John Lake

When the initial Cobalt SS Supercharged came out I liked it... but.. Wasn't crazy about the wing and lack of automatic Transmission. Manual Transmissions are a blast - but - can be a burden depending on your daily commute. In 2006 the 2.4 SS was introduced and I was sold. Got mine in Victory Red with Auto/ Black Leather and premium sound for a touch over 20K. I was 39 - so - pretty sure that I didn't fit the usual Cobalt SS Demographic .. I refuse to grow up : )

Loved the car. Always felt that it got a bad rap.. Reading blogs it was dissed for outside appearance/ performance / cheap interior. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course.. I like the styling of the Cobalt SS - that's why I purchased it. I really believe it's one of the better looking designs out there for an economy minded car. I have no problem with the interior - Nice layout... clean straightforward design. I get so sick of the negative interior comments - I could care less if plastics are soft to the touch... Kind of a G@Y complaint if you ask me - "not that there is anything wrong with that". Performance ? Well.. I could find no professional review of my SS 2.4 Auto... some reviews where they didn't attach instruments to test... they were so - so but not accurate in the least.

I FOUND one test where there was a full test done - BUT - it was a Pontiac G5 - basically the same car. See Link below... In reality, performance was pretty good - Actually came in second place for cars starting under 20K.. that's not too shabby. A car that can shoot from 0 - 60 in 7.1 (stick) and 7.5 (auto) is a fun car to drive... and as tests results show - car was not a bad handler. I didn't purchase the car to race.. I just wanted a decent looking/ fun to drive every day car.

All kinds of crap on blogs about performance ... Cars with the 'SS' badge should be faster ! they should never put an SS badge on a Cobalt ! Heck even Cobalt SS Supercharged owners were saying the same things.... well, what comes around goes around.. Cobalt SS Turbo owners can now say the same to those Supercharged owners.. if they were that kind of automobile snob.. I'm not.

There were complaints in the review (Pasted right below) .. but I don't agree with several of them... I liked the sound of the engine/ cat back exhaust .. would not all it 'Droning' .. I didn't believe there was 'excessive' wind and road noise - and - my car was just 20K with the options I listed above... The Pontiac was way over-priced at $24,910... The Cobalt SS 2.4 was never meant to compete with the Mazdaspeed 3 or GTI - that was the responsibility of the SS supercharged.

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...take_road_test



In 2008 the SS Turbo debuted to mostly rave reviews.. one of the best I found below (Excellent read). Still dissed on interior.. Whatever! This was the real deal.. Arguments against it are mostly lame on blogs .. "It's still just a Cobalt" ! Um, yeah.. good argument there genius. In the linked Article you will see the impressive list of much more expensive machines the SS turbo dispatched. For the money - a true performance bargain.

No Automatic though... so - I had my sights on the upcoming Camaro. I loved the initial pics coming out - and - As soon as a local dealer had one I was there... Car was HUGE! Don't get me wrong.. styling is great inside and out.. and performance is tops in V6 form... I just like driving smaller cars in general.

Automatic Shmomatic! I'll just have to deal with the stick. Went to the dealer this past Saturday and traded in my '06 SS.. Had 48K miles and was in perfect shape.. I take great care of my cars. Received $7,500 in trade.. $500 over book for trade... (Could have gotten much if I tried to sell on my own) I'm sure the dealer will get at least 12K.

Drove away in my 2010 SS Turbo... listed at over 25K with LSD - but - with 3 grand off Chevy discount. Black w/ ebony Interior. It's been about 23 years since I've driven a stick.... once I got past the initial first gear takeoff (Looking like a tool stalling twice on the hour back home in heavy traffic) all is well.. I love the car! Looks great/ incredible performance. Won't beat on it - but will have fun! I plan on holding on to it for a long time.

Hurry up if you want one... amazing discounts.. depending on where you live you could probably get a much better deal than I did. From what I've seen of the replacement - The Cruze - pretty lame.. It may be able to better compete with other cars in it's economy class.. but is coming out with tame performance and styling... early reviews of the Euro version praise it's high quality interior . soft plastics lol ! . Since the GM Performance division that created the SS Turbo has been disbanded.. don't look for anything as good/ for the same price - for a long time - if ever!



http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/13/i...balt-ss-turbo/

bryce712

welcome and i bet you will beat on the car a little

Rissa

Congrats!

