Review: 2006 Chevrolet HHR
01-07-06, 06:00 PM
#1
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Review: 2006 Chevrolet HHR
http://www.chevrolet.com/hhr/
Unlike many of my past reviews, this one was done more out of my own curiosity then out of widespread interest on CL in a specific vehicle. ( although a few of you have been interested in it, and this is for you ). I have noticed the growing popularity of this vehicle...and the fact that dealerships seem to have a hard time keeping them in stock. GM does seem to have a potential sales winner here......but as you will shortly see, beauty is sometimes is skin deep. I did a thread on the HHR's popularity some time ago but at that time had not looked at the vehicle closely myself...I now have.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...plying+rabbits
The HHR is built off the compact Chevrolet Cobalt ( non-SS ) platform and shares common engines, transmissions, and drivelines. The body and interior, of course, is totally different from the Cobalt sedan and coupe.....in a way it could be classed as Cobalt wagon / SUV.......with styling that is reminiscent of late 40's-early 50's Chevy Suburbans.
The HHR ( which actually stands for Heritage, High Roof ) was introduced early last year in an obvious attempt ( despite GM chief Bob Lutz's vehement denials ) to compete with Chrysler's ubiquitous PT Cruiser, though the HHR comes in only one body style ( a good-looking one at that
), two relatively mundane in-line transverse FWD 4 cylinder engines, and lacks the PT's Cruiser's Turbo and convertible options. This lack of power hurts the HHR significantly...as you will see.
The body style, IMO, is an absolute knockout, IMO even more than the PT Cruiser. It is easy to see why this vehicle is popular if, as with so many people, looks alone is the primary reason for buying.....but unfortunately under the skin ( and with some things on the skin itself ) this is not a very impressive vehicle.
..............So now let's get to that..........
Model tested: 2006 Chevrolet HHR 1LT
Base Price: $16,425
Price as tested: $20,990
Powertrain: 2.4L ECOTEC / VTEC in-line 4, 172 HP, 162 ft.-lbs. torque, 4-speed automatic transmission.
Color: Daytona blue, gray cloth interior.
PLUSSES:
KNOCK EM OUT styling that turns heads everywhere.
Bargain price.....but in many areas this shows. ( the base version starts under 16K )
Relatively space-efficient inside considering the compact platform.
Nice assortment of bright and distinctive paint colors, including Daytona Blue, Sport Red, Sunburst Copper-Orange, Ametyst purple, besides the usual funeral-home stuff.
Well-designed transmission shifter.
Engine relatively easy to work on from above.
Hood struts.......unusual in this price range.
Chrome-ringed instruments and vents a nice touch.
Nice cubby compartments in cargo area.
Economical and fuel-efficient compared with similarly-shaped larger Chevrolet SUV's.
Nice steering wheel with the increasingly popular three-spokes at 3, 6, and 9-o'clock.
MINUSES:
Borderline underpowered even with larger optional 2.4L four and automatic.
Spongy brake pedal.
Low-gloss, rather poorly applied paint with some orange peel.
Noisy, raspy exhaust.
Lack of sound insulation.
Crude, tinny body and sheet metal....in spite of very close panel gaps.
Poor-quality exterior trim...even poorer-quality chrome paint.
Drab interior with too much expanse of plain color and only a few nice touches.
Peek-a-Boo windshield and windows all-around from wide, thick pillars and low windshield header.
Roly-Poly handling....but not as bad as larger SUV's.
El Cheapo 3 / 36 warranty typical of many GM products.
Cheap-feeling and tinny-closing rear hatch.
Some unusually-shaped and placed controls and switches
Loud and annoying turn signals.
Too much disassembling of panels in the rear to get to spare tire.
AWD ( currently not available ) should be considered.....along with bigger powerplants.
OK.....the first thing that strikes you when you first approach this vehicle, especially after seeing pictures of it, or even seeing it on the road, is how SMALL it looks....MUCH smaller than you would expect from its general shape. Chevy, from a distance, has cleverly managed, with its retro-Suburban-influenced styling, to make it look like a much larger vehicle than it is, but when you walk up to it and stand next to it.....it is obvious that it is built off a compact-car platform. I'm 6'2" and I tower over it, unlike larger Chevy SUV's. The next thing that hits you as how COOL it looks. That is a term that I, being Mr. Practical, rarely use whan describing a car, but that is EXACTLY what the HHR is......Cool, Chic, and trendy. The styling is just dynamite......Chevy has hit a home run if you just buy a vehicle for looks. I won't say it is beautiful in the sense of a Jaguar XK8 or Ford GT, but it is a ruggedly handsome vehicle whose looks ( from a distance ) can seduce.
