2006 Chevrolet HHR
by CStingray78
Excerpt from Autoweek.com2006 Chevrolet HHR
It’s Retro Time Again: Not that anyone else already came out with a car like this
MARK VAUGHN
Published Date: 8/22/05
2006 CHEVROLET HHR
ON SALE: Now
BASE PRICE: $15,990
POWERTRAIN: 2.2-liter, 143-hp, 150-lb-ft I4; fwd, five-speed manual
CURB WEIGHT: 3155 lbs
FUEL MILAGE (EPA COMBINED): 25.0 mpg
Time was that the station wagon version of a car was just called the station wagon version of the car. Wasn’t the Cavalier wagon just called a Cavalier wagon, for instance? Well, forget all that. The word “wagon†is now wagona non grata in automotive parlance. In its place we have all sorts of verbiage that almost always includes the words “active†and “lifestyle†along with photos of zero-body-fat triathletes hauling kayaks out of Class V rivers while drinking satisfying coffee.
So don’t go thinking the Chevrolet HHR is just the wagon version of the Chevy Cobalt coupe and sedan, okay? Because it’s not.
Okay, it actually is the same platform: same drivetrains, same wheelbase, same almost everything, but there’s a lot more going on here than that, Chevy says. You need look no further than the name.
The letters HH and R stand for Heritage High Roof, a series of words that you can’t help but think would have come out better if they’d just spent more time working on them. Heritage High Roof doesn’t have the same ring to it as Super Sport, Gran Turismo Omologato or even Birdcage Maserati. How about Helpful, Hip and Retro? Hoppin’ Hot Rod? Or Ha Ha haR? See, we didn’t spend any time at all coming up with those. Guess this is a new age with new acronyms.
The first H, the heritage part, refers to the 1949 Chevy Suburban, which the HHR sort of resembles in miniature and which Chevy suggests is the wellspring of all things SUV. That may be the case if you look at all SUVs from a certain angle and in the proper lighting conditions and after a few Heinekens—and if you conveniently forget about that whole Willys Jeep 4x4 station wagon thing from 1947. We are also supposed to see design cues from the Chevy SSR. The SSR is selling like lead bricks on a life raft, making you wonder why Chevy is even drawing the SSR into the deal, but there it sits.
The “high roof†part of the moniker is the towering 65.2-inch skyline up top of this sucker. The high roof gives you command-of-the-road feel that only an SUV can give, Chevy says. Even if that SUV is just a big, honkin’ Cobalt.
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There, we said it, the PT Cruiser, the elephant in the living room that no one at GM wants to admit exists. Now is as good a time as any to come clean. Chevrolet representatives couldn’t bring themselves to even mention P, T or Cruiser at all during the HHR’s daylong press intro until darn near the end of the day, and even then only when asked specifically about it. The PT Cruiser is obviously similar in concept and execution to the HHR. When it was unveiled at the Detroit and Los Angeles auto shows, the cruel joke circulating around the show floor was that the HHR was called the “Me-Too Cruiser,†since it was the same size and basic shape as the Chrysler. GM didn’t think that very funny.
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Prices range from $15,990 to $18,790, with options like remote-vehicle start, traction control and XM satellite radio available on top of that. It’s cute, but some may not think it’s as cute as a PT. And maybe everyone who thinks it is as cute as a PT already bought a PT. But just because Ferrari makes a 360 doesn’t mean no one wants to buy a Lamborghini Gallardo, does it? Though it might mean they won’t buy 100,000 of them.
The new issue of Motor Trend had a special feature on a Supercharged HHR from Squires Turbo Systems. It puts out more horses, but, for some reason, runs the same quarter mile times. I guess Squires has some more R & D to do.
'95 Trans Am (working) & '91 3000GT VR-4 (broken) & '94 3000GT VR-4 (broken)
