I am still scoping out the HHR's but still haven't made a decision. One big problem I have is I want to test drive a 5 speed with the 2.4 but they are nearly impossible to find. I know rental companies have them but they are usually autos and most are 2.2's anyway otherwise I'd rent one for the day. The only way would be to special order one from the dealer which generally means I would have to commit to it before the dealer orders it. So I am going to make a outlandish request. Does anyone here have one that fits that criteria who lives in the NY tristate area and who would be willing to let a stranger test drive it. I am in Rockland County NY so looking for anyone in Rockland, Lower Orange County or Bergen County in NJ.

Thanks in advance,
Adam

 

...Adam..isn't it ridiculous that you have to ask completer strangers on this forum if you can test drive their 5 speed manual HHR? I too live in a big city and cannot find one HHR with the same combo you are looking for! GM advertises the fact you can order so many variations of this vehicle but they make it so hard to locate the one you want on a dealer lot. They have been making the HHR since 2005 and in the usa i read before that at least 100,000 plus HHR's have been sold up to date. Spoke in person to a general sales manager here in vancouver canada and he told me they are not big sellers in canada as GM is more interested in unloading all the chevy cobalts it has in their dealer lots. Also i never seen ONE tv commercial for CHEVY hhr HERE IN MY AREA. same goes for the big daily newspapers......tons of new GM trucks, suvs, cadillacs, vettes etc....but just tiny tiny mention of chevy hhr's. To be honest, thats why i kinda want one...its not like my honda civic, where there are wayyyyyyy too many on our streets that nobody looks twice at them.

 

It isn't only in Canada that HHR ads are practically non-existant! Once in a Blue Moon you might get a glimpse of one in amongst the pickups, the suburbans, the Cobalts, and everything else Chevy sells. Makes you wonder what Chevy ad people are thinking when they practically ignore what a "Great" vehicle the HHR is!

 

Its ridiculous. The stick is almost nonexistent for the last two years save for a small number of special orders and maybe a few base 2.2's with the stick. Chevy dealer told me point blank that Chevy does not build stick HHR's for normal shipment, period. Special orders only. GM does not know how to market entry level vehicles to draw interest anyway. Thats why they are rarely able to convert owners of foreign vehicles such as the Civic into Cobalt owners. Or say Matrix, Element or Scion owners into HHR owners. The SS hopefully will be marketed properly but I doubt it. And hopefully they will ship that in stick or they will most likely put a nail in their coffin on that one. Seems the same thing happened to the PT Cruiser GT.

 

Guys, it isn't up to GM whether or not a dealer orders a car with a manual or automatic transmission. All GM cares about is whether the dealer is fulfilling their allocations. The dealers order the car the way THEY want it equipped--GM does not simply "send" them a car to sell.

The fact is that automatics outsell manuals by such a great margin that it's not worth it to the dealer to keep ONE car on hand that's going to be a lot-lizard for an entire year when they can fill that allocation spot with a vehicle that's going to make them more money and turn over quickly so they can get ANOTHER car in that spot.

Manuals are fun, but they're not as spine-tingling in this car as you'd think. The SS version will probably be set up better anyway.

 

i agree with hhrcrafty about manuals not being so popular anymore . With traffic in our cities becoming so congested, not too many want to row thru the gears. But in most small cars with 4 cylinder engines, a manual transmission is still a desireable thing to have to have when trying to weasle out all the horses it can offer. This weekend i will try and locate a 4spd auto with the 175 hp motor and see how she goes. That is...if i can even find one on a lot (that scarce).

 

The stick are hard to find and a 2.4 5speed is usually a special order it seems. I test drove two, one a 2.4 auto and a 2.2 5 speed. Performance wise, they felt the same. And the performance numbers back that up. They are almost identical. I never got to try a 2.4 5 speed and would have like to. But I wanted the stick more than the 2.4, I'm very happy with my choice.

Good luck.

 

I agree that the dealer orders what they think they can sell. There's not a manual transmission HHR anywhere on the Gulf Coast. I had hoped to try one while I was in St Louis but never got around to it.

The real question is whether you'll lose trade-in value if you buy an HHR with manual transmission? I think the SS model demands it but will it be a bad choice?

 

Found mine in Miami.

The auto costs $1K more than the standard. Just for S&G's, I looked in KBB for mine as it sits now and if it had an auto. The price differance for my zip code was $550.

Want to hear the worst? I also looked and marked it as an 2LT (Verses the 1LT it is) and there was no change in trade in value. SO according to KBB, the 2LT has the same trade in value as a comparablly equiped 1LT. This included the 2.4 or 2.2 motor. Not good for 2LT owners unless you plan on keeping it for a while.

SO to answer the question, seems you loose more money with the auto verses the manual.

 

About a month or so ago, I heard an HHR commercial on one of the sport or comedy channels on XM Radio.

Very rare to see an HHR on a TV commercial...usually just a glimpse of one amongst the other vehicles.