mroney

I've owned alot of different cars over the last 37 years, this is my favorite. It does almost everything well and I plan to drive it til it drops. My only issue with the car is the visiblity. Part of that is the blanked rear windows leave a nasty blind spot. However the spotter mirrors overcome that pretty well. If you get one without the spotter mirrors, it is worth adding them. I really like the looks, but as others have said, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder (and my age may be part of it too). I bought the car new and have driven it for three years now. I did have the engine replaced at 40000 miles, however my research shows my car is the exception. More important, GM relaced the engine under the powertrain warrenty with no questions and no hassles. I would buy another SS in a heartbeat.

fantasma

Great Motivation guys, ... I know some have had problems but like any car, some will. The reliability doesn't bother me, that is why I will have probably 2-3 years warranty remaining and if I get problems there is always trading it in after warranty but I am confident I should be okay, as I don't push my cars and do maintenance.

Good little community as well, So yeah I think it's gonna be my car, the only other car I would look at is... Cobalt SS 2 door (only if I get a good deal, as I have a family and need that space) after doing a lot of research I like the MS3 but I can't afford 2nd gen which I am in love with, and the HHR to me looks way better then the old looking MS3 that blends in with everything. I really like the HHR's looks, I think its very polarizing just what they call that MS3 with that crazy grin like the Joker from the recent batman, anyways... Now I just have to go check it out, as I have my eye on one and a few others in my area.



Any advice of what I should specifically look out for when test driving and inspecting the vehicles?



If I do get it, Stage one, BPV, exhaust and sway bar, retro hids, LED tails... are my future I been researching the upgrades to

Sunflowerhippi

Run a GMVIS if you can. I know my car is for sale, looks great clean as can be but if you run the check it will show a stack of work so high it will scare ya. It seems most of us with problems, had nothing but. It was constant problem after problem. The rest had none.

Not sure if you can get them checked by chevymanager on here, if not google. I know other forums have it and you can quick sign up and ask to have it run for ya.

SS fan

Sunflower is right check the records, seems the ones with problems will be easy to avoid now that we are down the road a piece. Besides an S6 wagon I haven't seen any thing that comes close. You can get one with 100,000 miles for the same money the SS is with 20,000.


SS fan

Blue_SS

I'm another fan of the HHR SS. It's really grown on me. I was leaning toward the Cobalt SS, and especially tried to find a Sedan. They are a bit rare. I couldn't find a decent one at a decent price, in my opinion.

I ended up finding my car used on a Ford lot. Those guys didn't know anything about it, so I got a pretty good deal. They didn't even know it had LSD on it.

Devils950003

Yeah, 100% true. With the SS you get a lot of performance for a relatively low amount of coin. That meant corners were going to be cut and sacrifices were going to made somewhere. I don't really mind the abundance of interior plastics all that much...most cars in this class aren't using top-notch materials, and minor sprucing can help offset the cheapness. I've definitely seen worse interiors.

Lars on Live

Add me to that list. I liked the utility of the car but couldn't keep it out of the shop. If you buy used I'd make sure you got a very good history on it. It's sad when I consider Minis to be more reliable.

Lars on Live

Just to warn you I had the same idea. I babied the car and stayed on top of the maintenance. It doesn't really mater. If you have one of the bad ones the car will spend half it's time in the shop. I didn't think I would mind either, but getting shuttles to the dealership, being late for work, and dealing with a 2 year old car dying got old pretty quick. I've put close to 40% more miles on the new car in the same length of time as a result of he SS being in the shop so much and me becoming scared to take it anytime I didn't have to.

gmdealerguy

Very fun car and fast. I give it a 10 for fun factor. Mine is 2 years old and I count the days until I am out of it. If I knew how much the car would lose value so quickly, I would have passed on it. I still owe $17,000 and the trade in is only $12,000. In 3 years when my loan is up, the car will be $3000-$5000 if I am lucky. I love the power but this is not a car that should have stickered for $26,000- $29,000...........$20,000-$23,000 maybe. Its not like GM went all out with any type of tech options or a nice interior. We got crappy plastic and a USB port that works with very few flashdrives or Ipods. The Bluetooth is fine, I will give them that.
Not bashing the car, that is not my intention......but the car was not worth the sticker imo.
And of course, no support or marketing of any kind from GM to push this car on the public.

fantasma

Hi guys, yeah that reliability is a ? i', hoping I get one of the good one's...

I have a question, If I can get you guys the vin can anyone check its history for me?

Or should I join that GM forums.