Goose

Let me rephrase..I have no doubt that the Ecotec engine will last 200K or miles...great engine although somewhat thirsty for a 4 banger imho. I'm more concerned with the rest of the car..


Half the fun for me when I go on vacation is deciding what GM car I will be renting..Impala in Vegas....in Denver hmmmmmmmmmm


I've gone through 2 winters with my Matrix and while they have not been awful snow wise I have never gotten stuck or been all over the road? In fact last winter with some Hydroedges on the car I was able to blast through about 7 inches of unplowed snow in a parking lot at Westover AFB.

I'm not in any way saying that the Trix is the Holy Grail of all cars...no way! It has it's quirks and things that I'm not in love with but it has never once given me a hiccup in 60K miles.

Goose

krishaynes

I think if everyone goes on anecdotal evidence one can prove that any car is great OR a piece of crap. My family has owned mostly GM products, and they have been great for us. Close to 300k in a ’91 Bonneville and an ’89 Cavalier attest to that. The only cars that we ever had grief with were the VWs my brother loved so much. All of them were crap, but man were they a hoot to drive!

One of the many complaints about GM is their apparent reluctance to put 5 and 6 speed transmissions into their front drive cars. The 6T40 will be debuting on the 2008 Malibu – a nice rosy 6-speed auto for the masses. Will the car mags start riding Honda and Toyota for having “only” 5-speed Autos then? Remember, the 6-speed is only available on the Camry V6 – not the volume selling 4 banger. I doubt it. Oh, then there will be complaints about the “old tech” pushrod engine designs. You know, like the 5.3L V8 in the Impala SS that has 300hp and gets a combined 21mpg that is SO MUCH worse than the 3.0L V6 Honda Accord that gets a combined 23mpg. (please note sarcasm)

Car quality is so close now. When pushed, car mags must admit that there aren’t lemons on the road like there used to be. We are talking about small things – that can be annoying – but they happen to all cars! I just get annoyed when it seems like GM is getting called out on something while another company gets a free pass. I know it is due to their past sins, but when will it end?

Harpozep

Yeah, what is it with zelots who bash mere " pushrod" engines? Yes other designs exist, but the pushrod pushed through a century and still keeps on going.
IS the Toyota mini van worth all that much more than the competing US variants?
A friend of mine thinks so because he is convince through reading Motor trend that pushrod engines are passe, out dated, etc.
But when push came to shove he purchased a used Ford Windstar with the pushrod engine, complaining the whole while since the Toyo he dreams of was twice the price..... and complains about the cars handling too, like a Toyota Min van would handle SOOO much better?? They are frikin' bread boxes on wheels. they do not handle. You make a steering decision, you turn the wheel, the car eventually gets the idea. This are not his Golf GTI ( Yes, THAT friend from a post above )

Motor Trend Meat heads. Yup, my friend is one of them

Harpozep

Yeah, the rear drums are kinda stupid on the HHR, but my Vibe had them also. I had the hood repainted on the Vibe. Bird crap at the dealers had eaten some holes in it. THe seatbelt in the passenger rear kept getting stuck or loose. My daughter was happy to be rid of it, though I simply would have had it repaired.

The Matrix is a reasonably tight and decent handling auto in the dry, but for me, it was not a good fit. I have never been more scared driving a car. Only felt safe on dry days. Really. No hyperbole.
Two different sets of tires made no difference. I really think the tires are too wide for the body weight. That happens on a lot of these small cars. The HHR weighs more and feels a bit more sluggish consequently, but I get the traction I need.

