Good morning! We’re starting the week off with a pair of factory hot rod economy cars. One is a well-known canyon-carver, and the other is way faster in a straight line than it has any right to be, and they’re both proudly letting their check-engine lights shine. Sounds like our kind of matchup, doesn’t it?
On Friday, we looked at a Fiat that was prepped for track use, and a Subaru kei truck that isn’t quite ready for the DMV yet. I guess I’m not surprised that you favored the kei truck. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. But hey, if you all want to overlook Alitalia graphics, an Enzo Ferrari connection, and an engine designed by a guy with the greatest Italian name of all time – Aurelio Lampredi – in favor of some wheezy little Japanese farm truck that can barely hit highway speeds, that’s your choice.
I have no idea what the process is, if there is one, for re-titling a former race car, but commenter and contributor Brandon Forbes pointed out that the kei truck may not be all that easily registerable either. It sounds like the seller has half-assed some paperwork, and that could cause all sorts of headaches for a new owner. It might be better to seek out a more legitimate deal, if you really want a kei truck, but you’d have to apply your own stripes.
Now then: The malaise era of the late 1970s and early 80s, and the resulting adoption of front-wheel-drive for most mainstream cars, felt like the end of high-performance vehicles. “High performance” FWD cars started showing up before too long, cars like the Chevy Citation X-11 and the Dodge Shelby Charger, but they were only fast in comparison to the standard versions of the same car, and they introduced us all to a new and terrible term: “torque steer.” It felt like the thrill was gone, and it wasn’t coming back.
A decade or two later, though, automakers had tamed the FWD beast a bit, and new engine technologies meant even more power and better drivability. And for a while, after engines got good again but before safety regulations added a bunch of weight, we had some really fun little FWD pocket-rockets to choose from. I’ve found a couple of them for us to look at today, both a little worse for wear, but probably still a lot of fun. Let’s check them out.
1999 Dodge Neon R/T – $4,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.0 liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Lancaster, CA
Odometer reading: 125,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
Any Dodge fan worth their salt knows that the R/T badge is supposed to mean something special. First appearing in 1968, the R/T package (for “Road/Track”) added horsepower, handling, and style to the Charger and Coronet muscle cars. Since then, there has been an R/T package for just about every generation of Dodge, from the sublime Challenger and Viper to the ridiculous Aspen and Caliber. In 1998, Dodge added an R/T badge to its Neon compact, making an already fun and quick car even quicker and more fun.
The Neon R/T came out of the Neon ACR, a stripped-down high-performance version of the Neon intended for club-level racing and autocrossing. The R/T kept the ACR’s 150-horsepower twincam engine, short-ratio five-speed manual, and stiffer suspension, and added air conditioning, a stereo, and some stripes and badges so everyone knew what you had. This one has covered 125,000 miles, and has been graced with a whole bunch of new parts, including the timing belt and water pump, which is not a fun job on a Neon. It runs great, but has a check-engine light for a code in the evaporative emissions system, which shouldn’t be too hard to track down.
It looks like it’s in pretty good shape overall; the interior is nice, though I’d like to know what’s under that dash cover. There may be a leaky door seal somewhere on the driver’s side as well, or maybe a grommet missing on the firewall. It looks like the car was just washed prior to the photos, and the driver’s side floor mat looks wet. It’s worth asking about and checking out.
Outside, it’s presentable, but not perfect. The seller says it has a salvage title from being hit while it was parked, requiring the front bumper, headlights, and turn signals to be replaced. It doesn’t take much to ding the title on a car this old, and on a specialty vehicle like this, it only really matters if you want it for an investment – in which case you don’t park it where it can be crashed into. This is a good driver-quality example of a rare and fun car.
2006 Chevrolet Cobalt SS – $3,800
Engine/drivetrain: Supercharged 2.0 liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Cerritos, CA
Odometer reading: 111,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
Chevrolet’s SS, or Super Sport, badge goes back even further, all the way back to 1961 and the Impala (or 1957 and a Corvette show car, if you’re being pedantic, which I know someone will be). Like Dodge, Chevy threw the SS badge around with wild abandon during the muscle car days, offering a Super Sport package on Chevelles, Camaros, Novas, and pretty much everything else. The SS packages sort of disappeared in the late ’70s in favor of the “Z” series of option packages, but the badge made a few memorable appearances in the 1990s. In 2005, Chevy’s then-new Cobalt compact received an SS badge – and a supercharger to back it up.