Unfortunately, there is a lot more to a vehicle than just looks, and like the new Ford Mustang, what we have here is Nieman Marcus looks on the outside with a Wal-Mart clearance-sale interior.
And even on the outside, excessive cheapness of design and quality show in many areas, from the flimsy outside mirrors to the exposed thin sheet-metal panels under the front and rear doors with drilled and painted holes in them on models without the optional running boards. bolted on. The hatch not only feels flimsy but shuts with a tinny " quaaaaak " sound and contains an equally-tinny-feeling rear wiper. The chrome on the plastic door handles is some of the dullest and most poorly-applied chrome paint I have ever seen..and the handles feel as if they are going to break right off.
Get inside, shut the door ( which shuts reasonably solidly ) and you find a rather high seating position fom the rather well-designed sport bucket cloth seats with 8-way power adjusts. It is not difficult to find a reasonably comfortable seating position, even for tall broad people like me. The large, thick windshield pillars, low windshield, header, and A, B, C, and D-pillars all combine to play Peek-A-Boo when looking outside in almost any direction. Reach down to the well-designed transmission shifter, albeit with a lack of a sport-shift manu-matic slot........straight forward and back.....with none of this idiotic ziz-zag stuff so poplar today. I wish other manufacturers would do what GM has done.....kept the easy-to-use, simple, forward-back shifter.....and toss those gated, idiotic zig-zag things out. That bugs me almost as much as I-Drive.
The rest of the interior, except for some nice chrome-ringed instruments, nice, solid-feeling circular vents, and nice-looking and feeling climate controls, leaves a lot to be desired. There is too much solid expanse of color, cheap, flimsy-feeling switches and hardware, and a general atmosphere of cost-cutting. Like the Mustang, you get the feeling this car was designed and built to a budget.....it shows. The power-window switches are in the forward part of the console, 4 abreast, with little checker-board patterns on them to show you which window each one controls. The wiper stalk, on the right side of the steering column, has confusing markings on it for off, low, and high, though the intemittent-function is conventionally marked. The steering wheel, with integrated buttons, while nicely-shaped and designed, likewise feels a little thin on the materials too. There is space behind the rear seats to stow things and contains some nice little covered cubbyholes for small things, although the vehicle's compact size limits the cargo room a little in spite of its space efficiency, and there are too many panels to disassemble and remove to get underneath to the spare tire.
OK....enough of the interior. Let's drive it. On the road, the first two things you notice taking off from a stop is the notable lack of torque and the loud, raspy-sounding exhaust.....and I am not a hard or demanding driver by any means. The 2.4 L's 172HP and 162 ft.-lbs. torque with the automatic is just barely adequate for this car....I did not drive the smaller 2.2L 143HP / 150 ft.-lbs. standard engine but that one would probably be even worse...at least with the automatic. The automatic itself I was pleased with in spite of the only 4 speeds.....it was smooth, quiet, and well-designed......and the throttle-induced downshifts ( which you were doing almost constantly to keep up with traffic ) were no problem. I am not usually a big critic of a lack of power, but IMO this car badly needs a larger 4, a turbo / supercharger, or a V6.....both of the HHR engines would be over their heads with a substantial load in the vehicle in hilly country. The brakes work fine except for a spongy pedal.....again something characteristic of many GM products. The handling reflects the higher center-of-gravity compared to the Cobalt sedan and coupe.....a little more body roll, but nothing unmanageable, and besides, you don't buy this vehicle to be a sports car. Then, just as you start to get really bored, signal for a turn and you come back to life quickly as the loud clack-clack turn signals come on with enough noise to wake up the dead.
