Chevy Quiz? How Many SS's are in Excess?
07-25-2006, 06:44 PM
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Chevy Quiz? How Many SS's are in Excess?
This was takin from an article on GMINSIDENEWS, Originally posted in the new york times auto reviews. (not sure who wrote it) but read and trust me you will enjoy... Its long so i apologize but thought it was worthy....
BACK in my high school years, in the early 1990's, my parents had a decrepit Subaru DL wagon. A few days before its date with the junkyard, I customized that rusty Subaru with one of the most revered badges in muscle-car history: "454 SS," rendered in reflective mailbox stickers applied to the front fenders.
Around the time I created my faux SS, Chevrolet was revitalizing the badge with wicked vehicles like the 454 SS pickup and the Impala SS muscle sedan. Today, nearly every car in the Chevy lineup has an SS version except (mercifully) the Aveo and (strangely) the Corvette. There are also two SS trucks, the TrailBlazer and Silverado. But is this proliferation of all things SS really good for the brand?
When I slapped SS badges on the Subaru, the joke was obvious. Now you can go to your Chevy dealer and buy a four-cylinder, nonsupercharged Cobalt ($17,490), possibly with four doors and an automatic transmission, that wears SS logos. And they're not mailbox stickers.
Most car companies' go-fast divisions employ easy-to-summarize game plans. BMW's M cars are high-revving, high-horsepower technology showcases. Chrysler's SRT vehicles offer extreme performance for the money. The Web site for Cadillac's V-Series www.cadillacunder5.com underscores the V-cars' common ability: each of these high-performance Cadillacs can reach 60 miles an hour in less than 5 seconds.
To get people excited about a message, it helps if they can understand it in the first place. But Chevy's SS lineup is an automotive pot-luck dinner: "Hi, Suzy, I brought a V-8-powered front-wheel-drive coupe with Dale Earnhardt Intimidator logos. I hope that's not what you brought!" "No problem. I cooked up a supercharged autocross demon, and Harry baked a four-door hatchback that looks like the second coming of the Chevy Citation X-11."
Unlike Cadillac, Chevy would have a hard time pinning down a theme that could serve as a Web address for the SS lineup. The SS vehicles are fast (the TrailBlazer SS) unless they're not (the Cobalt SS sedan's four-cylinder engine turns out 171 horsepower). They have exclusive engines unavailable in other iterations of the same model (the Impala SS's 5.3-liter V-8), unless they don't (the Silverado SS's 6-liter V-8 can be ordered in lesser Silverados).
The SS lineup is front drive (Cobalt, Malibu, Malibu Maxx, Impala, Monte Carlo), unless it's rear drive (Silverado, SSR, base TrailBlazer SS) or all-wheel drive (TrailBlazer SS AWD).
For good measure, the fastest car General Motors has ever made, the Corvette Z06, also resides in Chevy's lineup. And it is not an SS.
Despite the scattershot approach, there are some compelling vehicles here. My first exposure to a modern SS car came in the passenger seat of a Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) on the infield road course of Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. At the wheel was Dale Earnhardt Jr. As he pounded the car around the short track, I was surprised by the Cobalt's composure at the limit.
Cars with front-wheel drive have a tendency to understeer to lose grip at the front tires first, while the rear end has traction in reserve. From my seat, the Cobalt felt exceptionally neutral for a front-drive car. As Junior bent the SS into the corners, I could feel the rear end rotate and point the car into the turn, evidence of careful chassis tuning. A few laps later, the Nascar star managed to hang the rear end off the track into the dirt in glorious "Dukes of Hazzard" oversteer, causing his race-team handlers to call a halt to the fun.
Most front-drive cars wouldn't have done that, short of pulling on the emergency brake halfway through the turn. The Cobalt SS Supercharged, on the other hand, challenges the driver to handle a four-wheel drift, and even oversteer, as Earnhardt discovered. Chevy tuned the chassis for enthusiasts who will know how to wring the most from it, instead of dumbing it down for the people who make scuff marks on Jersey barriers. The όber-Cobalt's 205 horsepower isn't going to give you whiplash, but it puts the car in the same ballpark as the Volkswagen GTI and Honda Civic Si.
The Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) does have an overwrought wing on the back, but if you live in the city someone will soon steal that and leave you with a clean-looking little coupe.
Moving a step up the food chain, we come to the Malibu SS, in both sedan ($23,490) and Maxx hatchback ($23,890) body styles. The Malibu, like the nonsupercharged Cobalt, demonstrates that Chevy is a tad too free with the SS badges. The Malibu SS reminds me of the "Frankenstein wastes a minute of our time" sketches on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," wherein Frankenstein's monster excitedly leads the camera around the studio, and then triumphantly points to a completely ordinary object, like a light switch.
Like Conan's Frankenstein, the Malibu's SS trim promises to lead us to something exciting, but when we pop the hood we find a 240-horsepower V-6 hooked to a four-speed automatic transmission. A Honda Accord V-6 makes 244 horsepower and is available with a six-speed manual. The new Toyota Camry V-6 packs 268 horsepower. So what's all the fuss about, Malibu SS?
The Malibu SS isn't a bad car for the money built on the same architecture as the Saab 9-3, you can look at it as a poor man's Saab Aero but it's not exciting to look at and it doesn't provide enough power to justify the chest-thumping.
Club SS should have a velvet rope manned by a 300-pound bouncer who is armed with a simple mandate: if you're cool and fast, you get in. If you're the Malibu terribly sorry, we're at capacity. You're going to have to wait, oh, forever.
Unlike the Malibu, the Impala SS and Monte Carlo SS (take your pick for $26,990) suffer no shortage of power. With a 5.3-liter, 303-horsepower V-8 crammed between the front wheels, what they lack is traction.
I laughed maniacally the first time I floored the Impala SS. The bellow that erupts from the dual exhaust, and the concurrent shove you feel from the big-bore V-8, seem to belong to another car. Did this unassuming sedan really make that noise, or is there a Corvette next to me?
The problem is that 303-horsepower V-8's and front-wheel drive go together like peanut butter and salmon. Step on the gas, and the heroic power causes the car to rock back on its suspension, unloading the very tires that are trying to provide forward motivation. Feed more power and the problem worsens. If this were a rear-drive car, it would probably be a few tenths of a second faster to 60 m.p.h. (Car and Driver says it gets there in 5.6 seconds), and a whole lot more manageable on the way. Sticking this engine in a front-drive car is like putting a rocket-powered giraffe on roller skates fast, awkward and often downright scary.
