I am seriously considering buying a Cobalt SS because there's very little that's more desirable for the same price. I have a few concerns though.

1) Are there alternatives for the same price that any of you would strongly recommend instead of the Cobalt? If so, please explain why. I'd actually much prefer a car built in the USA if possible (which obviously limits my options greatly :mad: )

2) Which optional extras would be worth it? I'm thinking the 150 dollar high spoiler would be a mistake, as I've read it serves no purpose but increasing drag.

3) What does the emission override actually do to the car? Will it nerf it?

4) Will the resale be shit in a few years?

5) I know it's difficult to approximate, but ~ how much more a year are you looking at for insurance when comparing the cobalt ss to say the cobalt sport? (I'm in NY outside of NYC if that helps).

Thanks in advance for any advice, and I'll follow up answering any questions if I can be of help tomorrow.

1) No. Could get an older SRT-4, but it won't handle as nice out of the box.

2) Don't touch the spoiler. The high-rise one sucks. It's factory rice.

3) It will not nerf the car. The engine is designed to create 260 horsepower, 260 ft-lbs of torque, regardless of external stimuli. (The only way to get more out of the car when you start modding it is to hack the ECU and remove the algorithm from memory.)

4) It won't be as bad as other American cars, if that's what you mean. The engine/transmission combination alone can be sold for half the car's worth. In fact, you can part out the car brand new, and make a profit on it.

5) Not much. Maybe 10 bucks a month more?

I was looking into the car myself before I picked up my Cadillac, and I live out on the east-end of Long Island. It's a nice car. Even if the resale value isn't the best, don't let that discourage you from looking at the car. With the reliability and overall performance you'd get out of it, it'll more than make up for the (very) few cons.

Excellent, thank you for the response. I'm in Nassau County. Luckily there's over half a dozen chevy dealers here.

Cool. Yeah - I'm quite a distance out on the Island here. If you ever see a low, wide-body black Fiero with the same engine you've got in the new turbo Cobalt SS, it's probably me.

Regarding 5), I got in touch with my insurance agent and had her give comparison quotes (tentative) for the SS vs the LS (which is the lowest one). A 6 month quote is 1165 for the SS vs 1050 for the LS, for a difference of about 19 dollars a month. I didn't ask for the sport, but I'm guessing it would work out to ~10 dollars a month as you said. This would be me going out on my own policy which apparently is going to be cheaper overall than if I continue to stay on my parents' plan... strange. By the way, is this approximatly the going rate for a ~23 year old male with no negative driving history?

By the way, as long as you are out East, Ravant, you can surely answer a question of mine that came up recently. Someone told me there is a Riverhead Raceway... Is it active? I found something online but got very little information.

Regarding 5), I got in touch with my insurance agent and had her give comparison quotes (tentative) for the SS vs the LS (which is the lowest one). A 6 month quote is 1165 for the SS vs 1050 for the LS, for a difference of about 19 dollars a month. I didn't ask for the sport, but I'm guessing it would work out to ~10 dollars a month as you said. This would be me going out on my own policy which apparently is going to be cheaper overall than if I continue to stay on my parents' plan... strange. By the way, is this approximatly the going rate for a ~23 year old male with no negative driving history?

By the way, as long as you are out East, Ravant, you can surely answer a question of mine that came up recently. Someone told me there is a Riverhead Raceway... Is it active? I found something online but got very little information.

That's about the going rate, yes.

And - there is a Riverhead Raceway. It's near where I work. It's worthless. It's a 1/4 mile oval that you don't want to take any car with shiny paint onto. You will contact a wall. There was supposed to be a motorsports park built at the old Grumman installation in Calverton, but a couple of politicians blocked it in favor of some man-made, heavily-polluting indoor ski resort thing. There are no automotive racing venues on Long Island worth mentioning. Closest drag strip is Englishtown in NJ, and the closest road course worth mentioning is Watkins Glen International upstate.

Ah, you inspired me to research local tracks. Aside from Watkins Glen, Pocono Raceway is much closer but is just three turns. NH Motor Speedway seems to be about the same distance away as Watkins Glen, but again I prefer tracks that require right turns. Dover International Speedway isn't as far, but eh...

Am I missing any?

Not really. WGI is your best bet for challenging, fun, but safe (if you're responsible.)