This car has been the subject of our GM Hit Or Miss series in the past, and I think, like other cars in that series, counts as both a hit and a miss. On the one hand, it was faster than snake-shit (though the Mopar fan in me has to point out that it was not faster than the Neon SRT-4, the R/T’s successor) and actually handled pretty well for what it was. On the other hand, it was, well, a Cobalt. You can cover a rental car’s interior in leather and fake carbon-fiber, but you can’t make it not be fundamentally the same car. (Though yes, to be fair, one could make the exact same complaint about the Neon.)
This one is pretty clean inside, at least. The seller says it runs and drives great, but one photo shows the dashboard, and the check-engine light is on, plain as day. Since the tags are up in November, and it will need to be smog-tested then, it’s worth asking why it’s on. But the seller did just have the air conditioner serviced, so that’s something.
Outside, it’s a little tacky for my tastes; I’m not a fan of the “none more black” look. Especially if you’re going to paint the wheels black and then curb the hell out of them. With stock-colored wheels, and without those dumb smoked light covers, I think it would look a lot better. The aftermarket ram-air hood can stay, I guess; it’s too much work to try to replace it.
Both of these cars, in pristine shape, are probably in the “future classic” family, but not these examples, and that’s what I like about them. These were meant to be cheap fun, used and borderline-abused and enjoyed, and I think these are both perfect for that. The prices may seem a little high, but we all know the used car market is nuts these days. They’re still cheaper than a whole lot of cars that are a whole lot less fun. So which famous two-letter badge do you want on your economy car?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
Coin flip, but I picked the Neon. With the Cobalt, I’d be tempted to find a Fiero to drop the engine into for giggles. No such urges with the Neon, and I feel more nostalgic for that era of Chrysler before Daimler really started draining the company of its vital fluids during their “merger of equals”.
Wow this is close..
Oh and :
but has a check-engine light for a code in the evaporative emissions system, which shouldn’t be too hard to track down.
Sounds like someone got lucky tracking down an evap issue, they most definitely can be too hard to track down
Neon all the way. Both have the CE light issue. The Neon’s dash is definitely cracked – this thing’s been in Lancaster, so that’s a given. But it will be more fun to drive and I’d have a hard time with something as oxymoronic as a black Cobalt. (Whoever owns that thing did a nice 360 degree job with the curb rashing, though!)
Neither for me, thanks. I’ll take the bus.
Ooooh I want that Neon…
The front of that Cobalt looks too much like an Avenger.
I’ll take the happy stripey Neon.
Stripes!
The Cobalt has had the ever loving shit beat out of it, and the Neon is a fundamentally “right” car let down by terrible cost cutting. The are so enjoyable to drive.
As an aside, people calling out the Neon’s interior are in for a rude awakening if they think a Cobalt’s interior is actually any better. It’s bad in different ways (exactly like a C6 Corvette interior is bad in different ways from a C5s) but it’s still very bad; and I’d absolutely much rather have the charming 90s interior of the Neon.
I love Neons. You give me Neon, I vote Neon, the world is good. NEON SAYS HI!!!
Nope, can’t do the Neon. if I wanted that engine in 2 doors and that era I would definitely be shopping the Eagle Talon instead.
Supercharger for me please. though I kind of prefer the Saturn version with it’s oddball clamshell on one side.
I owned a first Gen neon sport coupe so I guess I got a soft spot in my heart but more likely my head for ’em. Blown head gaskets and rattling windows anyone?
The 1st gen neons were just so perfect – especially the 2-door. I had a ’96 2-door with the single cam and an automatic, and would drool over the R/Ts with their “power bulge” in the hood that signaled the dual cam engine, and the snowboard bolted to the decklid that promised ounces (OUNCES, I TELL YOU!!) of downforce. Add in the manual trans, and this is a seriously fun little machine.
Going the friendly route today. A murdered out recession era Chevy not my idea of fun.
They’re both good cars but the owners of the SS always seemed…. not smart. Meanwhile the neon looks mostly stock, so I’m going with that one. Plus I love 1st gen neon coupes. Many good memories street racing mine in the early 00s
I was solid Cobalt until I saw the “hood pins.” Someone has beaten the shit out of that car and now wants out if it so bad and so fast they’d rather not pay $100 for another year’s registration.
Neon.
Familiarity breeds contempt. There’s so much carryover from the Cobalt that came from the Cavalier that makes it unpleasant.
