Let's see a PT bounce back from this!
07-26-2006, 01:00 PM
#1
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Join Date: 07-26-2006
Location: Soon to be Longview, Texas
Posts: 903
Let's see a PT bounce back from this!
Hello, folks, I'm a new poster in this forum, but I had to share this one with you all.
The first week of July, me and my wife took a nine day road trip from NY to AZ in my '06 HHR, the bulk of which I'm getting ready to write about at my website. One of our stops during the trip was to take pictures in Monument Valley, Utah (at the far southeastern corner of the state, just north of the Arizona border on the Navajo reservation). I wanted to get some dramatic pictures of the car with the monuments on the horizon, which we did by pulling off road on the reservation. After getting three pictures, we started driving away, my wife driving, when we heard a very loud THUNK! and the car dipped.
I hopped out and took a look at what had happened. The car had hit a dip in the dirt, just before the pavement, and hit a rather large rock, pushing up a triangular dent into the front air dam and pushing some structural members through the bumper cover. No other damage, though my wife was beside herself thinking she had wrecked my brand new car. (not really brand new ... got it in October.
)
We finished our leg of the trip to Arizona at my in-laws' house, where I was planning to change the oil anyway. While the car was up on ramps, with the help of my father in law and one very fat prybar, I was able to pull the air dam back into place, and only needed to replace one plastic rivet holding a splash guard. If you see the car now, other than some mild paint scuffing, you'd never know it hit the rock unless you looked at the underside of the air dam.
Let's see any Chrysler product short of a Jeep bounce back like that!
The first week of July, me and my wife took a nine day road trip from NY to AZ in my '06 HHR, the bulk of which I'm getting ready to write about at my website. One of our stops during the trip was to take pictures in Monument Valley, Utah (at the far southeastern corner of the state, just north of the Arizona border on the Navajo reservation). I wanted to get some dramatic pictures of the car with the monuments on the horizon, which we did by pulling off road on the reservation. After getting three pictures, we started driving away, my wife driving, when we heard a very loud THUNK! and the car dipped.
I hopped out and took a look at what had happened. The car had hit a dip in the dirt, just before the pavement, and hit a rather large rock, pushing up a triangular dent into the front air dam and pushing some structural members through the bumper cover. No other damage, though my wife was beside herself thinking she had wrecked my brand new car. (not really brand new ... got it in October.
)We finished our leg of the trip to Arizona at my in-laws' house, where I was planning to change the oil anyway. While the car was up on ramps, with the help of my father in law and one very fat prybar, I was able to pull the air dam back into place, and only needed to replace one plastic rivet holding a splash guard. If you see the car now, other than some mild paint scuffing, you'd never know it hit the rock unless you looked at the underside of the air dam.
Let's see any Chrysler product short of a Jeep bounce back like that!
07-26-2006, 03:22 PM
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: 01-20-2006
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 1,230
Originally Posted by Desert Coyote
Hello, folks, I'm a new poster in this forum, but I had to share this one with you all.
The first week of July, me and my wife took a nine day road trip from NY to AZ in my '06 HHR, the bulk of which I'm getting ready to write about at my website. One of our stops during the trip was to take pictures in Monument Valley, Utah (at the far southeastern corner of the state, just north of the Arizona border on the Navajo reservation). I wanted to get some dramatic pictures of the car with the monuments on the horizon, which we did by pulling off road on the reservation. After getting three pictures, we started driving away, my wife driving, when we heard a very loud THUNK! and the car dipped.
I hopped out and took a look at what had happened. The car had hit a dip in the dirt, just before the pavement, and hit a rather large rock, pushing up a triangular dent into the front air dam and pushing some structural members through the bumper cover. No other damage, though my wife was beside herself thinking she had wrecked my brand new car. (not really brand new ... got it in October. )
We finished our leg of the trip to Arizona at my in-laws' house, where I was planning to change the oil anyway. While the car was up on ramps, with the help of my father in law and one very fat prybar, I was able to pull the air dam back into place, and only needed to replace one plastic rivet holding a splash guard. If you see the car now, other than some mild paint scuffing, you'd never know it hit the rock unless you looked at the underside of the air dam.
Let's see any Chrysler product short of a Jeep bounce back like that!
The first week of July, me and my wife took a nine day road trip from NY to AZ in my '06 HHR, the bulk of which I'm getting ready to write about at my website. One of our stops during the trip was to take pictures in Monument Valley, Utah (at the far southeastern corner of the state, just north of the Arizona border on the Navajo reservation). I wanted to get some dramatic pictures of the car with the monuments on the horizon, which we did by pulling off road on the reservation. After getting three pictures, we started driving away, my wife driving, when we heard a very loud THUNK! and the car dipped.
I hopped out and took a look at what had happened. The car had hit a dip in the dirt, just before the pavement, and hit a rather large rock, pushing up a triangular dent into the front air dam and pushing some structural members through the bumper cover. No other damage, though my wife was beside herself thinking she had wrecked my brand new car. (not really brand new ... got it in October.
)We finished our leg of the trip to Arizona at my in-laws' house, where I was planning to change the oil anyway. While the car was up on ramps, with the help of my father in law and one very fat prybar, I was able to pull the air dam back into place, and only needed to replace one plastic rivet holding a splash guard. If you see the car now, other than some mild paint scuffing, you'd never know it hit the rock unless you looked at the underside of the air dam.
Let's see any Chrysler product short of a Jeep bounce back like that!
Your HHR isn't lowered is it?
07-27-2006, 09:15 AM
#4
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: 07-26-2006
Location: Soon to be Longview, Texas
Posts: 903
Nope, it's not lowered, it's at stock height. The problem comes in that this particular road had a slight dip next to the asphalt, and it was a particularly large rock sticking up out of that dip that hit the air dam.
My first reaction, I must say, was that GM has come a long way on polymer body panels since the era of the shattering Saturns.
My first reaction, I must say, was that GM has come a long way on polymer body panels since the era of the shattering Saturns.
11-14-2006, 07:30 AM
#5
Join Date: 11-12-2006
Location: North Charleston
Posts: 5
Hi new guy here. I don't have a HHR yet, But I currently drive a 1995 Dodge Intrepid. I am a member of another site like this one called http://www.dodgeintrepid.netI have seen manny injuries on there. One in pretictuler comes to mind when I read this thread. There was a guy who had a 1999 Intrepid that rolled it on a icey road and That car came away with not too much damage. Even the roof still was round and the sun roof was not broken. So ya a Chrysler product can take a hit and survive.
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