Alright, look, everything is relative. Even time, let alone our perception of it and how we move through it. Same goes for the way we judge things sometimes and I’ll be the first to admit that having mostly driven Euro-spec cars very early in my career as an automotive journalist, whenever I came across an American model they would feel really cheaply made. In my defense, that was actually the case with most U.S.-made cars from the early and mid-2000s.
Still, there was one car that stood head and shoulders below everyone else in terms of build quality, driving dynamics and overall feel, the Chevrolet HHR – easily the worst car I’ve ever driven.
I’m not trying to be mean. I’m honestly surprised that among the hundreds of cars that I’ve reviewed over the years, I can’t think of another one that made this poor of an impression on me as the HHR, and yes, I’ve driven plenty of subpar automobiles, like anything with a SsangYong badge (older models, not the newer ones) or the painfully mediocre Nissan Pulsar or Dodge Caliber. Actually, the Caliber wasn’t THAT bad, despite the horribly cheap plastics inside.
Anyway, I’m only going to talk about the 2.4-liter Ecotec-equipped HHR, since I didn’t get to drive the SS variant with its more powerful 2.0-liter turbocharged four-pot.
I met up with the Chevy HHR more than 14 years ago near the French city of Lyon of all places. You probably don’t know much of anything about Lyon and that’s OK. The city’s sports team, Olympique Lyon, is where former San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Park now serves as a board member and possible future club president.
Photo: Chevrolet
Alright, now here’s something actually relevant to our story regarding Lyon. Once you leave the city and head out into the countryside, you’ll come across a series of beautiful winding roads that would fit a sports car like a glove. The Chevrolet HHR, not so much.
Painfully boring would be one way to describe the experience. Sure, there’s body roll and the steering feel is garbage, just like with lots of other cars. But then you factor in the horrendous drivetrain and the surprisingly poor visibility and you’ll find yourself genuinely at odds with the very thought of being behind the wheel of this car. I hated it. Every second of it. Even though, it does offer good practicality and the exterior styling is certainly quirky/interesting enough, for better or worse. Some people actually love the look and I can't say that I blame them.
Performance-wise, the 2.4-liter Ecotec unit was dreadful and those 177 hp barely adequate as the car still felt slow. So did the 4T45 four-speed automatic gearbox, which many of you are surely familiar with.
Photo: Chevrolet
Then there’s the interior, which felt somewhat claustrophobic because all the windows are quite small, compared to what you get on similarly sized wagons or crossovers. As for the plastics, overall quality wasn’t the worst but still really bad. No wonder the HHR was a complete flop in Europe. Very few people actually bought one and Chevrolet eventually pulled it since it couldn’t compete with popular MPVs like the Renault Scenic, Opel Zafira, VW Touran. Those were in very high demand back then.
The HHR sold a heck of a lot better back home in the States, where you could say it was surprisingly popular. You could also argue that as a jacked-up wagon of sorts, the HHR was a bit ahead of its time and it's interesting to think that GM decided to yank it from Chevy’s lineup just as crossovers really began taking off in terms of sales, back in the early part of last decade.
Sergiu got to experience both American and European car "scenes" at an early age (his father drove a Ford Fiesta XR2 supermini in the 80s). After spending over 15 years at local and international auto publications, he's starting to appreciate comfort behind the wheel more than raw power and acceleration. Full profile
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