Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo

[CaptainHenreh]

TO THE TOP BITCHES!

So. The flavor of the week here in Sunny Seattle is a 2006 Chevy HHR.

It's gotta be better than the "Hyundai Accent or Similar" I reserved so when I rolled up to the Hertz at SeaTac, I was actually pretty pleased to hear I was getting an HHR.



I've spent 6 days with it. And I don't hate it. Mind you, I don't like it, and I have some very serious problems with it, but I don't hate it. Maybe I'm getting old?

The acceleration sucks. Bad. This thing is in desperate need of either a turbocharger or a V6. You put the hammer down and the 2.2 ecotec just makes alot of noise. Maybe I'm spoiled by the MS3, but this thing definitely needs some testicles.

I actually don't mind the styling. It's reminiscent of an old panel truck, and looks better than the PT Cruiser, IMHO. It has a nice high seating position (nice being relative) and you've got alot of headroom BUT. The B Pillar is HUGE and the windshield is pretty small which makes forward upper and lefthand visibility pretty shitty. This is probably my biggest complaint with the car. You can see what I mean, here's the view if you were Tiny Elvis On the Steering Wheel:


So, say you're sitting at a stoplight. And you've pulled up to the line. You're going to have to haul your body over the steering wheel and peer up to see if the light turns green. Awful design.

Rearward visibility is excellent, on the other hand. You can see alot through the back window, and there's a shit-ton of cargo space behind the rear passenger seats, which also fold flat. This ends up being an amazing total amount of cargo space, 63 fuckin' cubic feet.

And, if you're into the whole retro thing, it is rather stylish:

And the quasi-retro gauges are nifty too:

The information center was actually really nice. It gave the outside temperature with the odometer, which was nothing special really, but a button on the steering wheel cycled through oil life, tripometers, fuel economy, etc. One of the complaints about my 3 is that you can't change that stuff on the fly without dangerously reaching over your steering wheel . From that same button you can also switch between MPH and KPH, so there's only one set of numbers on the speedo, and a little "mph" or "kph" light. I like that alot. And hey, 34 mpg. Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

I guess I like this thing because even though Chevy calls it an SUV, it isn't. It's the car that people who THINK they want an SUV ought to be buying. If you've got 2 kids and live in Nova, you don't need a Suburban, or even a trailblazer. You're not storming Stalingrad, you're driving on the beltway, so why do you need a huge behemoth of an SUV. You don't, you need this.

So, despite it's shortcomings, I'm gonna say that this isn't a half bad car. A for effort Chevy, too bad you didn't beat the PT to market.