3Diamonds61686

I currently drive a 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT and this thing has given me amazing reliability. I'd like to get another car and I'm considering either a 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT or a Chevy Cobalt SS supercharged. Stock to stock for these two cars, it's a driver's race IMHO. But I realize that with a stage 2 upgrade, the Cobalt SS will put a 2006 Eclipse GT to shame. I'm just wondering how reliable this car is. It's certainly nice to have a fast car, but I'd like it to spend most of its time on the road! I've never owned an American car and I'm hoping the Cobalt SS doesn't have the reliability issues that I've heard about from most GM owners.

Any thoughts?

Cirrus

If you are talking about all the negative feedback here, well, of course nobody is going to come and post how reliable their car is. It's just like chatting with friends, if you had a bad experience you exploit the hell out of it. Same thing here.

My car, albeit not a SS, has been running perfectly since May of 2005 with about 15,000 miles now.

05BlackCobaltSS

Mine is almost a year and a half old, 12xxx ticks on the clock, and only been to the dealer once. It was for some reflashes, the interior trim pieces, and an oil change.

DTM2188

I've had my car since June of 2005 and have no problems as of yet either.

victory_red_SS

iTrader: (2)

I love my Cobalt and until I tore it apart I had no problems with reliability. No problems and it always ran great.

roccobladr

the interior seems a little cheap. and in all my GMs that i have owned, thats the only thing that ever gave me problems. my 88 pontiac 6000, ran great for at least 100,000 miles. the first problems it gave me was the headliner falling down.

samesun

I've had way better reliability with my cavalier and sunbird than i did with my subaru...that thing was expen$ive to repair (which was often). My cav had close to 300,000 km's when I traded it for my G5 Pursuit and was reliable and never had a major problem. The ppl that put down my cav had never owned one, which i would point out to them, and that would usually shut them up. My family has pretty much always owned GM...never had a lemon.

3Diamonds61686

I've never been a fan of domestic cars, but the Cobalt SS S/C just really seems to compare well to many Japanese pocket rockets like the Eclipse, RSX-S, RX-8, etc. I'm still having a very hard time trying to decide upon a Cobalt SS S/C or a 3.8L Eclipse...here's my pros and cons list (feel free to add to it):

Pro's of getting the Cobalt:
- Much better aftermarket support...small upgrades will make it run 13.5 qtr mile
- Better gas mileage (just about 25 mpg vs. 20 mpg)
- Costs about $5k less
- Handles better than the Eclipse
- No timing belt that needs to be changed
- Unlike many GMs, it's not made in Mexico!

Con's of getting the Cobalt:
- I'm very unfamiliar with the LSJ engine, much more familiar with Mitsubishi engines
- Probably wouldn't match the Eclipse's reliability
- I will get disowned by the import-tuning crowd

Well...that's about all I can think of right now...again, feel free to add to my list! Deciding upon my next car is no easy choice! Also, I really appreciate the advice I'm getting thus far, and I'm also very pleased that I haven't been cracked on for being into imports

Apex

I wouldnt worry about getting "disowned" by the import tuning crowd. i belong to one of canada's (or even north americas) largest care forum with almost 37,000 members and im one of the main members (in the top 25 posters i believe...) and i dont get any **** from them (and they're all sports compact owners, not muscle car drivers)

eclipse MAY be a bit better built, thatd be the only thing i would say it has going for it. (edit: and i stress "MAY" cause i had a saturn and had it for 70,000 kms , 123,xxx - 192,xxx and had ZERO problems with it and that was a 97, whose generation was known to have problems)

Sicklyscott

iTrader: (1)

If I were making the decision, the prime indicators for me would be which is more fun to drive and which is cheaper. I think the weight of the cobalt (700 lbs lighter) and the amazing 50/50 weight balance pretty much tell you this car will be much more fun in the twisties.

That 5k that you'll save...throw that into performance parts and you'll have one kick ass car that will handle flawlessly and will pull on most imports on the street.