Nice engine as far as MPG goes. Better than the thirsty Ecotec. Noisier too.... I found the Vibe quite noisy. Even the HHR is grating on my ears and I'm going to sound deaden it a lot. I like quiet and four banger econoboxes do not offer that. Well, my cousins Prius is reasonably quiet but it is a different animal for sure!
I just could not get over the fact that only one drive wheel turned when the car was trying to gain traction. The right front would spin and spin while the other tire just sat there and watched. Grippy Toyo Proxies did not help it either. I was going to get dedicated snows but gave up.
It just grated on my nerves until I traded it for the HHR. Only put 8k on it, but hated every mile. Weird, eh? My wife liked it, but since she gets up earlier, she would take the Buick which had a remote starter ( Cold morning warmups ). and I'd get the Vibe which could not get the remote starter put in as it was a manual tranny. Nice 'Moon and Tune " package though!

The automatic HHR solved all that.

I do find the HHR's build pretty tight for its price range. Here's hoping is stays tight for the duration,' cause we are in it for the long haul.
Here are the two talking about car things as only autos can........



In hind site, if we were to stay with the Vibe, then we should have purchased the AWD version. It would have been a better fit.

Goose

As with anything not every car is for everyone...that is why there are so many different ones to choose from!

I will agree that the engine noise is something I could live without...I find the Matrix to be very noisy..on windy days it is a bit tough to hold a staright line due to the tall footprint..I do like the summertime mpg in a 13.2 gallon tabk though...36-37 with an automatic!

I hear what you are saying about the tires also....pretty hard to get a smooth ride no matter what set you put on

But for right now it starts everytime, good on gas and I've only needed one thing addressed under warranty which is good given the limited amoutn of time I have to be running it back and forth for repairs like I needed to do with my Vue

Goose

teech

Wasn't it you that gave me a hard time when I complained of my maintenance issues?

GuitHHR

I don't understand the complaints about our HHRs being noisy. IMO it is one of the quietest four cylinder cars I have driven including Accord and Camry. In fact I drove a 2006 Accord last week and found it to be very noisy and harsh vibrations at idle and such, where as I cant feel even the slightest vibration at idle or any time in my HHR. Did I just get lucky and get one that is abnormaly quiet? Even in severe cross winds on the highway it is very quiet. I think it is a superb car all the way around.

Black Rose

According to documents I downloaded from the GM Powertrain web site, the Ecotec motor comes from the Spring Hill TN plant.

In other postings Desert Coyote has mentioned that the majority of Ecotecs come from the Tonawanda NY plant. Either way, the Ecotecs in our HHRs are US sourced. The supercharged Ecotecs are from Germany (but they aren't in the HHRs)

The only Chinese sourced motor I am aware of is the 3.4L V6 in the Eqiuinox and Torrent. Supposedly it was done because Tonawanda was already at capacity when they needed the extra motors for the Equinox.

Snoopy

that is what I thought also. I believe Saturn, produces their own Ecotec's, balance comes from Desert Coyotes's Mama (with the exception of the TURBOed Ecotec, which are German). I think I just said the same thing as you...that was dumb, on my part.

hhrcrafty

God, seriously, I just wish the anti-HHR trolls would just leave us alone. Goose doesn't even own one and he's posting random crap about American cars sucking. Guess what Goose? Your Matrix was designed by both Toyota AND GM engineers and built at the NUMMI plant in CA!

Seriously, this is just a freakin' waste of time. I have 27,800 miles on my car to date--8,000 in the last 4 months. No bad brakes, no sandblasting, no electrical hiccups, no noisy engine--NOTHING WRONG. It's also a year one car, purchased October 28, 2005. I think complaining about fuel mileage and brake wear is foolish because everyone is going to get different MPG and brake life. Complaining about stupid crap like four-speed transmissions and drum brakes is also dumb just because I'd rather have proven parts that get the job done cheaper and more reliably than newer designs that have been rushed to production. GM tried using the japanese Aisin 5-speed auto in the Saturn ION and VUE, but it was the worst transmission they'd ever put in a car. This is the SAME transmission used by Honda in the current Accord and Civic models, and was recalled by them the SAME TIME GM had to recall it in the ION. So they decide to switch back to the 4T40 until the 6T40/60 were ready, which it is available now in the Saturn Aura.

BTW, which five-speed auto is available on the Corolla?