My mistake Oldblue. You're one of the lucky ones! I'd love to have a car that makes it that many miles-but so far I haven't been able to get an HHR over 105K miles!

 

It's easy , keep it clean drive it often, regular maintenance! And repeat !!

 

my '07 has 108K miles and it's one of the best cars I've owned. no major issues , replaced, thermostat, ext mirror switch, exhaust flex pipe, and key fob solder job. Only other was routine maint. I'm 2nd owner,

 

Interesting that the OP hadn't posted here in over 4 years before starting this thread and apparently hasn't been back to read any of the responses.

Our 6 1/2 years of ownership with our 2006 were relatively pain free. Front hubs, front brakes, the butyl patch recall, flex pipe, and a set of tires.

 

The door handles are notoriously flimsy. I stress that one should just operate the handle to unlatch the door and push open against the door itself. When closing, do not pull on the handle (that's how ours broke), use the hole in the arm rest to pull the door shut. My 2010 Panel has given great service with over 94,000 miles on it.

 

Agreed, the handle in the arm rest of the door panel is designed for just that purpose, to pull the door closed! Many cars had a strap on the door to use to close the door, Dodge Diplamat, Lincoln Towncar from the seventies come to mind, I've replaced a lot of door latch handles on those over the years, cause the owner choose to pull that instead of the pull strap!!
Attention to detail goes both ways in building the car and in operating the car!!

 

Do you even know what a recall is? A recall has nothing to do with normal wear and tear or repairs.

 

And with that timely definition of a Recall by donbrew, we'll now close the book on this thread.