Chevy Cobalt XFE Bests Segment, 36 mpg
How badly are fuel prices impacting car sales? So badly Chevy has gone under the hood of the Cobalt economy car and magically found 3 more mpg on the highway. Dubbed the XFE — Xtra Fuel Economy — the revised Cobalt is on sale now and delivers 25/36 mpg equipped with a manual transmission. The XFE replaces the base offering in both coupe and sedan versions of the LS and LT1 trim packages. Prices still start at $14,885.
Hitting the magical 36 mpg number propels the Cobalt XFE past the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Ford Focus in terms of mileage for their manual transmission and represents a 9% gain in highway fuel efficiency. The Honda Civic with an automatic also gets 36 mpg.
How was the magic done? According to Chevy, “it uses revised engine calibration, low-rolling-resistance tires, a new, 3.74:1 final drive ratio and other technologies.” Meaning, they didn’t have to do too much.
We’re glad automakers are adding more efficiency, but we’re not sure how we feel about slapping a special badge on what isn’t a dramatically different vehicle. It will save confusion on the lot, though, where older 2008s that didn’t receive the tweaks will look identical to the XFEs.
