just wanted to say ive decided i like this cobalt forum much more than the others ive seen. it's ridiculous how stupid some people sound on forums. "o yea, well if u put 5k into this car it would totally smoke ur car!." seems like theres less of that here. good work admins.


k that portion of the post was just to give the admins some thanks at keeping a decent cobalt forum online. the 2nd part of this post will just be my personal situation and I know theres a million threads just like this so it will probably be boring and pointless.

k, so I'm 16 and trying to decide which car I want. First off, please try to refrain from posting anything like "a 16yr old couldnt handle any of those cars" or "i have no respect for kids whose parents buy them brand new cars" because I know some of you will be tempted to say something like that, i understand, and thank-you in advance for fighting the urge. Now on with the story. My dad knows the owner of wentworth chevy/subaru up here in oregon so basically I'm getting either a chevy or subaru. I'll be driving my sisters 04 subaru leg for a little while before i get my own car too by the way. I have a friend that is really into subarus and through him I have found a nice local subaru shop called rallitek and several really nice forums. So that route would be easy. If i chose a subaru I would probably try to get a legacy gt, otherwise a 2.5 impreza rs. Either would be pretty sweet IMHO.

The other route I could take is ofcourse a cobalt ss/sc. I love the car. Yes, the aftermarket is still limited but other than an intake and catback I probably wouldnt do much anyways. I'm not all about speed and I don't like the srt-4 for whatever reason, but I'm planning on taking whatever car I get to the track for some fun legal racing. So i'm not really asking for a performance comparison because I've pretty much heard that before. But, if anyone has any personal oppinions that could help my decision I'd be happy to hear them. I plan on posting this same thread on a subaru forum to compare responses too.

o and btw I hear the cobalt has a small trunk opening, has anyone tried to fit golf clubs in it? really random question but only practical reason i would care about a small trunk opening

EDIT: wow that was a long post sorry

 

Hey buddy i read it andt that mkes it worth reading. Plus, if your parents have the money and they want to get you a brand new car lucky for you. Remember right now you job is to study and go to school and if you do this, and you parents want to pay you wid that then your good to go. Good luck with whichever way you take.

 

thx for the quick and positive response

 

Welcome to the site. Whatever you decide will be right for you, both cars are great ! If your dad is tight with someone that owns a dealership, your will be serviced well with either one. I am 38 and wish someone would have bought me a car when I was 16, I wish my dad would get me a new car now LOL. Good for you and I mean that. I get a new car every 4 years,my son is 13. If he is responsible and as smart as you appear to be, I would not think twice about signing over the ownership to him. The fact that most people do not take into account is that an immature idiot (of any age) can kill themselves in a Kia,so the power aspect is mute. The Cobalt aftermarket is not really there right now but in all honesty this thing is GREAT right out of the box. Do not golf ,so have not had clubs in the trunk ( and I am a car nut so other than detailing spray and a fresh towel nothing else has seen the trunk LOL). See I write long posts too !

Later.

 

yea, my dad kind of told me it had always been one of his goals, even before he was married , to be able to buy his kids their own car at 16. I personally think if you can afford to provide a car for your child and trust him to use it responsibly it would be a great way for any kid to learn responsibility and even more subtetly driving can teach a kid respect/curtesy

 

aww now thats worth the time to read!
Thanks bro

 

good luck in whichever you pick...(you do know that were all going to say the SS is a good pick cus a lot of us own them ) they are both sweet cars...the trunk opening is small, however the rest of the trunk is huge...when i first waw it i was like ....golf clubs should fit with no problem by the way....if your allowed to test drive both of them do that (you have to be 18 in NY to test drive) i think once you drive the SS youll be getin one
we all lookin forward to pix

 

TEST drive i would recommend it, you might like both cars equally now, but after a test drive you will find one to be more fun, and fit you perfectly. Good luck with you choice.

 

yea i figured it would probably come down to the test drive. thanks to everyone for the advice and info.

 

i can fit 2 golf bags in my trunk w/o folding the seats down

 

nice, that's what i was hoping for thanks.

 

I think a Cobalt coupe or LS coupe would make a great first car. An SS... i don't know about that.

