General Motors' Delta platform provides the basic architecture
(suspension and engine mounting points and other technical
details) for the Cobalt as well as other GM products
world-wide. Buyers in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific
look for very different attributes in their cars, and
the global platform system allows the automaker to cut
costs while designing cars for specific markets. Americans
and Canadians prefer conservative styling, a soft ride,
and a large engine well suited to an automatic transmission.
Europeans would probably dismiss the Cobalt's 145 hp
2.2 liter engine as pure frivolity, and the joys of
the smooth-shifting automatic (a GM specialty) would
be lost on them. No matter; most New World buyers would
find the European-market Opel Astra, also built on the
Delta platform, to be odd-looking and cramped, with
a bone-jarring ride and a sewing-machine motor under
the hood. Some attributes are common to the platform,
and the Cobalt inherets the sharp handling and precise
steering that are necessary for the Delta platform to
work in Europe. Smart suspension tuning gives the Cobalt
the smooth and remarkably quiet ride that we prefer.
