Laco

According to the owners manual, towing with anything but an automatic is a No No, and not recommended by GM.

IgottaWoody

.......So is racing.....doesnt seem to be stopping anybody

07azhhr

I saw that after I asked you that question. IMHO that is just GM's legal department trying to avoid injury law suits and their warranty department trying to avoid extra costs if the cars are driven by owners that do not understand the extra caution needed when towing. They feel that the computer is making sure the car is always in the right gear will ensure less chance of accidents and such and it probably does. And they are correct that under the wrong foot, they would be replacing more clutches. This does not mean you can't use your car to tow though. You just give up your warranty if you do not remove your hitch before you take your car to the dealer. But if the warranty part is enough of an issue then yes I would recommend not towing and following their guidelines. For me, I am past my warranty as of this month so it is all on me either way.

SpaceCowboy

So who is going to swap a 6.6 dirtymax with an allison in their HHR?

Laco

Since I have a Ford Expedition to use if and when I do tow, the HHR would not be my choice in any event. As I said before, I do tow the HHR with our motor home, which is a large diesel pusher and doesn't even notice the HHR back there.

IgottaWoody

Hitch can be explained away with a rear shelf .....no need to remove...my dealer hammerd my other HHR for having yellow springs..never said a word about the hitch

07azhhr

None of this has anything to do with your statement of NOT BEING ABLE TO and my response. Yay for you you have a towing vehicle but the point was that GM is merely trying to protect themselves as much as they can but you CAN tow with a manual trans vehicle as long as you know what you are doing.

07azhhr

What do you mean "rear shelf"?

I am just refering to if you brought your car in for a slipping clutch that they might think twice about it if they see a hitch.

I have called a customer on a BS warranty claim myself so I can see another tech doing it on something like this. Hopefully your tech would overlook it like I did for aftermarket parts. My situation was someone claiming crank no start but had put a hole in the oil pan of their L61 and put fresh oil in it to make it look like it still had oil in it. It was actually the BRAND SPANKING NEW oil that lead me to look for the hole insted of continuing to diag the crank no start. But if the "hitch" (in the towing case) is not on the car then there would not even be a question of did you tow with this car.

whopper

I think he is referring to one of those flat storage platforms (~2'x4') that mount into the hitch receiver.

Laco

If you go back to the earlier posts, the context is there. I don't diagreee that GM sees potential liability and is doing what they can to mitigate it. I have towed quite a bit over the years with cars that had manual transmissions, and with no problems, but that does not change my opinion that the HHR is IMO too lightly constructed too tow with, clutch or no clutch. Again as I said earlier, I realize many tow with their HHR's, and certainly it can, but again, the HHR is a good reliable vehicle, or so has been my experience, but not my choice to use for towing.