The Impala SS suffers in comparison with its most obvious rival, the Dodge Charger R/T ($30,670), but it's significantly less expensive. Earlier this year, when Chevy offered no-dicker stickers during its Red Tag Sale, the price was even lower around $25,500. If you can still browbeat a dealer into a deal like that, the money will get you a lot of car even if it's driven from the wrong end.
Another issue for the poor Impala SS is its larger-than-life predecessor, the much-loved rear-drive Impala SS of 1994-96. Despite having more horsepower, the new Impala doesn't exude the same charisma as that whale of a hot-rod Caprice police car.
Over in the truck section of the Chevy lot, the Silverado SS ($33,805) can empathize. The last full-size pickup to bear the SS badge, the 454 SS of 1990-93, dropped a bomb on the truck market by stuffing a 7.4-liter V-8 into the lightest body available the short-bed, half-ton, two-wheel-drive chassis. That truck's tire-smoking antics remain legendary in fact, models from the 1991-93 years made more torque (405 pound-feet) than you get in the 2006 Silverado SS (380 pound-feet).
The new Silverado SS is a macho-looking truck, with its deep chin spoiler and hunkered-down stance, but Chevy never gave it the firepower to fulfill its role as the performance flag-bearer of the vast Silverado line. The Silverado SS's 345 horsepower is well off the 380 horses of the long-departed Ford Lightning, never mind the 500-horsepower Viper motor in the current Dodge Ram SRT10. What's more, with the same engine available in lesser Silverados, the SS package has essentially been reduced to the lowered suspension, spoilers and 20-inch wheels. It's a nice enough truck, but it is definitely making a withdrawal, not a deposit, at the Bank of SS Brand Equity.
The Silverado could take a few lessons from its midsize S.U.V. sibling, the TrailBlazer SS, one of the best performance values on the market today. The TrailBlazer SS is handsome, offers four-door practicality and can tow up to 6,800 pounds. And, oh, yes it has a 6-liter Corvette V-8 under the hood, good for 395 horsepower. Now that's more like it.
G.M. says the two-wheel-drive version, which I tested, goes from a stop to 60 m.p.h. in 5.4 seconds. That's faster than the $57,200 Porsche Cayenne S and the $70,250 Range Rover Sport Supercharged. And the sticker for the two-wheel-drive TrailBlazer SS, including XM satellite radio, is $31,255. That's what you call an old-fashioned bargain.
More important, the truck is compelling, regardless of the price: with Corvette power, 20-inch wheels, flared fenders and a single gleaming exhaust tip, it is simple and authoritative. The TrailBlazer SS is a bad (as in good) machine, and it shows that Chevy knows how to build a proper performance variant when it gets the resources to do so.
The top of the SS lineup is the SSR hot-rod convertible pickup ($39,890), a concept truck brought to life that, sadly, never found the audience Chevy had hoped for. I'm a fan of the SSR, which I suppose puts me in the minority, but where else will you find a retractable-hardtop convertible with 395 horsepower and a six-speed manual for less than 40 grand? If you "get" the SSR, you'd better get one soon: while dealers are still selling off their stock, 2006 is the final year for Chevy's retro cruiser.
When the last SSR rolls off the lot, the SS lineup will be one vehicle smaller. That's a start, because if "SS" is really going to mean something, the badge must be more judiciously applied. Chevy needs to steal a page from Cadillac's playbook and narrow its focus.
Frankly, the Malibu, Malibu Maxx, nonsupercharged Cobalt, Impala and Monte Carlo shouldn't have SS editions. I'm not saying that Chevy shouldn't offer a Malibu with a 240-horsepower V-6, I'm just saying that when your model line's "performance" car has five more horsepower than a Hyundai Sonata, maybe you shouldn't make such a big deal about it.
Slapping SS logos on anything with fenders and a 0-60 time under 10 seconds diminishes the credibility of the SS vehicles that are done right. As for the Monte Carlo and Impala, revoke their SS credentials until they're dynamically worthy. (Ahem! Rear-wheel drive! Ahem!)
While I'm playing mad scientist-freelance product planner, it would also be nice to see the Silverado SS return to its roots heavy-duty engine in a light-duty body by poaching the 8.1-liter big-block Vortec engine from larger, three-quarter-ton Chevy trucks. Crank up the horsepower and give the Ram SRT10 a run for its money. Of course, such a truck would get horrible gas mileage. But I suspect that if you're in the market for a 5,000-pound truck with a 6-liter V-8, fuel economy isn't a high priority.
Not so long ago, Chevy grasped the idea of SS exclusivity. The fourth-generation Camaro was offered in SS guise that trod perilously close to the Corvette in its performance. But the Camaro also came as an RS, with racy spoilers and a modest V-6 under the hood.
Based on the formula used for the Cobalt today, instead of the RS and SS we'd have had the Camaro SS and the Camaro SS V-8.
Chevy ought to bring back the RS label and apply it to cars with mild performance or cosmetic packages that don't deserve full SS status. Sure, SS drivers will joke that RS stands for "really slow," but RS owners will get hotter styling, better mileage and cheaper insurance. It's a fine system that preserves the integrity of the SS badge.
Speaking of Camaros, here's one more bit of advice for G.M.: Build the Camaro concept car that you are hauling around to auto shows. Now there's a car that would make a really fine SS....
Writer UNKNOWN (New York Times June 18 2006)
BACK in my high school years, in the early 1990's, my parents had a decrepit Subaru DL wagon. A few days before its date with the junkyard, I customized that rusty Subaru with one of the most revered badges in muscle-car history: "454 SS," rendered in reflective mailbox stickers applied to the front fenders.
Around the time I created my faux SS, Chevrolet was revitalizing the badge with wicked vehicles like the 454 SS pickup and the Impala SS muscle sedan. Today, nearly every car in the Chevy lineup has an SS version except (mercifully) the Aveo and (strangely) the Corvette. There are also two SS trucks, the TrailBlazer and Silverado. But is this proliferation of all things SS really good for the brand?
When I slapped SS badges on the Subaru, the joke was obvious. Now you can go to your Chevy dealer and buy a four-cylinder, nonsupercharged Cobalt ($17,490), possibly with four doors and an automatic transmission, that wears SS logos. And they're not mailbox stickers.
