Well, after 16 years, my C1500 step side, regular cab, short bed pick-em-truck with electronic ignition and Eldelbrock headers and CAT-back exhaust was costing me $1,200 every two years to get it to pass California's smog test. And with Mr. Obama willing to pay me twice what it was worth and GM ready to kick in another $2,500 and employee pricing, the time to move on was two weeks ago. A quick search on the GM website and Cars.gov found me a 2009 Victory Red, HHR Panel SS, just fifty miles from my house. 15 minutes of negotiations with the dealer and 4 hours of waiting for the ass hat F&I guy (you can't pay cash under the clunkers program I found) and my new ride is in the driveway too. I'm waiting a month to see if want to move up to Stage 1 (almost a foregone conclusiion based on what I've read on this forum) and then we're really off to the races! Before making the jump I lurked on this forum for a couple of days so thanks to all for the great thoughts and commentary. Everyday brings a new debate - drive the HHR or the C6 Z06? So far, the HHR is winning.

 

Welcome to the club. Sounds like cool choice as panels are not common. Get the stage you will love it.

We all will be paying for these cars soon enough when they raise the taxes but at least you bought a cool Chevy over some Prius or other boring car.

As for what to drive there is no wrong choice for you.

 

I two just bought a 2009 HHR SS using the clunker $$$$$ I turned in a '96 GMC 4 door Jimmy and the same as Jmacallister. I'm just wondering were you found out you can not pay cash for the new HHR ?? I handed a Bank Check to my salesman to cover the full price and she did not hand it back saying I could not pay cash for it ????
I'v also looked thru the CARS.org web site and can not find anything saying that ?????

Thanks

 

Yeah, that sounds a bit strange. Keep in mind the dealer gets a premium for originating a loan - even to GMAC (I believe even at 0%). I believe if you pay it off early within 90 days (hopefully w/o prepay penalties) they may give up that premium!

 

I just bought mine with cash for clunkers. Great thing is it counts as an SUV (that gets 30MPG). So you get max. Allowance no matter what you trade in. Good luck and welcome to the forum. I just got m stage 1 today.

 

I am not understanding that you "cannot pay cash" if you use the cash for clunkers program. I wrote the dealer a check for my 2009 LT2.

 

sweet! panels are the best!

 

If you had to borrow money to purchase the car, just pay off the loan next month, bypassing the idiot F&I interference.

 

Last night they just passed a voucher for turning in your vehicle if you want something, but its not on the lot due to demand. You could "want" a 2010 that will be out in Oct/Nov. There shouldn't be much difference and they'll be less rebates, but worth mention.

And as for "Thanks Mr. President", not to get off on the rant, but its "thanks you, me, and all the American taxpayers." You're childrens' children will be "thanking" us for this. Its "our country"...we pay for it. There is no "government" bought me this or got me that. Right now China owns our country and if they decide one day to collect on debt or stop buying our debt. Our country folds overnight and goes to "Lord of the Flies". No politicians could stop it. I don't know what all the answers are, but these are scary times indeed. Make no mistake we're paying for everything. Nothing's free.

Rant over. BTW, yes, I took advantage of this program too.

 

All,
Maybe I wasn't getting the straight scoop from the dealer on the "no cash deals" thing (why doesn't that sound strange?) but it really doesn't matter in California where there's a ban on loan prepayments so I plan to write US Bank a check after the first payment. The "Thanks Mr. President" post title is, of course, facetious. On the other hand, I figure a bunch of that $3 billion came from me anyway. And since I won't live long enough to recapture the money I've paid into social security, I thought I'd grab at least some of it before I check out.