With a push of button, woman wins car

Published 12:00 am Sunday, May 29, 2005

Brittany Hodges' luck was all good recently - so good that it left her speechless and with a new ride.

"I'm still kind of in shock," the Willow Wood 18-year-old said.

Hodges is the third GM Hot Button car or truck winner from an Ironton dealership and the first at Bob Clyse Pontiac-GMC.

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She was at the lot with her father to trade in a car. Hodges said she was not shopping for a new vehicle, but her father suggested that she play the GM Hot Button game.

With the odds at one in 3,000, Hodges said she did not expect to win.

Hodges did win though. She won a 2006 GM Envoy, a car so new that it is not even on the lot yet.

The game works with the participant pushing the OnStar button in the designated GM vehicle.

The rules and procedures are given by a recording before an operator takes the participant's birth date, phone number, ZIP code and last four digits of the driver's license number.

Once that information is taken, the participant is either told he or she is not a winner or, in Hodges' case, the operator returns with the good news.

The vehicle the game is played in is not the one the person wins, however it is the same make. For example, GMs are only won at GM dealerships, Cadillacs at Cadillac dealerships.

"It's a good thing to see somebody win," said Bob Clyse, owner of Bob Clyse Pontiac-GMC.

Clyse estimated Hodges' new vehicle would be value at $30,000 to $35,000.

Hodges said she was deciding between white and bright red for the color.

After having her picture taken with a white 2005 model Hodges said she's leaning toward choosing white.

The contest lasts less than two months and will end Tuesday, May 31.

Clyse said people should come try to win.

"Somebody is going to win," he said. "It just depends who pushes the button."

Since the vehicle she won will be specially made for her, Hodges will not receive it for a few month.

For now she will continue driving her 1996 Honda Accord, but she said the new ride will certainly be shown to friends, family and people she goes to school with when it arrives.