Most car companies' go-fast divisions employ easy-to-summarize game plans. BMW's M cars are high-revving, high-horsepower technology showcases. Chrysler's SRT vehicles offer extreme performance for the money. The Web site for Cadillac's V-Series www.cadillacunder5.com underscores the V-cars' common ability: each of these high-performance Cadillacs can reach 60 miles an hour in less than 5 seconds.
To get people excited about a message, it helps if they can understand it in the first place. But Chevy's SS lineup is an automotive pot-luck dinner: "Hi, Suzy, I brought a V-8-powered front-wheel-drive coupe with Dale Earnhardt Intimidator logos. I hope that's not what you brought!" "No problem. I cooked up a supercharged autocross demon, and Harry baked a four-door hatchback that looks like the second coming of the Chevy Citation X-11."
Unlike Cadillac, Chevy would have a hard time pinning down a theme that could serve as a Web address for the SS lineup. The SS vehicles are fast (the TrailBlazer SS) unless they're not (the Cobalt SS sedan's four-cylinder engine turns out 171 horsepower). They have exclusive engines unavailable in other iterations of the same model (the Impala SS's 5.3-liter V-8), unless they don't (the Silverado SS's 6-liter V-8 can be ordered in lesser Silverados).
The SS lineup is front drive (Cobalt, Malibu, Malibu Maxx, Impala, Monte Carlo), unless it's rear drive (Silverado, SSR, base TrailBlazer SS) or all-wheel drive (TrailBlazer SS AWD).
For good measure, the fastest car General Motors has ever made, the Corvette Z06, also resides in Chevy's lineup. And it is not an SS.
Despite the scattershot approach, there are some compelling vehicles here. My first exposure to a modern SS car came in the passenger seat of a Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) on the infield road course of Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. At the wheel was Dale Earnhardt Jr. As he pounded the car around the short track, I was surprised by the Cobalt's composure at the limit.
Cars with front-wheel drive have a tendency to understeer to lose grip at the front tires first, while the rear end has traction in reserve. From my seat, the Cobalt felt exceptionally neutral for a front-drive car. As Junior bent the SS into the corners, I could feel the rear end rotate and point the car into the turn, evidence of careful chassis tuning. A few laps later, the Nascar star managed to hang the rear end off the track into the dirt in glorious "Dukes of Hazzard" oversteer, causing his race-team handlers to call a halt to the fun.
Most front-drive cars wouldn't have done that, short of pulling on the emergency brake halfway through the turn. The Cobalt SS Supercharged, on the other hand, challenges the driver to handle a four-wheel drift, and even oversteer, as Earnhardt discovered. Chevy tuned the chassis for enthusiasts who will know how to wring the most from it, instead of dumbing it down for the people who make scuff marks on Jersey barriers. The όber-Cobalt's 205 horsepower isn't going to give you whiplash, but it puts the car in the same ballpark as the Volkswagen GTI and Honda Civic Si.
The Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) does have an overwrought wing on the back, but if you live in the city someone will soon steal that and leave you with a clean-looking little coupe.
Moving a step up the food chain, we come to the Malibu SS, in both sedan ($23,490) and Maxx hatchback ($23,890) body styles. The Malibu, like the nonsupercharged Cobalt, demonstrates that Chevy is a tad too free with the SS badges. The Malibu SS reminds me of the "Frankenstein wastes a minute of our time" sketches on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," wherein Frankenstein's monster excitedly leads the camera around the studio, and then triumphantly points to a completely ordinary object, like a light switch.
Like Conan's Frankenstein, the Malibu's SS trim promises to lead us to something exciting, but when we pop the hood we find a 240-horsepower V-6 hooked to a four-speed automatic transmission. A Honda Accord V-6 makes 244 horsepower and is available with a six-speed manual. The new Toyota Camry V-6 packs 268 horsepower. So what's all the fuss about, Malibu SS?
The Malibu SS isn't a bad car for the money built on the same architecture as the Saab 9-3, you can look at it as a poor man's Saab Aero but it's not exciting to look at and it doesn't provide enough power to justify the chest-thumping.
Club SS should have a velvet rope manned by a 300-pound bouncer who is armed with a simple mandate: if you're cool and fast, you get in. If you're the Malibu terribly sorry, we're at capacity. You're going to have to wait, oh, forever.
Unlike the Malibu, the Impala SS and Monte Carlo SS (take your pick for $26,990) suffer no shortage of power. With a 5.3-liter, 303-horsepower V-8 crammed between the front wheels, what they lack is traction.
I laughed maniacally the first time I floored the Impala SS. The bellow that erupts from the dual exhaust, and the concurrent shove you feel from the big-bore V-8, seem to belong to another car. Did this unassuming sedan really make that noise, or is there a Corvette next to me?
The problem is that 303-horsepower V-8's and front-wheel drive go together like peanut butter and salmon. Step on the gas, and the heroic power causes the car to rock back on its suspension, unloading the very tires that are trying to provide forward motivation. Feed more power and the problem worsens. If this were a rear-drive car, it would probably be a few tenths of a second faster to 60 m.p.h. (Car and Driver says it gets there in 5.6 seconds), and a whole lot more manageable on the way. Sticking this engine in a front-drive car is like putting a rocket-powered giraffe on roller skates fast, awkward and often downright scary.
The Impala SS suffers in comparison with its most obvious rival, the Dodge Charger R/T ($30,670), but it's significantly less expensive. Earlier this year, when Chevy offered no-dicker stickers during its Red Tag Sale, the price was even lower around $25,500. If you can still browbeat a dealer into a deal like that, the money will get you a lot of car even if it's driven from the wrong end.
Another issue for the poor Impala SS is its larger-than-life predecessor, the much-loved rear-drive Impala SS of 1994-96. Despite having more horsepower, the new Impala doesn't exude the same charisma as that whale of a hot-rod Caprice police car.
Over in the truck section of the Chevy lot, the Silverado SS ($33,805) can empathize. The last full-size pickup to bear the SS badge, the 454 SS of 1990-93, dropped a bomb on the truck market by stuffing a 7.4-liter V-8 into the lightest body available the short-bed, half-ton, two-wheel-drive chassis. That truck's tire-smoking antics remain legendary in fact, models from the 1991-93 years made more torque (405 pound-feet) than you get in the 2006 Silverado SS (380 pound-feet).
