Black Rose

That's the reason I don't drive a manual anymore.

Nothing like being in a traffic jam and having your left hip go numb on ya

Clarke33

If you don't mind driving to North Alabama I'll let you drive mine Seriously, I have owned my 2LT 5 speed for over a year and a half. I test drove a manual 2.2, auto 2.2, and an auto 2.4 before deciding to order mine exactly as I wanted it. I have always driven manuals and didn't give it a second thought. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking you need to order an auto in order to be happy. I have driven mine 31K miles with 0 trips back to the dealer for warranty work. Also, when I buy a car, I don't buy it to please the masses later down the road. I buy it for my driving enjoyment. In a few years , when I decide to sell, if I get $500 less because I bought a manual tranny, so be it. What a lot of people here seem to forget is that the 5 speed is $1k less to start with. Even if you take a $500 hit at sell time, you are still $500 to the good.

longhorn

I had my dealer go and get my 5sp 2.4 from a dealer bout 2 hours away, it wasn't a special order. It was the only one that I was able to locate in 5 states that had the 2.4, 5spd, and sunroof with no other options :)

Old Lar

I did test drive a 5 speed HHR, the only one I found doing online inventory search. I too wanted a 5 speed. The one I test drove was the HHR "orange" not my favorite color. I thought the car drove real nice.

You just wouldn't see the cars with manual transmissions on the lot. I was at my dealership testerday and there were only two HHRs on the lot, both base LS models. There were lots of Tahoes, Suburbans and trucks, a few cars and a couple of vettes. Not much of a selection.

Kingfrog

No, thats the reason you buy used rather then new. A new loaded car of any brand does not have the equivalent financial difference in resale. Thats not just reserved for the HHR. You will find that in many cars.

IF you add the standards on the 2LT pack you will only see a few hundred dollars difference. GREAT VALUE!!!

My car has a low book trade in of $13300. I paid $700 more OTD . If I traded tomorrow and the dealer offered 12,000 I would still be way ahead just three months after I bought it then if I purchased it new and traded it within three months. The question you have to ask yourself is which car would be MORE desirable for the same money used? the 2LT or 1LT?

I thnk the 2LT would be a far easier sell for the same dollars. Theres another advantage. I see the glass as half full in this case.

playgames1970

I'm a steadfast defender of the manual transmission. I've driven one for so long now I feel awkward and lost in an automatic. I literally don't even know what to when I borrow a car that's an automatic and I have to start it up. It sit there, feeling stupid, not knowing where to put the shifter anymore, and not knowing what to do with my legs. Everyone seems to find it hard to find a manual HHR, but when I bought mine, most of what my dealer had around on the lot (and he had several HHRs) were manuals rather than automatics.

When I had to take the car in for a problem early on, as well as to get running boards and the like, every time I did so, the various service guys who drove the car here or there on the property commented on the car: "Oh, you have the HHR with the stick shift, right?"...as if it was a bizarre thing to see. I guess it is.

Lone_Star

If you want a 5spd car to test, go to your local dealer and have them do a search for one. They can search the entire US but most will only search 300 miles because that is as far as they will go to do a dealer swap. When I was looking, I had to almost twist the arm of my salesman to give me the name of the dealer that had one I could test drive. Turned out the dealer was 50 miles away. Once I decided I wanted a 5spd car with the 2.4 engine, I went back to my local dealer, told him exactly what I was looking for and asked him to find it. I was very detailed on exactly what I wanted, engine, trans, color, trim package, and what I did not want - sunroof. They are able to plug in the codes for all these options and find one, if it exists, on a dealer lot. Turns out the one that was closest in options to what I wanted was located in Florida. It has a few extras I could do without (roof rails, side airbags), but I only had to add running boards to have everything else. I had it shipped to Texas and am driving it every day.

playgames1970

You can do a similar search yourself from the Chevy website, too. It'll show you what each dealer in your area has in stock, down to any options, inlcuding what sort of transmission each car has.

hhrcrafty

You have to keep in mind that KBB doesn't consider option packages as obscure as 1LT versus 2LT, only major ones like LS, LT, and SS. They're also off by about 60 days on the auction cycle.

ddown

I drove one last week been driving 5 speeds for years 2.2 5 Speed VUE and VW TDI 5 Speed and I thought the Shifting was sloppy and Clutch was super Touchy !!!! Went with SlushBox.