Car Gazing
Custom from the factory
Here's a look at two vehicles that put a custom twist on ordinary rides
By Derek Price
Pickup truck manufacturers have known it for a long time: The more customized you make a vehicle, the more customers you'll likely have.
If you look at the truck lineups at Ford, Dodge and Chevy, you'll quickly realize that ordering a truck is a lot like ordering a hamburger. You can pick exactly what you want and take off everything you don't need. You can get two-door and four-door versions, two-wheel or four-wheel drive, heavy duty or light duty, and a long list of engines that range in power from lawnmower to freight train.
When you count the different paint colors, optional equipment and trim packages, it seems no two trucks are exactly alike.
Well, the same thing is happening with today's cars and SUVs. A few years ago the major choices might have been simply between a four-cylinder or six-cylinder engine and a manual or automatic transmission. Want a diesel or a supercharger under the hood? You might as well have asked for gold-plated toilets in place of the bucket seats. It just wouldn't happen.
Here's a look at two vehicles I tested last week that put a custom spin on some otherwise ordinary cars.
2006 Chevy Cobalt SS Supercharged
The normal Chevy Cobalt is a good, solid economy car known more for its price than its speed. It's just not all that exciting.
But when you put in a supercharged engine and a suspension tuned at Europe's famous Nurburgring circuit, the Cobalt is anything but dull.
This $21,400 car looks, feels and sounds like it belongs on a racetrack. It's bold, brash, noisy and harsh in a way that gets your heart pumping but doesn't wear you out, and its boy-racer body draws more attention than the base Cobalt's simple shape.
There's a lot to like about this car, starting with its 2.0-liter engine that makes 205 horsepower. It pulls strong all the way to redline, yet it still offers lots of low-end grunt for easy passing. The stiff suspension is perfect for quick blasts down winding roads, and the solid chassis really shines in this high-performance package.
There are a couple of things I don't like, though. The engine seems to redline too low compared to, say, a Honda Civic Si, so I ended up hitting the rev limiter a couple of times.
I also didn't care for the funky styling, which seemed to draw attention for being more outlandish than beautiful. The giant rear wing and buzzy exhaust note look like they were designed for 16-year-olds.
Still, it's wicked fast for not much money. Gotta love that.
2006 Jeep Liberty Diesel
What happens when you drop a diesel engine into a normal Jeep Liberty? Not very much, and that's a good thing.
Compared to a regular Liberty, the diesel-powered version offers a slightly stronger kick when you step on the gas while adding only a tiny bit of noise. It's an incredible machine for that reason alone.
I remember sometime in the 1980s when my neighbor across the street drove a Volkswagen Jetta with a diesel engine. He was a teacher who drove a school bus in the mornings, so each day around 5 a.m. he'd fire up the Jetta and drive off to the bus barn – and wake up the whole neighborhood in the process. Boy, that thing was noisy.
This new Liberty, though, is almost as quiet as a regular gas engine. There's that distinctive diesel chatter under the hood, but it's not that bad. You can go through the drive-thru lane at McDonald's without having to shut off the engine to place your order. It's pretty much exactly like a normal Liberty, only with more truck-like power and better gas mileage.
The only downside to this SUV is the same as with any Liberty – its bouncy, off-road suspension. I know Jeep makes vehicles specifically for off-roading, but I see a lot more Libertys in parking lots than I do in mud pits. Instead of using a smoother independent suspension that would suit most Liberty owners just fine, every Liberty is fitted with an off-road suspension that isn't nearly as refined as most other small SUVs. It's not a comfortable ride.
Then again, if it had a comfortable ride it wouldn't feel like a Jeep.
I'm just glad to see a diesel option on the Liberty, and I suspect it's something we'll see more frequently on other small cars and SUVs in the future.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.
Contact him at dprice@cargazingonline.com)
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