring it was never a problem. Same thing with Caravans.
Paul’s observation is also correct. One peek at that ignition switch and how it was attached to the wiring harness would tell you the electric system in the Cobalt was essentially stone age. Every single electrical input came from that switch, so if the switch failed, so did everything else.
The ignition lock problem was common knowledge at GM stores.
I drove an early Cobalt rental very soon after having what must have been one of the last Cavalier rentals. The Cobalt seemed much more refined to me. Well, perhaps I should say somewhat less unrefined. During that period I had mostly domestic rentals on travel to the East Coast; I remember a few Mustangs, a Jeep Liberty, a Dodge minivan, a Malibu Maxx and a few Ford Escapes. The two small Chevies were definitely more naughty than nice, though I don’t recall much nice about the Liberty, either.
By the way, if that’s a Showa mechanic’s glove, right hand, size L, mine has been missing for a few months. Not sure how it ended up there.
Most of us remember those gas pedals shaped like a foot, maybe there is a new aftermarket brake caliper that looks like a gloved hand from the outside?
The Cobalt never struck me as much of an improvement over the Cavalier. and as mentioned above they have become very rare in the wild. I think I actually see more Cavaliers on the road than Cobalts and they are far outnumbered by 8th generation (2000-2005) Buick LeSabres which are the favored GM cockroach in Central Oregon.
It is remarkable how the Cobalts have all disappeared. This is the only one I’ve seen in quite a while. And they’re not that old; they were built through 2010.
True here in California too. Far more Saturns of that generation still on the road.
I’m not sure the Cobalt really warrants Deadly Sin status, anymore than the Cavalier does. I mean, it wasn’t like they were a Vega or Citation. They were cheap, crude, less-than-mediocre cars in every way, but they ran, transported the occupants to wherever they wanted to go, and really made no pretentions of being anymore than that. If you had bad credit and wanted a new car, you could always get a strippo Cavalier or Cobalt and I can’t see where they did lasting or significant damage to GM the way other Deadly Sins did.
Great points.
I should mention here that when I had my 2000 Z24 Cavalier, I live in Canada, and we went down to North Dakota to visit our family there. I remember when we were at the Super Pumper in Langdon, ND, in the span of a few minutes, I got not one, but two “nice car!” compliments. Mind you, it was a small town of maybe a thousand or two people where I guess sporty cars weren’t that plentiful–and the Z24 had a bit of a junior Camaro thing going– but I honestly felt like that was the craziest coincidence, or I was being pranked.
I owned a 2006 Cobalt SS Supercharged. RED, with the (optional) Recaro seats and limited slip.
Bought new, owned for almost 4 years.
Arguably the best-driving car I’ve ever owned or leased.
I happened to read Car & Driver’s “Lightning Lap” road test. In it, a Cobalt like mine edged a 5 liter Mustang GT 5-speed. The VW GTI wasn’t even close to these two.
After test driving one, I bought one.
The Turbo versions were even better– but in 2007, GM dropped the Recaro seat option, which was such an integral part of the car’s appeal, to me at least.
The plebeian Cobalts may have been inferior to Corollas and Civics, but the forced-air SS variants were great-driving cars.
Twenty comments already, and unless I missed it, no mention yet of the ignition switch problem. These cars could kill you when you least expected it.
aha, I see someone else did chime in on that. Please give us the edit/delete function back!
Edit/delete isn’t back for you? I see it when I’m logged in.
When I decided my Jetta wagon was a keeper, I started looking around for a beater to keep the Jetta out of the winter road salt and pot holes.
Took a very hard look at a Cobalt of around 08 or 09 vintage. An LT with power windows and locks, alloy wheels and a spoiler. I initially had no interest in a spoiler until I discovered I could see it through the rear window, so I could tell where the back end of the car was, which is usually impossible in a sedan as the trunk lid is completely out of sight.
The previous owner had cared enough to put Michelin tires on it. The tranny cooler hoses, which seem to like to leak on Cobalts, were newly replaced. No oil leaking from the a/c compressor, as I had seen on several other “balts. It had the new version timing chain tensioner, which seems to have relieved the chain issues earlier 2.2s had suffered from.
Took it for a spin. Really liked the smoothness and torque of the 2.2. The seat was really cheap and shapeless, but I wouldn’t be making any long trips in it. All was well, until I turned back into the dealership and heard a clunk from the front suspension. Went back out and down a rough stretch of road…clunk, clunk, clunk.
A few days later, the dealer had replaced all the shocks and struts and checked all the suspension bushings, so I took it for another spin. All was well, until I went over some railroad tracks slowly, clunk, clunk, clunk, from the steering. Youtube informed what that issue was about. The electric power steering, which had already been recalled on Cobalts, used an electric motor, which drove a worm gear, which engaged a gear on the steering shaft. GM, in it’s infinite wisdom, had made the gear on the steering shaft out of plastic. Within 20-30K miles the gear teeth around the center position would wear enough to allow a lot of backlash, which produced the clunks that I could hear and feel in the wheel, going over the railroad tracks.
I really liked that car, but, at 48,000 miles, I wasn’t keen on paying $800 to have that sloppy steering shaft replaced, and the dealer, having already eaten the cost of new shocks for that car, refused to put more into it, so that was the end of my Cobalt experience.
