Hey Guys, so i'm currently in the market looking to buy a used car. I've been looking at cobalt ss/tc and i really like them alot, but going through autotrader and ****, i see srt4s running anywhere from 7k to 9k with only like 50k miles or less...thats like half the money of a turbalt and almost as fast. I think the srt4s are ****ing beautiful and really got me thinking...well maybe one of these could possibly be my next car.
But my question is, why did the value of these cars drop so much? i mean honestly idk how much they ran for back when they were brand new, but still its really cheap, plus how long do they generally last before you start running into some major issues. And is modding easy with these cars? i know with the cobalts in order to do anything you have to tune the car and then you can start modding, but then eventually have to retune for the modded parts you got which just sounds like a hassle.
Thanks for any help guys

 

First off the srt4 are faster then colbalts, the new turbo ones come close but the neons have more top end. There are a lot of these cars over 100k miles and still going strong just boils down to maintance. Any time you do major mods its good to tune, but srt4 with just minor bolts ons you don't have to, its just always better to tune to get the most out of them. Stock there are cars pushing 400+hp. It depends on how fast you want to go, the faster the more you need to put in. Id stick with the neons colbalts you do have to tune with everything. I've heard the colbalts have a better first gear but in a neon third gear is the sweet spot and pulls hard.

 

rofl, thats funny, stock the neon is slower than the turbo cobalt
And i finally watched some reviews of the srt4 and it actually answered my question unlike the 200 people that viewed this thread and didn't bother to reply, but i guess overall the srt4 is just a **** car =P hahaha i think im going to stay with the cobalt. the community is better anyways

 

Yes, buy the car for the community, not the car...There is another forum full of younger people, like yourself, that you can ask these questions to. You can argue all day about which is faster.

Be weary of higher mileage SRT-4's. It may look nice, but you have no idea what the owners previous to you did to it and put back to stock or even how they drove it. I had one that I put 113,000 miles on. It needed a TPS rewire. Other than that, nothing else was needed other than wear items (Clutch, brakes, etc).

 

In stock form they put down the same hp to the wheels, first gear the cobalt pulls harder but the neon will catch up. Stay with the slobalts, don't hear any of them putting down the same number that a neon can, I have a fiend that's over 550 +whp on his neon.

 

please stay in the cobalt cause we dont need another douche to buy one of our cars and screw it up

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

Those cars are hard to find stock. I keep seeing CL ads for them and they are almost always screwed up. Mods gone wrong, beat to hell, and my personal favorite, "It just needs a tune".

I don't own one anymore, but I am heavily thinking about throwing a 2.4L turbo into my Dodge Dart. Some might say I'm crazy; I say save a hundred pounds from a V-8 and get better gas mileage while cruising...

 

A buddy of mine is gonna put our own 2.6L we made with a 76mm turbo into a mustang body, a. They are light and b. He has one setting around lol.

 

haha this guy and his chevy like really the srt4 will beat those any day and up here in canada u can find a lot of srt4 with low km or in your case miles haha i bought my srt4 with only 79km on it and its amazing but it sat for a couple years and after driving in winter i blow a lower coolant hose but it runs better now and i get all 15 psi.

 

What MoparMatt said is mostly correct. The Neon srt4 is not actually faster than the Cobalt SS/TC but neither is the Cobalt and here is why...

Dodge added limited slip(LSD) to the srt4 for 2004 and 2005. This makes a big difference when launching and cornering. The LSD is an option for the Cobalt SS so chances are you won't find one with it. Since you came to the forums asking for advice and acting like a tool, I won't tell you how to find out...A Cobalt SS with a LSD and in competition mode using the NLS feature has a slight edge on a stock Neon srt but it would still come down to the driver and every srt member here would probaly beat you because they drive better.

The top end of the Cobalt SS/TC is very good stock but actually better with the earlier surcharged model. How do I know? I have one. I had no problems taking my underrated SS/SC over 160 MPH with plenty of room to go. With an airbox delete and k&n my car put down over 230WHP which is about 260 HP at the crank and without a tune. That's much more than the advertised 205HP. The Neon srt's also put down more stock than advertised. The problem with the supercharged SS is too much power at once. Even with brand new 235X18's the car is useless in first gear so I had to use HP Tuners to reduce 1st gear boost by 50%.

Another plus for the SRT over the Cobalt(turbo). Like MoparMatt said, anything you do to that Cobalt TC will require a tune. If you put a CAI on it, it will do nothing unless you tune it. Basic bolt ons and a 1.0 pcm is about 300WHP but it's going to cost you. Anything more than that and you'll NEED a new clutch. Anything over 350WHP and you'll NEED a girdled block or say good night. SRT guys are running 400WHP on stock internals. The LSJ or LNF won't last long at that power but can be built to withstand 1000HP. I doubt you have 10k more to invest in a motor so you'll likely be stuck with your stock Turbalt getting owned by everyone.

Fastest known Cobalt 2.0 liter LSJ accomplishments- 9.82@ 141.6mph (30psi), 898whp (54psi).

For the record I am not biased. I'm picking up an 05 SRT tomorrow that is putting down about 390WHP(conservative tune)on 93 octane, more on race gas with this switchable programmer(still learning the car). It's in excellent shape with under 90k on the odo. The previous owner has taken great care of the car and it supposedly has about 12k in upgrades. I was looking for a Turbalt to replace my Supercharged SS but couldn't find one with a LSD. Now I get to keep the SS to work on here and there (need to rebuild motor) while I have fun with this srt-4.

BTW...Correct me if I'm wrong fellow SRT owners but don't Cobalt owners seem to have a big chip on their shoulders?

I'm new here and look forward to hangin' on the forums with you all!

PEACE!