Ok, I'm torn.

There is an 05 STi at a car lot I'm thinking about getting. Its black, prefect shape, and has intake, turbo back exhaust, and a turbo timer. It also has 10500 miles, which is what my 07 Cobalt has right now. Asking price is $27000. blue book is $29000

Basically, my payments on the balt are 450 for another 4 years. Getting this car would make my payments 540 for 6 years....

I'd like to get a nice AWD and replace my AWD Talon with a nice FWD Eclipse GS-T or something, just to get good gas with and drive to work. I'd also love the 4 doors, cause I have a kid and a dog....soon to be 2 dogs cause I'm getting a husky-wolf hybrid

I can afford the payments, but is it worth it? Should I wait til I've paid more on the Cobalt? Should I say screw it altogether cause I'll get raped on trade-in? Or should I just be happy I already have an AWD...even though its still only 2 doors....

 

540 for 6 years is stupid, wait awhile and keep the cobalt

 

Yeah, 39,000 doesn't seem worth it. Did you mean to type $540 for 4 years?

 

why does it have a turbotimer? newbs. but yes trade in youll never regret it, then buy a stock intake

 

you are prolly going to get raped on neg equity unless the car is payed off.

 

keep the balt !

 

bye bye balt! do it!who cares if you loose money, youll be much happier in an sti

 

Explain to the newb why you dont need a turbo timer (sounds like a desil thing) and to use the stock intake?

Just curious...



Oh and BUY THAT MOTHER F****R!!!!!!!!! TURBO AWD FTW!!!!!!

 

A kid and two dogs... sounds like you need a minivan!

 

You don't need a turbo timer, but I have one on my Talon too. Its to let the car run a couple minutes after you've driven it, so that the turbo has time to cool off. If you don't let it cool off, the oil can boil in the turbo, or cause it to crack. But you can always just sit in the car and let it idle a minute....but the one I have also serves as an electronic boost gauge, and it shows me my peak boost. Its just a nice gadget is all.

 

the vf39 is a water cooled turbo, meaning its always "cool", thus making a turbo time pointless and a waste of money.
intake makes a untuned subaru run lean
could go into detail explaing, but thats the jist of it

 

I'll be much happier with the extra room I'd have...I want a roomie car, but I don't want to have to get stuck with a slow POS either. I thought about waiting til the new EVO X comes out...but the price tag on its going to be pretty high, not to mention its going to be a half a second slower than the old EVO's.

How much faster do you think the car is with just the intake and exhaust? You think gas mileage is a little better also?

so you think its running real lean? Maybe a bad buy then, depending on how much it got romped on...

I keep trying to think the STi is alot like my Talon, though they are completely different...

 

I'd be VERY leary of buying an STi used. You're setting yourself up for a lot of potential headaches. My best friend was looking at buying one a few years back, white, 12,000 miles, they wanted about the same for it, it was like $26 or $27k.

We took it out and it was beat to absolute hell and back. It LOOKED fine but it just didn't drive like we thought it should. She was still interested, so we took it to a private mechanic and he found all sorts of issues on it. It looked like the turbo had been rebuilt, I forget what else he found. He basically said it looked like they'd either beat it to hell stock or they'd tried to mod it, started having problems, took it back to stock and traded it in. Hell it was an auction car meaning this was the second dealer that couldn't sell it to save them. It had been sitting at this dealer for so long that before we drove it, there were cobwebs EVERY where on it so it has sat for quite some time.

Just be smart about it if you do want it. Personally, it's not worth it to me. I LOVE STis but when I get one I'd rather save up the $$$ and buy new rather than used. You're not going to get as good a deal on financing, and you're probably not going to get much on trade-in on the Balt.

 

Yeah, I do understand your point. Any used car is a bargain. With my Cobalt, since 38 miles on the speedo I've owned it, so I know EXACTLY where its been. But when I bought the car, for some reason it seemed like the back seats had more room....I guess compared to my Talon, they do. But it just seems to get tinier and tinier every day, as my family is growing. I wish I would have considered that when I bought the car. But I do love my Cobalt...its been awesome to me.

