Last June, my wife and I purchased a brand new 2011 HHR in order to provide a safer, more dependable vehicle for our teenage daughters to learn to drive and to have enough room to take our dogs with us when we wanted to go somewhere as a family. In January, on one of the days we actually had snow on the ground, I came to an intersection, tried to stop, couldn't, and slid through. A car in the opposite direction made a left turn, not realizing I couldn't stop, hit me on the front left side of the HHR, turning me 90 degrees from the direction I was going and causing over $8,000 of damage to the car. The good news is that no one was hurt. When I got home, the first thing my wife asked was, did I get to see what my airbag looked like" I realized my airbags never deployed. Why? also, why didn't the anti-lock brakes stop the car, or at least slow it down" after repeated complaints, the dealer did finally get a representative from GM to look into it, pull the black box and see if we had a real issue. This accident happened on January 18, and on March 9th, I finally got a form letter from esis/GM basically claiming the car performed as it should. The letter also stated I should keep the car in an un-repaired condition until the dispute is resolved. A day before I got the letter, the dealer called to tell me the repairs on the car were almost done. They knew we were disputing it and fixed the car anyway. GM stated I would have had to step on the brakes seven seconds from the light in order to stop in time. At 30 mph, which is the speed I was traveling at, I would travel 616 feet in 7 seconds, that's two football fields. At that distance the light was still green. I have written local lawmakers, my congressman, and the state attorney general on this matter. This car needs to be recalled because of the failure of the brakes and airbags. The contact banged his shoulder into the corner post of the vehicle. Updated IVOQ 04/17/12.

- Holland, MI, USA