Love...Hate...an Introduction
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: 09-10-2009
Posts: 170
From: Durham
Love...Hate...an Introduction
So this is a very unusual post for me. I have never been a big car buff (motorcycles are my passion, but unfortunately, not my wifes 
). So I have driven a crappy piece of shazzbot for 7 years because I only lived 4 miles from work and my wife has the nice Minivan, more on that later. Well I am now working 35 minutes away from home and have to commute through down town traffic to get on the freeway to get to the interstate. Yeah...its a lot different than before. My little 5-spd Hyundai wasn't cutting it.
The problem. I hate Chevy's. Before you take up your pitch forks, consider where I am posting....pretty good bet where the end of this story leads.
So when I say I hate Chevy's its more of a principal thing. I never really liked any particular car maker because like I said all I have every owned were motorcycles. I never even bought my first car until I was 23 and met my wife, and that was because going on dates in the rain gets a little hard
It wasn't that Chevy's were bad, just that I, in theory, preferred Fords. Still being fresh out of college and not making a lot of bucks, my first car was a Ford Tempo.
It was a piece of crap and broke down the 2nd day I owned it. So I took it back and got a Chevy Corisca. This turned out to be a pretty nice car and my wife and I both like it. For those of you keeping track Car #1 Chevy.
So in 2001 when she needed a new car for her 35 minute commute to work we headed to the Chevy dealer since they would probably give us a better deal on our Corsica than anyone else. Later we were the proud owners of a brand new 2001 Chevy Prizm. Never heard of it right? That's because it was only really made 2 years or so, but here's the best part. It was a Toyota Corolla with Chevy badges :) It was a joint effort between the two in and they were built in Fremont, California. So Car #2, a Chevy(kind of :) )
This car we kept until my wife got pregnant with our first child and we decided to move up to a minivan. The Toyota's and Honda's were so much more expensive so guess where we took our trusty Prizm? That's right...the Chevy Dealership and we drove off in a Chevrolet Venture. Car #3, a Chevy. To this date it has been one of the best purchases we have ever made.
Now, we have taken extensive advantage of the 7year 75K mile extended warranty, having to replace the entire instrument cluster when the temp gauge went all crazy on us. This past year we had some rack and pinon work done and a engine leak was allowing gas to drip onto the engine as well(NOT COOL!). But either way..it was a great car.
Now back to the piece of crap Hyundai. After all the bailout talk and such I looked more fondly on Ford compared to Chevy and Chrysler. Please no politic arguments...it was just a feeling..wasn't based on much fact. So I started looking at Ford's used card choices.
And that is when it hit me. I might have liked Ford in theory, but man did I hate their choices in what I could afford. Their Edge is like $20k+, the Flex is freaking ridiculous and the Focus, Fusion, and Five hundred are just sedans/hatchbacks. Nothing that can work for a family yet still keep Daddy happy on the trip to work.
Enter Car #4, a 2007 Chevy HHR LT w/2LT. Fully loaded, 17 in chrome wheels, pioneer mp3 player, leather, remote start, rear spoiler, running boards, fog lights, (mmmmmm....agahdaghg, sorry best Homer Simpson I can do). You know the drill.
So I think I finally put my mind where my money has always been, and Daddy is DEFINITELY happy now!
I don't like the stock pics from the website and we didn't get home until after dark so I will upload some pics tomorrow :)
). So I have driven a crappy piece of shazzbot for 7 years because I only lived 4 miles from work and my wife has the nice Minivan, more on that later. Well I am now working 35 minutes away from home and have to commute through down town traffic to get on the freeway to get to the interstate. Yeah...its a lot different than before. My little 5-spd Hyundai wasn't cutting it.The problem. I hate Chevy's. Before you take up your pitch forks, consider where I am posting....pretty good bet where the end of this story leads.
So when I say I hate Chevy's its more of a principal thing. I never really liked any particular car maker because like I said all I have every owned were motorcycles. I never even bought my first car until I was 23 and met my wife, and that was because going on dates in the rain gets a little hard
It wasn't that Chevy's were bad, just that I, in theory, preferred Fords. Still being fresh out of college and not making a lot of bucks, my first car was a Ford Tempo. It was a piece of crap and broke down the 2nd day I owned it. So I took it back and got a Chevy Corisca. This turned out to be a pretty nice car and my wife and I both like it. For those of you keeping track Car #1 Chevy.
So in 2001 when she needed a new car for her 35 minute commute to work we headed to the Chevy dealer since they would probably give us a better deal on our Corsica than anyone else. Later we were the proud owners of a brand new 2001 Chevy Prizm. Never heard of it right? That's because it was only really made 2 years or so, but here's the best part. It was a Toyota Corolla with Chevy badges :) It was a joint effort between the two in and they were built in Fremont, California. So Car #2, a Chevy(kind of :) )
This car we kept until my wife got pregnant with our first child and we decided to move up to a minivan. The Toyota's and Honda's were so much more expensive so guess where we took our trusty Prizm? That's right...the Chevy Dealership and we drove off in a Chevrolet Venture. Car #3, a Chevy. To this date it has been one of the best purchases we have ever made.
Now, we have taken extensive advantage of the 7year 75K mile extended warranty, having to replace the entire instrument cluster when the temp gauge went all crazy on us. This past year we had some rack and pinon work done and a engine leak was allowing gas to drip onto the engine as well(NOT COOL!). But either way..it was a great car.
Now back to the piece of crap Hyundai. After all the bailout talk and such I looked more fondly on Ford compared to Chevy and Chrysler. Please no politic arguments...it was just a feeling..wasn't based on much fact. So I started looking at Ford's used card choices.
And that is when it hit me. I might have liked Ford in theory, but man did I hate their choices in what I could afford. Their Edge is like $20k+, the Flex is freaking ridiculous and the Focus, Fusion, and Five hundred are just sedans/hatchbacks. Nothing that can work for a family yet still keep Daddy happy on the trip to work.
Enter Car #4, a 2007 Chevy HHR LT w/2LT. Fully loaded, 17 in chrome wheels, pioneer mp3 player, leather, remote start, rear spoiler, running boards, fog lights, (mmmmmm....agahdaghg, sorry best Homer Simpson I can do). You know the drill.
So I think I finally put my mind where my money has always been, and Daddy is DEFINITELY happy now!
I don't like the stock pics from the website and we didn't get home until after dark so I will upload some pics tomorrow :)
to the site!!! Glad to see that Daddy is happy 
to the best place for anything 
Senior Member
Joined: 04-17-2009
Posts: 251
From: PA
Welcome!, and good luck with your HHR.
I downsized from a Silverado to my HHR (also a 2LT) in April, and couldn't be happier-it's a great little car / wagon (although some will call it truck, I can't/won't).
Regarding your van, we bought our 2nd Olds Silhouette (same as the Venture) in 2003 (its last year). We are roughly at 110,000 trouble free miles later (and still going)...
I downsized from a Silverado to my HHR (also a 2LT) in April, and couldn't be happier-it's a great little car / wagon (although some will call it truck, I can't/won't).
Regarding your van, we bought our 2nd Olds Silhouette (same as the Venture) in 2003 (its last year). We are roughly at 110,000 trouble free miles later (and still going)...
