HHR, How reliable is this thing?
 

Ive read about a 100 reviews about the HHR, some Great some... not so great. Im days away from getting one and i cant help but be concerned about GM build quality. out of all the web pages i checked the HHR averaged in the area of 8 out of 10 on consumer ratings and the people who rated them poorly seemed like they just didnt do the research before they bought one.

Anyways my question is how reliable is this car... Ive heard it be called the HHR Tank because it does have really good service ratings

I also have heard this car called the clunker cause of the mysterious thud's and rattles that they tend to have on occasion.

As always you guys have been more than helpful with questions i ask and its much appreciated.

Mine is an early 06, never been in, knock on wood LOL Todd(Uma)

Just remember the happy people seldom complain. No complaints on my HHR. I really like it.

they built 100,000 HHR's just for 2008 alone. Some people have troubles, some people don't.

the ecotec has been around for a while, and is pretty refined and dependable.

like any product, problems do arise

fit and finish is fair, paint is fair with more orange peel than there should be, plastics are too cheap for my taste, and i would think dependability is probably a little above average since the platform has been around a few years.

but for a cheap hauler that gets good gas mileage, you can't beat it

I have 2, an 06 2LT and an 08 SS. I have had the SS for over a year and never had to take it back. The 06 had to go back for the steering column rattle. The 06 cost me 19K and the 08 cost me 23K. I am getting, on average, 28 MPG with the 06 and 29.3MPG on the 08.

I have brought home 2x8 plywood, hot water heater, trays of flowers and bags of mulch. It will haul almost anything, gets good mileage, and is affordable.

Some complain about the location of the window switches, some about the cup holders, others about the small windshield. I do not have any complains, well one, the SS, it just goes too fast too quick.

You can see the biuld date on mine in my sig. SHortly after purchase mine went in for the then famous A/C growl which was fixed by new lines. A/C worked great, just had a noise at times, never loud, but there. Easy fix. That was in 2006. 2009 my HVAC blower motor died, that also fixed with ease. I noticed last winter I have a "cluck" sound in cold weather, stopped when it warms up. Had it checked and nothing there, so no clue what it is. I can't complain about mine at all. Fit, finish, quality is much better than the '99 Accord EX I had. I hated that car.

IMO, you hit the nail on the head there.

If you want to take it this way since 2006 over 350,000 have been sold and while they are not all perfect no car is. I see just as many Honda and Toyota issues too.

As a whole the HHr is a very good car for the money.

Remember too the Cobalt, G5 and Saturn Ion are the same cars and have about the same reliability in their class.

Mine is a new 09 so can't really say how reliable, but know that the engine is being used in quite a few lines of cars from Chevrolet, in the new Equinox with direct injection, it has a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty and I really like the performance and economy. We have a 6.0 Suburban that has lots of power on tap, but I can honestly say my HHR does not want for power, never had a problem passing. I put a seat belt in the back so I can haul all six of us traveling, we take it on trips on a recent trip to Lagoon in Utah, round trip cost us about 25 dollars, the same trip in the Sub would of cost us 100 dollars. I have owned many cars through the years including Ford and Honda and can't complain about the quality of this car, it has a different looking plastic on the dash but that gives it a personality. I have a LT2 leather interior and get comments all the time from people on the street wanting to see the car.....I average a new car about every two years, I can honestly say this one is a keeper. I also agree with the others, people that complain complain the loudest and our auto industry does not make perfect cars yet but the strides GM has made in the last 5 years....I think dollar for dollar you can't find a finer automobile. this group also helped me with my desision to purchase this auto. Thanks...

IMO, GM isn't building the crappy cars of their past anymore. They are now building great reliable cars, but people have this bad perception of them, and that's what plagues them. It'll be quite a few years of great cars until people realize, "Hey, these GM cars ARE nice!"

But the HHR seems to be a great car, at least so far for me (had it since February.)

I've had two and both were extremely reliable. The only true negative I can say I encountered with both HHRs is the durability of the paint (Seems to chip easily/excessively).