posted by tbirderic on gminsidenews forum
The Story Behind The Story:
Two months ago I had to drive to New York for a week to attend my sister’s wedding, so I rented a car for the 900 mile drive. I love the Volvo and it’s been a mostly trouble-free appliance in the nine months I’ve owned it, but the last thing I need is for a seventeen year-old car to break down in the middle of nowhere. It’s happened before. So I did the smart thing and rented a car. Car rentals are cheap enough. It was the smart thing to do.
Here’s where it get’s interesting.
The lease on my apartment expires shortly, and as I’m not making any headway launching my career I don’t know where I’ll be living in a few short months. Will I be living in my beloved south or will it be back home with good ‘ol Mom and Dad. Not sure yet, but the prognosis doesn’t look good, and time will shortly tell where I’m headed.
One of the people who asked about my pending prospects was my sister’s bridesmaid. I know her well. She’s my ex-girlfriend. We dated for three years. She came down to Georgia for awhile. It didn’t work out. Somewhere in the divorce, call it that if you will, I wound up acquiring a dining room table I did not have prior to her arrival here in the Land of Dixie. Dining room tables are good. It was just what I needed to fill that gaping space in my dinette. They’re nifty places for eating and tossing junk mail. Just my opinion. Not everyone shares it.
It never ceases to amaze me how one single object can set a whole train of events in motion, but so it was with my (or so I thought) dinette set. In the two years since she left my ex never acquired a new dining room table. Why I don’t know. They’re quite useful. To make a long story marginally shorter, I no longer needed just a car, any car at all; I needed a car that would transport a small dining room table in dissembled state. Not every car can do it. The seats don’t fold down in my Volvo for example.
So I called up the fine fellows at the local Enterprise Rent-A-Car and explained my bizarre situation to them, how I needed a car that would accommodate a table top in the prone position. I had originally reserved a class of car they dubbed ‘intermediate,’ why they call them ‘intermediates’ I simply do not know. Focuses and Cobalts are not intermediates, not even close. They’re compacts and everyone knows they’re compacts. Would a car that sized fit a table? That was the more relevant question to ponder.
Anyway the guy I spoke to at Enterprise diplomatically gave me the corporate spiel, though I knew what he was going to tell me even before I called.
“We can’t allow customers to reserve specific vehicles….. We have a small inventory …We don’t know when we’re going to receive specific makes and models back and/or what condition they’ll be in..” All of which I knew to be true but I figured I’d ask anyway.
They did tell me that I might wind up with an HHR or a Caliber, both of which would be helpful, or a Cobalt or Elantra, which might not be so helpful. They invited me down to their lot to take a look at some of the usual suspects. I brought a tape measure just to be sure. For good measure as the saying goes. Of course when I get there all they have is a solitary Cobalt for me to examine. I whipped out the measuring tape, took a few measurements at the trunk opening, folded down the rear seats and did the same. Much to my surprise, according to my calculations the table would fit just fine. If it could fit without a problem in the space inefficient Cobalt, I figured I wouldn’t have any problems no matter what car they gave me and left it at that.
Finally The car:
The day arrived to pick up the car, and much to my relief there was a black on black HHR sitting there waiting for me. At least I think it was black, when I picked it up it was covered with so much pollen that it was initially hard to tell, but I digress. The car had 18,000 miles on it, which I thought was a lot, considering it was built back in September 2009.
Like all HHR’s, mine was well equipped for a small car. Power windows, door locks, cruise, AC, CD-MP3. Mine was a 1LT; it had the faux chrome hubcaps, shiny grille and an eight-way power seat with lumbar. It was powered by the venerable 2.2 Ecotec. Throw in the automatic headlights and the GM Driver Information Center and you have yourself a well equipped little car, as well it should be for an MSRP of $21,000 according to the window sticker folded neatly away in the glovebox.
