My 6 year SS/TC review
05-14-2015, 12:53 PM
#1
My 6 year SS/TC review
Alright gentlemen and ladies, here it is.
History: Coming from a 2000 Hyundai Tiburon FX and driving around the days Fast and Furious was in theaters changing the car scene and making spinners, neon lights, absurd body kits, NOS, and wings a thing of awesomeness and respect, I was misled into thinking what was considered cool in the car scene. My Tiburon turned into the most ricetastic thing i've ever seen to today. I did try to do performance mods along side all the glamor but it weighed more in the rice department than performance...
Ricer Tiburon making a pass! Sounds like a LSJ with headers, catback, and no resonator lol.
In 2008-2009, I was graduating college and ready to get out of that car to get something with a little bit more tastefulness and much more respect (lol). i had a job lined up out of college and was super excited to blow my first paychecks on a big money ticket item but not so much that it broke the bank. My goal was something between 20k-30k, turbo charged, good mpg, and a 4 door. The tiburon had huge doors for a coupe and I was sick of it.
My car list of contenders was the following:
-2009 Subaru Wrx $26,999
-2009 Chevy Cobalt SS sedan $25,999
-2009 Dodge Caliber SRT4 $27000
-2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart $28000
-2010 Hyundai genesis Coupe 2.0t Track $36000??? lol
upon reviewing the cost to insure, they were all horrible for a 24 year old with the cobalt being the most affordable to own.
Since I came from a hyundai I felt I needed to get another hyundai and I had been hearing about the genesis coupe coming for years so I was highly interested. Calling the local hyundai dealership left me with a bad taste in my mouth as they told me the car is selling for $36k when the retail was actually $27k at the time. I asked if it was a typo cause thats insane and his reply was "supply and demand, my friend".
The decision: Extremely pissed about the hyundai dealers response, I took a ride to the chevy deaslership down the road from said hyundai dealership with the girl friend. I asked to test drive a cobalt SS and see how it felt. Surprisingly the dealer let me take the car out by myself. Always wants a turbo car. It was really exciting hopping into the driver seat of a 2008 Cobalt SS coupe. I was weary of the power that was on the window sticker as it was like twice the power of my tiburon. The girlfriend said dont be a ***** and punch it. I did as she said and full throttled that sucker. It was exhilarating as a first impression. The girl in the passenger seat made a WoooOOooo noise. I thought to myself, I have to get this car. I will totally get ***** with this car upon hearing the Wooo.
Cobalt ss sedan stock vs 08 wrx stock. filmed with potato
I asked the dealer if I could get the 4 door model of cobalt SS and if it was available in yellow? He said they didnt have one on the site but they could get one thats sitting up in Newark DE at a dealership with 23 miles on it. I told them I wanted that car and began the bargaining. I ended up putting $1500 down in cash, getting $2k surprisingly for the Tiburon lol, and got a loan for $24000 after tax title and tags. Monthly payments were $380 for 60 months and the insurance cost to own was $180 a month. I went up to Newark that night to see the car sitting in the lot. Yellow ss sedan but it had 400 miles on it. I believed it might have been a test car :/, I was a little disappointed and made a complaint to the dealer which netted me another $200 off the asking price. I picked up my car April of 2009.
First Impressions: The car was 1000x's better than my tiburon which I thought was pretty cool after putting a H&R cup kit on it, catback exhaust, 4-2-1 headers, intake, light weight pulley kit. I told myself this car is perfect the way it is and I wont do any modifications to it. The handling was a dream, the power was perfect, it had 4 doors which was exciting to put groceries in the back seat lol or take people places. The yellow really stood out in fact on a trip to University Maryland College Park car show going the speed limit on 95, some cooler cars (GTR, Supras, Evos) were flooring it down the fast lane. I had the car for 5 days at this point. Those cool cars all flew by a cop and the cop pulls out. Im snickering thinking those cool cars are looking at big tickets. But my car is so flashy the cop pulls me over instead while im doing the speed limit. I didnt have a plate on the front yet and I had a dealer tag on the back, plates were in the mail still. He gave me a repair order...
Modding:
after a Year, and being on Css.net for so long. I got the bug. I wanted some simple tasteful mods. I also wanted a faster car. I started off with getting a catted Downpipe from CIA (Clear Image Automotive) who remembers them? Everyone liked hearing the sexy girls voice that picked up the phone I remember lol. That catted downpipe started a fever. The car got a more aggressive exhaust tone without making it over all louder at cruise. LOVED it. My friend thought it sounds similar to a EVO IX. Next I grabbed a cool gauge, the Aeroforce interceptor. The ricer in me was still there and said you need more gauges. Next I saw all the comments about intakes and tunes back in 2010 and 2009. I was weary about an intake cause of CELs. I saw the promising results from one person about the K&N intake and thought to explore it. I joined the next group order for that intake when it came out with about 12 other people or so. playing around with filter orientation I ended up figuring out the weird adjusting of the filter changes the fuel trims thing. Post #544 -> https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/08-1...2/index22.html
I ran the intake and downpipe for about a year with no CEL issues on the stock tune and was really loving it. The brakes needed to be replaced about 1 1/2 years into ownership so I ended up going the R1Concepts route and got slotted premium rotors with hawk pads. I ended up looking into charge piping (ZZP), intercoolers (TR8), Forge BPV. Now I was excited with where my car was. Now I wanted power. One of the big names that were local to me was BYT and he freqently had tune meets where everyone met at a dyno and he would tune them. My first tune attempt was a failure. Nick provided me a spare ECU to put the tune on. The car made flutter noises and scared the **** out of me, I thought there was an issue with the spare ECU. It was actually the Trifecta BYT tune combo I had ordered from Nick. The Trifecta part of the tune was wrong, so he did a quick 20psi HPtune for a dyno reading. I ended up putting the stock tune back on and going to see Nick personally at his house to get a good HPtune.
