LS3C6

Friend of mine is looking at them, other than the less-ricey spoiler and available performance monitor... anything that would deter someone from buying a 08?

I know the car offers performance I could have only expected from the previous sti's/FD rx7's i've owned at a much higher MSRP... what do owners think of the SS/TC from a day-to-day standpoint, annoyances etc?

revhigh18

its all really great the only thing thats annoying at first is how weird the clutch is compared to anything i have ever driven but after the first day it is allot easier to drive but i wouldnt get another car for the price these cars cost new i have 6500 miles on my car and nothing has caused me problems the only bad thing is that the oil is 11 dollars a quart and that gets pretty annoying spending 70$ to change your oil but overall the car is fast handles great and the girls drop their pants when you use No lift shift

SUKXOST

ha yeah it's a Phenominal DD car. Even stock it will smoke a lot of cars on the streets. As far as what he said above about the clutch.....I had a GM tech with 30 years of experience test drive my car after we put some mods on and he said that my 09 TC has "an absolutely incredible gear box.....when a car shifts THAT smooth it really puts a smile on my face....that's rare for me..I could not believe these Cobalts have that perfect shifting feel."

revhigh18

yeah i love it now its just a little weird getting used to seeing as i have only driven hondas and dsms before this and my grandma can drive a dsm clutch haha its soo easy but with mods these cars are just outright amazing me and SUKXOST are the only people on here with the hahn upgrades and this car responds very well with mods i put down 266 hp and 269 ft/lbs tq thats 315 est crank hp which is 55 hp over stock and the car just sounds awesome and feels great the engines coming from Bill Hahn "these engines are damn near unbreakable" i would go with an 09 because if im not mistaken this is the last year of the cobalt and that would be cool to say you have the last year a car was made nothing bad to say about this car at all

SUKXOST

Yeah might help resale down the road. Last year built...and WHITE LOL What mods you have so far...don't see em in your sig

revhigh18

haha i will have to update i got them yesterday i drove to yorkville haha but i got the fmic the charge piping the intake and catless downpipe i will put it up there now but i am also going to start tuning my own car

FutureEcotecOwner

If you have all those mods I'm about 110% sure you're putting down more than 266whp and 260wtq, more like 300whp and 320wtq, easily. That's if you have your car tuned, which with those mods I would hope you do have it tuned or are going to real soon.

turbod ss

i love my 08 ss/tc!! its prob one of the smoothest cars ive ever driven for a performance car. ive driven in my buddies 03 evo and it was real stiff. just wait till more aftermarket parts come out people rnt gonna know wat to say!! o yea there gonna "i cant believe i just lost to a cobalt!!!" haha.

BowTieTillIdie

I have 5k on mine and so far so good exculding the charge piping issue ... But thats a simple fix ...

LS3C6

so no documented mechanical improvements for 09?

I can get him a 2008 SS/TC in red with ebony/red interior, sunroof/lsd/audio upgrade with under 50 miles on the odometer for $17,350 ... I have GMVIS access and the car is clean, I think it was shown behind rope at the NAIAS in Detroit (we're just west in Grand Rapids), local dealer has it.

I ran many VINs on GMVIS and they showed HAIL DAMAGE! Must have been a truckload of these things damaged in transit (most all <200 miles 08s I saw and ran the vins on were dirty cars)

SUKXOST

When they lose to a Cobalt they will tell all thier friends "we will never speak of this, GOT IT?!?" LOL

DGAF260

It is a great DD with plenty of pulling power, the car is very balanced no one thing outshines the other. i csn not recall any differences besides the ones noted before and the only thing is price of why i would get an 08 but i got my 09 for 20500. i test drove a mazdaspeed3 and in the price range that its only real competition when price is involved. the speed 3 was nice but the gearbox was no where as confident and smooth as ours it felt sloppy and rubbery easy but not solid. then theres the power drop off which felt like hitting the rev limiter at 6000. i also felt that the cobalt was more fun to drive and felt more tosable and easy to control. you wont regret no matter which year you choose.

MaxVQ35DE

USB/ipod + bluetooth, rpd are only difference i think, or maybe the 08 has bluetooth too

batboy

iTrader: (1)

Spoiler is the same on both 08 and 09. The standard one is a low non-ricey spoiler while the optional "Aero" version is a high wing.