There are so many factors to consider. I don't know what I'll do.

 

Look. Keep the 'balt. 4 years left to pay at $450/month is $21,600. Blue book in excellent condition is $18k, which I doubt you could get on a trade, but assume the dealership isn't trying to make any money... Which puts you at least $3600 upside down. So, if you were to trade it in, it is likely the sales person could bury the $3600 in the STi, but then you would be financing the cost of the STi + the $3,600 it would take to pay off your current loan.
You say you can afford the higher payments, great! It's great that you didn't max yourself out with your car loan like most people do. Take the extra $90 a month and do something constructive with it. Send it to your loan company every month. If you were to overpay $90 every month for a year, you would knock well over 2 months of payments out, and get closer to being out from under your loan - and by that I mean, having your car be worth more than you owe. once you get to that point, it is a lot easier to stay there.
If you don't like the idea of overpaying on your loan, bank that $90 a month. After a year, take the $1080 you saved, and start thinking about what kind of car you want to replace your DSM with. Unless you plan to race the DSM, I would think about getting a 4-door people mover to carry the kid and the dogs, something you can pay cash for outright with your trade, and just keep doing it until you step up to something that is paid for and gets the job done and is what you want to drive. In increments, do your homework and take cash and your paid-off-trade-in-people-mover for the next step up. It's not glamorous, and it doesn't score you forum points, but it gets the job done and you fare better in real-life.
You have a fun fast car in the 'balt, which would be tough to get out of right now. (All you are missing is the Recaro seats that came in my '06 SOM SS/SC G85... snicker) I would suggest something more utilitarian and paid for as your second car.
I have been struggling with the same thing if you can't tell.

 

If I could rep you I would. I understand completely what you are saying. I tend to think more towards "now" than towards the future...which is where I should be looking. I think in 4 years, I'll be glad to be out of the payments, but then again...in 4 years I could be homeless living in a box. You never know where life will take you.
Maybe a better thing to do would be sell the Talon outright, and use the money to buy a 4 door something...but I don't want to lose the AWD, or the speed factor.

 

I knew what a turbo timer was for but i just didnt know that the sti turbo was watter cooled.

 

^^^I didn't know that it was water cooled either. Now I feel 'tarded, lol.

 

double post

the intake, wont hurt the car...yet,, it just makes it run a lil crappy though for the time beeing,, why dont you check out like an 06 wrx, with the 2.5 do a fp green turbo swap, or of course a gt35r swap, those with full exhaust and tune youll see over 300 whp, more than a stock sti, stock sti's dyno around 262-267awhp

 

i like the sti and i bet it would be faster than the balt but you just gotta think about how much money you would be spending

 

I'd get the STI, trade the Cobalt in, you'll definatly be happy.

 

I'm going to get the vin today and see whether or not my insurance will jump. I'm a 25 year old female, so it's pretty cheap anyways.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
xxxxxxxX2 thats about the best way to put it.... negative equity will kill you... most banks also wont loan a lot of money beyond what book value is on a used car's price, nice down payment and good credit can get it done most of the time. Also how many videos have we all watched on youtube of the 6K STI launches??? since you bought your car new and prolly been the only person to drive it, to me thats priceless!! but if you still want this car go back down their and say here is a check for my down payment hold it while I take the car to my mechanic... this at least gives you a day to drive the car and see if its worth your money if pass his inspection than we can talk price, and if its a lemon you get your cash back!! I drove a used STI and the suspension alone was enough to tell me naw I'm cool and then when the told me what they wanted to give me for my car... LOL.. thanks for making me fall in love with my car all over agian

 

Don't do it .
From an investment point of view it will be one of the worst decisions of your life.
Your at a pivotal point in your life right now where you need to bank the extra money your earning. For once in your life your probably making extra cash.
Soon you will be paying a mortgage, tuition for your child, etc etc.

 

sti > cobalt. you get what you pay for. more money, more doors, more room, more fast, more fun.