I'm a newbie here, glad to be here too.... Love my new car... Why did I buy something I would not ordinarily shop for? Well....

My wife has recently become disabled and could no longer climb up into one of the fully trail built, manual transmission Jeeps that sat in my driveway (there is no one in my family that doesn't own a CJ, Wagoneer or a Wrangler). We're talking full armor, 33" tires, lockers, roll cages, 5 point harnesses, etc... So I was forced to go shopping for something a lot lower to the ground. The wife's dad, being a GM employee, urged us to shop for a GM vehicle, due to the substantial discount.
The Malibu Maxx SS is one car we test drove. Drove ok... Blaaaah inside and out is all I can say... too vanilla for me...
We tried the Impala SS...1st choice, a great car , too expensive for the single income...26K after the family discount...
Cobalt SS.... Perfect... but only available in a 6 speed....
Equinox was next... 50% Chinese? Forget it...
I said "Hey Honey how about a nice low Chevy truck?"..... "No" Arggghhhhh!
Next we went to The Saturn Vue... Very nice... crappy mileage though and it had a....... Honda engine? Nope. Only a 30,000 mile service interval? Nope. Old school, No thanks...... Needless to say when I found that out I wasn't about to buy it.
Didn't like the Ion... Well I liked the coupe, she liked the 4 door, the ensuing argument led to a no sale on that....
Pontiac Vibe.... Nope.... she said absolutely no Toyotas....
Over to the Dodge dealer.... PT Cruiser... 36% American content? Nope. Wimpy motor on the non-turbos anyway.
Magnum wagon... too big, too pricey...
Unlucky for us we hadn't came across a dealer that even had an HHR in stock, this was back in November of '05... The only one we found had it in the showroom, an LS and they wouldn't let us test drive it.. Ok, Well screw you pal!
We decided to wait until after the holidays......
The phone was ringing everyday from all of the salesmen trying to buck up their Christmas checks with some extra commission....
February rolls around, the HHR's are starting to arrive at dealers, the reviews we pretty good for the most part, except for the usual pro-import mags like R&T and Car&Driver etc.... Morons. We than got to climb all over one at California Speedway and decided that was what we wanted. Cool MP3 stereo, amp, sub, heated seat.. yadda yadda yadda...
So I found a Daytona Blue one on the net through the Chevy inventory search with what we wanted on it... I took that Friday off to go buy it... Damn, wife's got a migraine... so we wait till Sunday...
We get out there bright and early... Don't see the blue one... I give the sales manager the printout from the net.. he says "we got more in the back"...
We start walking and as we are walking back... there's the blue one in the detail booth... SOLD!.... DAMMIT!...
The wife goes- "Lets go"
I said- "ok"
Sales manager- "Wait"
Me "what, you have no blue ones"
I'll make you a good deal on this grey one
I thought -Ya sure-
There were no discounts because at the time the HHR's were hard to get..
I said "Family discount, plus you knock a thousand off of that and throw in a free Lojack and I want no more than 5% intrest for 60 months, thats the deal. If not I'll just go somewhere that has a blue one."
He wasn't going for it, so we walked.... By the time we got home he had called and left a message. "Done deal... come on back out".... Another 1/2 hour drive....
85% American content... Top notch build quality (I'm very surprised). 8600 miles, nothing to report, not a squeak or rattle- Zero problems. Scoots right along too.... A little on the soggy side, but thats ok... A smooth ride is nice after busting my gut in the Cherokee... No, If I can just hide enought money to get a spare ECM and the turbo kit....

 

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Sounds like quite the excursions you had. Glad to hear that you finally decided on the HHR. Once I saw one, I just had to have one and I knew the day I went shopping that I wanted a Sunburst Orange one. Went to 4 dealers that day and found mine screaming my name as we walked onto the lot. Test drove it...said let's sign the papers...and away I went with my first new car in over 30 years.

We look forward to seeing you around the forums and hearing more about you, your family and your HHR. Please be sure to post pictures.

 

That was an awesome post. had dialog and everything. Welcome to forum and glad that dealership was able to meet your demands.

 

dealerships are open on sunday there? in pa there are no dealerships we can find thats open on sunday.

 

darn blue laws...

 

In Colorado both car dealerships and liquor stores are closed on Sunday. You can, however, get the "3.2%" at the grocery store and convenience stores. Where's the logic there?

 

Stores, dealers, and -especially- shopping malls open here on Sundays, most of the holidays too.....Some restaurants are open Sunday, closed Monday. Since the death of the California aerospace industry, tourism is the name of the game here. You want those weekend tourist dollars. San Diego is a big city (6th largest in the US
@ 5+ million people), not many things stop because its the weekend.

 

Liquor stores????? We don't even have those here. Dry as a bone. Have to travel 1.5 hours to closest city that has liquor store.

 

I thought Lyncburg was in Tennessee.

 

Hey How'd you get your car on that track? Awesome... love racing from Bristol.... I always thought that if Nascar wanted to make west coast racing ultra successful, they should build a Bristol out here somewhere....