Chevrolet Cobalt SS
Why 7.8: GM gave a rental-fleet compact a 260 hp direct-injection turbo four, launch control and no-lift shifting in the standard calibration, then took it to the Nordschleife and set the fastest front-wheel-drive production lap — a record it kept until the FK8 Civic Type R in 2018. Almost nobody noticed, which is why one is still cheap.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The LNF's recirculating valve and turbo give it a muted whoosh, and the exhaust does nothing memorable with it. What you actually hear at idle is the direct-injection pump ticking like a small diesel, which is not why anyone buys a hot hatch.
4-cylinder · turbocharged · 6,300 rpm redline · rated 4.3 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €21k (2008) → €19k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
Two ISOFIX positions on the outer rear seats, the outer pair being the ones the standard covers.
The rear anchors are the supported route — the manual points child seats there, and front-passenger ISOFIX is the exception rather than the rule. A belt-mounted seat up front needs the airbag off, and cars with a rear row don't always fit a deactivation switch, precisely because the rear seats exist.
Derived from production years and seating layout, not a per-car source. ISOFIX was standardised as ISO 13216 in 1997, required on new EU model types from 2011 and on all new EU cars from 2014.
The long version
Three different cars wore the Cobalt SS badge and only the last of them matters here. The 2005 car was supercharged and made 205 hp; a naturally aspirated 2.4 followed and was renamed Cobalt Sport for 2008; and from 2008 the SS name belonged to the turbocharged version, using the direct-injection LNF Ecotec for 260 hp and 260 lb-ft through a five-speed manual. GM's engineers included things that did not appear on cheap cars in 2008 — launch control and no-lift shifting built into the factory calibration, a boost and performance data display, Brembo front brakes — and then produced the fastest front-wheel-drive lap of the Nordschleife yet recorded, holding that title for a decade until the FK8 Civic Type R. It still sold badly. The coupe ran to 2010, the sedan barely existed beyond 2009, and the Cobalt name was shortly afterwards attached to the ignition-switch recall. What is left is one of the genuinely quick cheap cars of its generation, still trading for less than a used family hatchback, owned almost entirely by people who went looking for it on purpose.