05 SSR Inquiry

[shiftz33]

I'm wanting to gather information from actual 05 (or later ) SSR owners. My 03 had some issues that were documented via TSBs that GM would not address or "would fix in the future, when GM figured out how to fix them". I'd like to rejoin the SSR owner group someday, but I really need to know if GM did right by the SSR owner community and addressed some or all of these issues.

Your information would be greatly appreciated.

• HVAC blower motor makes knocking noise on setting "2" and on setting "1" when increasing engine RPMs
• (After having driven more than 1000 miles) does the drive shaft make the "tink" noise
• Engine idle rough - my 03 had a horrible idle that was "normal"
• TSB exists for a 1st-to-2nd (auto tranny 4L60-E) shifting harshness (GM would not fix mine)
• Hood gas struts (03/04 doesn't have them) do they work well?
• Roof (in up position) rattles behind seats (GM would not even address this on my 03)
• EPA rating of 05 4spd auto tranny is 15 City/19 Highway (are those real world numbers with 6.0L engine)

Hi shiftz33...we traded our '03 in on a new '05 so I'll try to answer a few of your questions if I can. We haven't heard any noise from the blower motor and, so far, no 'tinking' noise from the drive shaft, no rough idling at all and the tranny shifts just fine. One of the first things I noticed was the new hood struts, they're great! We have no rattling from the roof and only very, very minor wind noise on windy days. As for the gas mileage, we've only driven it about 225 miles and haven't paid much attention to the mileage. Honestly, we both feel you can't even compare the '03 to the '05...it feels like a totally different vehicle.
On a side note...I see you have a Thunderbird. We also have one...'02 Inspiration Yellow with full yellow accent...we love it!

[shiftz33]

Thanks for the info 'Redline '05'. My wife and I were out in her 04 Thunderbird PCR (Pacific Coast Roadster) today. We recently had to put the hardtop back on the T-Bird since the rainy season has returned to Nor Cal early this year.

My 03 SSR was my daily driver so gas mileage was/is a concern. I was getting about 13.5 in the city and 18.5 on the highway. If the 05 SSR with the 6.0L can get similar numbers then I'm impressed. The EPA rating on the 05 window sticker stated 15 City/19 Highway, but as I've found out many times in the past, that does equal real world mileage.

I really miss the hardtop of the SSR since my 04.5 350Z Roadster has a soft top only. But after two months of ownership (350Z) the number of times that it has been back for work at the service department is 2 (for very minor issues). By this point in time for the SSR it was at 10 or 11 times back to the service department. After 3 months of SSR ownership and 13 visits to the service department, with no progress being made and GM making excuses why they wouldn't work on my SSR for various reasons, I had to get rid of it. Again as my daily driver, it was getting very hard to continually take it back for service visits that either didn't fix anything or broke new things or hear more excuses why the GM regional rep would not be able to review my case that week.

Yah, we were starting to have a few issues with our '03 also but our dealer was great and gave us our money back towards the '05. We don't drive the SSR too much but I'll check the mileage the next time we hit the highway...probably on Wednesday when we go back to have the windscreen installed. We put the hardtop on our bird a few days ago too, it was kind of sad but winter is coming and we figured if we want a convertible ride we can always put the top down on the SSR. We won't drive the Thunderbird or the SSR this winter...we bought an '02 Buick for winter driving. Hey, have I seen you on TBN?

[shiftz33]

Yes, I'm on TBN as well. My userid on TBN is also shiftz33. My userid choice came from the fact that we purchased our previous 04 Nissan 350Z Touring Coupe first (before the T-Bird and SSR). 'Shift' for the 'Nissan current advertising slogan' and 'Z33' for the internal code name for the current series 'Z' car (350Z).