My wild guess is the previous owner had an after market radio and ripped it out before the sale. If you are lucky there are some cut or spliced wires hanging around.

I am guessing that by "same radio" you mean the radio from the factory. Are you sure "no power" could it be the speakers are broken?

Do you hear chimes from the turn signals and key in/door open?

 

Yeah, its the original radio that's installed at the moment. All the wired looked fine and I had a mechanic take a look and he just checked over the fuses. The unit doesn't light up at all and no chimes or any sounds. Tried the HHR unit I bought on ebay and same thing, doesn't light up or anything. I know to have someone take a look at the electrical is going to be another $100.

 

No lights no chimes the radio is toast. The chip is fried inside , there are articles about changing that chip. But that radio you bought isn’t any good . Perhaps they will replace it. I found these problems when my radio went dead last summer.

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/how-...w-radio-49106/

 

I guess an enterprising individual would use a VOM to determine if the power wire was live as it enters the radio. And then to understand that that power is always hot, the radio on/off is controlled by the BCM on the CANbus.
Would it do any good to post the wiring diagram?

 

X2 Don
And if you do find it has power, then a check to see if the radio is grounded.

 

Mine had power and a good ground , it was still toast.

 

Isn't that what I said?

 

Yes just confirming