Sold my 09 LS panel (perfect HHR) to buy an 09 HHR SS panel, had the SS shipped because I purchased it online from a Chevy dealership in Ca,,, I live in Las Vegas.

It's a Chevy certified HHR with only 26,000 miles, full bumper to bumper warranty for the first year and also I purchased the extended warranty.

From day one I noticed only getting around 16 to 18 mpg average city driving mostly, and I'm real easy on the pedal (it's an auto trans).

I've had the panel for around 7 months now so I'm still covered (or so I thought) for the first year bumper to bumper.

After a month or so I go into my local Chevy dealership to be told 16 to 18 mpg is average for my SS.

After reading and posting on the SS forum I find that everyone else is getting far better mpg than me with their SS models so I go back to Chevy to share this information with them,,,, they tell me it's because of the Vegas climate and sea level that my SS does not get the same much better mpg's that others are getting (that was pretty funny) and they don't want to run a diagnostic on my HHR because that's the mpg's I'm supposed to be getting.

Then my mpg starts getting worse a few weeks ago and now I'm at around 14 or 15 mpg so I go to a different dealership,,, I get them to run a full diagnostic and they tell me everything checks out perfect.

Last night I went thru almost a quarter of a tank with less than 30 min of drive time.

Also I forgot to mention that my SS has not that much more power than my LS panel did,,,, Chevy also had an explanation for that as well,,,, they said the power does not really kick in untill I'm on the freeway,,,, that has not been the case.

Anyhow,,, Chevy tells me all is fine and perfect while I'm now living at my local gas stations going thru premium gas like crazy.

The only thing I can think of so far is to go to a very high end Chevy turbo place here in Vegas that I know of and pay them a big chunk of money to have them check out my HHR in hopes they can figure out the problem and then take their findings back to one of the Chevy dealerships to have them fix the issue they deny I'm having.

Or,, should I call Chevy directly and tell them I think their local Vegas dealerships are trying to screw me,,, anyone got their number handy, the department I would need to call ?

Advice or opinions welcome on what might be the problem with my HHR and also how to deal with Chevy,,,,,,, I'm really getting that vibe and feeling that my local Chevy dealerships are lying to me to get out of covering my warranty.

Thanks in advance.
Davyo

 

Have you been to more than one dealership? If not, I would suggest trying another or maybe even multiple ones. There are some dealerships that know how to work on these SS's. Then there are some that don't have a clue on the turbo system.
I had to contact 4 or 5 dealerships before finding one capable to do my Turbo upgrade.
After reading and following your other thread, it's obvious that something is wrong with your car.
And by the way. That comment you got about "sea level". Not really sure what kind of smoke they were trying to blow with that one. I live at sea level and as I stated before my gas mileage is pretty darn good.

 

I've been taking my HHR to an independent shop for years. You are getting the typical GM response when you take your car to the dealership for any potential warranty work. The dealers nor GM will not willingly spend money to perform warranty work. The dealer wants to sell you another car, not fix the one you have.

If you can locate the previous owner, contact them to find out why they traded in a low mileage SS. Maybe they were having the same issues you are seeing and dumped the car.

 

That logic always seemed somewhat counterintuitive to me. I'm not likely to buy something from someone who alienates me.

 

Yea,,,, when they made the sea level climate excuses I said "so I'm talking to HHR owners all over the country on a forum and none of them are having my issues because they live at different sea levels" to which they pretty much said yep.

Been to 2 dealerships so far, a few times,,,, today I'm going to my local Caddy dealership as I kinda know the service manager there from when they used to service and work on my Hummers.

Yea,, GM is really pissing me off with this B/S,,,,, I also own a 2011 Tacoma and wow, my Toyota dealership is amazing to deal with.

I have thought about trying to get in touch with the only other owner of my SS panel, when I bought my gas hog about 6 months ago it only had 23,000 miles on it,,, perhaps the reason for the super low mileage was because of the same issues I'm having.

Agreed,,, I think this will be my last GM purchase ever,,,,, during my lifetime I have mostly owned Toyota, Nissan and Chevy products,,,,, the Toyotas have always been the best overall,,,, and the Toyota dealerships are always a pleasure to deal with.

Cheers
Davyo

 

Time for a who has had a great experience at a Chevy dealership thread and name names

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I never had a bad experience with the three dealerships I've dealt with in the last 8 years or so. Center Chevrolet in San Bernardino (now closed), Crest Chevrolet in San Bernardino, and Mark Christopher Chevrolet in Ontario.

 

This is not a sugar coat. I had issues with 3 different dealerships over the past 20 years and GM Factory Customer Service has come through every time with either a shared expense or they paid the entire bill, in one case outside of warrantee; From my perspective, they review the case and really put some thought into the verdict. I used to be a Toyota freak, but will never buy another because their attitude is that they don't make mistakes and any issues are the customer's fault (such as a 3 year old rusting truck from the inside out that is garage kept; my 26 year old Silverado hasn't a spec of rust).

 

Back when I had my HHR I always had a great experience with my local Chevy dealer, which was Lexington Chevrolet in Lexington, TN. They even knew me by name everytime I called to schedule an appointment and they were always friendly and ready to help. It's an experience that you unfortunately don't find as often as you should these days, but I'm definitely glad I found a Chevy dealer that still believes in the words "Customer Service."

To the OP I'm sorry to hear that you're having such an unpleasant experience with your local Chevy dealers. Hopefully they figure out what's going on with your SS and fix it so that you can go back to having a pleasant ownership experience. If you continue to have problems though there is someone from Chevrolet Customer Service here on the forums. You may want to look into sending them a PM about your issues and see if they can help at all. Who knows maybe they will even see your thread and chime in themselves. Either way I wish you the best of luck and hope that everything ends up working it self out for both you and your SS.

 

Thanks for posting.

Do you or anyone else know whom exactly it is from Chevy CS that is on this forum,,,, I would love to PM them to see if they could help.

Cheers
Davyo