Personally I step up for condition and mileage. A clean title is not indicative of a good car. A salvage title isn't indicative of a bad car. A CarFax is a tool, it may be of some help and it may not. But it will usually show a track record on maintenance and emissions tests + where the car was originally sold (rust belt ?) and where it has spent its life. If it was owner maintained there may be little useful info. But as previously and accurately stated there is no substitute for a good hands on look and drive. A sharp high mile car priced right could be a decent buy IF it has been properly maintained. But with high miles there are sure to be some issues. On the plus side parts are relatively inexpensive and if the buyer has basic mechanical skills other than a few things like water pumps fairly easy to work on. If you have a paint meter or access to one they are a great tool to locate repaired / repainted areas. Look at tires for date codes. Any tire (in my opinion) over 4 years old no matter what it looks like should be replaced. I personally learned this the hard way. If you drive 10,000 miles a year don!t buy 80,000 mile expensive tires unless of course you are buying strictly for performance reasons. No sense paying for expensive tires that will be unsafe by age far before they will reach wear limits. I really like these little cars, I wouldn't really say they are great cars as they have plenty of things that wear out somewhat prematurely compared to other similar vehicles. Again, this is my opinion, not something I would argue about. If you are considering a purchase there a quite a few really sharp owners you can find on this site. I am sure you could find someone that knows these cars front to rear to help you look. I enjoy reading through the forums as I learn more and more about these little cars. Best of luck to anybody buying one. Kind of a neat community?

 

Whoa ! Hard read, paragraphs are very helpful. Just saying.

 

My 06 LT1 HHR had 133,000 miles on it when I traded it away in 2014. It was highly maintained but was worth $1800 as a trade in.

 

It's too bad you weren't able to retail it, $1800 is pretty cheap for a 133k nice 2006 HHR. Especially 6 years ago.
These are pretty good cars for the money and will go a long way with good care, unfortunately the normal wear items can be quite expensive unless you know how to do the repairs yourself and knows where to source needed parts. Rotors, Lower control arms, Struts, Wheel bearings, Power steering motors, Sway end kits, Water pumps etc can be quite expensive to repair at the dealer level but not too bad if can do the labor yourself. And these are all pretty much a for sure needed repair at higher mileage.
My 2007 2.4 LT has 186,000 and still runs and drives fine but I have replaced all of these parts except the water pump. Most have been replaced twice. So I don't think I would recommend buying one of these with high miles to anybody that has to pay for repairs at a retail level.
I just bought a 2006 2.4 car with 50k and it drives like a new car. So I think I am in HHR good shape for now.
I hope everyone is laying low and is well.

 

My '08 Panel 2LT only had 34K on it, drives like new. But I have other modes of transport.