On the Neon, I’d want to check when the head gasket was done before I drove it home.
What carried over from the j car to the delta platform besides the ecotec engine?
Only thing I know that can swap is the steering knuckles
Seats, and quite a few touchpoints.
Weird, I’ve yet to have heard that
I know the cavalier seats would swap into s10s
Two cars that were built to live fast and die young, and survived anyway. The murdered-out Cobalt’s safety equipment is 7 years newer, going with that.
That’s the main reason I chose the Chevy today.
I also don’t like unexplained wetness on the inside of the cars I buy. That’s an urgent fix, and it’s not always easy to track down before it smells too much or ruins large parts of the electrical system.
Not even in the Top 10 deciding factors. Do you not older cars? Neither one of these should be considered daily material. I mean they can be, but at that point safety equipment is by far the least of your worries.
About 2018 or 2019 I sold a 99 White/Blue stripe R/T sedan to a buddy of mine for $600. It needed some work, but seeing the prices of them inflated like this really makes me super regret that decision. The trip was also harrowing and makes for a good story of how a community can come together, but it was super inconvenient at the time.
I still have 3 1gns (including an NYG ACR sedan), but I miss that R/T, it was just a little different and pretty nice. The 3.94/.81 gearset was really annoying on the highway, but I’d take another one in a heartbeat.
The Cobalts were okay for the era, but I never found them interesting for myself, maybe because I already had a neon and was heart set on getting an SRT-4 when they came out. Maybe because my home town was very GM centric, and everyone had Cavaliers and then Cobalts and I wanted something different.
Went with the Neon as I’m not a fan of the stupid mods, limo tint, torn driver seat or check engine light that the Cobalt has.
There’s a reason the Cobalt SS was one of the fastest cars on the Nurburgring (granted that was a TC/SS and a SC/SS). They are fun, light, cheap, and easy to mod. The Neon is cool, but I think the SS would be a better driver all around.
If the Cobalt wasn’t all blacked-out, this would be a hard choice for me. But, since it does not match my taste at all, Neon it is.
Seeing a Neon in these parts of the rust belt is rare. Seeing a hotted up Neon is even rarer. While the Cobalt is fun, it would be a bigger cop magnet in it’s current state. Neon for me.
I’m shocked the Neon is winning. It’s a goofy-ass looking car and looks like absolute dog sh-t inside. The Cobalt — despite the excessive murdering out — looks so much better, but I realize that’s just a matter of taste. Gimme the GM.
Yeah I am shocked too. Especially considering the price. 4k for a Neon is insanity, even without considering the salvage title. At least the Cobalt is relatively quick and wouldn’t take much to clean up the appearance.
Agreed. It strikes me much more as “look what I traded for my PS5!” than, you know, a purchase.
Look closely at the Cobalt and the issue isn’t just the stupid mods or the stupid limo tint, there is also the torn driver seat and the check engine light.
I might counter that the seat looks absolutely pristine for an 18 year old, entry-level Chevy.
I don’t see the CEL as being an issue, although I would obviously check what it is for. Very likely the result of modification or similar. Could be the reason it is being sold as well given it is California. The interior, to me, is actually better than I would expect given the age and what it is.
Well, I mean the cobalt has 50 more HP than the neon. So, If I’m driving an old economy car that’s all I need to make my decision.
I drove a 150HP DOHC Cavalier – similar to the Neon and it’s not really something to brag about.
Now, if you were comparing the SRT Neon to the LNF powered Turbo Cobalt it would be a much harder decision.
The Cobalt has infinitely more potential than the Neon just by nature of having a supercharger. And while I don’t particularly like the look the of Cobalt, I like it way more than the Neon. If the Neon were a SRT4 than it would be a whole other situation but as it sits I cannot think of a single reason I would choose the Neon over the Cobalt.
Adding on that de-douching the Cobalt wouldn’t take much. Trip to the junkyard for a hood, clear up the lights, and different wheels/stripping those and it would be fine.
I’d love to chrome rims back on that thing. that would be a statement.
You can put an oversized pully and tune and reliably get that cobalt a little hotter without much effort.
And certainly would. I would have a lot of fun making this thing whine and just bombing it around without concern for hurting it. Those Ecotecs are very stout. I have heard it is possible to retrofit the supercharger setup from one of these on to my 2.2L S10 engine…not sure how viable that is, but the idea is certainly a fun one.