The new Silverado SS is a macho-looking truck, with its deep chin spoiler and hunkered-down stance, but Chevy never gave it the firepower to fulfill its role as the performance flag-bearer of the vast Silverado line. The Silverado SS's 345 horsepower is well off the 380 horses of the long-departed Ford Lightning, never mind the 500-horsepower Viper motor in the current Dodge Ram SRT10. What's more, with the same engine available in lesser Silverados, the SS package has essentially been reduced to the lowered suspension, spoilers and 20-inch wheels. It's a nice enough truck, but it is definitely making a withdrawal, not a deposit, at the Bank of SS Brand Equity.
The Silverado could take a few lessons from its midsize S.U.V. sibling, the TrailBlazer SS, one of the best performance values on the market today. The TrailBlazer SS is handsome, offers four-door practicality and can tow up to 6,800 pounds. And, oh, yes it has a 6-liter Corvette V-8 under the hood, good for 395 horsepower. Now that's more like it.
G.M. says the two-wheel-drive version, which I tested, goes from a stop to 60 m.p.h. in 5.4 seconds. That's faster than the $57,200 Porsche Cayenne S and the $70,250 Range Rover Sport Supercharged. And the sticker for the two-wheel-drive TrailBlazer SS, including XM satellite radio, is $31,255. That's what you call an old-fashioned bargain.
More important, the truck is compelling, regardless of the price: with Corvette power, 20-inch wheels, flared fenders and a single gleaming exhaust tip, it is simple and authoritative. The TrailBlazer SS is a bad (as in good) machine, and it shows that Chevy knows how to build a proper performance variant when it gets the resources to do so.
The top of the SS lineup is the SSR hot-rod convertible pickup ($39,890), a concept truck brought to life that, sadly, never found the audience Chevy had hoped for. I'm a fan of the SSR, which I suppose puts me in the minority, but where else will you find a retractable-hardtop convertible with 395 horsepower and a six-speed manual for less than 40 grand? If you "get" the SSR, you'd better get one soon: while dealers are still selling off their stock, 2006 is the final year for Chevy's retro cruiser.
When the last SSR rolls off the lot, the SS lineup will be one vehicle smaller. That's a start, because if "SS" is really going to mean something, the badge must be more judiciously applied. Chevy needs to steal a page from Cadillac's playbook and narrow its focus.
Frankly, the Malibu, Malibu Maxx, nonsupercharged Cobalt, Impala and Monte Carlo shouldn't have SS editions. I'm not saying that Chevy shouldn't offer a Malibu with a 240-horsepower V-6, I'm just saying that when your model line's "performance" car has five more horsepower than a Hyundai Sonata, maybe you shouldn't make such a big deal about it.
Slapping SS logos on anything with fenders and a 0-60 time under 10 seconds diminishes the credibility of the SS vehicles that are done right. As for the Monte Carlo and Impala, revoke their SS credentials until they're dynamically worthy. (Ahem! Rear-wheel drive! Ahem!)
While I'm playing mad scientist-freelance product planner, it would also be nice to see the Silverado SS return to its roots heavy-duty engine in a light-duty body by poaching the 8.1-liter big-block Vortec engine from larger, three-quarter-ton Chevy trucks. Crank up the horsepower and give the Ram SRT10 a run for its money. Of course, such a truck would get horrible gas mileage. But I suspect that if you're in the market for a 5,000-pound truck with a 6-liter V-8, fuel economy isn't a high priority.
Not so long ago, Chevy grasped the idea of SS exclusivity. The fourth-generation Camaro was offered in SS guise that trod perilously close to the Corvette in its performance. But the Camaro also came as an RS, with racy spoilers and a modest V-6 under the hood.
Based on the formula used for the Cobalt today, instead of the RS and SS we'd have had the Camaro SS and the Camaro SS V-8.
Chevy ought to bring back the RS label and apply it to cars with mild performance or cosmetic packages that don't deserve full SS status. Sure, SS drivers will joke that RS stands for "really slow," but RS owners will get hotter styling, better mileage and cheaper insurance. It's a fine system that preserves the integrity of the SS badge.
Speaking of Camaros, here's one more bit of advice for G.M.: Build the Camaro concept car that you are hauling around to auto shows. Now there's a car that would make a really fine SS....
Writer UNKNOWN (New York Times June 18 2006)
07-25-2006, 06:58 PM
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Originally Posted by kissmySS
Frankly, the Malibu, Malibu Maxx, nonsupercharged Cobalt, Impala and Monte Carlo shouldn't have SS editions. I'm not saying that Chevy shouldn't offer a Malibu with a 240-horsepower V-6, I'm just saying that when your model line's "performance" car has five more horsepower than a Hyundai Sonata, maybe you shouldn't make such a big deal about it.
Slapping SS logos on anything with fenders and a 0-60 time under 10 seconds diminishes the credibility of the SS vehicles that are done right.
Slapping SS logos on anything with fenders and a 0-60 time under 10 seconds diminishes the credibility of the SS vehicles that are done right.
07-25-2006, 06:59 PM
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Originally Posted by kissmySS
The Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) does have an overwrought wing on the back, but if you live in the city someone will soon steal that and leave you with a clean-looking little coupe.
07-25-2006, 09:49 PM
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That was a good read. Especially with the Malibu SS's, sure they do look better than the regular ones, but they're nothing to write home about in the performance department.
07-26-2006, 12:15 AM
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i think that the 2.4 deserves the SS badges it gets because in its own category (n/a 4 cylinders) it really holds its own. if it only had 140hp like alot of these n/a 4's out there then i would agree its not a real ss.
07-26-2006, 11:38 AM
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That writer was spot on with that article. I hope someone at Chevy read that and takes note, because of all the automakers with performance brand lines, the SS line is by far the most embarrasing.