I think Max is correct, the USB port and reconfigurable display are not available on the 08 (only 09). Oh yeah, I think white paint is only available in 09 too.

Force

Anyone who buys an 08' for full price now, even if it's new, is making a huge mistake. You lose that entire year of depreciation on the car.

The person who buys it down the road won't give a **** that you only drove it in 09'... The model year attached to the VIN still says 08'.

Rydis

Weren't there quite a few people saying bad things about the brakes on the 09's? I read in the LNF section about alot of people having to replace them around 10k miles.

Cyrusthevirus

iTrader: (7)

paint and rust warr are not covered only downside i wouldn't buy it

kling1022

I believe the OS is different on the 09 cobalt ss. That is why hp tuner could tap into the 08 but not the 09 for awhile

boosted4dr

Reason to get a 09....

Sedan and USB


LOL what?

Really....So Hahn has only put out a few products that you and another have purchased. The fact they run a buisness open to public means nothing, just you two have purchased and run their parts!

klownin04

to the guy above maybe u should learn to read before you start to act like a dick he is saying there the only ones on here "css.net" with those upgrades for an 08-09 ss

Matt M

I think it has 90 miles on it if I'm thinking of the same car, but yes it's pretty nice for the money. I'd pick it up if I could use my GM card earnings on it.

satellite

Whoa, whoa....can we go back to this "dirty" 08's with hail damage?....I picked up one of these "hail damaged" cars (mine was said to be minor damage), but I was never told my warranty changed on paint and rust??? Also,..."dirty"...what exactly does that mean...that has alwasy meant "stolen" to me....lol

blackbird

The batch of hail damaged cars that were repaired should maintain their full factory bumper-to-bumper warranty for nearly everything, but since the body and paint was fixed(even if some of the cars were fixed using paintless dent removal), the finish will no longer be covered under factory warranty since it's not how it came from the factory. That's a small price and chance you'd take to get a killer deal on an otherwise mechanically perfect car.

You'd think it would work like that, but the book value of the cars doesn't spell that out. If you bought both a new '08 and an '09 right now and sold both in exactly one year after putting 12k miles on each, the '08 might be worth a tiny bit less but not as much as you'd think because you'd get a mileage credit on the car for being below the mileage average (meaning the '08 might be expected to have 24k miles on it). And if you could negotiate a killer deal on an '08 right now and plan to keep it for 3-5 years the deal might well make up for any slight difference in future depreciation. Depreciation is not an exactly a linear curve and by the time you get that many years out the condition and mileage will make as much of an impact on selling price as one car being a late '08 or an '09 model anyways.


As to the differences and has already been mentioned, there are no mechanical changes between both years. Since the Cruze is not scheduled for production in the US market for quite some time and GM has stated the Cobalt will remain in production for a while even after that happens, no one can rule out yet that there won't in fact be a MY'10 Cobalt SS. My guess would be the Cruze sedan replaces the Cobalt sedan but since there is no coupe or hatch Cruze yet, the Cobalt coupe may be the one to stick around until a Cruze replacement is brought to market, but that's just my educated guess.

Going back to the '08 vs. '09, there was a change in the OnStar system and an altered radio to be compatible with it that now include the Bluetooth and optional USB interface. The low-rise spoiler is standard on both years and for '09 the SS sedan was introduced along with the RPD gauge option. The MSRP for the '09 cars also went up and there were color changes to include the new white and silver ice replacing ultra silver.

batboy

iTrader: (1)

Yes, each model year older a car gets means it's worth less. If you can get a 2008 for several grand off the original MSRP, it's probably worth it. I'm looking at two GM program cars right now (both Cobalt SS coupes with less than 100 miles), one is a 2009 for $18.9k and the other is a 2008 for $16.9k. So, deals are out there if you look hard enough.

I tried looking up NADA book value on a used 2009, but they are not listed yet. So, I looked up a 2007 Cobalt SS and a 2008 Cobalt SS, using the same options and miles. The 2008 was worth about $1,250 more. I know this isn't a perfect match, but it does demonstrate the value drops every model year regardless of mileage.

revhigh18

No it's not tuned I'm going to do my own tuning I'm ordering the software as soon as a secret is released

Who else has them? I thought we were the only two if not I'm sorry but I wasn't trying to be a "dick"