Chevy HHR Network - New HHR Owner

Hey there, everyone! Parrothead checking in from Fabulous Las Vegas, NV :cool: !

I've got to say that it was a sad day a couple of weeks ago when my 2002 Cavalier was damaged in a high-speed crash on I-15 near the Spaghetti Bowl. Nobody was hurt and the car drove fine, but I just didn't know what had been damaged and might fail down the road. This being Nevada, it's easy to find yourself in a remote location and I just couldn't trust her anymore. I'd had that car for over six years and in 93,000 miles she'd barely given me any trouble. OK, so what if the AC wouldn't work below 40 MPH if the temp was over 85 degrees and I live in the desert? So what if I smelled a bit of coolant? Big deal that the speedometer would either read zero or 50 MPH too fast on cold mornings, right? Even with all that, she never failed to get me where I needed to go, got good gas mileage, and she was PAID OFF!!!

Well, the insurance company declared the Cavalier a total loss and I decided that my stimulus check was just in time to help out with buying a new car. My list included the Cobalt, Scion Xb, PT Cruiser, and HHR. I knew I wanted stick and LS for the price and that the loyalty cash would help, so the Chevy dealership would be my first stop. I just moved to the north side of town and while grabbing the mail at the old place for the last time, I saw some business cards on the bulletin board for Vista Chevrolet near my new place - this seemed to be a sign of a good thing!

I have to confess that back when I got my Cavalier in 2001, I was in the car business selling Chevys down in SoCal, so I know what it's like on the other side of the coin and figured I'd reward some initiative (putting out business cards) with at least asking for the guy by name. I've also got to say that this was the first time I bought a new car from someone other than myself, so I was just a bit nervous ;)

Robert Nelson was with other clients at a sister store when I showed up, so Sean (sorry - forgot his last name!) helped me out. I really wanted something with more room than my two door Cavalier, so I was leaning towards the HHR, but there was also the yellow LS Cobalt stick on the showroom floor... Decisions, decisions I tell ya!

I took a good look at the Cobalt, but we headed out to the HHRs and Sean was truly surprised that they actually had the Cardinal Red Metallic LS stick that I saw online, but there it was! We got the keys to that along with the Equinox and Cobalt that were blocking the way and I helped put the Equinox away (old habits from long ago still die hard) before we took the HHR out for a spin.

The Cavalier was black on black (I lived in San Diego when I bought it) and I knew I didn't want that again. OK, so the HHR is red with dark interior - I could live with that ;)

I was hooked on the test drive and even though I didn't know how much the insurance company was going to give me for the Cavalier, I figured stimulus check ($600) + $400 minimum for my car = $1000 down and livable payments, so I cleaned my stuff out of the Cavalier and drove the HHR home Saturday night :twothumbs: !

I took my friend out in it Sunday night - down to In & Out on Trop just of the 15 (the one with the big neon sign) and then over to the Imperial Palace to visit my roommate's sister who works as a "dealertainer" before going up to the auto collection to drool over cars that cost several times more than the P-40 Warhawk I want along with the training to fly it.

So far it's got about 100 miles on the clock and I just keep on loving it more and more! The Cavalier was a base model, so I'm still trying to get used to things like remote keyless entry, power windows, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, and On Star!

I'm not sure about mods yet, but as soon as I find my battery chargers (digital camera's power hungry), I'm going to take my new HHR down to the famous Las Vegas welcome sign and get some cool pics :thumb: !

Thanks for creating such a great forum and I hope to see y'all around the boards :D !

PS - I got the amount of my payout from the insurance company today. I was expecting $500 to $1000, but they're giving me $2900 after salvage and deductible - WOO HOOOOO :cool: !!!