2008 Chevrolet HHR Review & Road Test at Automotive.com

2008 Chevrolet HHR SS

Below is a review of the 2008 Chevrolet HHR written by the automotive experts at Motor Trend Magazine. A full evaluation of the driving experience, price, equipment, and specs are here in a structured, easy-to-navigate format from journalists with a wealth of experience.

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IntelliChoice Value Rating

The chart above shows the purchase price versus ownership cost for each car from a specific vehicle class. The cars with better than average ownership cost/purchase price correlations are the best values, and these best value cars are represented by the dots below the curve. (i.e. the cars that have a lower ownership cost compared to its purchase price.) Those cars, which are worse than average or poor values, appear above the curve.

One way to view the graph is to draw a vertical line through any purchase price. You may see several dots that fall on this line - each of which is a car with a similar purchase price. However, notice the difference in ownership costs of each car represented by the vertical position of the dot. Two cars with the same purchase price can have thousands of dollars difference in ownership costs. This is what separates "good value" cars from "poor value" cars.

What is a good car value?

A "good car value" is one whose cost to own and operate is less than expected. The lower the cost to own and operate a car compared to what is expected, the better the value of that car.

But how do we know a car's "expected cost"?

For each car in the class, IntelliChoice plots the car's purchase price against the total five-year cost to own and operate it as determined by IntelliChoice research. Each dot on the above chart represents a specific car. Generally, we find that as the purchase price of the car increases, the cost to own and operate that car increases. This is why the dots on the graph tend to rise upward and to the right. This phenomenon also makes intuitive sense - as the purchase price rises, financing costs tend to rise, as do insurance, depreciation, taxes, and most other car ownership costs.

This is an important concept. It's normal for car ownership costs to rise as purchase price rises. Therefore, we can't just establish one "average" ownership cost number for each class, since cars in the class have different purchase prices. (This is why the "Relative" shown on each chart is different for cars in the same car class.)

Using statistical techniques, IntelliChoice "connects the dots" to form a curve that defines, for this car class, the relationship between the car's purchase price and car's ownership costs. This curve is our "expected cost" curve. The curve defines, for any car in the class, the five-year ownership cost that we would expect to see at each possible purchase price. If every car in the class were an average value, then all the dots would fall exactly on the curve. However, it's rare that any dot is exactly on the curve. Some dots are a little higher or lower, and some are a lot higher or lower. The dots that are a little lower are better than average car values, while the dots that are a lot lower are excellent car values (A dot that is a lot lower than the curve has ownership costs much lower than expected for a car of its purchase price). Conversely, a dot a little higher than the curve is a poorer than average car value, while a dot that is much higher than the curve is a poor car value.

Value is a relative term, not an absolute term. It is performing better than the logical expectation.

So is a Mercedes-Benz E320 expensive to own and operate? Certainly in an absolute sense. Most other cars cost less. But, when its cost to own and operate is plotted against cars with comparable invoice prices, the E320 costs less. So the E320 is not expensive to own and operate - it is a good car value. The Mercedes does not have low ownership costs, but it has low ownership costs for its invoice price.

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Review From Motor Trend Magazine

First Drive: 2008 Chevrolet HHR SS

Street Hustler: Mild-mannered hauler goes to bad-boy boot camp / By Bob Nagy / Photography by Richard Prince / Article provided by: Motor Trend Magazine

2008 Chevrolet HHR SS Front Three Quarter View

Hardy perennial in Chevrolet's 100K sales club, the neo-nostalgic HHR has always maintained solid-citizen status among the ranks of the Bowtie Brigade. For 2008, the new SS model gives it a long-overdue dose of attitude, as well. Created by GM's Performance Division, the HHR SS is aimed at youthful buyers from the "turnkey tuner" school of distinctive vehicle ownership. A day split between on-road flogging outside of Phoenix and on-track exercises at the Bondurant's school at Firebird Raceway quickly proved this high-energy variant takes Chevy's new-era SS credo to "go, stop, and turn" quite seriously, while sacrificing virtually nothing in the way of day-to-day utility.

First impressions are important, and the HHR SS builds street cred in subtle but effective ways. Bolder, extended fascias shed vestigial bumperettes and add front foglamps and a chrome exhaust tip, while blackout mesh grillework, a tasteful deck spoiler, recontoured rocker sills, color-matched trim and "SS" badging round out the body tweaks. Meaty 225/45WR18 all-season Michelin Pilot HX MXM4s on polished forged alloy wheels purposefully fill each fenderwell.

The GPD gang did an equally admirable job of thinking inside the SS box. Sport buckets with more aggressive upper side bolsters provide comfort and lateral support that base HHR perches only dream about-not to mention grippy faux-suede inserts and embroidered "SS" logos. Those anticipating the occasional track-day outing can step up to a seat with even deeper bolstering and an extended cushion, but all these hot haulers come with a smaller-diameter leather-wrapped three-spoke sport wheel and an eye-level turbo boost gauge in the A-pillar. A final serendipitous "two-fer" design touch repositions the shift lever up and forward in the console to better facilitate grab-'n'-stab activities. That change also forced the power window switches onto the door panels, where they should've been from day one.

Centerpiece of the HHR SS experience is GM's tech-rich turbocharged 2.0-liter Ecotec four. Currently used in the Pontiac Solstice GXP and Saturn Sky Red Line, this meaner, greener, and even more fuel-efficient prime mover also will replace the not-ready-for-PZEV, 205-horse, 2.2-liter supercharged Ecotec in the topline 2008 Cobalt SS come spring. Boasting direct injection, continuously variable valve timing, and an intercooled twin-scroll T-charger, the reigning alpha dog of the Ecotec pack makes 260 horsepower-more per-liter punch than any GM production engine ever-and 260 pound-feet of torque when matched with the five-speed manual gearbox. Back it with the optional four-speed automatic, as Chevy anticipates about 75 percent of owners will, and durability/reliability issues trim those figures to 235 and 223, respectively. But in either case, this little giant matches hardware and software in ways that minimize lag and maximize torque-which peaks and plateaus at just 2000 rpm with the manual and a mere 1650 revs with the autobox.