PurdueGuy

Mostly like, though give it just a bit more pep to help diminish the whiners (along with a switch to shut off the extra pep & get good range/economy).

IMO, if the non-conformance to regulations only puts the driver at higher risk, they should be able to sell it, but require a waiver by the purchaser releasing certain liabilities. If a person can have a motorcycle & risk their life that way, they should be able to have a supercar if it's only their life they're risking.

Good to hear about the hiring. It's an excellent plant, and would be a shame if it sat unused much longer.

If the discount is decent, I'd drive a semi-embarrassing car. lol *edit* As I think about it more, it depends on what the ad is for. Not sure I want to drive around a car with a giant ad for feminine products on it. It would probably be safest for a rental company to have more without ads than with. There will always be people that don't want an ad. For example, if you're going to a wedding or some other event, where it would be a very tasteless distraction.

Agreed - this is a car that exists to be cheap above all else. Still, if they made the 2dr hatch & made it handle well, it might actually be kinda cool. 4drs ruined the look completely IMO.

Do keep in mind that the car is two months old and has 6000+ miles already. My cars are babied and sold before they are old enough to have scratches but often have high mileage for their age (generally making them a great deal for the next person). Highway miles? Best purchase - a car that seems semi-worn out because of higher miles, but they're almost all highway, which is soooo easy on the car.

If the right vinyl is used & applied correctly, it will actually protect the paint very well, and come off very cleanly. I've researched it while considering it as a cheap alternative to a regular paint job (turns out that if you use the "right" vinyl and pay a shop to apply it, you'll spend nearly as much as a basic professional paint job).

I'd rather spend that on a ZR1 personally, but to each their own.

Not sold on this... Chrysler products seem like they're halfway decent, but I'm not convinced they're platforms that make a proper starting point for a Maserati.

Looks more substantial, but less cool.

You have more than a month, they'll introduce a dozen new smartphones by then. lol

Since it should take fairly low investment, it seems worth a shot. If they can sell 50k a year for 5 years, they'll probably come out ahead on their investment dollars.

My mother-in-law's Lucerne felt perfectly fine to me, size-wise. Of course, my first car was a '76 Mercury Monarch (a compact! ...right...), and I've since driven cars across a large range of sizes, from Saturn S-Series at the smaller end, our Suburban at the larger (not counting delivery vans & trucks and a mini bus), as well as DD'd a '90 Grand Marquis for a couple years. Drive some of the larger '70's cars and then drive the Lucerne & tell me how unreasonably sized it is.

Everything I have read indicates that typical fuel economy is low to mid 30's with pretty much any of the drivetrain options. The 2.4L gives you the option of putting premium in for extra hp, and the SS requires premium and has gobs of power, but they all seem to get about the same fuel economy. Of course those with hands-on experience should feel free to speak up. There are quite a few vehicles that can get you into the 30mpg+ range, do you have some other needs that the HHR meets that has you eyeballing it? I've been looking at them due to the good fuel economy plus the good hauling space, which would be great for my business. For just commuting, I love the Saturn S-Series, which can get into the high 30's or even low 40mpg's. A good one can be found for well under $5k, and they are simple and cheap to maintain & repair, and very reliable. Downside is they're getting older now, and finding low mileage ones is getting a little tougher.

While it's interesting, it also seems like an exercise in maximizing glass while minimizing actual usable visibility (super high belt line, no direct rear view).

You mean like the Caprice? Isn't the Ute already on the same platform as the Caprice? So exactly what you described has already happened, they just need to offer the Caprice to the general public.

Remakes are fairly easy to crank out (especially if they don't bother to do a good job at it), and they're pretty much guaranteed to get a decent number of sales just from peoples' curiosity.

Perhaps it'd be good to do like the tC and do a hatch, but make it look more like a traditional trunklid. If I had to pick between a coupe and a wagon, I think I'd prefer they offer the wagon, but honestly I think both would be good, and sell well enough to justify.

I think there's a high chance that GM will start selling these to the public within the next couple years, which would quickly make these a whole lot less special. Plus I'm not sure how nice it'd be to have all the police spec interior pieces for a DD.

Wannabe ricer, interesting term... *pictures in head* "Dang, I so wanna get this sticker set, stick-on fender vents, and chrome edging for every edge of my car, but I can't afford it."

Plus it should be uber cheap to develop and manufacture alongside the Wrangler as a niche product, so it wouldn't even have to sell in huge numbers to turn a profit. It could probably run the same wheelbase as the 4dr Wrangler.

Here's a crazy idea: ask the question "does the customer?" I'm thinking they could sell quite a few, especially if they size it right.

The Cobalt wasn't selling well compared to how it had been selling, true, but note that the HHR didn't experience the sales falloff that the Cobalt did. Don't scoff at any vehicle that can push near or over 100k/yr, especially if it's not carrying the R&D burden of a unique platform or drivetrain, or if it's still selling at those levels after 5-6 years without a major sales falloff. The Cobalt's last years were selling at ~50% of its peak years, while the HHR was at 70-75% of peak. Heck, if you adjust for how much of a hit the whole automotive (and general economic) market took in that timeframe, one could probably make the argument that sales of the HHR weren't falling much at all because it had lost appeal, but simply because fewer people were buying vehicles in general. Also, selling less than one of GM's top rental whore & near lowest price models isn't exactly a vehicle damning offense. No one ever expected the HHR to sell at Cobalt levels, it's probably a bigger statement FOR the HHR that near the end it almost did!

From wikipedia: Calendar Year U.S. sales 2005 41,011 2006 101,298 2007 105,175 2008 96,053 2009 70,842 2010 75,401 Cobalt sales numbers from the same years for comparison: Model Year U.S. Sales 2005 212,667 2006 211,450 2007 200,621 2008 188,045 2009 104,724 2010 97,376 So it looks like aside from the first year (which was likely limited by early production rates), Chevy sold one HHR for every two Cobalts approximately. That's not bad at all. It's also nice to note that there aren't any major things to avoid in them (for example, someone shopping for a Saturn Vue would be well advised to avoid the 3.0L V6 in early years, the CVT transmission, and in some peoples' opinions the 3.6L in the last generation). The only consistent complaint I've picked up on with the HHRs is that the A pillars are too thick, which hinders visibility. They have a ton of space inside for being essentially a tall cobalt wagon. I personally think Chevy needs to come up with a worthy successor to the HHR, it's just a super smart vehicle.

Props to the artists that did the work, even though I'm not really into airbrushed cars. Gotta respect the work & talent though. Rosie's face looked a bit odd though.