I'm very tempted to swap cars. I want out of my auto for a manual. I'm really missing a manual car with power! A local dealer has 2 on the lot that have my eye

 

You didnt say what year,how many miles are on it......all that stuff makes a difference. Personally,unless you own yors outright and dont want to lose your shirt,keep your car. My 09 SS has 11,875 miles on it and has had boost issues so I got annoyed and thought about trading it in so I looked up the book value/(dealer trade in)value.......it was only $17,000......and I paid $26,000. It's not worth it. Unfortunatley,these cars dont have much resale value.

 

Mine will be going bye bye next spring. It will have like 30k on it by then n its an 08. Im geting either an 06 or 10 STI

 

I would go with the '10. Simply because a lot of people who own turboed cars don't use the required premium fuel all of the time. Then you inherit the problems that are on the verge of happening. Especially if it is an off lease. I keep my gas receipts for this reason...to prove to future buyer of my car that it was treated like gold all along.

IMO, naturally aspirated cars are much better to buy used, vs the super or turbo charged variety.

 

Gas is not going to hurt the car.

But odds are unless you found a heck of a deal you will owe more money for nearly the same car.

Resale on the HHR hurts enough but to make a deal like this is a big money loose for you.

 

Completely disagree. Otherwise why wouldn't they have 87 octane for all vehicles? The WRX STI requires premium fuel...bar none. I have seen the down side of several turbo charged vehicles that did not use premium fuel and a few needed complete engine swaps.

 

I paid under well $15k for my 08 with 13k miles but it was a manual. They had it listed at $19k. When I was talking with them they said the auto's sell far better than the manuals and decided to move it. They had it for at least two months.

You will obviously get the auto trans trade-in bump and some for the fact that the auto will sell faster (faster is relative in this economy) but unless you put a heck of a lot of money down, you are likely to remain upside down. Most dealers try to get the trade in for low book maximum unless they are able to stay near sticker on the new car and that is tough to do especially on an HHR.

Try a private sale and see if you can get enough to pay it off and then look at buying the manual trans car. Even though they are pretty rare 1:20 you might find a low miles used SS and save some bucks there (and limit the overall pain of selling a relatively new car.)

I agree with Hyper - 87 octane won't damage an SS without the stage kit and I seriously doubt it would damage a stage car but it's probably terrible to drive once you get into boost. The "premium required" for the stage is so GM doesn't have to listen to people complain that the power falls off dramatically under boost. On a non-stage car, it's not going to affect squat other than the power.

 

The discussion wasnt about an SS.....it was about a WRX STI.

 

I was still on the SS topic. I would not buy a used WRX for nothing. Most are pretty used up no matter what the gas. I have a friend at the dealer and the stories he tells.

 

Sorry Scrivs, then ignore my post. But now that I think about it, I have no idea what the OP is selling and going to.