2008 Chevrolet Cobalt

small car / 2-door coupe

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test
Head restraints & seats

Key

  • G
    Good
  • A
    Acceptable
  • M
    Marginal
  • P
    Poor
  • Superior
  • Advanced
  • Basic

Some ratings use a scale of Poor to Good. Others range from Basic to Superior.

Moderate overlap front: original test

Rating applies to 2005-10 models

Tested vehicle: 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt LS 2-door

The Chevrolet Cobalt was introduced in the 2005 model year, and the Pontiac G5 (available only as a 2-door) was introduced in the 2007 model year. The Pontiac G5 was discontinued after the 2009 model year and the Cobalt after the 2010 model year.

Overall evaluation
Structure and safety cage
Driver injury measures
Head/neck
Chest
Leg/foot, left
Leg/foot, right
Driver restraints and dummy kinematics

Action shot taken during the frontal crash test.

The dummy's position in relation to the steering wheel and instrument panel after the crash test indicates that the driver's survival space was maintained reasonably well.

Smeared greasepaint indicates where the dummy's head hit the roof rail and head restraint during rebound. Head accelerations from these hits were negligible.

Forces on the lower right leg were high enough to indicate the possibility of injuries.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CEF0907
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 10
Left (cm) 12
Center (cm) 17
Right (cm) 15
Brake pedal (cm) 11
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 7
Right (cm) 6
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 6
Rearward (cm) 5
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 7

Driver injury measures

Test ID CEF0907
Head
HIC-15 172
Peak gs at hard contact negligible
Neck
Tension (kN) 0.9
Extension bending moment (Nm) 41
Maximum Nij 0.38
Chest maximum compression (mm) 26
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 0.9
Femur force - right (kN) 0.8
Knee displacement - left (mm) 0
Knee displacement - right (mm) 0
Maximum tibia index - left 0.59
Maximum tibia index - right 0.88
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 2.1
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 2.6
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 72
Right 82

About the original moderate overlap front test

Head restraints & seats

Seat type: Manual cloth seats

Overall evaluation
Dynamic rating
Seat/head restraint geometry
Technical measurements for this test
Seat type Manual cloth seats
Geometry
Backset (mm) 60
Distance below top of head (mm) 45
Seat design parameters
Pass/fail Pass
Max T1 acceleration (g) 10.7
Head contact time (ms) 64
Force rating 2
Neck forces
Max neck shear force (N) 24
Max neck tension (N) 782

About the head restraint & seat test
Currently, IIHS tests apply only to front seats.