RaineMan

The new Eclipse is a huge car... that's also very pricey. If you get all the options you're looking at around $25k. With a Cobalt SS/SC you top out at around $21k. Leather, AM/FM/CD-MP3/XM, 7 speakers, sunroof, side airbags. $4000 is a big difference. Also, you said 25MPG for the SS/SC... I'm getting 28MPG on my city commutes, so you can't beat the mileage.

3Diamonds61686

Holy $hit the stage 1&2 upgrade is available for about $700 shipped, plus installation!!! Talk about cheap performance upgrades!! $700 was what my headers/custom downpipe costed for my 2001 Eclipse GT (which got me about 10 whp)...and that was without tuning and installation.

I think a Cobalt SS S/C is becoming a very obvious choice for me!

IMADreamer

I think you will be pleasently suprised with this car if you purchased it. American cars in general have gotten a bad rap on reliability because of what happened in the 80s. Those are just old worn out stereotypes that the import crowd won't let die. My father has now owned 4 GM cars in a row and each has gotten him well over 100k trouble free miles. I think the worst thing that happened was on his 92 Olds Cutlass Supreme when he had to get a 02 sensor, under warrenty. No biggie really.

Getting disowned by the import crowd isn't a bad thing.

As for gas milage, if you drive on the highway alot expect much more then 25mpg. I get over 30mpg on out of town trips.

Good luck car shopping!

suburbanrobot

the LSJ in wards top 10 engines 2006.... quite a feat! I have a tad over 4K on my SC and I am overly impressed w/ the build quality .... I thought I would never buy a GM again, and here I am!

the Eclipse is a bloated pig w/ nothing more than a sexy body underpinned by a galant chassis (if I am correct).

If you want performance the SC is the way to go

If you was a basic car go Eclipse

NoRemorse

I have 17k miles on mine, and I take that thing apart ALL the time. It is holding up great. It takes a beating form me too.

Satchmo

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I would not buy this car again if I had the chance. I know everyone is going to claim that I have a lemon, which is very possible, but take a look in the problems forum and you will see many others giving up because their cars are problem ridden. For reference, my join date is when I got my car and it has been to the dealer already because it was in a non-running state. Of course it happened on Friday night, so I had to wait until Mon to take the car in and Tues to get it back. They replaced the injectors, spark plugs, and ingnition system to solve the problem. The car ran fine for a while after, but lately, it has been running like crap. There are some times when I start it up and it runs amazing, the way it should, but that only happens maybe once a week. I don't drive it hard and I am getting around 23 mpg max with city driving and my idle is very often all over the place. The dealer DID reflash my computer for the idle fix, but yesterday it almost died on me at idle when it dipped down to like 300rpms at a stop sign. At least once a day I have the "bucking bronco" syndrom which makes it look like I can't drive when I know it isn't my fault. This usually happens when taking off in first gear and the car seems to intermitinly bog when constant acceleration is applied making the car buck forward. I usually just have to stop accelerating in 1st and go to second early because it is extremely embarassing looking. Oh, and on to my interior. It wasn't too bad when I first got it and I thought it looked very nice. Well, after about a month, I started getting the dreaded Chevy rattle. You know what I am talking about. It sounds like there are baby rattles inside every piece of the interior panels and it doesn't take but the slightest imperfection in the road to cause these rattles. If the music is rediculously loud, you can hear them everywhere. I had this with my cavalier and I thought it would be better with the cobalt, but I was dead wrong. I have had friends with 10 year old Hondas that have fewer rattles than my brand new car. Don't go calling import fanboy on me because I have never owned anything other than a Chevy, but after this, I don't think I will ever buy a GM product again. There are more smaller problems like the sunroof bezel falling out and the e-brake breaking plus more, but I think I have gotten my point across. I would not reccommend you going with the eclipse, but I would say stay away from the cobalt. I am going to quickly pay mine out of the negative and get rid of it. I do love the car in general, but I just wish GM would get their act together.

Good luck with whatever your descision may be, but for me

GM =

NoRemorse

Well, no **** your ognna see people on here complaiing. I don't get on forums to say "Hey everyone, everything works like it should, you can all sleep now"

People get on and say "It's making a noise WTF should I do?!?!"

It dosn't matter HOW reliable a car is, your only going ot hear the bad things on forums.