The verdict? A dynamite-looking, relatively low-priced, versatile and economical vehicle that will turn heads and give big retro-SUV-looks but much better fuel mileage....important now with gas prices starting to rise again. It has major flaws, however, in the quality of materials used, fit and finish, and a noticeble lack of power with the automatic. Despite some nice touches like hood struts, well-chromed gauges, and a well-designed shifter, GM has some major work to do on this vehicle to make it more attractive inside and out....not in exterior looks where it excels but in quality. The new Tahoe's interior would be a good starting point......that appears to be a superb job. AWD for foul weather, like on the larger GM SUV's, should also be considered for this vehicle.....one more reason to give it a larger engine. The present fours would be even more burdened down with AWD's weight and drag.
To sum up......a fun-to-look-at vehicle but not fun or pleasant to drive. This vehicle is obviously selling on its looks and low price and little else. Was I too harsh on this vehicle, considering its low price? No, not in my opinion...especially considering the way Bob Lutz ( who I generally respect ) is hawking GM's new products, like this one, and bragging how well they stand up to the competition.....and he doesn't even acknowledge the PT Cruiser's obvious competition to the HHR to start with. Subaru, Toyota, Honda, and Mazda all make vehicles of this general type and in the HHR's price range, that, while they don't have the HHR's looks, they blow the HHR away in the quality of materials used in their construction.
Unlike many of my past reviews, this one was done more out of my own curiosity then out of widespread interest on CL in a specific vehicle. ( although a few of you have been interested in it, and this is for you ). I have noticed the growing popularity of this vehicle...and the fact that dealerships seem to have a hard time keeping them in stock. GM does seem to have a potential sales winner here......but as you will shortly see, beauty is sometimes is skin deep. I did a thread on the HHR's popularity some time ago but at that time had not looked at the vehicle closely myself...I now have.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...plying+rabbits
The HHR is built off the compact Chevrolet Cobalt ( non-SS ) platform and shares common engines, transmissions, and drivelines. The body and interior, of course, is totally different from the Cobalt sedan and coupe.....in a way it could be classed as Cobalt wagon / SUV.......with styling that is reminiscent of late 40's-early 50's Chevy Suburbans.
The HHR ( which actually stands for Heritage, High Roof ) was introduced early last year in an obvious attempt ( despite GM chief Bob Lutz's vehement denials ) to compete with Chrysler's ubiquitous PT Cruiser, though the HHR comes in only one body style ( a good-looking one at that
), two relatively mundane in-line transverse FWD 4 cylinder engines, and lacks the PT's Cruiser's Turbo and convertible options. This lack of power hurts the HHR significantly...as you will see. The body style, IMO, is an absolute knockout, IMO even more than the PT Cruiser. It is easy to see why this vehicle is popular if, as with so many people, looks alone is the primary reason for buying.....but unfortunately under the skin ( and with some things on the skin itself ) this is not a very impressive vehicle.
..............So now let's get to that..........
Model tested: 2006 Chevrolet HHR 1LT
Base Price: $16,425
Price as tested: $20,990
Powertrain: 2.4L ECOTEC / VTEC in-line 4, 172 HP, 162 ft.-lbs. torque, 4-speed automatic transmission.
Color: Daytona blue, gray cloth interior.
PLUSSES:
KNOCK EM OUT styling that turns heads everywhere.
Bargain price.....but in many areas this shows. ( the base version starts under 16K )
Relatively space-efficient inside considering the compact platform.
Nice assortment of bright and distinctive paint colors, including Daytona Blue, Sport Red, Sunburst Copper-Orange, Ametyst purple, besides the usual funeral-home stuff.
Well-designed transmission shifter.
Engine relatively easy to work on from above.
Hood struts.......unusual in this price range.
Chrome-ringed instruments and vents a nice touch.
Nice cubby compartments in cargo area.
Economical and fuel-efficient compared with similarly-shaped larger Chevrolet SUV's.
Nice steering wheel with the increasingly popular three-spokes at 3, 6, and 9-o'clock.
MINUSES:
Borderline underpowered even with larger optional 2.4L four and automatic.
Spongy brake pedal.
Low-gloss, rather poorly applied paint with some orange peel.
Noisy, raspy exhaust.
Lack of sound insulation.
Crude, tinny body and sheet metal....in spite of very close panel gaps.
Poor-quality exterior trim...even poorer-quality chrome paint.
Drab interior with too much expanse of plain color and only a few nice touches.
Peek-a-Boo windshield and windows all-around from wide, thick pillars and low windshield header.
Roly-Poly handling....but not as bad as larger SUV's.
