When do you become an SSRfanatic!?

Dreams Do Come True!

I fell in "love" with the SSR the moment I saw a GM sketch of it. I remember seeing a b/w ad in a car magazine with a guy fueling it up at a old time gas station a few months later! WOW once again it made me start dreaming of owning one.

I can remember waiting to see the very first one at a dealership. It was late August of 2003. So I went to the "HUGE" Chevrolet dealer where they had a beautiful Redline Red on hold in the waiting area of the service bay. I took pics of it and walked around and sat in it for 30 min. I asked a salesman there that I knew about buying it and he said they got the SSR by mistake. It was a test vehicle and could not be sold. It was going to have some tests done on it at the local Delphi Plant (formerly Harrison Radiator) in Lockport, NY.

He said that they were going to ask $20,000 over sticker for their very first SSR that was soon coming in! UGH!! NO way was I going to pay that kind of money! So my dream went on the back burner for a few months. However, I kept asking around at every Chevy dealership and waited for their SSRs to start coming in. They would call me and of course I got that same ole story... 10K over.... then later it was 5K over... then finally Sticker! So I started to work on my dealer friend about giving me a better deal. He wanted to make me a great offer that would be at least $1,000.00 under anyone else. Hmm let me think about it because at that time I didn't want wait to order one.

Finally it was in April 04 when I found a dealer that had just gotten in a Redline Red SSR and whom was willing to give me a $1,000.00 off of MSRP! I knew then that it would mean at least $2,000 off at my other dealer. I got the nerve up to ask my wife to go with me to look at the 2 SSRs that this dealer had in... one red and the other black. When we got there the salesman said oh yes we just got in a new silver SSR. My wife said ok lets see it... so we went into the service bay just as the lot boy drove in with it. When we both saw it drive through the doors our eyes just lit up! We both said "WOW" that is the color we want. LOL She then asked if it was loaded and the sales man said yes of course. I said well it is not completely loaded it is missing a newer option and he said what was that??? I said the chrome wheel option! He said well they couldn't order it because they were on constraint and that no one else has chrome wheels anywhere either in WNY area or in the state. "Well then ..., said my wife, I guess we will just have to order one then won't we?"

WOW!! that was my green light to go ahead and order my new SSR! I have never looked back since! :thumbs

Let me expand on this...

Diggs said:

Heck, it's HER truck!!!

Diggs

Click to expand...

I was hooked when I saw pictures of the concept. The wife soon got hooked. She is not a car person - it's just transportation, you know? In this case, she was the driving force behind getting an SSR. It is the first (and only, so far) vehicle she has really wanted.

Back in January of 2004, we were trying to track down an SSR. I joined this forum to try to get more information. It had to be Ultra Violet. The dealers around here wanted $5K or $10K over MSRP. It seemed like it was not to be. I was really wanting to get rid of the wife's car ('99 Grand Am GT) and since the SSR seemed out of reach, I bought the first new GTO in town in February 04. It was supposed to be the wife's car (yeah, right!!) but she was not really into it.

I got a promotion at work and again started looking for an Ultra Violet SSR. When the dealers here would not come off their ADM, I turned to the internet. I watched a few on eBay but kept seeing them get bid up pretty high. Finally, there was one that did not seem to be drawing much interest. I watched it for a couple days and when it had one day left on the auction, it was still not at the reserve price. I put in a bid and hoped. Still not at reserve. I bumped my bids until I finally found that reserve price. I still had a couple of hours before the auction ended. It must have been destiny, because no one out bid me. The wife and I rented a car and drove to Ann Arbor, MI. We picked the truck up and drove it back to Virginia. We took the long way (785 miles) and took it in for it's first oil change (Mobil 1 for me!!) when we had it for two days.

Things were good until around December when I got a wild hair and on a whim asked the wife what she thought of the Aqua Blur. I was surprised that she said she liked it. Feeling lucky, I asked if she liked the 6 speed and the more powerful engine of the 05. She wanted to know if it would go like my GTO. I fibbed and said yes, it would. When I told her that GMS pricing was now available, she gave me the go ahead to see if we could find one and get the trade in we needed to make it happen.

I went round and round with a few area dealers and finally a deal was struck. There is no going back. This one is a keeper.

Diggs

P.S. Here is Mrs. Diggs in her truck.

I’ve always had a place in my heart for regular cab trucks. 56 Fords, 49 Chevys,
And the 67-72 C10s to name a few. I also get a kick out of the unusual vehicles with interesting story lines.
The first time I saw that yellow SSR in the commercial getting off that car carrier, I knew I was going to have one. This was early 2003, and I was still in my twenties. There was so much dealer markup for them that I was turned off, and was left tinkering with other hobbies.
In 2004, I started lurking around here like a creeper at a schoolyard with a windowless van, I sometimes felt dirty, but still kept lurking. Finally, in august of 2005, I purchased a new 05 smoking asphalt from a Chevrolet dealer in San Fran. Because I wasn’t a state resident, I couldn’t drive it home, but I became a true fanatic during the test drive. It’s not about fast, it wasn’t even that comfortable or practical, but that SSR had personality, and expressed that American way I’ve always subscribed to. It’s that same something that differentiates American hot rods from old European classics.
Life happened, I sold that first one (for a profit!) to a dealer who then sold me a 2 door Tacoma. My soul withered, but my pocket book appreciated it. Then the financial collapse happened, and once again I had the opportunity to act on my creeper tendencies. In late 2008 I purchased my second 05 smokin asphalt 6 speed for pennies on the dollar at auction with only 14k miles. I wanted to be more expressive on my second SSR, and I finally stopped creeping on this site and spent the whole 5 minutes of time it took to create an account. With the help of some great young guys, my vacation time and extra money was poured into it. (It’s documented on this site , but not too well). At the end of the project, I basically ended up with a trailer queen....then life happened again. I begrudgingly sold the second one after 3 years of ownership to throw myself into other toys, but I never lost that “fanatic”mindset about these cool trucks that GM of old expressed some really big balls to create.
And here I am in 2021. I’ve kept coming back over and over again, even though I haven’t owned an SSR for more than 8 years. Even though I’ve owned two smokin asphalts, and the SSR looks great in that color, it’s not my favorite. Remember at the beginning of this post where I said I saw that commercial? Well, yellow is my favorite color, but I’m not brave enough to own yellow...so I have my second favorite color (ricochet), and my 3rd SSR. I’m now late into my forties, and appreciate this truck more than ever. This third one will be a driver I tinker with, and who knows, I might even keep Silvy. Or not. But I’ve been a fanatic for the better part of 17 years! You all on this site have always been great, and I hope you all enjoy your SSRs as much as I do. Side note...love that this thread started in 2005!