Im gonna have to disagree with you on that celicacobalt. Every red-blooded american knows that if your car has SS on it its gonna be fast. I mean come on the new Rav-4 will smoke a cobalt SS non-sc from a dig or roll It doesnt matter if its in its own category, it still doesnt deserve an SS badge. The Geo Metro was in its own class with its little 3 cylinder engine but does that mean they should have thrown a ZXRPT type Y badge on it...no
Im gonna have to disagree with you on that celicacobalt. Every red-blooded american knows that if your car has SS on it its gonna be fast. I mean come on the new Rav-4 will smoke a cobalt SS non-sc from a dig or roll
It doesnt matter if its in its own category, it still doesnt deserve an SS badge. The Geo Metro was in its own class with its little 3 cylinder engine but does that mean they should have thrown a ZXRPT type Y badge on it...no
07-26-2006, 12:52 PM
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hes right about the n/a tho. they should be RS models instead of ss. good article. altho id say the imp and monte are deserving of ss badges despite the wrong wheels being driven. cause they are fairly quick. does someone make a torque brace for them to help out with traction?? wonder if that would even help much
07-26-2006, 07:15 PM
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Originally Posted by celicacobalt
i think that the 2.4 deserves the SS badges it gets because in its own category (n/a 4 cylinders) it really holds its own. if it only had 140hp like alot of these n/a 4's out there then i would agree its not a real ss.
07-26-2006, 10:17 PM
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Originally Posted by kissmySS
This was takin from an article on GMINSIDENEWS, Originally posted in the new york times auto reviews. (not sure who wrote it) but read and trust me you will enjoy... Its long so i apologize but thought it was worthy....
BACK in my high school years, in the early 1990's, my parents had a decrepit Subaru DL wagon. A few days before its date with the junkyard, I customized that rusty Subaru with one of the most revered badges in muscle-car history: "454 SS," rendered in reflective mailbox stickers applied to the front fenders.
Around the time I created my faux SS, Chevrolet was revitalizing the badge with wicked vehicles like the 454 SS pickup and the Impala SS muscle sedan. Today, nearly every car in the Chevy lineup has an SS version except (mercifully) the Aveo and (strangely) the Corvette. There are also two SS trucks, the TrailBlazer and Silverado. But is this proliferation of all things SS really good for the brand?
When I slapped SS badges on the Subaru, the joke was obvious. Now you can go to your Chevy dealer and buy a four-cylinder, nonsupercharged Cobalt ($17,490), possibly with four doors and an automatic transmission, that wears SS logos. And they're not mailbox stickers.
Most car companies' go-fast divisions employ easy-to-summarize game plans. BMW's M cars are high-revving, high-horsepower technology showcases. Chrysler's SRT vehicles offer extreme performance for the money. The Web site for Cadillac's V-Series www.cadillacunder5.com underscores the V-cars' common ability: each of these high-performance Cadillacs can reach 60 miles an hour in less than 5 seconds.
To get people excited about a message, it helps if they can understand it in the first place. But Chevy's SS lineup is an automotive pot-luck dinner: "Hi, Suzy, I brought a V-8-powered front-wheel-drive coupe with Dale Earnhardt Intimidator logos. I hope that's not what you brought!" "No problem. I cooked up a supercharged autocross demon, and Harry baked a four-door hatchback that looks like the second coming of the Chevy Citation X-11."
Unlike Cadillac, Chevy would have a hard time pinning down a theme that could serve as a Web address for the SS lineup. The SS vehicles are fast (the TrailBlazer SS) unless they're not (the Cobalt SS sedan's four-cylinder engine turns out 171 horsepower). They have exclusive engines unavailable in other iterations of the same model (the Impala SS's 5.3-liter V-8), unless they don't (the Silverado SS's 6-liter V-8 can be ordered in lesser Silverados).
The SS lineup is front drive (Cobalt, Malibu, Malibu Maxx, Impala, Monte Carlo), unless it's rear drive (Silverado, SSR, base TrailBlazer SS) or all-wheel drive (TrailBlazer SS AWD).
For good measure, the fastest car General Motors has ever made, the Corvette Z06, also resides in Chevy's lineup. And it is not an SS.
Despite the scattershot approach, there are some compelling vehicles here. My first exposure to a modern SS car came in the passenger seat of a Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) on the infield road course of Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. At the wheel was Dale Earnhardt Jr. As he pounded the car around the short track, I was surprised by the Cobalt's composure at the limit.
Cars with front-wheel drive have a tendency to understeer to lose grip at the front tires first, while the rear end has traction in reserve. From my seat, the Cobalt felt exceptionally neutral for a front-drive car. As Junior bent the SS into the corners, I could feel the rear end rotate and point the car into the turn, evidence of careful chassis tuning. A few laps later, the Nascar star managed to hang the rear end off the track into the dirt in glorious "Dukes of Hazzard" oversteer, causing his race-team handlers to call a halt to the fun.
Most front-drive cars wouldn't have done that, short of pulling on the emergency brake halfway through the turn. The Cobalt SS Supercharged, on the other hand, challenges the driver to handle a four-wheel drift, and even oversteer, as Earnhardt discovered. Chevy tuned the chassis for enthusiasts who will know how to wring the most from it, instead of dumbing it down for the people who make scuff marks on Jersey barriers. The όber-Cobalt's 205 horsepower isn't going to give you whiplash, but it puts the car in the same ballpark as the Volkswagen GTI and Honda Civic Si.
The Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) does have an overwrought wing on the back, but if you live in the city someone will soon steal that and leave you with a clean-looking little coupe.
Moving a step up the food chain, we come to the Malibu SS, in both sedan ($23,490) and Maxx hatchback ($23,890) body styles. The Malibu, like the nonsupercharged Cobalt, demonstrates that Chevy is a tad too free with the SS badges. The Malibu SS reminds me of the "Frankenstein wastes a minute of our time" sketches on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," wherein Frankenstein's monster excitedly leads the camera around the studio, and then triumphantly points to a completely ordinary object, like a light switch.
Like Conan's Frankenstein, the Malibu's SS trim promises to lead us to something exciting, but when we pop the hood we find a 240-horsepower V-6 hooked to a four-speed automatic transmission. A Honda Accord V-6 makes 244 horsepower and is available with a six-speed manual. The new Toyota Camry V-6 packs 268 horsepower. So what's all the fuss about, Malibu SS?
The Malibu SS isn't a bad car for the money built on the same architecture as the Saab 9-3, you can look at it as a poor man's Saab Aero but it's not exciting to look at and it doesn't provide enough power to justify the chest-thumping.
Club SS should have a velvet rope manned by a 300-pound bouncer who is armed with a simple mandate: if you're cool and fast, you get in. If you're the Malibu terribly sorry, we're at capacity. You're going to have to wait, oh, forever.
