OMG Car change up...

[Rangerscott]

I still can't get over on how HUGE the front bumper is. It's junk is in it's front.

[Cutty72]

Originally Posted by shmike

How the heck do you put on 120k miles in 3 years!?!

You realize you can buy an 07 in 06 right?

[wildchild]

Originally Posted by shmike

How the heck do you put on 120k miles in 3 years!?!

car is used as a business car, plus we live in the sticks.

my 08 jeep has just under 60,000 on it.

[Adeptus_Minor]

Originally Posted by Gas Man

That's what I'm saying. Peeps that own em love em.

So that HHR SS is working for ya?
I might be replacing my truck soon and that's one of my options.
I'm not crazy about front-wheel drive, but there aren't a lot of RWD options in my price range that meet my requirements.
(not a truck, pref not a SUV, enough interior space to accommodate the dog, rifle cases, etc)

How manageable is the torque steer?

[Gas Man]

Well first off good luck finding one. This is the last year for the SS. They stopped taking orders on them in May. So you'll have to find a dealer stocked one.

I love it. I, suprisingly so, love the compact size. It's great in traffic. Regardless of gear (5 speed stick) vs speed, if you give it the beans, the turbo kicks in and it takes off.

The interior size is just perfect really. Bigger than a compact car, smaller than the Equinox SUV, big enough for dogs, seats 4 adults resonably. Getting about 20-21 city (stickered at 22) as long as I'm not railing on it... otherwise it drops to about 18. Haven't done any real highway time with it. I think while I love the stick it probably negatively effects my mpg in the city. You tend to wrap the tach more...

I really liked the price. Sticker around $25k. I got like $4k in rebates, incentives, and retireree discoung as well as another $850 off in employee discount (x plan style). Have lots of family on wife's side that worked for GM.

I spoke about how some like it, some love it. Rider mentioned so do Prious lovers. That's totally different. Many people don't like the styling of the HHR. It has a retro, big fendered, 1930-1940s look to it. My MIL calls it my old school gangster car. She says when she sees it she remembers all the old gangster movies with the big fendered cars. I can see that. But it's the reliability and utility of the car that makes the owners love em. I don't know many other SUV style vechicles that can (normal hhr) do 30+ mpg.

Now on the mod front... since I did the LED's in the front the ECM put my blinkers in hyper flash... very annoying. The car has a ECM based, internal programmed flasher aka nothing I can just change out. So I ordered a resister from superbrightleds.com and installed that inline on each front blinker. Fixed, back off the homo hyper flash.


Had to install a smaller one on the dome light as well. Stray 6 volts on that circuit when they are "off" was keeping the LED dome lights just so slightly on, very dim. That fixed it and ate the stray volts.

[wildchild]

I drove our HHR down to Florida for a spring break vacation. was actually not bad for comfort on a long trip. hauling wise it is very good for a car. the better half runs a cleaning business and hauls all of her crap in it and still has seating room if needed.
it has survived being run into a curb at speed by a teenager. tires have been spun more then once (judging by the slightly bald fronts I had to replace) I'm sure it's hauled a ton of kids in it at one time and considering the seats fold flat I'm sure there are a few stains in there that mom hasn't found yet. LOL
Our neighbor went and bought one after seeing ours for a couple months.
Best part was the Chevy dealers have been very good about maint and what not. they even gave her a free hubcap to replace the one that was lost by previously mentioned teen. ($55 value) of course now she needs another one because of his curb surfing. he is no longer allowed to drive any of our vehicles.
We've had to replace the front bearings in it under warranty but that was the only issue.
Granted I don't know about any extra maint or issues with the turbo version. there are a few sites dedicated to modding the little HHR with some good forums.

[Gas Man]

Exactly Wild. And that wheel bearing was probably due to the curb hit as well. You can dent the race and they will only live a short life after such a impact. I know I smacked a curb once... but was good enough to repalce the wheel bearings after the hit.

I have yet to completely utilize the cargo area but you can see that with the said fold flat rear seat, fold flat front passenger seat and the cargo area all covered in plastic, you know it's a handy little car.

Oh and AM... the torque steer. With my turbo and the stage 1. 2nd gear is a hand full at WOT. Otherwise it's manageable.

I honestly haven't met anybody who owned one that doesn't like em. All to which fueled my purchase.

[wildchild]

nah the bearing went out on their own. fixed under warranty. the curb slid got the tie rod connectors or something like that. I thought about doing it myself but got lazy and don't like crawling under the car. LOL

[Adeptus_Minor]

Originally Posted by Gas Man

Well first off good luck finding one. This is the last year for the SS. They stopped taking orders on them in May. So you'll have to find a dealer stocked one.

Well, that sucks... surprised I didn't notice that in my research

On the upside, I drove a Mazdaspeed 3 today and loved it.
Whether I actually end up buying one or not remains to be seen, I need to do some more looking. Still, thanks for the info.