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HHR pulled by our American Eagle |
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| HHR pulled by our Jayco Melborne |
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| HHR pulled by our Dynamax Isata |
Marcia and I married in 2011, nearly 15 years ago. Knowing that we wanted something that could be pulled behind a motorhome, we bought a 2009 Chevy HHR. (HHR had a six year production run from 2006–2011).
The most common questions we got were,
a) How hard is it to pull an HHR with a motorhome? ans: It is VERY easy to pull an HHR behind a motorhome...so much so that you can forget that it is there.
b) What does HHR stand for?? ans: This is one I did not know until writing this blog. It stands for Heritage High Roof.
When we traded the HHR in for our new vehicle, it had around 174,000 driving miles, and around 130,000 towing miles. We purchased it used with about 29,000 miles on it. It was a rental car through a car rental agency, but I do now know which one. We put about $500 each year into repairs, tires, oil changes, etc. Bought it for $10,000, and add registration and sales taxes...it cost us around $19,000, including repairs, but plus the cost of gas. I can only guess how much gas cost were since the price fluctuated so much over the years. We got $1,100 as a trade in on the HHR to put towards our new car.
Introducing, our NEVER TO BE TOWED, 2024 Kia Soul. The KIA Soul is considered a SUV, but some call it a station wagon. (A sixteen year production run from 2009–2025, with three-generation runs.) Yes, they are not making the Soul anymore. The reason for stopping? "Move to EV vehicles." Under current administration rules toward EV's, you gotta wonder if they stopped production a bit too early... Total cost, including taxes (7% on first $5,000 and 6% on the rest), license, dealer fees, preparation fees, etc, we paid $19,200.
No one hates dealing with Car Salesmen more than I do. Overall, I left home at 2 pm on Monday, arrived back with the Kia around 5. I get home, I don't see a Key FOB (to lock and unlock vehicle without a key...some will even start a vehicle) but I lock the car from the inside as I shut the door, thinking the key will let me in. Guess what? No key hole. THANK GOODNESS the salesman needed to follow me home so Marcia could sign papers. He showed me the "secret key hole", he unlocked it, the alarm goes off, it takes him about 15-30 seconds to get the alarm off, and the "hunt for the FOB" begins. As I write this, a key locksmith came by today, brought a FOB, programed the FOB, the key which came with the FOB, and the key I got when I bought it (he said it probably lost its programing). All is good.
PS: The color is Mars Orange, AKA: Burnt Orange. Yes, looks red, but in full sun you can really see the Orange color. I doubt it will ever leave Florida.
