It is starting to cool off and it will be winter before you know it. When the roads are slick, I like to start out in second gear. My Cavalier has a 3 speed automatic and I could just put it in "2" and it would take off in 2nd. Is there a way to do this in an automatic equipped HHR? Or does the traction control control slipping well enough?

 

Some folks have experimented with using the "I" gear, which stands for "Intermediate" in winter to emulate a second gear start, but their results have been a mixed bag.

So it's a case of "Trust the Traction Control" young Grasshopper, and make sure you have either good snow tires or good all season tires all the way around.

My own Winter driving experience with an HHR came years ago after one of our bi-annual Carolina snow storms. And just on a whim I took my '07 out in 5" of new snow and promptly got it stuck in a dead level parking lot.

The lesson being that even with traction control, the tires play a huge part in how your HHR will behave in the white fluffy stuff. In my case it was the "Summer Only" high performance rubber that rendered my HHR immobile until the bemused rollback operator from the AAA showed up.

Yup, being the Admin here doesn't make me immune from doing dumb stuff.

 

What.... You are suppose to be all knowing and have all the answers.

I'm originally from Michigan where we do get a fare bit of snow. First snow down here and I tried to get my truck out of the garage to go to work, got stuck 15 feet from the concrete apron into the garage. Spent a hour or so getting it unstuck and backed it back into the garage at which point I called it a day and waited for it to melt.

Everyone would think snow is snow, but it's the ice on top or underneath down here that makes the difference.

 

Yup, you discovered the "Gotcha!" factor in Southern snow storms, they either start or end with freezing rain or sleet which gives you a lovely layer of ice.

Us natives live up to our well deserved reputation as "Snow Chickens", while you might have years of Winter driving experience, the guy/gal sliding towards you with white knuckles and eyes as big as hupcaps doesn't...so we all stay inside and wait for it to melt.

I learned about driving in snow by being thrown in at the deep end, after Law School I worked in Erie, Pennsylvania and Buffalo, New York. I still remember my first "Lake Effect" snowstorm, I woke up and looked out, and only the top three inches of the CB antenna on my full size K-5 Chevy Blazer were visible. It had become a snowdrift, and I spent five hours digging it out, only to slide into a ditch three miles down the road.

As far as doing dumb stuff, just wait until my next home improvement project/ER visit, give me a hammer and nails...and I'm more dangerous than a stick of Dynamite that's sweating.

 

It's easily done with HPTuner software...
Works very well.
Can't understand why GM doesn't do this anymore...

 

We tend to get snow here in the glorious free state of Illinois too.

I can't honestly say I have never been so stuck I did not have to call for help but it is quite rare for me.

Never had the HHR swamped so badly that I couldn't get it out myself though.

Of course it does not have the traction control feature so maybe that has something to do with it.

Our PT Cruiser has the 'Auto Stick' and traction control. Again I have never been stuck with it but even if you put it in the 'manual' mode and manually put it in second it still starts out in first gear. You can hear it shift into second as you drive away but it will stay in second until you manually move the shift lever again.

 

Coming up on my 6th winter with Oldblue which has been lowered 2 " , never been stuck yet, never had special winter tires like Blizaks just good old M&S treads, live up here in the Great White North near Buffalo, so yeah we get some serious snow