It goes without saying that the HHR fit the dismantled table and chairs without any problem. Fold down the rear seats and one is presented with a perfectly flat load floor. The legs to the table and chairs conveniently fitted in the cavernous well below the load floor. Bravo, GM. There was plenty of room left over. Too much in fact, so I started looking around my apartment for things to take back to New York just in case the inevitable Moment of Doom arrives. The HHR readily swallowed a small oak desk, a filing cabinet, two boxes of hard cover books I could barely lift by myself, a week’s worth of luggage and a suit. The HHR was loaded almost to the roof. I could barely see out the back. I was quite impressed with myself. Sorry for the lack of pictures, wish you all could have seen it.
The Office Furnishings:
I left for New York at 3 AM on a weekday. A wise man once told me that 50% of the people in the world are either dip****s or d*****bags: He’s 100% right. Luckily most of those people are still in bed at 3AM and the roads are all the better for it.
I didn’t know how I’d feel about piloting a HHR for such a long distance. I used to sell Chevys and I always dreaded driving the HHR. I once had to go on a swap and retrieve one from Massachusetts and I couldn’t wait to get out of the thing. Something about the driving position and limited visibility rubbed me the wrong way and first impressions as they say are everything.
This time I was able to get comfortable in the driver’s seat, though it did take about twenty minutes of fiddling around with the switch after I set out before I finally stumbled upon the elusive sweet spot, but at least I found it before I hit the interstate. Once I found a comfortable driving position I didn’t have to adjust the seat again for the duration of my journey and that’s all that mattered. The front buckets are the same ones used in the Cobalts, so they’re ultra firm and covered in a high quality cloth that breathes well and is plenty grippy. More lateral support would have been a welcome addition but overall I was very comfortable. They were great seats for a long drive.
As I made my way through the Carolinas in the dark at 80mph, I found that my personal comfort was greatly aided by the foldable armrest attached to the seat, a welcome change from the hard plastic console covers that inevitably masquerade as armrests in this day and age. The armrest was positioned just right and had ample padding.
The wiper and turn signal stalk are intuitive to use and have a precision feel to their movements. GM’s come a long way from that wretched multi-function stalk that sounded like it was going to snap in two every time you used it.
The non-integrated controls for the center stack are great; they look elegant and are easy to use by touch alone. The stereo deck, called the ‘Black Tie’ in GM parlance, has to be one of the most phenomenal stereo decks ever created. Makes it incredibly easy to execute complex functions without looking, for example cycling through MP3 folders or retrieving data about artists or tracks. I loved the cool blue color of the readout (as well as the instrument panel); easy on the eyes. An incredibly well designed head unit.
I can’t say enough about the sound system. OEM stereos are so good nowadays. My HRR only had the basic six speaker system and not the optional system with the Pioneer sub mounted in back, but even so the sound quality was crystal clear and there was some wicked bass going on when I cranked up the volume. Another aspect that impressed me was how the stereo effortlessly accommodated so many different genres of music with ease. From Mozart to Metallica and Bluetech to Berlioz it all sounded great. It may not mean much to others but to me it’s an impressive feat: I had to constantly play around with the equalizer in my ’07 Sonata to get music to sound correctly.
There were only a few ergonomic flaws. The buttons that operate the cruise control are located on the steering wheel. They’re pitifully small. A Toyota style stalk would be an improvement but for me it’s a moot point; I never use cruise control.
I found the cupholders to be poorly located; they’re too far to the rear of the console and are awkward to use, especially with the armrest down. I wound up using the small cubby in front of the shifter to hold my coffee. I was lucky to have that space available to me; up until 2008/9 it was where the window switches resided on the HHR. They now live on the door panels. The Gods are listening. Normally I don’t have a problem with console mounted P/W switches; my T-Bird had them there, so do countless other cars. It’s just putting them in front of the A/T shifter was always a dumb idea.
As you see, the cupholder is not exactly easy to reach. It would be an easier reach if I were taller and sat further away from the wheel.
The Technical Side of things:
The HHR is basic transportation but it’s hardly a bad car. What impressed me most was the ride quality. Like all cars I’ve sampled based off of GM’s Delta platform, the HHR rode serenely over road imperfections. Bumps were hardly felt and never heard. To be frank the HHR’s ride quality was on par with many bigger and more expensive cars and it puts most compacts to shame. Delta is far from perfect, but it’s never been lacking in the ride quality department.
