I have a tough decision on my hands. I love my 06 victory red SS/SC, have had it for almost 2 years now but I have found a deal that is hard to pass up on. A local dealership is selling a 2011 Lancer Ralliart with only 20K miles on it. The price is a very reasonable 20K, and the pictures it looks very good shape. Another positive after doing a little looking I can get around 340 WHP with about only $1,500 of mods. It is also AWD so the Ohio winters won't be so bad. This is going to be a very tough decision.

 

Thats a great price for a great car. my dealership wanted to get me into a ralliart!

The guy who traded it in did so to get this 4 door red LNF (why I was there, to look at the 4 door LNF).

Anyways they were trying to convince me to trade for the ralliart. THey wanted 25k + terrible financing.

I PASSED!Definitely still want to trade my balt for one in the next few years.

 

If you want it bad enough and everything works out, do it. Don't let it be something that you wish you would have done but never did.

 

Buy it & keep the Balt

 

It's pretty crazy how I came about it. I was at work and someone had a auto trader and I just happened to look at it and saw the great deal and got the wheels turning. 3 days ago I had no intentions of getting a new car but this is a deal and a half.

I'm going to have to work with them a little on the financing but I expect them to be flexible because there is only a certain niche for cars like that. It's slightly out of my range, but if they can knock about 1,000 off the price ill be good.

 

I love the raliarts. expensive around here but nice.

 

I really thought about this, but the car payments for both would be a pretty big burden. If I had graduated from college already I probably would where I can work full time all year around, but during the semester I just can't go full time and work full time.

 

You're still in college? I'd say just keep the Balt and get it paid off and build your credit so you have more control over the deal on a car. Everybody is too impatient when it comes to buying cars.

I didn't even bother looking for a car until I had $11,000 to put down on one so that I'd still be in the black if the value tanked and I had to sell it. I work with a guy that financed a 2012 Mazda 3 with skyactive for 36k over 5 years and he'll still owe $7,000 after financing is done. How the **** do you even manage to get into a deal like that.

 

yeah if you are in school and cant work full time, I wouldn't think about taking on a higher car payment. I go to school full time and work full time. so it can be done

 

Well the thing is my job, I make about 10.50-11 an hour. During the semester I usually work about 25-30 hours a week, mostly on the weekend. My college is only 10 minutes away so I live at home still. I have built up some funds for a solid down payment

On that note I have a monthly payment in mind I will not go over. It's not like I hate my Balt, just love the Ralliart. If I can't get it in the range of the monthly payment I'm looking for ill have no problems walking and keeping my Balt.

 

So you take home like 900 bucks a month. Your monthly payment will by at least $350, plus collision insurance, plus tires, gas, $1500 in mods. How much can you sell your SS/SC for and how much do you owe on it? I just don't see the point of stretching your budget while you're in school instead of saving for a rainy day. ****, I bought my SS/TC at 19 and was taking home 2-3 thousand a month and still barely saving anything after buying parts, tires and paying upkeep costs until I got a higher paying job.

 

I bring home about 1,150 for 5 months out of the year, the other 7 during school I bring home about 1,000.

With what I owe on my SS/SC, I should get a positive equity of about 500-1,000, plus ill have a down payment of at least 2,000.

My expenses are not very high, I work 2 minutes from my house and school is 10 minutes. 50 bucks in gas will get me a month. I got a number of $330 a month for the payments I won't go over. I'm good on staying on a budget, and $330 a month ill still have about $300 a month for any use. Plus ill get some bonuses for parting out.

 

Yes if your still in school then keep the Balt pay it off build up your credit score to 770 ( or try to ) and above then when you go to buy a new car that you want you will get the best deals out there price wise and financing wise

 

Do you know what your credit score is at? Do you have any financial investments going? (RRSPs, TFSA, etc.) Personally I'd try and put some money away into those while you're still in school, they will help you out a ton after you're done school. My dad forced me to open RRSPs when I turned 20 and I'm about to pull them out after 2 years to help pay for a $313k house that my offer just got accepted on. A car is literally one of the worst investments you can make. If your Cobalt isn't giving you much trouble at all I'd say keep it and invest your extra money if you can.

 

I do not know my credit score, but I remember when I financed my cobalt it was pretty high for a 19 year old. Now it's almost 2 years later and I havnt missed a payment, payed off in full my credit card.

Investment wise I have about 1,500 in treasury bonds, plus my work takes money out per pay for a 401K. I also only have about a year of school left, once I'm out ill be making significantly more (hopefully).

I really would like to wait till the end of summer to get it, be able to put down about a 5,000 down payment plus the positive equity on my trade will be slightly more as well. But obviously there is no guarantee that car/deal will still be there.

 

Keep the Cobalt, especially since you mentioned you had a payment on your 06.

 

IIRC when i was looking up the new ralliarts the term that stuck out was "de-tuned evo" and i saw something about an "Evo Tune" that makes them every bit as good as the evo's...

dont know to much about it though... outside of looking at brand new GSR Evo's(only real stick they have)

 

Keep the Balt and but a Ralliart in a couple years. I promise they will still be out there and you will be in a better position for sure.

 

well if you drive so little then it shouldnt be much of an issue keeping your SS regardless of how bad winter is. if you wait until your done college and get one when you have a career and not a job you would probably be able to afford an evo that will hold value way better than a ralliart.

 

yeah i have seen that, Evo's hold value like no other... its annoying how much value they hold...

 

Ended up getting the Ralliart on a GREAT deal. I made the dealer know that i had no problems walking away and keeping the cobalt, so I had all the leverage. got them to knock off about 2K off the asking price (already 2K under the market asking price) and they gave me an extra 500 on the trade for my cobalt after negotiations. Got a 7 year 100K mile warranty on the Ralliart for half the price too.

It was sad driving away and seeing my SS/SC there, I LOVED that car. But the Ralliart absolutely blew me away and with the deal I got on it I am very happy with my decision.

 

Grats man, im jelly!

 

Thank you! the car is beautiful. Ill get some pics up tomorrow. Only downfall is its an auto, I like manuel much better. It does have slap stick shifting.

 

Yeah man, paddle shifters are fine IMO.

Biggest issue for me with autos is not being able to select the exact gear I want. If that can be handed nicely. Then meh! Autos are great as long as they have a proper manual mode setup.

 

I think once i get used to the paddle shifters i will like it. On the dash cluster when its in drive it tells you what gear it is in (6 speed). it also shifts like a manuel car, just automatically. It also has a nice feature of mode's, there is a normal mode that is better on gas and doesnt really use boost. Then there is a sport mode that really gets the turbo spooled up the car takes off. It makes great power in the lower RPM's, kind of tails off the higher RPM, but i think with a good sport tune that can be fixed.

Looked online at modding for it, and with a tune, CAI, Catback and a cheap adjustment to the Turbo the car will be putting down around 320, i could only dream of that in my SS/SC. but i dont plan on any modding for at least a year and a half or so if any.