I want to blow up my car!!! I actually I LOVE my HHR - EXCEPT when it tries to kill me!! I'll be driving along and out of NO WHERE - the check engine light comes on.... These are the errors I get:

1) SERVICE TRACTION 2) ENG PWR REDUCED 3) SERVICE ESC

The RPM's rev and drop drastically, the car shakes violently....and it lurches...yes, lurches forward....

This has happened when I'm on the HWY going 70mph - drops down FAST to about 20mph - talk about scary! Thank god I was already in the far right coming up on my exit....! It's also happened when I'm going 30mph through town....it's also happened when I'm at a dead stop waiting to enter traffic - that's when the car lurches forward - into traffic - again; thank goodness there were no cars coming...It happens in good weather/dry roads, snow, ice, rain - whatever....there really seems to be no pattern to when or why/how etc this happens....

It happened once last winter - I had a lot of snow and ice built up in the wheels - cleared it all out - seemed to fix the problem - didn't happen until this past November. Got new tires put on the car day after Thanksgiving - they put high performance tires on my car that weren't actually the correct size....it happened four times with the new tires....I had the shop change the tires to the CORRECT size (still high performance) hoping it'd fix the problem - surprising - it did not....it's actually happened three times since the new-new tires had been placed....

I can't afford to go running around to different dealers and mechanics for them to tell me "I don't know" as it sounds like most of you have already done and received that answer - frustrating. Has anyone actually gotten a REAL answer and solution to this problem....? I'm a single mom barely scraping by and I can't afford to guess what's going on.....

Please feel free to contact me on Facebook, monica.anderson78 if you have any suggestions or solutions...THANKS!!!!!

During my 62 mile drive to work from NC to VA I experienced a reduction in engine power and ESC fault on my DIC. This occurred approx 32 miles into my drive while I was at a stop light. The engine was surging and felt like the transmission wanted to keep the vehicle moving while I had to depress the brake harder to keep the vehicle in place. I then placed the vehicle in park and the vehicle continued to surge when the engine surged.

I am really worried about this vehicle due to this occurring while operating at interstate speeds, and lucky, I decided to take the downtown route today or I would most likely be a splat on the front of an 18 wheeler. I contacted the local Chevy dealership and they're highly trained individual treated me like I was a grade school child that has never seen an engine before. As a military person with significant training in internal combustion engines, I think I have somewhat of an idea when something is wrong.

Chevy needs to remove their butts from keeping their fat stacks of cash warm and see how to fix this issue. I know that there are several others in my location who are having similar issues.