I love the thing. It's by far the first brand spaking new 'sports' car that I've bought. I've driven nothing but used Camaros before this car, well I did buy a brand new SC2 in 2001.
There are some issues. The fit and finish could be questioned. The drivetrain has some quirks in it. Few noises, little jerky, etc. All in all I really like the car. I'll admit that there could have been some better quality control. I've head a horror story or two about these things, but I've heard them about alot of cars. I drive the thing every day, work and back. Sometimes it dosen't even get started on the weekends. I had one problem with it, that was part of a recall.
None of the fit and finish issues bother me, I paid $19,000 with all the taxes and finance charges, and there's nothing that could touch it in the price range. The Dodge dealer wanted almost $5,000 more for an SRT4 at the time. The sticker prices were the same though, but Saturn came WAYYYY down on their price with 'incentives'. I had a Saturn before, and I knew there was not going to be a ton of them out, and the Saturn I had before was solid. For not being a sports car, I beat the shit out of it, never broke anything other than the brakes.
So the only cars to choose between right now are the Cobalt, Redline, and the SRT4. Whichever car you can get the best deal on right now, is the way to go. I prefer the handling of the Cobalt/Redline over the SRT, but the torque of the SRT is nice. If it's main goal is a daily driver to complement your 5.0, you can't go wrong with either, but I bet you can get the Redline cheaper than either of the other two...