When I went shopping for a car back in 08, I looked at chebies first and quickly looked away. Very little standard options and one of those options was ABS, it wasn't the lowest model either, the HHR we looked at was just under the SS version and abs was part of a $1200 "safety pack" option which also included side curtain airbags. When I looked at Kia, BAM everything safety related was standard. total price was lower with more options, much more space (kia rondo) and more power (2.7 v6) better crashtest ratings, only con i found was that the sheetmetal dents easy, and it's an import.

Now look though, chebie took the hint and has a lot better standard options, so do the rest of the domestic line up. They needed competition to get serious.