Front rotors are underengineered and undersize. I went through the same thing with a 98 Dodge Stratus, changed brakes more often than oil. Then in 2001, the increased the size of the rotors and the problems disappeared. It's great to engineer just the right size, but , geez, put a large service factor in there and keep your customers happy. I also had the same problem with the premature brake shimmies on a 2006 Impala SS. Bad engineers, bad, bad engineers.

 

Battery in the rear, no mechanical key hole to pop the hatch FROM OUTSIDE! I know there is a little access louver you can pop off, but damn.

 

I did not know this. Unreal. And you have to CUT OUT the blower motor... with a freaking RAZOR????

GOD! If that doesn't define "Throw-away car" I don't know what else does...

 

^^^

 

I know they changed this on later models, but the power window buttons in the center console of my '06 drives me nuts. I still get the buttons confused too.

 

Took me about a week to get used to that.......

 

Actually I like the buttons on the center stack, the door mounted ones on the '11 always throw me off, creature of habit I suppose.

 

I think that we should find the "inaccessability engineer" that GM uses and take him to the same Circle of Hell that the guy who designed the original Springfield Interchange (Virginia) was sent to. I do not understand why you would make easy jobs so hard, like getting to the 2 bolts for the T-Stat, checking the automatic trans fluid level, headlamp access, any theoretically easy job on the HHR seems to be complicated by "YOU CAN SEE IT, BUT YOU CANNOT GET TO IT"; except the oil filter, that's easy but you can't avoid spills.

You would not believe my feeling of relief when I found it was my REAR turn signal light that was bad, not the front. That's only a matter of having a wrist that turns in the 6th direction!

 

No spills here. Easy Breezy..

 

My 2.2L has a tiny bit of obstacle where you have to tilt it oddly to get out past the intake. A dribble is the norm. Never a big spill or anything.


I miss my old S-10 Blazer Tahoe. The oil filter was right under the hood behind the headlamp.