JG Pasterjak wrote:
Parkeway wrote:
As an MS3 owner I can give you my pros and cons...and the "pros" vastly outweigh the "cons" in my book.
"Pros"
Torque till the cows come home - not much lag and punch in the gut at 3500ish; *Steering feel is good, sharp and "point-and-shoot" quick; *Responds well to easy mods like intake (20hp) and turbo inlet; *Cobb Accessport unlocks even more power. Safely.; *A BEAST in the twisties; *Best braking in the game IMHO; *Room for the kid's carseats or two grown adults in the back
"Cons"
*Car won't pull till redline on a stock ECU map and 1st/2nd gear are governed by ECU to prevent wheelspin of all things; *Torque steer is prevalent (a stiffer rear motor mount fixed mine); *Heavy car; *High boost levels require a fuel pump upgrade on pre 2008.5 cars
Overall, a great get-away-with-murder-daily-driver-track-car-in-an-unassuming-package sports car.
Who's mount did you use? I might be interested (especially if we can make a new industry pal)
jg
I went with the cheap n' cheerful corksport motor mount inserts. if you're not going to go much farther than an intake and downpipe, they're more than adequate. no more vibrations than the stock mount, it just gets rid of the annoying wheelhop when you lay into it in 2nd or 3rd and the tires can't manage. I never really had an issue with torque steer at Stg1+ SF intake unless the tc was on, in which case when it would grab the spinning wheel and send power the other way, it would tug at the wheel a bit.
if you like the extra revs with the intake, it only gets better with a downpipe and aftermarket intercooler. I've got a cp-e catted downpipe on my car and it'll run to 6500 still pulling pretty strong. part of the reason the stock tuning closes the throttle and reduces the wastegate duty cycle (to lower boost) is that the stock turbo is a bit undersized for the application, and running past 6000ish takes it outside of its efficiency range.
have you requested your copy of Accesstuner Race yet? COBB released it a couple of weeks ago and people have been making some progress on their own versions of the off the shelf maps. i've taken the boost tables and AFR targets from the economy map to make a stage 2+ intake economy map.
JG Pasterjak wrote:
Parkeway wrote:
As an MS3 owner I can give you my pros and cons...and the "pros" vastly outweigh the "cons" in my book.
"Pros"
Torque till the cows come home - not much lag and punch in the gut at 3500ish; *Steering feel is good, sharp and "point-and-shoot" quick; *Responds well to easy mods like intake (20hp) and turbo inlet; *Cobb Accessport unlocks even more power. Safely.; *A BEAST in the twisties; *Best braking in the game IMHO; *Room for the kid's carseats or two grown adults in the back
"Cons"
*Car won't pull till redline on a stock ECU map and 1st/2nd gear are governed by ECU to prevent wheelspin of all things; *Torque steer is prevalent (a stiffer rear motor mount fixed mine); *Heavy car; *High boost levels require a fuel pump upgrade on pre 2008.5 cars
Overall, a great get-away-with-murder-daily-driver-track-car-in-an-unassuming-package sports car.
Who's mount did you use? I might be interested (especially if we can make a new industry pal)
jg
JG - I went with the TRZ dogbone (in Poly - not Delrin). Installation was as close to instantaneous as anything you could ever do, and the difference in the car was astounding. Picked it up from Ken at protegegarage.com.
Car feels more connected and that tricky 3rd gear shift is gone. So is wheelhop, though I am awaiting the new TMIC before I romp too much.
I also believe the mount got rid of the bite of torque steer. Not quite as "alarming" as it used to be and the car tracks straight under firm acceleration.
It's inexpensive, easy to install and completely changes the car. It is also pretty near transparent to the wife (after break-in that is!)
Have fun in Hotlanta!!!
I just looked at the same set of cars (with the inclusion of the WRX and Audi A3), and bought a Mazdaspeed 3. The performance for the money is stunning. It rides well enough to be a DD, gets good mileage for its category (pulled 27mpg out of the last tank driving with a reasonably light foot), and is fast as heck. I found it to be much more reactive than the VW stuff. This makes it a little busier to drive around town, but also more fun. Now that I'm used to it, my other cars feel really slow. The VWs would be less tiring to drive on long trips, but that wasn't my goal and I'm not willing to put up with their lousy reliability in comparison to the other cars you're looking at. I liked the DSG, but am scared to know what they cost to fix (I tend to keep cars a long time). As noted above, the MS3 also responds really well to mods. There is an easy 30-50hp waiting with minimal mileage loss. Also, my car is red, but most of the ones I looked at were other colors. You should have no problems finding a non-red or silver MS3.
Performance and chassis dynamics would be paramount-so none of those listed. Cobalt SS without question.
if you want not red, and not silver, you're narrowing your choices a not-insignificant amount. for 07-08 the colors available were red, black, silver, and cosmic blue. for 08.5-09, the colors are white, red, black, and metro gray.
mine is silver, but i really like the way the car looks in black with black wheels and tint. the newer cars in white really pop as well.
also, imho, i have the same issue with the cobalt SS that a lot of people have with the neon srt4. it could pull 1g on the skidpad while making me breakfast, but that doesn't make up for the large amount of suck everywhere else in the ownership experience
I'm am squirreling away some Mazdaspeed3 links!
I own a 2007 w/30k miles on it. The car is a POWERHOUSE. I put on the AEM intake (thanks for the suggestion GRM) and it made a world of difference. Now I'm thinking about reflashes and poly motormounts...
Get the Speed3. I'm happy as a pig in crap with mine. It hauls everything I want. I put a kiddie swimming pool in the back last week. It gets high 20's on the interstate easily. It's so stealthy I pass cops at speed and don't even look in the rearview anymore.
..and who buys cars for color?! Are you a car guy or a personal stylist?! Selling points for me are engine and reliability. Paint it plum crazy for all I care. 
Trust me.... white cars are almost invisible to those eating donuts....
forzav12 wrote:
Performance and chassis dynamics would be paramount-so none of those listed. Cobalt SS without question.
Except that the interiors are junk and the ergonomics are lousy. I looked at one. I might make a fun toy, but I would have been miserable living with it day to day.
The simple fact that I don't like the cobalt puts the SS out of the running for me. I don't want to own one no matter how many horsepowers or "G's" it has. If I just wanted to go fast I'd buy an LS1 camaro and live in Playschool plastic hell.
As for color, I've never been into red cars. In fact, I don't like anything that attracts attention on my cars. I also don't like chrome wheels or big wings or bodykits. Silver is just there because it seems like every car nowadays is silver. I wouldn't buy a yellow car either.
Looks like it's the MS3 in white, black, or blue for me.
In case anyone was wondering, the GTi won this battle. I just picked up a dark grey 06 DSG with 29k miles. The awesome trans and better seats won me over. The GTI has the best stereo too.