El Cheapo 3 / 36 warranty typical of many GM products.
Cheap-feeling and tinny-closing rear hatch.
Some unusually-shaped and placed controls and switches
Loud and annoying turn signals.
Too much disassembling of panels in the rear to get to spare tire.
AWD ( currently not available ) should be considered.....along with bigger powerplants.
OK.....the first thing that strikes you when you first approach this vehicle, especially after seeing pictures of it, or even seeing it on the road, is how SMALL it looks....MUCH smaller than you would expect from its general shape. Chevy, from a distance, has cleverly managed, with its retro-Suburban-influenced styling, to make it look like a much larger vehicle than it is, but when you walk up to it and stand next to it.....it is obvious that it is built off a compact-car platform. I'm 6'2" and I tower over it, unlike larger Chevy SUV's. The next thing that hits you as how COOL it looks.
That is a term that I, being Mr. Practical, rarely use whan describing a car, but that is EXACTLY what the HHR is......Cool, Chic, and trendy. The styling is just dynamite......Chevy has hit a home run if you just buy a vehicle for looks. I won't say it is beautiful in the sense of a Jaguar XK8 or Ford GT, but it is a ruggedly handsome vehicle whose looks ( from a distance ) can seduce. Unfortunately, there is a lot more to a vehicle than just looks, and like the new Ford Mustang, what we have here is Nieman Marcus looks on the outside with a Wal-Mart clearance-sale interior.
And even on the outside, excessive cheapness of design and quality show in many areas, from the flimsy outside mirrors to the exposed thin sheet-metal panels under the front and rear doors with drilled and painted holes in them on models without the optional running boards. bolted on. The hatch not only feels flimsy but shuts with a tinny " quaaaaak " sound and contains an equally-tinny-feeling rear wiper. The chrome on the plastic door handles is some of the dullest and most poorly-applied chrome paint I have ever seen..and the handles feel as if they are going to break right off.
Get inside, shut the door ( which shuts reasonably solidly ) and you find a rather high seating position fom the rather well-designed sport bucket cloth seats with 8-way power adjusts. It is not difficult to find a reasonably comfortable seating position, even for tall broad people like me. The large, thick windshield pillars, low windshield, header, and A, B, C, and D-pillars all combine to play Peek-A-Boo when looking outside in almost any direction. Reach down to the well-designed transmission shifter, albeit with a lack of a sport-shift manu-matic slot........straight forward and back.....with none of this idiotic ziz-zag stuff so poplar today. I wish other manufacturers would do what GM has done.....kept the easy-to-use, simple, forward-back shifter.....and toss those gated, idiotic zig-zag things out. That bugs me almost as much as I-Drive.
The rest of the interior, except for some nice chrome-ringed instruments, nice, solid-feeling circular vents, and nice-looking and feeling climate controls, leaves a lot to be desired. There is too much solid expanse of color, cheap, flimsy-feeling switches and hardware, and a general atmosphere of cost-cutting. Like the Mustang, you get the feeling this car was designed and built to a budget.....it shows. The power-window switches are in the forward part of the console, 4 abreast, with little checker-board patterns on them to show you which window each one controls. The wiper stalk, on the right side of the steering column, has confusing markings on it for off, low, and high, though the intemittent-function is conventionally marked. The steering wheel, with integrated buttons, while nicely-shaped and designed, likewise feels a little thin on the materials too. There is space behind the rear seats to stow things and contains some nice little covered cubbyholes for small things, although the vehicle's compact size limits the cargo room a little in spite of its space efficiency, and there are too many panels to disassemble and remove to get underneath to the spare tire.
OK....enough of the interior. Let's drive it. On the road, the first two things you notice taking off from a stop is the notable lack of torque and the loud, raspy-sounding exhaust.....and I am not a hard or demanding driver by any means. The 2.4 L's 172HP and 162 ft.-lbs. torque with the automatic is just barely adequate for this car....I did not drive the smaller 2.2L 143HP / 150 ft.-lbs. standard engine but that one would probably be even worse...at least with the automatic. The automatic itself I was pleased with in spite of the only 4 speeds.....it was smooth, quiet, and well-designed......and the throttle-induced downshifts ( which you were doing almost constantly to keep up with traffic ) were no problem. I am not usually a big critic of a lack of power, but IMO this car badly needs a larger 4, a turbo / supercharger, or a V6.....both of the HHR engines would be over their heads with a substantial load in the vehicle in hilly country. The brakes work fine except for a spongy pedal.....again something characteristic of many GM products. The handling reflects the higher center-of-gravity compared to the Cobalt sedan and coupe.....a little more body roll, but nothing unmanageable, and besides, you don't buy this vehicle to be a sports car. Then, just as you start to get really bored, signal for a turn and you come back to life quickly as the loud clack-clack turn signals come on with enough noise to wake up the dead.
