My 2011 has 210K on it. Looks and runs great. The headlight lens are not worth refinishing at this point. Every time I polish them, they look good ( fair) for about 2 weeks. What brand is the one to get? What brand to stay clear of? thanks

 

You need to put some kind of UV protection on them after polishing them.Unless they are really neglected the OEM headlights are worth refinishing IMO.

 

I just polished out my headlights and sprayed them with clear up paint for plastic, they look ok, much better then before, I cut and buffed them last time , that lasted 6 months.

 

They have been abused by the previous owner. Bought it in 2014 with 155K on it. yeah 52K a year for the first 3 years! They were horrible at that point. I can get them to look some what okay but they are yellow. Im thinking to replace them. I put aftermarkets on my kids malibu years ago and they pointed in every direction but straight. Junk lights. Looking for some new ones that do a good job and dont blind oncoming traffic. My other boy had some body wok done to his ( at the time) Grand Am. They put a new light on one side. The difference between the 2 was amazing. Nice and clear and bright and the other side which didnt look horrible was dull and yellowish. I have to pass this car along to my son for awhile and he drives home from work at 2 am. I rarely drive at night.

 

I installed Spyder 'black' headlights, from Carid, in my 2006.
They look great.
The only manual adjustment on HHR's is in the vertical direction.
You do have to remove the front bumper but it's no big deal.
It's even less of an issue if you let a body and pint shop do it.

 

RockAuto has B2E RPO code black chrome headlights or OEM style chrome headlights, don’t forget the discount code! Look in the 2007 HHR listing for the B2E lights!

 

I got these off eBay. The adjustment was pointing down, it took many turns to bring them up. No one has flashed their brights at me, so it must be good. Lights up the road just fine. This was the cheapest I could find for this style. I had them quick, too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/161751329222

I replaced them while I had the bumper off to change out the intercooler.

They came with the amber turn signal bulbs, but the connector wasn't quite right. I swapped in the old ones from the headlight assemblies that I had removed.

 

Now those are nice!

 

It ignore anyone who says you should get the ones without amber in the parking lights. They are unobtainable, even tho there are alway a few who will chime in and post links. Those are always out of stock.

 

Now I remember that it's not the bulbs that are amber, but the lenses.