Next stop was a Saturn Astra, also with 40some K on it. Cranked up the engine, and heard the rattle of failing cam phasers. Determined that the a/c was desperately in need of a recharge. Took it down the road, and discovered the front struts were so far gone that the thing would change course with every bump in the road, and GM parts was already sold out of Astra struts, so it appears to be another common issue.
The dealer should have diagnosed that shaft failure instead of throwing parts at noises. That’s their fault. At least whomever bought it had a rehabbed suspension!
The steering shaft on my Cobalt went bad at 8,000 miles. Replaced under warranty. Clutch started chattering at 15,000. The radio started experiencing intermittent failures at 30,000. Traded in at 36,000 when the warranty expired as I no longer trusted the car to give me good service.
I didn’t buy another Chevrolet for 12 years, but I like my ’19 Cruze so far – and I bought a warranty good to 105,000 miles with it.
Mm, yes, the Cobalt. I first heard of it in the Saturday morning cartoons, many years before GM released it.
Oh no! My current favorite “beater with a heater”! I currently have 2(!) silver Cobalt sedans in the beater fleet…. Dependable DD agriculture-ish rigs, typical GM-ness in both. One is a 5 speed, the other auto, other than that they are the same with the exception of the slightly newer auto has side curtain air bags. From my own observation, when GM added the side airbags to these in the later years (08 on up), they added more reinforcement to the front seats and removed roughly an inch of seat padding making the later model seats kill my back. I stress that I have no proof of this to cite my statement but in an attempt to solve the discomfort in my newer ‘Balt I have cut apart 4 junkyard seats in an attempt to make the car more comfortable. No dice until I snagged an older 06 pre side airbag car seat and installed it unmodified. 2200 comfortable miles later, I think I have solved my issue. My 07 5 speed was never uncomfortable and I have put 238K on that one so I stand by my observation.
Besides “GM gonna GM” and cheapening somewhere to upgrade elsewhere on Chevy shouldn’t surprise any of us. Deadly Sins indeed.
Great engine. Rest of the car not so much…..
The rear seatback had the padding of a lawn chair . If you see one check it out
I remember thinking to myself this bland car was the best thing Chevy could come up with ? considering it was a clean sheet design they could have done much better
I was working at a GM store when these came out in 2006. GM was on life support at the time and we all knew it. The air of desperation at the store was thick and the Cobalt was supposed to keep the evil Japanese at bay by yet again benchmarking a car that was already out of production. I mean, why couldn’t GM just try to make an excellent car all on its own?
To be fair, the Cobalt was a lot better than the Cavalier, which is saying very little. Again to be fair, it drove well and had a good motor.
Then GM totally flubbed the introduction the same way they had always done: the sent loaded cars with absurd prices to the dealers, hoping to get sizzle sales before the advertising blitz fizzled out. A loaded Cobalt here in Canada was easy over $20,000 CDN, which was loaded Civic money.
When this venture was a total flop, they went the opposite route. All of a sudden, two doors with manual transmissions and cranker windows showed up, with low sticker prices showed up. GMAC was then instructed to led money to anything that had a pulse. A whole whack were sold this way and a great number were repoed during the 2008 crash.
I had a Cobalt loaner while my Pontiac Wave was getting an engine. It was not a bad car at all. The drive train was pretty good. It would have been a good $15,000 car but at $20,000 a Civic or Corolla was much better buy.
The Mitsubishi Lancer OZ Rally listed for $16,599/$17,499 in 2005 and had a new “split grille” design that year the made it look much more appealing than the Cobalt.
If I had $15,000 back then to spend on a new car, the Mitsubishi Lancer OZ Rally plus “rebate” beats the Cobalt every time.
The only “good” Cobalt’s and Ion’s regardless of price were the Cobalt SS and Ion Red Lines. The 2005 Cobalt SS Supercharged started at $21,995, which to your point was Civic, Corolla, and notably WRX territory.
You can begin to see the argument for GM cancelling it’s compact car program around this time period. It took GM a bankruptcy plus another decade and a quarter for the argument to become realized.
I rented a Cobalt back in 2008 when my parents had come to visit me in the city. We all liked it. I’ll qualify the rest by saying I don’t own a car, but I have driven and ridden in many cars, so it wasn’t like I was foreign to the concept of what a car was supposed to operate, feel, and sound like.
It was peppy enough and did everything a little car was supposed to do in city traffic.
One thing about the its name, though. I could never figure out what GM was shooting for. Shouldn’t all “Cobalts” have been blue, like the element? Normally, non-alphanumeric car names have some sort of association they try to form. Vacation destinations. Power. Freedom. But “Cobalt”? I’m still lost.
I’m looking for a photo that depicts “old man driving in a Cobalt” to use in a joke email to my friends and ended up here.
I have a 2006 Cobalt that now has 214,000 miles. I used it as my daily commuter car for about 10 years until I gave it to my son so he could use it for his commute to his first job, for a couple of years where he gave it minimal maintenance.
Definitely didn’t get a lemon, but certainly it was never a “quality” car. That said, I’ve gotten my moneys worth. Replaced items were: fuel line under chassis around 180,000 miles, fuel pump at 205,000 miles, and most of the front end / suspension at about 210,000 miles – but other than the fuel line, all the other is to be suspected.
A beater, a junk car, but happy to continue to use it for all sorts of local driving and get 30 mpg on it, and it costs me nothing but insurance. And when something major fails, I’ll probably send it to the junker at that point, but until then, it keeps my miles off of my other cars and helps keep them young(er).
All cars are a depreciating asset – I treat all my cars as such!