The verdict? A dynamite-looking, relatively low-priced, versatile and economical vehicle that will turn heads and give big retro-SUV-looks but much better fuel mileage....important now with gas prices starting to rise again. It has major flaws, however, in the quality of materials used, fit and finish, and a noticeble lack of power with the automatic. Despite some nice touches like hood struts, well-chromed gauges, and a well-designed shifter, GM has some major work to do on this vehicle to make it more attractive inside and out....not in exterior looks where it excels but in quality. The new Tahoe's interior would be a good starting point......that appears to be a superb job. AWD for foul weather, like on the larger GM SUV's, should also be considered for this vehicle.....one more reason to give it a larger engine. The present fours would be even more burdened down with AWD's weight and drag.
To sum up......a fun-to-look-at vehicle but not fun or pleasant to drive. This vehicle is obviously selling on its looks and low price and little else. Was I too harsh on this vehicle, considering its low price? No, not in my opinion...especially considering the way Bob Lutz ( who I generally respect ) is hawking GM's new products, like this one, and bragging how well they stand up to the competition.....and he doesn't even acknowledge the PT Cruiser's obvious competition to the HHR to start with. Subaru, Toyota, Honda, and Mazda all make vehicles of this general type and in the HHR's price range, that, while they don't have the HHR's looks, they blow the HHR away in the quality of materials used in their construction.
Last edited by mmarshall; 01-07-06 at 07:41 PM.
01-08-06, 12:17 PM
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
I am glad u checked out this car and gave a review as I have been curious about it but never did any research. I also agree, it looks big on the road until u approach it. And yes, the styling is a huge hit to me, I love the looks.
Hopefully chevy fixes your negatives, this could be a great car for them if they do that
Hopefully chevy fixes your negatives, this could be a great car for them if they do that
01-08-06, 01:32 PM
#3
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by 1SICKLEX
I am glad u checked out this car and gave a review as I have been curious about it but never did any research. I also agree, it looks big on the road until u approach it. And yes, the styling is a huge hit to me, I love the looks.
Hopefully chevy fixes your negatives, this could be a great car for them if they do that
Hopefully chevy fixes your negatives, this could be a great car for them if they do that
Like the new Mustang, it already IS a great vehicle from a looks and sales point of view.....just needs some better materials, and, unlike the Mustang, it needs more power.
01-08-06, 06:14 PM
#4
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
Originally Posted by 1SICKLEX
Hopefully chevy fixes your negatives, this could be a great car for them if they do that
Great review mmarshall. Not a vehicle for me! Thanks though.
Oh and is GM the only company still shipping 4 speed autos in cars!?
01-08-06, 06:33 PM
#5
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by bitkahuna
But then it won't have a list price of $21K.
Great review mmarshall. Not a vehicle for me! Thanks though.
Oh and is GM the only company still shipping 4 speed autos in cars!?
Great review mmarshall. Not a vehicle for me! Thanks though.
Oh and is GM the only company still shipping 4 speed autos in cars!?
Chrysler and Dodge also do in some of their models. The Neon, up to just a year or two ago, still used a 3-speed automatic.
Some other companies still put 4-speeds in their entry-level cars, but I don't remember them all right off hand...I'd have to look it up.
Would using better materials affect the 20-21K list price, as you say? Ordinarily I would disagree....but then of course GM is GM. Japanese and Korean companies can produce comparably-equipped high-quality vehicles at this price...and below. But GM, as has been discussed on CL many times, has real trouble controlling the production cost of their vehicles, so you might have a point.
Last edited by mmarshall; 01-08-06 at 06:42 PM.
01-08-06, 07:23 PM
#6
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
Not just a production cost issue. Due to their retiree and union obligations, they have to shell out 5 billion a year (or over $1500 per vehicle) in benefit costs!
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