Didn't have great credit, so they gave me a 6 year loan; albeit with high interest. I was 20 and buying my first official car. I didn't know any better.
Also while the car was sitting on my driveway for 11 months, I canceled the insurance and my lender knocked on $1000 without telling me. They said I was supposed to have full coverage insurance. I admit my own stupidity there.

I'll go to AutoZone and ask them to give me the codes. It's going to have to be a few days. I work a night shift and don't have too much free time.

The car had issues from the beginning. It's not just the current problems. Sometimes it refuses to go into 1st gear from a stop, so I have to put it in 2nd gear, let the car move slowly with the clutch and then downshift to 1st gear.
A member on this site offered to help with the repairs. He's roughly 110 miles away from me, so when I get a chance, I'll swing by and have him look at it.

I'll still have the codes looked at and post them here. Maybe you guys will be able to tell me what's up.

 

Wrong if well cared for they do not have that many issues even at 100K miles or more.

 

I have an 05 and drive the **** out of it with 140,000 miles and only thing i've had to do is axles and intermediate shaft and suspension. Thats expected with that kind of milage too. Honestly I couldnt be happier with the car considering i got it for 4,000 and all it needed when i bought it was a slave cylinder (previous owner did a clutch as well) total i'm maybe $5500 in and most of the car is fresh.

To the OP just take the time to get some mechanical skills and slowly begin working on your car and you'll save LOADS of money. Parts for these cars are pretty cheap besides a few of them (Intermediate shaft being one.. $300 like wtf) but anyways theres plenty of people on here willing to help with novice mechanics and its pretty simple stuff most of the time!

 

Yep scan it and list up all pending and active DTCs that will help a lot.

 

Oh and the intermediate shaft was my fault. I thought it was sweet to drop the clutch and ruin a set of shitty tires.. ended up breaking the bearing case on the shaft but whatever it was fun lol.

 

Probably just coked valves if it's untuned.

 

Sat for a year and suddenly there's an airflow problem? Check your airbox for evidence of a rodent resident.

 

Only real issues in had besides porus block I cause myself or Gm caused by no replacing injector seals. Everything else has been general matanence .

I say if ur gonna own a performance car like this, u should be mechanically inclined and should know ur way around cars at least a little. If not then u should be driving a base model civic

 

That's kinda harsh I think. I'd say know cars or have cash to pay someone to fix them. But he's trying to learn so gotta give props for that. I just think it's early to throw in the towel and park it.

 

Oh that wasn't for him that was for people who just want a modded fast car and don't know what to do when there is an issue. It will end up costing them to the point of giving it up. But if u wanna learn , have at it. It's if u don't wanna learn and just want something to race people with and then make urself sound like a fool like people have done so often, those I am talking about. This guy seems like he is willing to learn so not included in my statement. But i said it simply because they don't want that kinda headache. Save them some money. Especially when u start tinkering or have someone do it for u

 

In my particular case, for a car that's always remained stock (barring a muffler delete, which has since been re-installed), never raced and driven relatively lightly (few highway on-ramp pulls to get up to speed of traffic flow), I feel like mine's simply falling apart by merely existing.

The utter embarrassment/ frustration when my mother-in-law was trapped inside when my passenger door latch got stuck.... She was already anti-GM, and as much as I love GM cars, I've nothing to say after that incident.

The SS reminds me of [older] Android phones: great features on paper, but so gawd-damn finnicky to maintain and get working as intended (a phone being a phone, a car being a car).

 

So hit and miss for reliability it seems.

Sorry to hear about the mother in law incident.

 

I bought my old cobalt brand new, and really never had enough issues with it to make me hate it.
all the problems I had in the last months of owning it were caused by my mods, but the trans and engine were running strong at 93k miles still on a factory clutch which was abused every day.
I only traded it because I don't have the time to work on it anymore and can't afford a second car, and need reliable transportation to work.
If I could afford a second car to take me to work the cobalt would have been a beast right now.