First and most importantly is the performance package available after purchase? I took advantage of one of those "take delivery from dealer stock" deals and saved a whole crapload of money on my SS/SC on top of the GM Employee deal (put it this way, if you qualified for EVERY discount available you walked off with an SS/SC for $14,700 + TTL). SO since they had the color and options I wanted, I took the offer. The only downside is I kind of wanted the performance package with the LSD and Recaros. So first I wanted to know if there's any way to "add" the perf package at a later date.

Second and less important question is how much is the package? I heard somewhere but I can't remember if it was $1500 or $2500 ($1500 sounds right, $2500 sounds too high to me). It's something I'm considering after I see how the payments go. I'm making overpayments so if I feel like I can comfortably afford it, I might do it or I might wait a little while and see what money's like at the end of the year.

And one more thing - for those of you who have the performance package --- is it worth it???

 

I beleive it's less expensive to buy it with the car. It LSD alone is expensive(+/- $1,500). My SS is non LSD and I don't have any trouble with traction or single wheel spin unless I really push the limits.

To my understanding, you can buy the LSD, and probably the seats but I think they will be seperate products.

 

The first thing to understand is I would not have purchased my SS/SC without the LSD. I have experienced (as a daily driver for two years) a RSM equipped (Vortech supercharger, larger TB, ceramic coated header, hi-flo cat and performance exhaust) Cavalier without LSD so I had some prior experience with a supercharged compact FWD. I also put front and rear strut tower braces and the RK Sport j-body sub frame bar, all of which helped but that is all. The Quaife does make that much of a difference.

The fact that Quaife is supplying the LSD just meant I would not wait until next year because one never knows how long and at what price it will be offered. Ford used the Quaife in some of their limited edition SVT cars, but only a limited number and not for very long. For me, the Recaros are just a very nice enhancement. The Chevy MSRP for the Quaife ATB LSD with the Recaro front seats is $1500. Quaife makes a LSD for the SS/SC transmission and will sell it to you for $1445. Add in labor, trans fluid, seals etc and this becomes a $2500 enhancement without the Recaro seats. And the trans has to be completely taken apart and reassembled in order to install the LSD.

To me, there is a significant and very pleasing ride/drive improvement in the 2005 Cobalt as compared to the 2003 Cavalier above described. And the improvement to me is clearly worth the price of admission. A side note: the 2006 Ss without SC uses the regular Getrag 5-speed trans and as far as I know there is no LSD currently on the market for it.

Hope this helps. -- laborsmith

 

Thanks guys. I don't know if I'm interested enough to buy the package now that I have the car. I'll have to decide at a later time whether or not to get an LSD (Quaife or otherwise). It just was not practical for me to get the performance package with the car because the incentives I got from the dealer for taking the car from their inventory did not apply to cars which were ordered, so I would have paid the full employee discount price plus the $1500...so all in all it would have been almost $7000 more for me to order the SS with the performance package, which to me is not worth it at all.

I might consider the LSD in the future, but for now I think I'm going to stick with the car as is. Even if it's $2000+ to have it installed, I've still saved a crapload of money over special ordering the car.

Thanks again for the input guys.

 

I am a Chevy Tech and was able to drive the difference with LSD and not. The first SS was with out LSD , felt wheel spin very easy in the rain. Also when pushing hard though a tight turn could feel inside tire losing traction. When my SS finally arrived on 6-10 w/G85 I instantly loved the seats. They are original in my opinion with the mess inserts, helps from sliding also. As for the LSD = less wheel spin in the rain, but wheel hop is twice as bad. Through the hard corners though, pulls beautifully with confidence and grip.
As far as obtaining the LSD or seats after purchase there is no listing for either occording to my parts department. I do agree that around $2500 would be right for Lsd to be installed.

 

I probably would have ordered the option if they had it avalible when I ordered.

 

I have also driven an SS both with and without the package.

I personally notice less wheel spin with the LSD equipped cobalt. I'm not going to argue the worth or worthlessness of the LSD. Instead.. I'll move on to this point.

The Recaro seats are the best seats I've ever sat in factory equipped on a car under $25K. I feel they are worth the entire price of the package even if it didn't include the LSD!

It's a no brainer economically. You're getting an LSD and premium seats for a fraction of the price you'd have to pay to get them outside of the package.

And let's clear it up again. You CANNOT get the package if you don't get it from the factory initially. You can buy the LSD direct from Quaife, but you're going to have to pay almost as much as the G85 package cost and labor and that's with no seats. I don't even think you can get those paritcular seats aftermarket from Recaro either.

I completely understand your decision to get the reduced price from stock. I was considering the same thing until I got lucky and found one at a dealer with G85.

And to that I say.. if your seats are adequate and you're happy with the traction you get, be happy and don't look back.

If you haven't gotten the car yet, I really think the package is a good bargain and I wouldn't pass it up if seat comfort and extra traction(argueably) is worth anything to you.

 

Thanks for the advice. I did already get the car, and I'm totally happy with it. I'm pretty comfortable with my decision to not get the G85 package. I did the exact calculation of what I saved with dealer stock incentives plus the cost of the package and it was $6885. WAY too much for an LSD and seats IMO. It barely fit in my price range to begin with, I couldn't have paid another almost $7000 for it.

I do think I'm going to add an LSD eventually (like WAY down the line), and maybe keep my eye out for used Recaros. The seats mean less to me than the LSD, I sat in Recaro's in my friend's M3 and I just wasn't really impressed, maybe because I'm built a lot smaller than most people, I have no idea...they just didn't "fit" right. I may end up scrapping Recaros altogether and get regular racing seats in the end, who knows.

 

the lsd in the ss would be nice If you want to spend the extra cash, but unless you race autoX and like to have an agressive corner exit then it would be in your best intrest. but a few guys ived talked to without the lsd say that if you have faster entrance speeds with some pretty generous braking its not half bad without it.

 

I do autox it, in fact it had it's first run this weekend. There were definitely some spots where a limited slip diff would have been nice, but overall it's not really needed. I got 3rd place in my class so it can't be too bad without it.

 

The perf. package is well worth it, I won't even buy the car without it.

I'm going to be waiting for a couple months until we finally get one in canada.

 

Available on all 2006 SS/SC models in Canada (called W2E package).

 

I do not have it and drive it very hard.

 

At my shop today we found a listing for the LSD, it was $2450 list. $1850 employee cost. That's not including install! Also, the supercharger was around $950, engine $2700 and trans $1700.

 

DAMN RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is really worth it, I believe also with power it helps having a LSD and the seats are just down right awesome fit into the interior perfectly! Im so glad I opt'd for it....

 

I cant see driving my cobalt without LSD.


05' Vicyory Red Cobalt SS/SC G85 package

 

Did you get your car in the US? Your location says Ontario so I was just wondering because no 2005 SS/SC's sold in Canada had the G85 option available.