Upon getting a proper HPtune, wow, I was shocked on how much the car opened up. I couldnt believe how quick these cars can get with basic mods. I thought I needed to invest $10,000 to get that kind of power out of a 4 cylinder car. I was ecstatic. That was the most fun I ever had driving 6 hours round trip to and from the Pocono's lol. Later on Mishimoto came on CSS.net looking for a test car to fit there radiator. I ended up winning that award as well
The prize was a free Mishimoto radiator left on the car.
Looking back at maintenance:
This car was really cheap to maintain ~89,000 miles on the car to date. In all honesty, outside of the original tires only lasting about 20k miles and the brakes shitting the bed by 12k miles. everything else was cheap. I basically follow the OLI to a tee and change the oil around <30% which makes me change the oil about 2 times a year. The tires I used after the Contisport contact IIs died have been Continental Extreme Contact DWS's. If your looking for an amazing all season tire, I recommend that one. lasts about 50k on the cobalt ss and do great in the snow. Recently I managed to pick up a set of used m52's and pulled the trigger on some Direzza zII's (exteme summer tire). After driving around with them, I feel as though Ive wasted ~80,000 miles of driving on all season tires
Upon changing the wheels I am now getting a clunking which I believe are CABs or sway bar bushing, or something in the steering rack failing. Its just a nuisance for now but all in all Ive had rarely any real issues with this car. Only other failure that comes to mind is the original battery in the car failed in less than a year which I think a dealership punk swapped it to begin with and I had the dreaded key stuck in the ignition issue.
Thanks for reading
History: Coming from a 2000 Hyundai Tiburon FX and driving around the days Fast and Furious was in theaters changing the car scene and making spinners, neon lights, absurd body kits, NOS, and wings a thing of awesomeness and respect, I was misled into thinking what was considered cool in the car scene. My Tiburon turned into the most ricetastic thing i've ever seen to today. I did try to do performance mods along side all the glamor but it weighed more in the rice department than performance...
In 2008-2009, I was graduating college and ready to get out of that car to get something with a little bit more tastefulness and much more respect (lol). i had a job lined up out of college and was super excited to blow my first paychecks on a big money ticket item but not so much that it broke the bank. My goal was something between 20k-30k, turbo charged, good mpg, and a 4 door. The tiburon had huge doors for a coupe and I was sick of it.
My car list of contenders was the following:
-2009 Subaru Wrx $26,999
-2009 Chevy Cobalt SS sedan $25,999
-2009 Dodge Caliber SRT4 $27000
-2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart $28000
-2010 Hyundai genesis Coupe 2.0t Track $36000??? lol
upon reviewing the cost to insure, they were all horrible for a 24 year old with the cobalt being the most affordable to own.
Since I came from a hyundai I felt I needed to get another hyundai and I had been hearing about the genesis coupe coming for years so I was highly interested. Calling the local hyundai dealership left me with a bad taste in my mouth as they told me the car is selling for $36k when the retail was actually $27k at the time. I asked if it was a typo cause thats insane and his reply was "supply and demand, my friend".
The decision: Extremely pissed about the hyundai dealers response, I took a ride to the chevy deaslership down the road from said hyundai dealership with the girl friend. I asked to test drive a cobalt SS and see how it felt. Surprisingly the dealer let me take the car out by myself. Always wants a turbo car. It was really exciting hopping into the driver seat of a 2008 Cobalt SS coupe. I was weary of the power that was on the window sticker as it was like twice the power of my tiburon. The girlfriend said dont be a ***** and punch it. I did as she said and full throttled that sucker. It was exhilarating as a first impression. The girl in the passenger seat made a WoooOOooo noise. I thought to myself, I have to get this car. I will totally get ***** with this car upon hearing the Wooo.
I asked the dealer if I could get the 4 door model of cobalt SS and if it was available in yellow? He said they didnt have one on the site but they could get one thats sitting up in Newark DE at a dealership with 23 miles on it. I told them I wanted that car and began the bargaining. I ended up putting $1500 down in cash, getting $2k surprisingly for the Tiburon lol, and got a loan for $24000 after tax title and tags. Monthly payments were $380 for 60 months and the insurance cost to own was $180 a month. I went up to Newark that night to see the car sitting in the lot. Yellow ss sedan but it had 400 miles on it. I believed it might have been a test car :/, I was a little disappointed and made a complaint to the dealer which netted me another $200 off the asking price. I picked up my car April of 2009.