Although I never really pushed the HHR hard in the week that I drove it, I think it’s fair to say that handling was competent and uninspired. It was about what I expected. The only cars on the Delta platform that are fun to drive are the ones that say ‘Red Line’ or ‘SS.’ There was some lean in aggressive cornering, no doubt magnified by the lofty driving position, but it wasn’t bad. The electric power steering was lifeless at slower speeds but felt fine on the highway and that was where I spent most of my time. The brakes, which if I believe what I’ve read appear to a source of much grief to HHR owners, gave me no worries and the HHR without fail stopped straight and true with a nice positive feel from the pedal.
Although my HHR only had the base motor, the 2.2 with 155 hp, it had more than enough power to tackle most situations. Only on the rare occasions when I mashed the pedal to the floor to merge onto a busy onramp or slot into small gaps was I reminded that the HHR is anything but a fast car. For what it’s worth, I don’t recall the 2.4/auto combo being much of an improvement, though others will disagree with me here. If I was ordering a HHR I’d just stick with the 2.2. If speed’s your fetish buy an SS.
You may not win any drag races with the 2.2, but the engine does get a lot of help from the transmission. The four speed auto was quick to unlock the converter and drop a gear when needed. For the most part shifts were unobtrusive and seldom felt, and were a welcome change from my Volvo with it’s out of spec kickdown cable.
The drivetrain did return exceptional mileage. Randomly toggling through the DIC as I stealthily made my way up north average mileage quickly rose to 28 and continued to rise until I hit 30.8 and there it remained. The information relayed to me by the DIC was confirmed by some quick calculations I made after I refueled the HHR in Virginia. 31 mpg in a loaded car traveling at 75mph is nothing to complain about. I also did about 200 miles of around town driving but I never reset the MPG computer, so I can’t give you an adequate assessment of stop and go mileage. If I had to guess, I’d say I was averaging about 24 mpg in such conditions.
Complaints:
Complaints were few. Biggest beef about the HHR is it’s difficult to see out of, the main culprit being the small windshield and ultra-thick A pillars, but that’s the price one pays for unique retro-styling. Frontal vision was normally not a problem; only when I was the first car at an intersection was it cause for concern. The A-pillars were a different story. It was hard to aim the HHR around tight left-hand corners or sharp turns, as I was constantly craning my neck back and forth as I alternated between looking out the windshield and the driver side window in order to try to aim my way around corners. It was still a problem after 2000 miles.
The quality of the interior plastics could be nicer. Much of the interior was swathed in a hard plastic with a crackled texture. It wasn’t glossy but it looked and felt cheap. I know I ‘m really reaching here, but do bear in mind that the HHR a $21,000 car and there are far better interiors out there for similar money.
Conclusion:
My trip to the Empire State came and went without a hitch, I unloaded (and reassembled) a table, saw my sister get married and successfully held my tongue during the ceremony. My black 2010 HHR logged 2100 largely uneventful miles in the space of a week and when I returned it it had just over 20,000 miles on the odometer. I was genuinely sorry to see it go. While not my type of car, the HHR had been a great traveling companion. It serenely hauled me and 300 lb. of bulky cargo up to New York at 80mph while delivering 30mpg in the process. I can’t think of another car that would have been a better match for my needs. It was the perfect car for a most imperfect situation.
I sincerely hope that GM brings the Orlando here or develops some other replacement for the HHR. Once the HHR is gone GM will really have nothing small or cheap with abundant cargo space. The Equinox, although a wonderful vehicle, is significantly bigger. The Regal wagon, if it does come over, will be far more expensive. Way I see it, the HHR fills a unique role in the GM lineup. It’s not perfect, but it does its job without complaint and there’s something to be said for that. The HHR is very much a niche vehicle, but GM would be wise not to cede yet another niche to its competitors.
Filed under: Industry News, 2010, Caliber, chevrolet, chevy, Cobalt, Elantra, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, HHR, Orlando, Volvo
