2009 Chevrolet HHR SS

What are you driving? The tabasco edition of Chevy’s shrunken 1949 Suburban. Like less-spicy HHRs, this one’s a retro-styled front-wheel-drive four-door wagon with a rear liftgate. Introduced for 2006, the HHR was inspired by the classic old roly-poly Chevy Surburban; its name stands for “Heritage High Roof.” (When the press said the HHR was Chevy’s answer to the retro Chrysler PT Cruiser, which had bowed six years earlier, Chevy was mortified.) The HHR is actually a useful little hauler. It’s got a fold-down rear seat and a cabin charitable to four grownups. All models use a GM Ecotec four-cylinder engine. Most have 142 or 172 horsepower. The HHR SS – the letters recall Chevy’s “Super Sport” muscle cars -- gets a turbocharged Ecotec with performance bona fides like forged connecting rods and oil-spray piston cooling. The result is 260 horsepower with manual transmission, 250 with automatic. Good numbers for a 2.0-liter engine.  

How much does it cost? Base price is $25,475, including $660 destination. Base HHRs start at $19,380. Topping the bill is the $25,795 two-seat HHR SS panel version. Panel HHRs have metal side walls ripe for florist signage, or maybe a Viking maiden astride a unicorn. The test example in the driveway this week is a candy-apple -- actually, Victory Red -- 2009 Chevrolet HHR SS. Standard equipment includes antilock four-wheel disc brakes with antiskid and traction control, head-protecting curtain side airbags, air conditioning, and power windows, locks, and mirrors. SS exclusives include the FE5 sport suspension with encompassing chassis-stiffening, steering-quickening, and brake-strengthening revisions. They’re designed to compliment 224/45R18 Michelin Pilot Sport all-season tires on polished forged aluminum wheels. The body is tastefully tweaked with mesh grille work, an air-dammed front fascia, a spoiler over the rear glass, body-color trim, and SS logos. Those logos are also embroidered onto sport seats upholstered with suede-like “UltraLux” inserts. This test car was optioned with the four-speed automatic transmission ($1,000), power sunroof ($750), and a fascinating little distraction Chevy calls a reconfigurable performance display ($295); more on this below. Manufacturer’s suggest retail price: $27,520.

Is it worth it? Yes. But only if you’re a Chevy loyalist with a cruise-night itch. In other words, you’ll need to appreciate the HHR SS as something special from GM’s High Performance Vehicle Operations, the same folks who brought us the BMW M5-busting 556-horsepower Cadillac CTS-V and the overachieving little Chevy Cobalt SS, which shares the HHR SS’s 260-horsepower Ecotec. You’ll also be required to recognize the HHR SS as a marker of a passing era. GM in February 2009 disbanded the performance-vehicle team. Devoting engineering talent to low-volume specialty cars makes no sense in what remains of Detroit. Of course, rarity and nostalgia for old Detroit are precisely what the HHR SS is about. Drivers who can think of alternatives on which to spend $27,520 for 260 horsepower, 6.5-second 0-60-mph times, and a taut suspension will find myriad other ways to scratch their itch. 

What’s to like? It’s raked, rad, and ready to ‘round the block. It’s churlish to argue with the HHR SS’s sense of style, even if it isn’t your style. You can fault its turbo lag, rabbit-punch ride, wind noise, and the lazy and archaic four-speed automatic, which lacks manual-shift capability. Still, handling is tenacious on smooth pavement, and it does move out once the turbo and transmission come to an agreement. The front buckets’ blend of grip, support, and comfort embarrasses the Corvette. The richly stitched thick-rimmed steering wheel is a delight to hold. And the partial eclipse of the speedometer by the smaller-sized tachometer is something to behold. That high roof furnishes great head room and a tall cargo bay. The split rear seatback folds to create a long, flat load floor perfect for wedding-day bouquets or car-show barbecues. As for that reconfigurable performance display: it’s perched atop the dashboard, a plastic hood sheltering a three-and-a-half-inch LCD screen. Twist the bullet-like barb next to the screen to scroll through real-time depictions of quarter-mile acceleration time, cornering grip, even the amount of horsepower and torque being delivered. It’s neat to see that routine turns at an intersection generate maybe .34g of sideways pull while a clear freeway on ramp and a steely resolve can coax a jowl-tugging .84g from this thing. And I suppose it’s instructive to see how easily a determined stab at the throttle summons 218 pound-feet of torque, just shy of the maximum 223 pound-feet the spec sheet says is available. Other info is pretty esoteric – cam phaser angle, anyone? How about degree of spark advance? Trouble is, the thing is well out of the driver’s line of sight, it’s poorly integrated – kind of looks like they glued on a tiny 1949 Philco -- and the graphics are more Atari than iPhone.

What does it need? We’d add by subtracting. Save $1,000 and go with the five-speed manual transmission, an SS-special shifter mounted higher and farther forward than in other HHRs. Its throws between gears are 30 percent shorter than non-SS models, they’re firm and precise, and the gearbox boasts Chevy’s trick “no-lift shift.” This computer-enabled powershifter invites you to upshift without lifting the throttle. We’d also take the $295 spent on the performance display and put it toward the $895 SS Performance Package. That would add Brembo four-piston front brake calipers for more sure-footed stopping and a limited-slip differential to quell some of the squirming evident in full-throttle acceleration. The performance operations crew threw a lot of goodies at this suspension, including gas-charged twin-tube struts in front, stiffer bushings in back, and solid stabilizer bars at both ends. But composure is still too easily disrupted by bumps. Less shimmying, rebound, and impact harshness might be too much to ask of this solid-rear-axle design. So how about a rear seat that at least hinted at butt pockets? And a hatch door that opened higher than 5-feet 8-inches would enable more adults to stand and deliver.

What’s Chevy’s opinion? “The HHR SS is a high-performance vehicle like no other.”

What do you say? The koolest factory kustom since the Plymouth Prowler.

What’s Next for the Chevrolet HHR SS? GM promises the specialty models developed by High Performance Vehicle Operations will stay in production through the natural lifecycle of the cars on which they’re based. So you’ll be able to rock out in an HHR SS through the 2010 model year, at least. Most every future product at GM is on hold, so possible plans for a second-generation HHR are unsettled. Chevy’s initial plan was to dump the heritage styling and re-launch the HHR for model-year 2011 as an ultra-modern mini minivan, perhaps an adaptation of a model sold in Europe by its Opel division.   

Vital statistics
2009 Chevrolet HHR SS

• Base price: $24,815
• Price of test car including $660 destination fee: $27,520
• Size: 176.2 inches long, 103.6-inch wheelbase, 3,353-pound base curb weight
• Engine: 250-horsepower 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder; front-wheel drive
• Fuel economy: 20 mpg city/ 28 highway (EPA ratings)
• Warranty: 3 years/36,000 miles bumper-to-bumper, 5/100,000 powertrain
• Safety ratings on the government’s five-star scale: Frontal crash protection, five stars. Side crash protection, five stars.

Automotive journalist Chuck Giametta has covered the auto industry for more than 20 years as a newspaper reporter, Executive Auto Editor of Consumer Guide books and magazines, and as Managing Editor of Iguida.com. This test vehicle was provided by the manufacturer.