I was hanging today w/ the guys from Darkside and they told me after the tour
& show they had to crush the Darkside 2 tone Black & Blue HHR do to it not being street legal in many ways... Led tails ect...
Sad it was one of my favorites!

 

A moment of silence for a fallen HHR.

 

if you google it you can still see pictures, but it isn't the same thing.
The guy who did alot of the custom work on it is painting my handles and he just couldn't stop talking and showing me photos he took with it and the other custom hhr's on the show ie... year 1 ect... I knew them all...
I could tell he was hurt too see it go it was his baby and it took months to create it had the first 3 bar grill he said and alot of pieces that were 1 offs.
jeff

 

That's awful.

LEDs aren't legal? I thought the IPCWs are DOT legal.

 

the brake lights were very small, but there was probably other stuff too. I really liked the paint on that one.

 

If they got the HHR from Chevrolet for customizing purposes, it may have been missing its VIN. Lots of show cars, concept cars, and press cars get crushed because they're pre-production vehicles or test mules without VIN numbers, no VIN = crushed.

 

Still a shame to see it go. Alot of work and devotion went into that car

 

Him saying that doesn't make sense, because that HHR was sold at Barrett Jackson in 2009. That HHR did have a VIN# (3GNDA23P76S500037), but it was still sold with a scrap title

Something with his story isn't adding up here???

 

Having a little experience with the promotional automobiles customized for various customers the issue is liability.

When the automobile is new and something goes wrong it is the manufacturer that assumes liability, Look at the fiasco involving sticking throttle pedals on Toyota automobiles. Not ONE of the highly publicized accidents could be attributed to an actual defect but look at all the money it cost them.

Once an automobile or truck is customized by a high profile shop it is that shop or combination of various business involved with the process that assumes liability.

It's just a lot less expensive to build, show and then crush than to carry enough insurance to cover any possible eventuality.

Most of the early Gearz cars and trucks went to the crusher for instance.