Unlike the Malibu, the Impala SS and Monte Carlo SS (take your pick for $26,990) suffer no shortage of power. With a 5.3-liter, 303-horsepower V-8 crammed between the front wheels, what they lack is traction.
I laughed maniacally the first time I floored the Impala SS. The bellow that erupts from the dual exhaust, and the concurrent shove you feel from the big-bore V-8, seem to belong to another car. Did this unassuming sedan really make that noise, or is there a Corvette next to me?
The problem is that 303-horsepower V-8's and front-wheel drive go together like peanut butter and salmon. Step on the gas, and the heroic power causes the car to rock back on its suspension, unloading the very tires that are trying to provide forward motivation. Feed more power and the problem worsens. If this were a rear-drive car, it would probably be a few tenths of a second faster to 60 m.p.h. (Car and Driver says it gets there in 5.6 seconds), and a whole lot more manageable on the way. Sticking this engine in a front-drive car is like putting a rocket-powered giraffe on roller skates fast, awkward and often downright scary.
The Impala SS suffers in comparison with its most obvious rival, the Dodge Charger R/T ($30,670), but it's significantly less expensive. Earlier this year, when Chevy offered no-dicker stickers during its Red Tag Sale, the price was even lower around $25,500. If you can still browbeat a dealer into a deal like that, the money will get you a lot of car even if it's driven from the wrong end.
Another issue for the poor Impala SS is its larger-than-life predecessor, the much-loved rear-drive Impala SS of 1994-96. Despite having more horsepower, the new Impala doesn't exude the same charisma as that whale of a hot-rod Caprice police car.
Over in the truck section of the Chevy lot, the Silverado SS ($33,805) can empathize. The last full-size pickup to bear the SS badge, the 454 SS of 1990-93, dropped a bomb on the truck market by stuffing a 7.4-liter V-8 into the lightest body available the short-bed, half-ton, two-wheel-drive chassis. That truck's tire-smoking antics remain legendary in fact, models from the 1991-93 years made more torque (405 pound-feet) than you get in the 2006 Silverado SS (380 pound-feet).
The new Silverado SS is a macho-looking truck, with its deep chin spoiler and hunkered-down stance, but Chevy never gave it the firepower to fulfill its role as the performance flag-bearer of the vast Silverado line. The Silverado SS's 345 horsepower is well off the 380 horses of the long-departed Ford Lightning, never mind the 500-horsepower Viper motor in the current Dodge Ram SRT10. What's more, with the same engine available in lesser Silverados, the SS package has essentially been reduced to the lowered suspension, spoilers and 20-inch wheels. It's a nice enough truck, but it is definitely making a withdrawal, not a deposit, at the Bank of SS Brand Equity.
The Silverado could take a few lessons from its midsize S.U.V. sibling, the TrailBlazer SS, one of the best performance values on the market today. The TrailBlazer SS is handsome, offers four-door practicality and can tow up to 6,800 pounds. And, oh, yes it has a 6-liter Corvette V-8 under the hood, good for 395 horsepower. Now that's more like it.
G.M. says the two-wheel-drive version, which I tested, goes from a stop to 60 m.p.h. in 5.4 seconds. That's faster than the $57,200 Porsche Cayenne S and the $70,250 Range Rover Sport Supercharged. And the sticker for the two-wheel-drive TrailBlazer SS, including XM satellite radio, is $31,255. That's what you call an old-fashioned bargain.
More important, the truck is compelling, regardless of the price: with Corvette power, 20-inch wheels, flared fenders and a single gleaming exhaust tip, it is simple and authoritative. The TrailBlazer SS is a bad (as in good) machine, and it shows that Chevy knows how to build a proper performance variant when it gets the resources to do so.
The top of the SS lineup is the SSR hot-rod convertible pickup ($39,890), a concept truck brought to life that, sadly, never found the audience Chevy had hoped for. I'm a fan of the SSR, which I suppose puts me in the minority, but where else will you find a retractable-hardtop convertible with 395 horsepower and a six-speed manual for less than 40 grand? If you "get" the SSR, you'd better get one soon: while dealers are still selling off their stock, 2006 is the final year for Chevy's retro cruiser.
When the last SSR rolls off the lot, the SS lineup will be one vehicle smaller. That's a start, because if "SS" is really going to mean something, the badge must be more judiciously applied. Chevy needs to steal a page from Cadillac's playbook and narrow its focus.
Frankly, the Malibu, Malibu Maxx, nonsupercharged Cobalt, Impala and Monte Carlo shouldn't have SS editions. I'm not saying that Chevy shouldn't offer a Malibu with a 240-horsepower V-6, I'm just saying that when your model line's "performance" car has five more horsepower than a Hyundai Sonata, maybe you shouldn't make such a big deal about it.
Slapping SS logos on anything with fenders and a 0-60 time under 10 seconds diminishes the credibility of the SS vehicles that are done right. As for the Monte Carlo and Impala, revoke their SS credentials until they're dynamically worthy. (Ahem! Rear-wheel drive! Ahem!)
While I'm playing mad scientist-freelance product planner, it would also be nice to see the Silverado SS return to its roots heavy-duty engine in a light-duty body by poaching the 8.1-liter big-block Vortec engine from larger, three-quarter-ton Chevy trucks. Crank up the horsepower and give the Ram SRT10 a run for its money. Of course, such a truck would get horrible gas mileage. But I suspect that if you're in the market for a 5,000-pound truck with a 6-liter V-8, fuel economy isn't a high priority.
Not so long ago, Chevy grasped the idea of SS exclusivity. The fourth-generation Camaro was offered in SS guise that trod perilously close to the Corvette in its performance. But the Camaro also came as an RS, with racy spoilers and a modest V-6 under the hood.
Based on the formula used for the Cobalt today, instead of the RS and SS we'd have had the Camaro SS and the Camaro SS V-8.
Chevy ought to bring back the RS label and apply it to cars with mild performance or cosmetic packages that don't deserve full SS status. Sure, SS drivers will joke that RS stands for "really slow," but RS owners will get hotter styling, better mileage and cheaper insurance. It's a fine system that preserves the integrity of the SS badge.
Speaking of Camaros, here's one more bit of advice for G.M.: Build the Camaro concept car that you are hauling around to auto shows. Now there's a car that would make a really fine SS....
