my wife and I settled for a sunburst. We wanted a Imp blue, but could not get our hands on one. We had set an appointment at Mark Chevy, to look at a 5spd and probably buy two weeks ago. We called at noon and set the appoint ment. We showed up and they were doing paperwork on it. We ended up going to Les Stanford to start working on a dealer trade, but just could not get happy with numbers. Finally got it on vacation down in South Carolina. Deal was flawless. Even got 18500 for our truck. Only took a 6000 BATH on our trade. It was an 07 Silverado Crew. Even selling retail can't get crap for it though. We dont regret taking the bath one bit. Still dropped our payment 50$ a month plus save gas and insurance. We have every option I can think of, including the spot mirrors. I wont go into my dealer rant from the other three dealers we went to to look at an SS in the metro area.

 

What was the MSRP?

I'm wondering if the dealers are willing to go down close to invoice price because of this market. I don't have a trade, so they can't make any money off me there. I can go with supplier discount but that is only $1000 off MSRP, and can't be combined with GM credit card money. If I can get $1000 or more off MSRP and get $825 in GM card, then I will obviously pass on the supplier discount.

 

Depends completely on dealer. I got mine for $500 under invoice, but they had another program they could apply (some holdback...) plus got the 0%... this was 2 weeks ago tomorrow. Granted, I've bought 6 cars from the same place in the last 3 years (company cars...) so they know what I want and make it easy on me to keep coming back.

 

The SS version can be tricky to find. I wanted to try and test drive one first but just missed it. It was at a dealership on Van Dyke in MI. Someone got there and bought it about 15 minutes before I got there. I had already driven my sisters base 2.2L LS so I tried the 2.4L out. The SS was what I really wanted so I held out. My daily driver (Pontiac) had been crushed by a tree in a recent storm and totaled. I talked to Moran Chevrolet and the salesman was really great to work with. Out of 11 possible SS in the area all were gone except one. It just about matched perfect for what I wanted. My salesman said I was lucky since the dealer that had the HHR SS badly needed a Silver Cobalt SS that they had. Otherwise they wouldn't have done the trade. Picked it up on the last day of the 0% financing and everything worked out. It is the only vehicle I've ever bought that I didn't drive first. Overall I am very happy with it and wasn't disappointed.

 

I went through around 8 Red ones that all had sales pending, sold or the dealer would not trade.

I wanted red since it would be easier to keep clean. But I changed to a black SS and it took 3 before I could get a dealer to trade.

I wanted all the options in a ebony and red interior in a automatic package. This combo is hard to find in a 08. THe price I had was too good to not get and I decided to go witht he black and I am glad I did as I like red but like the black better. At least till it is white in road salt this winter.

The one option I did not want was roof rails but I finally said just get the one with them as after two days of strike outs I can live with them.

HHR's in general are hot sellers as are Cobalts Few dealers have many.

Mine stickered just under $27.000 and I got it for $21,000. I knew the 09 was going to be a lot more and they would not be dealing as much on them for a while.

Any 08 SS should be able to be had for in the $21K-22.5 range depending on options.

One In Columbus now is on the web for $22,475/ I am sure they will come off of that too.

 

Local dealer has a black auto trans SS, 26,500 MSRP but they've added dealer "environmental protection pkg" to the tune of about $600 which was paint protection and something else, to bring total to 27,100.

However, I vow I will not get another auto trans no matter what I get. I'm done with slush boxes.

 

I would say the same if I had a wife who can drive a stick.

If you see any of this add on dealer crap like what your dealer had just make them deduct it from the deal or walk. If it is the last 3 days of the month you will see that $600 will vanish is seconds. They have little or nothing in these add on protection packages. They are all profit for the unlearned public that stray into their nets.

Look on the web or if you get a dealer that will give you a good price they can bring one in. The 5 speeds are all over here in Ohio and many other areas.

There are also many with 5,000 miles on them that I think came from GM that many of the staff drove over the last 6 months. They are being offered at some good prices too. Many are in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.

Use the internet and check the dealers out that have the cars. Also set what you want to pay and stick to it. They are hurting for sales and are willing to deal. Any 08 at the end of August will be an easy buy.

Look for incentives for a big labor day sale. GM does it evey year and this year they need to really boost sales.

09's may see incentives by November if not October if sales do not stop sliding.

It is a buyers market.

 

That's what they say the waiting is the hardest part... I have been at it over a year and now have about one more month

 

@robotworkshop

If you are referring to Buff Whelan Chevy on Van Dyke, and it was a black/ebony 5-speed... then I'm the someone who beat you by 15 minutes. Sorry, but glad to hear everything worked out for you.

They screwed up the paint job while prepping the black SS for me... someone used a wheel, and they were in a hurry--swirl marks everywhere! I didn't see the imperfections when I took delivery because the sun was not out. The sunroof broke with 150 miles on the car also.

I may have saved you the headache of dealing with these problems.

 

Where man, where? I needs 'da specifics. I could do an '08 GM exec program SS for sure, but then again I bet the program cars are mostly automatics.

5-speed manual SS w/ limited slip is all I want, in Silverstone Metallic w/ ebony cloth interior. No other options whatsoever. Okay, Brembo brakes would be nice but likely a rare find. Whatever dealer can provide this combo either new or exec program car can expect a clean and smooth one day deal, clear title on my '07 for trade, credit score is about the highest you can have. Deal has to be stone cold killer tight, though.