Permafried-

Wow, nice write-up, congrats and welcome . There's a difference between beating on it and driving it hard, and it's built to be driven hard imo .

SSYellow06

iTrader: (2)

Welcome! Awesome first post!

John Lake

Thanks Bryce... Won't beat on it.. too much $$$.. but I am having a good time. I forgot how much fun a stick is. Maybe too much of a good time though.. 14 mpg average over my first few days. Took it out very early Sunday Morning before any cars were on the road to test her out - was heavy on the throttle - I was only planning on a nice slow Sunday drive - The car made me do it !!

Thanks Rissa!

Tanks Permafried! I Know I know... The car wants you to race through the gears.. It's calling to me right now... Could be dangerous - just got 4 points erased from my license - My wife will kill me if I'm not careful..

Thanks!

cmatthewb101

iTrader: (4)

Hahaha, in my SS/SC I got 2 speeding tickets in 7 days, fiance was piiiissed. Hahaha. Cost me 300$ too.

Permafried-

then it would seem you have a valid excuse to take 'er easy for a bit

John Lake

Not to mention the cost of your insurance going up - my wife never let me forget that every time the bill came... for years. Torture! on top of that she was pulled over twice while my 4 points sat there.. and... received warnings!

I consider myself a pretty safe driver... don't tailgate, use blinkers.. but.. "I can't Drive 55" ... !!! It's hard to believe that was actually the highway speed limit ... barely feels like you are moving if you do 55 on rt. 80 today..

I've had some decent cars over the years.. first brand new one was a 1987 Sprint Turbo (Only came stick) weighed 1700 pounds.. it had a 1.0 engine and hit 60 in 8.7.. anything under 9 seconds was pretty good in the 80s.. and could get 37mpg highway - cost $8200. It blows my mind that the 'Smart Car' out today can be over 17 grand !.. is smaller yet slightly heavier.. gets only about the same mpg as my Sprint AND has a 0-60 of 14.4 WTF ! This is progress ? I've had Old school classics.. a1968 400/ 4bl Firebird (auto), 1966 289/ 4bl Mustang (Auto)

BUT... my long winded point is that I've never before had a car that I can't wait to drive like the SS Turbo.. I mean.. I'm excited to wake up for my commute to work!! An amazing feeling.. I wish I could afford a second car so I could only drive the SS in good weather.. nice months.. to prolong it's life.. NJ Winters/ No Garage will take it's toll. Hell.. I just got it and I'm worried about the day it will die... that tells you something. If anyone out there hasn't driven one - do it... And.. start the car with the door open or windows down - - sounds like music to the ears

recklessactn

iTrader: (1)

Welcome and may I also invite you to East Coast Cobalts NJ Chapter

JPizzle

Welcome! I am also came from a 2.4L. I had a Cobalt SS 2.4L because my parents said that I couldn't get the supercharged Cobalt because it was too fast, and I couldn't get a skittle either because that was too fast. So I had my old Cobalt for like 2.5 years, it was awesome. I LOVED it! But then the new turbo ones came out, and I waited until the 2009's came out because of all the options.

And I am so happy that I have it. It's really an amazing car. Congrats man!

John Lake

Thanks Max... I took a look.. might be cool - Love hooters : ) so - sorry I missed that.

Is there a sign up spot - no access to facebook ? No account.. I'm an old timer - way behind the times!

Thanks! - and - Cool JP ... We took the same path... Enjoy the Ride Brotha!

Permafried-

Tbh I drove my 2.2L through 4 SW Ontario winters and there was not a spot of rust or inch of damage on the car. I have a garage but tended to park it outside so it remained frozen instead of thawing out every night in my garage. This year I just couldn't bring myself to do it with the TC, I pulled it in but still left the door open as long as possible so the garage temperature dropped like a bomb.

