New car?

[-Jayson-]

im thinking of getting rid of the cavalier and getting. . . . . . . . A Cobalt SS S/C. I know i used to dog those cars like crazy, but they have grown on me and so has the ecotec motor. After i saw a stock block 2.2L ecotec run 11's i decided that i must have one. But i dont want another cavalier i want the 2.0 Supercharged so i have alot of room to improve. Im gonna go talk to the dealership today and see what kinda offer they can give me for the cavalier, im gonna try for 8500. KBB without the supercharger is about 6500 ish private value. I owe about 4800 or so i believe on it. So ill take the rest of the money and use that for a down payment. Hopefully that will convince them to give me the 8500 for the car, so i can make the larger down payment. But im still up in the air about it.

[clawhammer]

Well, I'd say go for it, if the car was paid off already. I would never consider selling a car that wasn't paid off, unless I HAD to. You owe $4000 more, you can pay that off in a year. But if you really want to go for it, I'd sell your Cavy privately. The dealership is going to rape you on that trade in. Put it up for sale on the forums.

[-Jayson-]

yeah im not sure what im going to do, im not gonna do a dealer trade in thats for sure. My GF wants to buy my car/ take over payments. I figure if she gave me 2500 that would make the total cost of the car for her 7,000 bucks. Thats not really bad at all. I would then put another 1,000 bucks into a down payment so a 3500 dollar downpayment. Only problem is in order to afford the monthly payments on it comfortably i would have to take out a 72 month loan. I got good credit so i can get a low interest rate, around 6-7%. With all that figured out my car payments would be around $315 bucks a month. Up from my current $165.00 bucks a month. But my insurance stay exactly the same. . .that shows how nice and safe cavaliers are. A 20,000 dollar supercharged car cost the same to insure as a Grocery getter 6500 dollar car. . .go figure. . .

so i got some thinking to do right now. . .

[turtlecrxsi]

Keep the Cavalier... at least until it's paid for. IMO, the z24 looks better (at least the exterior). But that is something you have to decide.

[clawhammer]

After reading the follow-up, I definetely feel that you should keep the Cavy.

I talked with my financial advisor about my situation a while back, before buying the S2000. He told me, that if you can't pay for it in 2 years, you can't afford it. IMO, 72 month loan is way too long, especially if you're not going to keep the car that long. I actually got a 60 month loan for the S2000, but I'm paying $542/month, and this way I will pay it off in 2.5 years. I know that sounds like a lot, but I'm probably not going to do any major mods until it's paid off. Then I will go FI.

I really like your cavalier. It's such a sleeper. BTW, you need to post some pictures of it with the new wheels.

[-Jayson-]

hmmm yeah still deciding, im just kinda dissapointed in the cavalier cause ive kinda hit a wall right now as far as performance goes. I trans wont be able to take much more HP and neither will the engine without some serious internal work. And i want a faster car. 14's arent keeping me happy anymore, and low 14's wont do it either. I know the Cobalt will only run 14's stock, but that engine has alot of room to expand. I can easily see a stock block cobalt SS S/C running low 13's comfortably.

Also cavaliers lose there resale value rather quickly. They are dropping even faster since the Cobalts were released. If i wait to pay off the car before i sell it, i honestly think i would lose more money. Just because of what i have invested into it. If i can sell it now, i walk away with my orignal downpayment intact. i took out a 60 month lease when i originally got the cavalier mainly due to financial constraints. So i still got 3 years to pay off the cavalier, and by then it wont be worth what ive put into it nor will i get my money back.

The way i see it, if i keep the cavalier i have another 3 years of being where i am at, not much room to expand without putting more money into the car than what i want to or what its worth.

Hmmm. . .

[clawhammer]

Try this. For the next 2-3 months, try making double the monthly payment on the Cavy. So instead of $165/month, pay $330/month. That's what it would feel like to have the Cobalt. If you can make the payment comfortable for the 2-3 months, then go for the Cobalt. Otherwise, stick with the Cavy.

[CivRacer95]

Civic...c'mon you know you wanna be a Honda-Fan-Boi like me...



Kidding, keep the Cavy son. Not too many of them rollin around these days, with some actual performance to them.

[clawhammer]

Well, a new Civic Si would be a better decision financially, because it will be worth a lot more than a Cobalt in 5 years, but I know you won't listen.

[-Jayson-]

i dont like hondas. The extra money per month wont be a hard thing, before i even thought of a new car, i picked up an extra day at my work. That alone will give me an extra 200-300 dollars a month. Plus i should be getting a raise at work as well, not a huge one, another dollar an hour at most. The extra day was to make money to spend on the cavy this summer. But i realised i dont want to dump more money into that car anymore. I want something new.

Cars im also considering

Neon SRT4 -Used if i can find one with really low miles
WRX - Used, i like the AWD, not the performance aspect
Mazda 3 Speed - Lots of performance
Dodge Caliber SRT4 - Tons of performance

[clawhammer]

Well, you live in Michigan. Get the WRX. It will be nice in the winter.

[Polygon]

The only problem I see is that you want to make money off the fact that you have mods. People, and especially dealers, don't give a rats ass about what mods you have done to the car. Cars are not like homes. In a house you can put in a yard and you build equity. In a car you add a supercharger and nobody gives a shit.

I just don't see you getting $8,500 for the car unless you find someone that is looking for a SC Cavy.

[2000LS1Z28]

Car payments = Da suck. Dude wait until the new turbocharged ecotec motor comes out. It's bound to make its way into the Cobalt SS, and most likely the S/C versions will drop in value like crazy.

Fuck, buy my car for $18.5k. You'll smoke the shit out of most of the Cobalt SS's that you come across, provided you can find traction that is

[CBFryman]

i actually refused to buy a modded car. 2 out of 3 times a modded car has been ragged out. not saying yours is, its just a generalization.

[2000LS1Z28]

Yeah, you know me, I just peel out sideways around every corner. Over here in California you're able to get away with as much street racing as possible (Sarcasm intended, they destroy your car for street racing, irregardless of whether you owe money on it).

Actually I rarely race my car, though I do admit that I find traction to be a serious issue with the 4.10's and no traction control.

P.S. it's stock Atleast it sounds like a stock car w/ an exhaust.