Satchmo

Isn't that exactly what you did in this post?

Oh well, it just seems like it is more of of rarity with these cars to have one that is 100% without problems. It also seems like it is always the same 15-20 people saying that they haven't had any problems with their cars, maybe all of you are lucky. I don't know, maybe GM fixed all of these problems with the 07's and you are good to go, but I really doubt it.

D4u2s0t

see, here's the general rule... if someone has a good experience with something, they will, on average, tell 3 people about...

but, when someone has a BAD experience, they will tell on average 11 people about it..

this is why you don't hear many good stories...

you would expect to see this post:

"my car broke in a million pieces on the highway last night"

you will probably NEVER see this post:

"My car has never had any issues with it. I beat on it and everything works perfectly"



point is, you will hear the bad stories more than the good... most people have had relatively little problems with their cars, and it's like anything... if you take care of it, it will last a long time..

francisd29

GM's have not let me down the last 6 years I have relied on them. My Last one served my up til 125,000, with no major problems ever and i only sold it so i would have spending cash for the Cobalt. I did have some problems with my Cobalt involving the Rear Axle having to be replaced, which i was told was a problem they were having with some of the SS/SC models. However, Warranty replaced it, and its been smooth and beautiful ever since. As bush would say, "dont let the terrorists win" buy American

Satchmo

So I don't take care of my car? I have had it only a few months and it has 4000 miles. I only run top premium, already changed oil and filter and I do not beat on it or race it. I guess I got a good ol dose of RL (Real Life) and there aren't any problems at all with these cars. I would love to see some reliability reports in a few years.

Satchmo

I got my 98 Cavalier Z24 with about 50K miles used and had it almost 5 years with only having to replace the fuel filter. Stock clutch and everything. I traded it in with 120K miles, but it seems like my cobalt already has as many rattles as the Cavi did, which is rediculous for a new car. I know GM engines last long, but mine isn't running great so far.

StinkBOMB

I have around 6 1/2-7000 miles on my car and I love it. I had to replace the clutch because I started making too much power for the stock one to hold and I tripped a trouble code on my cruise at around the 400 mile mark. The stealership fixed the trouble code in a total of 5 minutes on a holiday, not a holiday weekend, but on the actual holiday. By my standards I beat on the car pretty hard. It's probably the fastest car I've ever owned and it's holding together pretty good. Some people do get bad cars from the factory, it happens. Take the one bad story for what it is, an example of what might happen.

BradyB

Do the following:

Buy Cobalt, (I got $3,700 off MSRP when I bought my '06 SS). They are a Chev dealership, beat 'em up on price!

As part of the purchase make them sell you the exhaust and stage II kit at cost (about $880).

Go home and install the exhaust yourself, it's a piece of cake with some jack stands. You'll have to cut the stock exhaust in one place with a hacksaw (takes like 45 minutes) or a sawzall (takes like 5 minutes). The GMMP exhaust just clamps together.

With your stage II kit:
1. First install the injectors, this takes about 20 minutes if you know what you are doing or an hour if you need to figure it out.

2. You can drive the car with bigger injectors to the dealership; it will run just a bit rich. Have them reflash the computer with the code that comes in your kit install directions, have them make sure that it revs to 7,000 after the reflash.

3. Go home and now take off the supercharger, following directions it's about 30 minutes. In another car take the supercharger to the dealer and have them swap pulleys, make sure they know that they need to use a press, some jackass dealers have spent three hours trying to use a regular old pulley puller.

4. Reinstall the supercharger and the smaller belt. The smaller belt goes on in about 20 minutes.
Some people have had problems with the belt. To make it an easy job, A. Get some good light on the pulleys so you can what you are doing, B. Put the belt in before the supercharger, this gives you room to put the belt on the pulleys under the supercharger. C. Remember that you can reach in around the back of the engine mount and set the belt on the pulley that is under the engine mount-I'm guessing that's what everybody has a problem with.

Dude, now you have a fast ride with 230-240 wheel horsepower for less then $22K!

NoRemorse

Getter idea... buy a 2.5" pulley, 60# injectos, and make friends with someone who has HPTuners.

265-275whp for less than $400