Writer UNKNOWN (New York Times June 18 2006)
BACK in my high school years, in the early 1990's, my parents had a decrepit Subaru DL wagon. A few days before its date with the junkyard, I customized that rusty Subaru with one of the most revered badges in muscle-car history: "454 SS," rendered in reflective mailbox stickers applied to the front fenders.
Around the time I created my faux SS, Chevrolet was revitalizing the badge with wicked vehicles like the 454 SS pickup and the Impala SS muscle sedan. Today, nearly every car in the Chevy lineup has an SS version except (mercifully) the Aveo and (strangely) the Corvette. There are also two SS trucks, the TrailBlazer and Silverado. But is this proliferation of all things SS really good for the brand?
When I slapped SS badges on the Subaru, the joke was obvious. Now you can go to your Chevy dealer and buy a four-cylinder, nonsupercharged Cobalt ($17,490), possibly with four doors and an automatic transmission, that wears SS logos. And they're not mailbox stickers.
Most car companies' go-fast divisions employ easy-to-summarize game plans. BMW's M cars are high-revving, high-horsepower technology showcases. Chrysler's SRT vehicles offer extreme performance for the money. The Web site for Cadillac's V-Series www.cadillacunder5.com underscores the V-cars' common ability: each of these high-performance Cadillacs can reach 60 miles an hour in less than 5 seconds.
To get people excited about a message, it helps if they can understand it in the first place. But Chevy's SS lineup is an automotive pot-luck dinner: "Hi, Suzy, I brought a V-8-powered front-wheel-drive coupe with Dale Earnhardt Intimidator logos. I hope that's not what you brought!" "No problem. I cooked up a supercharged autocross demon, and Harry baked a four-door hatchback that looks like the second coming of the Chevy Citation X-11."
Unlike Cadillac, Chevy would have a hard time pinning down a theme that could serve as a Web address for the SS lineup. The SS vehicles are fast (the TrailBlazer SS) unless they're not (the Cobalt SS sedan's four-cylinder engine turns out 171 horsepower). They have exclusive engines unavailable in other iterations of the same model (the Impala SS's 5.3-liter V-8), unless they don't (the Silverado SS's 6-liter V-8 can be ordered in lesser Silverados).
The SS lineup is front drive (Cobalt, Malibu, Malibu Maxx, Impala, Monte Carlo), unless it's rear drive (Silverado, SSR, base TrailBlazer SS) or all-wheel drive (TrailBlazer SS AWD).
For good measure, the fastest car General Motors has ever made, the Corvette Z06, also resides in Chevy's lineup. And it is not an SS.
Despite the scattershot approach, there are some compelling vehicles here. My first exposure to a modern SS car came in the passenger seat of a Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) on the infield road course of Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. At the wheel was Dale Earnhardt Jr. As he pounded the car around the short track, I was surprised by the Cobalt's composure at the limit.
Cars with front-wheel drive have a tendency to understeer to lose grip at the front tires first, while the rear end has traction in reserve. From my seat, the Cobalt felt exceptionally neutral for a front-drive car. As Junior bent the SS into the corners, I could feel the rear end rotate and point the car into the turn, evidence of careful chassis tuning. A few laps later, the Nascar star managed to hang the rear end off the track into the dirt in glorious "Dukes of Hazzard" oversteer, causing his race-team handlers to call a halt to the fun.
Most front-drive cars wouldn't have done that, short of pulling on the emergency brake halfway through the turn. The Cobalt SS Supercharged, on the other hand, challenges the driver to handle a four-wheel drift, and even oversteer, as Earnhardt discovered. Chevy tuned the chassis for enthusiasts who will know how to wring the most from it, instead of dumbing it down for the people who make scuff marks on Jersey barriers. The όber-Cobalt's 205 horsepower isn't going to give you whiplash, but it puts the car in the same ballpark as the Volkswagen GTI and Honda Civic Si.
The Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) does have an overwrought wing on the back, but if you live in the city someone will soon steal that and leave you with a clean-looking little coupe.
Moving a step up the food chain, we come to the Malibu SS, in both sedan ($23,490) and Maxx hatchback ($23,890) body styles. The Malibu, like the nonsupercharged Cobalt, demonstrates that Chevy is a tad too free with the SS badges. The Malibu SS reminds me of the "Frankenstein wastes a minute of our time" sketches on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," wherein Frankenstein's monster excitedly leads the camera around the studio, and then triumphantly points to a completely ordinary object, like a light switch.
Like Conan's Frankenstein, the Malibu's SS trim promises to lead us to something exciting, but when we pop the hood we find a 240-horsepower V-6 hooked to a four-speed automatic transmission. A Honda Accord V-6 makes 244 horsepower and is available with a six-speed manual. The new Toyota Camry V-6 packs 268 horsepower. So what's all the fuss about, Malibu SS?
The Malibu SS isn't a bad car for the money built on the same architecture as the Saab 9-3, you can look at it as a poor man's Saab Aero but it's not exciting to look at and it doesn't provide enough power to justify the chest-thumping.
Club SS should have a velvet rope manned by a 300-pound bouncer who is armed with a simple mandate: if you're cool and fast, you get in. If you're the Malibu terribly sorry, we're at capacity. You're going to have to wait, oh, forever.
Unlike the Malibu, the Impala SS and Monte Carlo SS (take your pick for $26,990) suffer no shortage of power. With a 5.3-liter, 303-horsepower V-8 crammed between the front wheels, what they lack is traction.
I laughed maniacally the first time I floored the Impala SS. The bellow that erupts from the dual exhaust, and the concurrent shove you feel from the big-bore V-8, seem to belong to another car. Did this unassuming sedan really make that noise, or is there a Corvette next to me?
The problem is that 303-horsepower V-8's and front-wheel drive go together like peanut butter and salmon. Step on the gas, and the heroic power causes the car to rock back on its suspension, unloading the very tires that are trying to provide forward motivation. Feed more power and the problem worsens. If this were a rear-drive car, it would probably be a few tenths of a second faster to 60 m.p.h. (Car and Driver says it gets there in 5.6 seconds), and a whole lot more manageable on the way. Sticking this engine in a front-drive car is like putting a rocket-powered giraffe on roller skates fast, awkward and often downright scary.
The Impala SS suffers in comparison with its most obvious rival, the Dodge Charger R/T ($30,670), but it's significantly less expensive. Earlier this year, when Chevy offered no-dicker stickers during its Red Tag Sale, the price was even lower around $25,500. If you can still browbeat a dealer into a deal like that, the money will get you a lot of car even if it's driven from the wrong end.
