HillsdaleHHR

Congrats

chevyman1976

You boys have some surprises coming. My 2008 has 72,000 miles. Lets see....broken wiper linkage transmission ($275) factory battery sheet the bed ($138), binding shifter cable ($750) brakes all around....again ($375). New front hub ($200+). Now for the things not fixed

-Turbo runs flat and bogs down and is erratic at best

-Radio crackles and snaps louder to softer for no reason

-Dash lights dim and flicker for no reason

-New sqeaks and creeks on a daily basis


Bottom line....this car is a POS!!!!! Sorry to you guys who live and die by these hunks. Sure they are fun to drive even though they really ain't all that fast. Don't believe me....roll up on some guy/gal in a Toyota Rav 4 Limited and see how fast you think these HHRs are. Not to mention....there really is no resale value on these cars. You're almost always going to be in a negative debt situation with this car. In my case I would have had to put down 60% of the value to be ahead. No point in doing that. I pay 4.5% interest. I can double that in the market so I'll keep it there and keep patching this heap up. If you have low mileage I would trade while you still can. If its the difference of 2-3k I'd go for it.

chevyss

Its true the new RAV 4 with a V6 and auto will be a close match in 0 to 60 times for an HHR SS with a manual transmission from what I have read, but you forgot to mention the HHR's handling; which will easily blow it away! Secondly, there are a good number of performance cars where the RAV 4 will be a close match in 0 to 60 times as well for example the RX8, Miata, and and Mini Cooper S. To sum it up, my point about acceleration is that automobile manufacturers seem to very competitive when it comes to acceleration lately.

If you want an even bigger surprise look up some of the performance data of the muscle cars from the 60s and the early 70s with V8s. Lets take a 1967 SS 396 for example which stock will run a 0 to 60 time of 6.5 seconds.

As far as quality is concerned, I owned a 2003 Pontiac Vibe GT that was built at the Nummi plant; which was a joint venture with Toyota and was really disappointed with both the quality and reliability of the vehicle. Kept the vehicle for 96k and had good number or problems for example: Clutch Disintegrated at 1500 miles, the radio had the same problem as yours but I managed to get the dealer to replace it under warranty, the ABS system went at about 85k I believe and that was $1700, and finally I developed an oil leak and decided to give up and trade the car in. My final point is I don't see very many Vibes or Matrixs on the road for that matter despite the fact that they were a fairly popular car when they first came out.

I wont argue the fact that HHR SS has had it share of problems and they are some quality issues but the car to me has a lot of character and is still a lot of fun to drive.

hyperv6

Hope it holds up better than the two guys I work with did. They were fun cars just nagging quality issues.

I have always liked these car and I almost looked at one till I saw what they had to deal with. Maybe the bugs are now worked out.

Lars on Live

This will be my second cooper. My first one was a 2002 with the CVT. My transmission blew up in that one. Mini replaced the tranny and I had very little else go wrong with the car. Either way can't be worse than my issues with my SS. I'll miss some of the functionality of the SS but hopefully I won't know so many of the service techs on a first name basis.

HHR CHEF 2011

What do you think a 2010 HHR LS Auto with 6700 miles is worth? I was offered $12000.00 on a trade-in on a 2011 Chev Equinox FWD LS and $11000.00 on a trade for a 2011 Honda CRV 4WD LX. My HHR is full of rattles and squeks after having in to the dealer 4 times already and only 6700 miles on it.

I love the HHR but hate whati t will be like in a couple of years. A Honda CRV will still be around in 10 years.

hyperv6

You will dump a car for rattles as squeaks? Talk about a bad decision on money.

For the most HHRs noises are pretty easy to fix. Most are in the same spots and many here have fixed them with ease. Check the post.

I have had mine for 2 years and had few issues and fixed my noises in a few min's. On the other hand my buddies CRV has been nothing but trouble on the brakes and he has more noises than I.

The best person to deal with most noises is you. You drive the car and spend time with it. Have some drive and you locate where the noise is. Then that would give the dealer a better shot at finding it. Giving it to a tech to drive around the block and locating it is pretty difficult. He will never see the same conditions as you. Unless it is pretty plain what it is there is no hope without some help.

Headliners with sun roofs come lose where they are stuck on and they can make noise when cold. Easy fix for dealer. Most other noise is console related and I fixed with a little Windshied rubber sealer. Also the dash mounts has a TSB the dealer can check.

I have a SS with 18" tires and Ohio roads and few to any noises after 2 years.

hyperv6

My guys has Tranny, engine and tire issues. The one could not get any miles out of the tires as they were wearing on the edges. The dealer did apply a fix after a while and it helpped but still it was not as good as it should be.

I have often considered buying one but was always affraid after that.

Good Luck maybe with time they have fixed the issues of the earlier cars.

Scrivs

The nice thing about the Mini Coopers is the residual resale value is 48% after 60 months, whereas the HHR is around 30%. 18% is a fair amount more value. Also, you will never have trouble selling a Mini privately, they are the fastest selling car bar-none (avg of 9 days on dealer lots before gone). Everyone seems to want them, regardless of issues. I have had my HHR SS for sale privately for 4 months and haven't had one call. It is priced well and only has 12k miles and no mods. Too bad the Minis are too small for what I need.

Gone Blue

I almost traded my 08' for a 2007' Cadillac CTS V last fall. My SS has the Stage 1 kit and had around 50,000 miles on it. The dealer was going to give me $14,000 on trade for my SS. I had to work to get the 14 as they started at $13,000. G.B.