First Impressions: The car was 1000x's better than my tiburon which I thought was pretty cool after putting a H&R cup kit on it, catback exhaust, 4-2-1 headers, intake, light weight pulley kit. I told myself this car is perfect the way it is and I wont do any modifications to it. The handling was a dream, the power was perfect, it had 4 doors which was exciting to put groceries in the back seat lol or take people places. The yellow really stood out in fact on a trip to University Maryland College Park car show going the speed limit on 95, some cooler cars (GTR, Supras, Evos) were flooring it down the fast lane. I had the car for 5 days at this point. Those cool cars all flew by a cop and the cop pulls out. Im snickering thinking those cool cars are looking at big tickets. But my car is so flashy the cop pulls me over instead while im doing the speed limit. I didnt have a plate on the front yet and I had a dealer tag on the back, plates were in the mail still. He gave me a repair order...
Modding:
after a Year, and being on Css.net for so long. I got the bug. I wanted some simple tasteful mods. I also wanted a faster car. I started off with getting a catted Downpipe from CIA (Clear Image Automotive) who remembers them? Everyone liked hearing the sexy girls voice that picked up the phone I remember lol. That catted downpipe started a fever. The car got a more aggressive exhaust tone without making it over all louder at cruise. LOVED it. My friend thought it sounds similar to a EVO IX. Next I grabbed a cool gauge, the Aeroforce interceptor. The ricer in me was still there and said you need more gauges. Next I saw all the comments about intakes and tunes back in 2010 and 2009. I was weary about an intake cause of CELs. I saw the promising results from one person about the K&N intake and thought to explore it. I joined the next group order for that intake when it came out with about 12 other people or so. playing around with filter orientation I ended up figuring out the weird adjusting of the filter changes the fuel trims thing. Post #544 -> https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/08-1...2/index22.html
I ran the intake and downpipe for about a year with no CEL issues on the stock tune and was really loving it. The brakes needed to be replaced about 1 1/2 years into ownership so I ended up going the R1Concepts route and got slotted premium rotors with hawk pads. I ended up looking into charge piping (ZZP), intercoolers (TR8), Forge BPV. Now I was excited with where my car was. Now I wanted power. One of the big names that were local to me was BYT and he freqently had tune meets where everyone met at a dyno and he would tune them. My first tune attempt was a failure. Nick provided me a spare ECU to put the tune on. The car made flutter noises and scared the **** out of me, I thought there was an issue with the spare ECU. It was actually the Trifecta BYT tune combo I had ordered from Nick. The Trifecta part of the tune was wrong, so he did a quick 20psi HPtune for a dyno reading. I ended up putting the stock tune back on and going to see Nick personally at his house to get a good HPtune.
Upon getting a proper HPtune, wow, I was shocked on how much the car opened up. I couldnt believe how quick these cars can get with basic mods. I thought I needed to invest $10,000 to get that kind of power out of a 4 cylinder car. I was ecstatic. That was the most fun I ever had driving 6 hours round trip to and from the Pocono's lol. Later on Mishimoto came on CSS.net looking for a test car to fit there radiator. I ended up winning that award as well
The prize was a free Mishimoto radiator left on the car.Looking back at maintenance:
This car was really cheap to maintain ~89,000 miles on the car to date. In all honesty, outside of the original tires only lasting about 20k miles and the brakes shitting the bed by 12k miles. everything else was cheap. I basically follow the OLI to a tee and change the oil around <30% which makes me change the oil about 2 times a year. The tires I used after the Contisport contact IIs died have been Continental Extreme Contact DWS's. If your looking for an amazing all season tire, I recommend that one. lasts about 50k on the cobalt ss and do great in the snow. Recently I managed to pick up a set of used m52's and pulled the trigger on some Direzza zII's (exteme summer tire). After driving around with them, I feel as though Ive wasted ~80,000 miles of driving on all season tires
Upon changing the wheels I am now getting a clunking which I believe are CABs or sway bar bushing, or something in the steering rack failing. Its just a nuisance for now but all in all Ive had rarely any real issues with this car. Only other failure that comes to mind is the original battery in the car failed in less than a year which I think a dealership punk swapped it to begin with and I had the dreaded key stuck in the ignition issue.
Thanks for reading
Moderator
05-14-2015, 07:12 PM
#4
Your list of cars to buy reminds me of the one I made. I was in nearly the same situation in January 2009 of just graduated, decent job, and money to burn. Previous car was a 2000 Acura Integra, but not riced out. My list had more cars, and I didn't just do four doors. I even had some "barely used" cars on the list. The Cobalt still came on top, and the four door was basically a game-day decision. Just for fun I should post the excel spreadsheet I made.
05-15-2015, 09:43 AM
#7
Nice, man. I'm glad you're enjoying the SS/TS. I originally wanted a sedan, too, but I didn't see any in SoCal on the used market at the time. No regrets, though. I love my SS/TC.
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