Another issue for the poor Impala SS is its larger-than-life predecessor, the much-loved rear-drive Impala SS of 1994-96. Despite having more horsepower, the new Impala doesn't exude the same charisma as that whale of a hot-rod Caprice police car.
Over in the truck section of the Chevy lot, the Silverado SS ($33,805) can empathize. The last full-size pickup to bear the SS badge, the 454 SS of 1990-93, dropped a bomb on the truck market by stuffing a 7.4-liter V-8 into the lightest body available the short-bed, half-ton, two-wheel-drive chassis. That truck's tire-smoking antics remain legendary in fact, models from the 1991-93 years made more torque (405 pound-feet) than you get in the 2006 Silverado SS (380 pound-feet).
The new Silverado SS is a macho-looking truck, with its deep chin spoiler and hunkered-down stance, but Chevy never gave it the firepower to fulfill its role as the performance flag-bearer of the vast Silverado line. The Silverado SS's 345 horsepower is well off the 380 horses of the long-departed Ford Lightning, never mind the 500-horsepower Viper motor in the current Dodge Ram SRT10. What's more, with the same engine available in lesser Silverados, the SS package has essentially been reduced to the lowered suspension, spoilers and 20-inch wheels. It's a nice enough truck, but it is definitely making a withdrawal, not a deposit, at the Bank of SS Brand Equity.
The Silverado could take a few lessons from its midsize S.U.V. sibling, the TrailBlazer SS, one of the best performance values on the market today. The TrailBlazer SS is handsome, offers four-door practicality and can tow up to 6,800 pounds. And, oh, yes it has a 6-liter Corvette V-8 under the hood, good for 395 horsepower. Now that's more like it.
G.M. says the two-wheel-drive version, which I tested, goes from a stop to 60 m.p.h. in 5.4 seconds. That's faster than the $57,200 Porsche Cayenne S and the $70,250 Range Rover Sport Supercharged. And the sticker for the two-wheel-drive TrailBlazer SS, including XM satellite radio, is $31,255. That's what you call an old-fashioned bargain.
More important, the truck is compelling, regardless of the price: with Corvette power, 20-inch wheels, flared fenders and a single gleaming exhaust tip, it is simple and authoritative. The TrailBlazer SS is a bad (as in good) machine, and it shows that Chevy knows how to build a proper performance variant when it gets the resources to do so.
The top of the SS lineup is the SSR hot-rod convertible pickup ($39,890), a concept truck brought to life that, sadly, never found the audience Chevy had hoped for. I'm a fan of the SSR, which I suppose puts me in the minority, but where else will you find a retractable-hardtop convertible with 395 horsepower and a six-speed manual for less than 40 grand? If you "get" the SSR, you'd better get one soon: while dealers are still selling off their stock, 2006 is the final year for Chevy's retro cruiser.
When the last SSR rolls off the lot, the SS lineup will be one vehicle smaller. That's a start, because if "SS" is really going to mean something, the badge must be more judiciously applied. Chevy needs to steal a page from Cadillac's playbook and narrow its focus.
Frankly, the Malibu, Malibu Maxx, nonsupercharged Cobalt, Impala and Monte Carlo shouldn't have SS editions. I'm not saying that Chevy shouldn't offer a Malibu with a 240-horsepower V-6, I'm just saying that when your model line's "performance" car has five more horsepower than a Hyundai Sonata, maybe you shouldn't make such a big deal about it.
Slapping SS logos on anything with fenders and a 0-60 time under 10 seconds diminishes the credibility of the SS vehicles that are done right. As for the Monte Carlo and Impala, revoke their SS credentials until they're dynamically worthy. (Ahem! Rear-wheel drive! Ahem!)
While I'm playing mad scientist-freelance product planner, it would also be nice to see the Silverado SS return to its roots heavy-duty engine in a light-duty body by poaching the 8.1-liter big-block Vortec engine from larger, three-quarter-ton Chevy trucks. Crank up the horsepower and give the Ram SRT10 a run for its money. Of course, such a truck would get horrible gas mileage. But I suspect that if you're in the market for a 5,000-pound truck with a 6-liter V-8, fuel economy isn't a high priority.
Not so long ago, Chevy grasped the idea of SS exclusivity. The fourth-generation Camaro was offered in SS guise that trod perilously close to the Corvette in its performance. But the Camaro also came as an RS, with racy spoilers and a modest V-6 under the hood.
Based on the formula used for the Cobalt today, instead of the RS and SS we'd have had the Camaro SS and the Camaro SS V-8.
Chevy ought to bring back the RS label and apply it to cars with mild performance or cosmetic packages that don't deserve full SS status. Sure, SS drivers will joke that RS stands for "really slow," but RS owners will get hotter styling, better mileage and cheaper insurance. It's a fine system that preserves the integrity of the SS badge.
Speaking of Camaros, here's one more bit of advice for G.M.: Build the Camaro concept car that you are hauling around to auto shows. Now there's a car that would make a really fine SS....
Writer UNKNOWN (New York Times June 18 2006)
lmfao and their supposed to be making an aveo ss
07-26-2006, 11:32 PM
#19
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id take a cadillac v series anyway. 6 speed, 4.4 liter supercharged v8 putting out 460 something horses..... thats stock, do an hp tuners on it and intake corsa exhaust smaller pully........ nothing like a 500hp old persons car.... it is a beautiful thing....
07-26-2006, 11:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Kemo
so... how long do you think it'll take before they stuff the corvette engine in the silverado? the 7.0 in it would be killer.
07-27-2006, 12:03 AM
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Originally Posted by kissmySS
The Cobalt SS Supercharged ($20,490) does have an overwrought wing on the back, but if you live in the city someone will soon steal that and leave you with a clean-looking little coupe.
That's great! And so true. (My sympathies to the user who had this happen to them!)
07-27-2006, 12:36 AM
#23
Originally Posted by sethallen
not to stir up any ****, but i'm surprised there aren't any 2.4 guys defending the statements made in that article about the n/a SS
07-27-2006, 12:48 AM
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^^^ I don't see why they shouldn't. I agree that that the 2.4L shoudl be called "RS" or something other than "SS". Author made a good point when he said that's like having a Camaro SS and a Camaro SS V8 lol
