Mine was love at first sight. My neighbor had a black one and I inquired about what it was.
A few months went by and I began seeing a few more around town. Found a couple HHR sites, started doing the research on the car I already knew I was going to buy. I just had to tell ol' Mr. B of my pending purchase and all the modifications he would do to it
I found pricing and consumer information/how-to-buy type site as this was my first brand spankin' new car and I was NOT gonna get ripped of. I was armed with information when I finally found a dealer to order my HHR to my exact options specifications.
With help from this site, all the other stuff became quite easy....
so my choice is a little of both, I wanted one from first site, then did research about my love at first site story.

Yeah, mine was too. I knew I wanted one, had THOUGHT I wanted a PT many years back and then the things I heard about them made me reconsider. But the day we finally went to the lot, seeing that blue woody sitting there, I couldn't LEAVE without it.

I picked no research because I did not check out forums or reviews. I check out the Chvy site for options did a test drive of an auto and a manual. Then ordered one the way I wanted it.

:smile: We were checking out a new Colorado Ext.Cab Pickup and there were 2 HHRs sitting next to it. Had never seen or heard of them before. They didn't even have any brochures for them yet :confused: We drove the Colorado, then an HHR. There was no doubt in our minds the HHR was the winner!:thumb: Drove it home later that night! :nuts:

no research...
 

I did NO research. I saw the following pic in an August 2003 article on Motortrend.com...

Attachment 41005

http://www.motortrend.com/future/con...news030812_hhr

I knew from that moment that I was going to replace my '02 Cavalier with an HHR. I finally made the decision in July '06 that I was ready to find one, and I finally found a Summit White (the color I always wanted) equipped the way I wanted & my dealer traded for me. People who do a lot of research scare me, but we are all different & to each his/her own. I had never even sat in an HHR until the day I picked mine up. I mean, it is a new car, with a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty. I don't put on a lot of miles, my '06 currently has only 8,500 miles after 11 months of ownership. And by the way, NO PROBLEMS. ;) & NO REGRETS...

If things got so bad within the warranty period, I could always trade it. But I LOVE my HHR & my wife & I will soon be adding our second one to the family.

aI was first interested in the PT but when the HHR appeared on the scene, I started doing research on it during the fall of '05. But alas, my credit wasn't in good in condition to get lo interest financing even got rejected by Capitol One ( What's in your Wallet? Certainly not Capitol one!!!).

Fast forward to May 'O6... started a serious Jonesing for the HHR:D Viewed this forum caught sight of SOCALHHR's ride, saw Sindy's Casper on another sight both of which made my obsession for the Car even worse.

Finally got approved credit with........duh Capitol one...searched dealer inventory found one...went to the dealer..oops the one I was interested was still on the rail from Mexico. That had me Pissed off , but went for a test ride, on fully equipped Demo. The dealer wanted me to sign papers on the Demo I just drove...said no I'll wait for the one I wanted to arrive...heh the dealer manager gave me a good quote but couldn't promise me I'd get the one I want unless I signed the papers that day. Which I refused to do.

One week later (Sunday), it rolled of the transporter..Dealer called. I came over and Eyeballed her still in the white shrink wrapper. Signed the papers, with GMAC fianancing and picked up "The Toy" the next day

P.S. And what's in my wallet? :lol: :lol: :lol: still not Capitol one!!!! Still don't understand waht happened during the course of a few months when I couldn't get financing to a credit score of 800+ just before signing??

Beautiful car, Courthousedeb and better yet what a great story!! You should be a writer if you are not already. todd, (Uma)

Simple, Tom drives rental HHR, Tom buys SOM HHR. The way I see it, no problem. drive HHR home the day before Halloween and hide it from women wanting it to look like pumpkin.

Saw it on the net in laTe 04, after that I saw one in person at the 05 JCO BASH in St-Thomas, ON, after that at the GMSC BASH 05 in Indy, really like it.

In fall 06 bought the Spring Edition !!:cool:

I spent a couple of months researching the HHR, I needed a new car, my Sebring had become possessed with electrical problems and I was going to be in tennis shoe mode soon. I looked at the PTC and was so unimpressed with the interrior that I didn't even bother to test drive one. I had seen the HHR but was leery of a first year car but still couldn't stop looking at it. I drove a Vibe and liked it ok but still kept looking. We stopped by a Chevy dealer one day and I saw a silver HHR and went over to look at it, the salesman said we have two more back here come look. My first impression of the SBOrange was OMG that's bright but the more I looked the better I liked it and being a program car the price was pretty good. We left that day and for the next couple of weeks drove around to other dealerships (many miles away) and saw the other colors and did test drive a blue one but that SBO kept haunting me. Finally about two weeks after first seeing the SBO we went back to see if it was still there, not having a hope that it was. Well it was sitting there waiting for me, I drove it and loved it and took it home. The only real problem was that while we were doing the paperwork HE fell in love with a sport red Silverado 4 door so we were back the next day with my trade in and left with both the HHR and the Silverado...lol