One thing to keep an eye on (especially since the car will see road salt) is the lower lip on your doors coming in contact with the door frame/stripping and rubbing the paint off. I never had this problem on my 2.2L (nor have my friends on their 2.4s) but most of us seem to have it with our SS/TCs. There's a sticky on here (called Check your Doors or something) so before it ever became a problem I put some beefy clear rubber tape (about 4mm thick) where I saw it starting to rub and so far so good

Shez

Congrats on the car. It'll feel even better after the break in period. Hope to see you around some local meets.

John Lake

Max.. My bad. I didn't miss the Hooters event yet... April 29th.. BUT will be in Amsterdam then...

Caligula

About time someone joined with a story first post.

Its normally " Im new here, so uh yeah im new"

Anyways, Welcome.

John Lake

Thank ya kindly for the helpful tips. One thing I also did on my 2.4 was get the 'Deluxe' at a local car wash at least every two weeks.. It put a thin coat of wax and blasted the salt off the undercarriage.. Expensive though.. $22.00 each time.. thought it was worth it.

Thanks Shez! Cool mon.. even more fun to look forward to.

Thanks Beanie... and - nice! cool car to have at 17... I was a lousy driver when I started out - would have killed myself with that much power at my fingertips. I had a rusted out '72 camaro when I turned 17 in '85..... had a very tired 307/ 4bl.. and beat up automatic.. a real dog.. could barely get out of it's own way.

northvibe

iTrader: (1)

not fully

Get the stage 1 kit, to keep warranty and get more power. Its soooo worth it.

I think most peoples (mine included) with the SS na 2.4 was that, it should of been called a sport, not the ss. As it confused people that thought it was a supercharged. Otherwise I have no complaints over it, its a "quick" econobox, thats what it does and it does it well.

Glad to hear you like the tc/ss

John Lake

Thanks northvibe.. I do love it.

The power produced stock is plenty for me brotha.. but - you enjoy!

Never agreed with that argument .. if it's the argument I think.. seems like a lot of SC/ TC owners don't like it when others say they beat a Cobalt SS SC/ TC.... when in fact it was a 2.4. That's all on a persons perception of reality - should be no skin off the back of the TC/ SC owner - they know what they have.. and the others can believe what they will. To me the 2.4 was just an entry level SS... Heck - I know cars today are very fast... especially in the last decade... and Chevy started putting the SS on everything -but - it was no embarrassment to call the 2.4 SS... From a different time of course.. BUT a stock 1967 350 SS 4 speed camaro took 8.0 seconds to hit 60. Chevy may have listened to the complaints though... Calling the 2.4 Sport eventually. But ya gotta admit.. looks a lot cooler with that SS on the side! Gotta run..

Cobalt_Daddy

It's an awesome little car and when the new feel wears off and ppl are always tailing ya trying to get you to race I'm sure you'll open it up a few times just to make a point I had to this morning on my way to the dealership

Permafried-

Essentially did the same . My rule of thumb is, if it's frozen, don't wash it, starts to thaw get that off immediately. Since the salt can't react without water, you may do more harm than good washing it if it's a frozen brick. Since I use the garage I did it once a week as well. Didn't ever totally thaw but did so enough I cursed the whole way to the touchless

northvibe

iTrader: (1)

oh just wait...in a couple months at the most you'll be going...hmmm more power with warranty would be a great idea! If you have anyone close by with it, get a test drive, the extra power and psi is kind of a nice boost over stock.

Accordio

I just bought a 2010 SS for my 16yo son today and should have it in a couple days. The Dealer asked if I wanted the Stage 1 installed and was wondering if I should wait till the car has some mileage on it. Should it have exhaust and intake on it first?

Anyhow the car has a sticker of $29760.00 Canadian and got it for $23700.00. Just couldn't pass it up for him.

importkiller

iTrader: (1)

wow for you 16 year old...Don't get him the stage one he does not need it... and without it an intake and exhaust are useless because the ss has a learn down feature so that mods will not increase hp and tq.

Cobalt_Daddy

totally agree... your son will have a hard enough time not wrapping it around a tree in stock form nevermind adding the stage 1 tune. besides that let him get used to driving the car as is before ya go and throw a tune on it... ya gotta work up to power.. not just step in a car and try to control it.