esmarkey

As I was sitting on the couch Saturday late morning getting ready to enjoy a weekend with no plans and just hanging with the family, my wife got a call from her Mother in TN. She was having chest pains and though she should go to the hospital (you think!!) anyway, she was admitted with a heart attack and was being air lifted to another hospital with a better cardiology dept. But that is a whole other story in itself.

After we got the kids settled in with the neighbors and threw some Sleeping bags, cloths and snacks in the SS we jumped in for the 10 hour trip at 3:00pm.

I had just filled the car the day before, so we started with a full tank of gas, and luckily we were just behind that big storm that nailed the east coast, but did hit some of the remnants. I had installed new Enkie 16" wheels with the Bridgstone Blizzaks last fall, so we were ready for snow and ice.

Since my wife was in a big hurry to get to see her Mom, which we didn't know what her condition was, I was running much faster than I usually do, but tried to keep it at a speed that wouldn't warrant a ticket (and the time that would take) I averaged between 10 - 15 MPH over the speed limit, and sometimes went as high as 25mph over.

We started in Western Michigan, about middle half way up, and went straight to the Hospital in Knoxville TN via IN, KY, TN and back and forth to the eastern end of TN (Moms home to sleep). The entire trip was about 1,400 miles. About 75% was expressway 20% hwy with traffic lights (Indiana... blah!), and 5% city driving. I reset everything on the DIC as soon as we hit the road. Although it seemed faster, the avg speed was 69mph (stop and go driving rally brings it down). I made one stop for gas in KY. Premium was $.26 higher than regular at 2.74. Filled up again in TN between trips to the hospital at $2.78 ($.24 higher than reg), and one last time in Indiana at $2.84 ($.30 higher than reg).

Total miles = 1393, Total Premium (93 oct) used 48.9 gals total cost $136.86
The avg fuel economy was 28.5mpg. I verified this with fill ups.

Comments about the SS:
Having the power of the SS available was really nice on the highways with 50 55mph speed limits when you get behind a string of vehicles going 40ish. Just drop it into 3rd and nail it. Easy to get around... We had snow about 1/2 of the trip, and the blizzaks were fantastic in the snow, I felt very comfortable, even at high speeds. The only time I really got nervous was when I was the only car in the middle of the night crossing Jellico Mountain in KY with snow on the road.... No problems going up, but somewhat discerning going down with curves! Sometimes even coasting, I would start gaining more speed than I was comfortable with so I had to apply the brakes to bring it back down to a reasonable speed. This brings me to the brakes. Although I am usually very easy on brakes, these long down grades in the mountains required me to use the brakes much more than I am sued to. about an hour into the mountains I started to notice that dreaded peddle vibration that I have heard so much of. This continued to worsen through the rest of the trip to the point that applying the brakes got uncomfortable as the entire car would shake. When I had the tire dealer install the new wheels, I made sure that they torqued the wheels in a star pattern, and after about 100 miles I re-torqued them again myself in the star pattern. I have put several thousand miles on them myself with no issues, until I really had to use them.

To summarize, we saw more snow in KY and TN then we had ever seen. The HHR fits a lot of stuff in it, is comfortable on long trips, does well in the snow. SS power is excellent, fuel mileage is very good at high speeds (better below 70mph), brakes are NOT trustworthy.

Oh, and my mother in law... went in with chest pain on Sat, was diagnosed with a heart attack, moved to another hospital. Sunday they put a stint in, and Tuesday she went home. She is doing fine, but wishes we were still there. I'm glad to be back home, and need to call the dealer to see if the warped rotors will be covered.

JoeSchmoe

Glad your mother-in-law is OK. Scary stuff.

I like that a family emergency can turn out to be a long-run test for your SS... good post.

solman98

Glad she made it through ok. That can be a scary thing to go through.

Now the "experts" here will tell you this (warped rotors) can't happen this way.....

decepticonss

Glad your mother in law is alright. Sounds like your rotors heated up from excessive braking causing them to warp. Mountains can do that.

esmarkey

Yeah, I see that one coming as well

I really would like to understand the root cause though... A car with close to 30K no brake problemsand the 1st time I really have to use them and.....

Jeda13

Scary since you can't use the engine to slow the car down. This is the first car I've driven that doesn't work this way. My wife's Honda is worse.

JIm

sleeper

Eric-

Glad to hear your Mother-n-Law is doing good... That's the main thing IMO..

Billy

esmarkey

One more note I would like to point out:

Prior to my long trip, I was watching the oil life and with all of the cold starts and short trips I was averaging 75 - 80 miles per percent of oil life. On the long trip, mostly expressway, I averaged 110 - 115 miles per percent of oil life.

I always figured that would be the case, but nice to confirm it.

My wife uses her remote start to preheat the car all of the time and drives about 1/2 mile to the bus stop to pick up/drop off the kids 4 separate times per day. She sits with it idling (for heat) until the bus shows up then drive back the 1/2 mile., She also goes about 9 miles a few times a week to the grocery store, and we use her car to run the kids around.... She gets 25- 30 miles per percent of oil life

DreamHHR

What do you mean? Isn't there an I gear on the SS? (Assuming an automatic here) That's what it's for. I do it all the time. You get strong engine compression and if you use the brakes on top of it, it'll give you even more compression.

Yves

esmarkey

One more update:
I stopped by my dealer today to make an appointment for the warped rotors and the service manager said that his brake tech wasn't busy and if I wanted to wait he could look at it right away.

Long story short, 1 1/2 hours later I rolled out with 4 freshly turned rotors and all covered under warranty! And no more vibration.

I love my local dealer (Gage Chevy in Grand Haven)