10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 1 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 69,506 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
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« Read the previous 20 complaints
This is on of repeated incidents where the electronic stability control (ESC) activates while traveling straight on dry pavement at speeds between 15 and 30 mph. A chime sounds, a message appears on the display, the vehicle briefly loses steering and pulls to the right while brake is involuntarily activated. After turning the car off and restarting, the car continues normally. Fortunately, this has not yet caused an accident. On this occasion, the right front hub was replaced. The dealer has variously attributed the problem to mismatched tires (replaced with all new), bad hubs (both replaced), bad speed sensors (replaced), bad alignment (fixed) and a wrongly calibrated steering position sensor (re-calibrated). The vehicle has been towed, repaired repeatedly, and the problem is back again. This needs to be escalated to a recall.
- Chandler, AZ, USA
Lost power steering very hard to turn steering wheel.
- Norwalk, CA, USA
Since purchasing this vehicle as a rental return, there have been repeated incidents where the electronic stability control (ESC) activates while traveling straight on dry pavement at speeds between 15 and 30 mph. The vehicle briefly loses steering and pulls to the right while brake is involuntarily activated. After turning the car off and restarting, the car continues normally. Fortunately, this has not yet caused an accident. The dealer has variously attributed the problem to mismatched tires (replaced with all new), bad hubs (both replaced), bad speed sensors (replaced), bad alignment (fixed) and a wrongly calibrated steering position sensor (re-calibrated). The vehicle has been towed, repaired repeatedly, and the problem is back again. This needs to be elevated to a recall.
- Chandler, AZ, USA
On two occasions within the 3yr/36,000mile warranty, the ESC and antilock temporarily went out with dashboard notification. No ESC problems since, so it was not taken to dealership. In the meantime, we have a power steering problem that only occurred once during the warranty period at 35,000 miles. Now, at 40,000, the problem has worsened so the power steering fails every trip. The car steers hard when this occurs, obviously. Restarting the car resolves the problem for a few minutes.
- Lake Orion, MI, USA
I, was driving on the fwy!lucky on the exit at ramona blvd from the 605 fwy my car power wheel star to turning hard to turn right and the light on the panel show power steering and lucky me! I, manage to turned very hard but, I did turn the wheel and park my car on shoulder, I, turn off the car and turned on again and the wheel turn soft again!so I, cut drive safe to my home from there!!but I am afraid going to the fwy again!!this happen 01_14_2014 please give to me any feedback from this matter!!scare driver..( this is the third time happen) I am afraid to something happens to me!!!
- Baldwin Park, CA, USA
I was driving the car got up to 25 mph and the steering went out, the car was hard to steer I turnaround for home. I turn the car off took the key out of the ignition put it back in started the car up and it work for one minute and went out again.
- Atlanta, GA, USA
The electrical power system in my 2010 Chevy HHR completely failed 3 days ago while driving down the road. We were unable to steer this vehicle and it almost caused a bad traffic accident. The power system failed at 68,000 miles. It is apparent that numerous HHR owners has experienced this problem but GM has taken no action to recall this part on this vehicle. Researching the electronic power system part number 19257875 I discovered that GM has other vehicles that have a recall applicable to the HHR that match the part number in question. Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac, cobalt have recalls on this same part number which cover a life time warranty. This is a very serious problem with the HHR and the electronic power system and GM should have initiated a recall on the electronic power system ages ago. What are they waiting for. Someone to be seriously injured or killed.
- Ocala, FL, USA
I have had two issues with this car and it has made me feel unsafe when driving it. The first involves the brakes. When braking after driving at 45mph or more, the steering wheel begins shaking. I was told the brake pads needed to be changed. I did and the problem still continued. Last month, the power steering light came on the dashboard. For a couple of days, it went away but soon the steering wheel became too hard to turn. Took it to mechanic who changed the power steering module as indicated by the diagnostics test. Once the change was done, the service ESC light came on and the car has been crazy ever since. I have yet to resolve the issue as nobody knows what is wrong with my car. It has been almost a month already. I am unhappy with this car and would not recommend to anybody. After looking it up, I see that many have this same issue. It is very unsafe since this can happen at any moment while driving!
- Miami, FL, USA
I was driving my car to the dollar store and was stopped at the red "left turn" arrow, and all of a sudden, the "power steering" sign flashed on my dashboard and my car made a "ding ding" noise. When the light turned green, I turned left and it was extremely hard for me to turn the wheel. It has been happening since. I will turn the car off, and when I turn the car back on, it drives fine for the first few minutes, and then the "power steering" sign came back on. The "power steering" sign has also appeared when I was making a right turn which caused the wheel to lock up in the middle of a turn. The car jerked and I almost crashed into a black sedan. I have a small child who sits in the back seat. I don't have much money, so I can not afford to pay the dealership to get this issue fixed. I took it to a cheap repair shop, and they could not find the issue. I have been looking online to find what ways I can fix this without it costing me a lot of money. Have not been able to find a solution, so I am currently driving with no "power steering" which can be very dangerous. In addition to my power steering going out, a couple months ago, I went out to my car to get in my car, and put my key in the ignition and turned the car on. Made it to the store, and when I was getting ready to get out of the car, the key would not come out of the ignition. I could not turn it, or anything. The car would not turn off. I had to have aaa disconnect my battery so that my car didn't have to stay running until the dealership opened in the morning. My key had to sit in the ignition over night, someone could have stolen my car. I took it to the dealership the next morning and they had to replace the whole ignition cylinder.
- Burnsville, MN, USA
We were driving our HHR on a clear sunny day and the ecs came on and off causing the vehicle to shake and become uncontrollable until we pulled off the road and shut the HHR off and turned it back on, this was the first indecent. We took the HHR to the dealer and they reprogrammed the computer, this worked for almost a year before it started doing this again. We have once again took it to the dealer and have been told there is nothing wrong with the HHR, I asked them what to do because the HHR is unsafe when the ecs fails because you have no control over the vehicle, and they told me they have no answers.
- Bucksport, ME, USA
I had another car pull partially out of a driveway into the path of my 2010 HHR lt and there was not enough distance between me and the other vehicle to stop. There was another car in the other lane traveling towards me but there was enough space where I could get around the car that pulled out of the driveway and be out of the way of the car in the other lane, but when I turned the wheel rapidly to the left and tried to speed up the stability control came on and would not allow my 2010 HHR to gain speed almost resulting in a head on wreck.
- Pinetops, NC, USA
- Chandler, AZ, USA