Back in the dim, distant past (1990), my first 'real' car was slated to be an 84 Mustang GT 20th Anniversary edition. Before that, I had an 81 Citation X-11, a 72 Pontiac Catalina coupe and a 78 Mercury Bobcat that was rotted pretty bad. The Mustang, though... this car was sickstupid evil fast! I still don't know what Dad was thinking, but... I took it up the road, sidways, got the 4 way intersection up the road from Dad's and without hesitation blew off four donuts before I really knew what the **** I was doing... So I bring the car back look at dad through the haze of burning BF Goodrich rubber and say, "thanks, but its, um, a bit much for driving back and forth to school!"
So dad is pretty much at a loss (he's a time traveler from the 60's sometimes- in his mind, who wouldn't want a V8? Even now he is like that)... Well, what do you want to drive?, he goes.
I fire back, "Sean found me a Pinto."
"Um, ok..."

So my first real car was an 80 Ford Pinto runabout. Dad, naturally, couldn't leave it alone. When it finally left the garage in July, the car was the same bright orange color (Ford Bright Bittersweet 2G), but had a satin black hood (ala Mustang Mach 1), a 428 CJ hood scoop, slotted-aluminum Mustang II wheels and had way bigger tires than a Pinto should've had!(215/60R14 BF Goodrich T/A) I drove that car to hell and back for over 4 years. In the course of it, it went from a 2.3L OHC automatic car to a 'from hell' 2.3L OHC 4speed... After blowing the cam up... apparently these engines were known for shitty camshafts) My dad, took it upon himself to make sure the car had enough go to get me in trouble! The head had been shaved, the ports polished, new Ford SVO circle track cam/followers/valve seals, 3-angle valve job, SVO intake, Holley 500cfm 2bbl, MSD distributor, Accel ignition, 8mm superstock wires, Pace-Setter header, straight back exhaust into a smaller Thrush glasspack, Zoom racing clutch and shifter that liked to loosen up and pop out of the transmission when it wanted to! Bwahahahah! This car was a ball to drive and it wasn't a V8!

Getting back to my point, maybe the SS isn't a great choice for a first car. The base coupe would probably make more sense and the great thing about that engine is it, too, can be worked to run better than mom's grocery getter.

Sorry for the long post... I think it was relevant... sometimes I can't even tell.

Scott

 

As others have said, the trunk opening is a bit small, but the trunk itself is huge! No problem getting golf equipment into there

 

Isn't a Legacy GT way more $ than a 2.5 RS?

Personally I'd take the Legacy GT over the SS/SC. I'd deffinately take the SS/SC over the 2.5RS.

WRX vs SS/SC is closer though, but I think i'd have to go WRX.

 

yea the leg gt is rather more money but my dad is buying the car for me and for some reason he thinks the wrx is some ultimate racecar. One dissadvantage of having the owner of the dealership as a family friend is that he advised my dad not to get me the wrx, the leg gt on the other hand is right around the wrx performance wise (or so ive heard) yet it is mostly viewed as a luxury sedan. The 2.5 rs is basically an n/a wrx, so my dad would let me get one of those.

i agree with the cobalt ss/sc > 2.5 rs, mostly, except i'm still very wary of buying a first year model and the 06 production is still on hold i hear. From what i've heard on the boards alot of people are having minor problems with their cars. as opposed to the subarus that have been out forever.

 

Legacy GT's are so hot man, if thats on the table, I'd snap it up!

 

agreed. ill def push for the leg gt first. then its a test drive between the rs and the cobalt coz the supercharger doesnt mean all that much to me. I probably won't go to the track that often and if so it'll just be with friends so the extra speed isn't all that important if i like the rs better.

 

Do NOT say that yet. You're 16, you haven't been driving for a long time, so here's my personal experience from when I learned to drive...

My first car was a 94 Civic EX coupe. I LOVED that car. Still do, it was awesome. 1.6L, 125hp. Not bad. I bought it much for the same reasons you're looking at the cars you are... it was cool, felt good in it. Didn't much care about speed. In fact it was sheer luck that I bought an EX instead of a 100hp 1.5L DX I was also considering... I really didn't care. That changed really fast.

Get a stick, drive for a while, especially going to the track a couple times.... and come back here then and tell me you don't care about the supercharger. I'm saying this with 100% seriousness, I'm totally not patronizing or being sarcastic at all, because I was exactly the same way. Believe me, the "speed doesn't mean much" thinking can go away reeeal fast.

Just give it a whirl first and see what you think. Believe me it would suck to buy a car thinking it's no biggie, and then have your tastes change and you end up wishing you'd got something else....