Today marks the first official day of summer 2021 in the northern hemisphere. It also happens to be Father’s Day. It was my dad who was the parent to ask for change when the chimes of the ice cream truck had started to crescendo on or around our neighborhood block. This isn’t to say that Dad often said “yes”. It’s just that with him, there was at least some chance of a “yes”, versus asking my mom. “There’s a half-gallon of vanilla in the freezer. Eat some of that.” “But, Mom! It’s the ice cream truck!” There was to be no foolishness, which was definitely okay, even if it didn’t feel like it at the time. I have seen this HHR (which stood for “Heritage High Roof”) around my neighborhood before, but when I had taken this particular shot, I couldn’t decide if its custom paint job made it look more like a frozen treat or a lollipop. It could represent either, but I went with the ice cream metaphor only because it’s now summer, and after all, one can enjoy a sucker year-round.
The HHR Panel variant of this model was introduced for 2007, this small Chevy’s second model year. I can’t positively identify the model year of this example, as I didn’t get a shot of the license plate and also because this one was wearing a custom grille which eliminated another possible, positive identifier. The rear seats in the Panel versions were completely absent, replaced by plastic storage bins. The cargo area with its flat floor provided 57 cubic feet of area behind the front seats. There were a couple of four-cylinder engines available in ’07, displacing 2.2 liters (149 hp) for the LS model, and 2.4 liters (175 hp) for the upmarket LT. Available transmissions were a five-speed manual (remember shifting?) and a four-speed automatic. I am a fan of designer Bryan Nesbitt’s retro-themed designs of this period, which included both this HHR and the similar Chrysler PT Cruiser.
(Chicago suburb) Skokie, Illinois. Sunday, August 26, 2018.
Like a grape popsicle on a hot day, however, sales eventually melted, going from a high of just over 105,000 in 2007, the HHR’s third calendar year on the market, down to about 37,000 in 2011 before the plug was pulled. With overall sales of just under 527,000 over seven official model years, these small crossovers sold well enough, and they still make me smile when I see them around. If presented with a choice of flavors of popsicles right now, I’d probably reach for the purple or orange. I also like vanilla ice cream. The HHR’s aim seemed to combine retro styling with utility, a decent balance between fuel economy and performance, and an affordable price. Granted, a grape-and-vanilla combo isn’t for everyone, but even if that particular pairing isn’t to your liking, credit is still due General Motors for trying something different.
Edgewater Glen, Chicago, Illinois.
Tuesday, June 8, 2021.
The HHR seemed to me like GM’s way of killing two fad birds with one stone – the early 00s retro craze plus the mid-late 00s sudden outburst of cubes in the market – the Element, Soul and Cube itself.
I still like it though. It’s a nice design.
I like it, too, Joe. I’ll qualify that by saying I’ve never spent any substantial amount of time with one, but compared to the style, anyway, of the three other vehicles you cited, I think the HHR stands up well.
On vacation out west w the family we ran into a recently retired couple that were touring the USA in their brand new HHR panel. They loved it. Only the 2 of them it had all the seating they needed, plus storage room for camping supplies. Too much rain? Not an issue they hoteled it. In a pinch they could sleep in it of course ventilation was an issue. I was jealous of a single vehicle for two w no attached trailer.
Thank you Paul for explaining what “HHR” means .
I thought these to be interesting vehicles, GM really dropped the ball on advertising this commercial variant .
Vanilla is the bane of ice cream for me ~ I like flavors .
Maybe you could do an article about ice cream trucks ? in So. Cal. there are still quite a few oldies out there still rattling around and cheating children who don’t know how to count their change .
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY ! .
-Nate
I’m not sure GM deserves much credit for trying something different since it is a pretty blatant rip off of the PT cruiser which debuted a full 5 years earlier.
“Different for them” is probably more along the lines of what I meant.
Also if it counts the SSR pickup was certainly the same flavor of retro the HHR was, and it was out in 03. Both of them seemed like grossly belated answers to 90s Chrysler projects (the PT Cruzer and Prowler).
I remember both the PT Cruiser and the HHR when they came out. I would say GM copying Chrysler would be putting it loosely. As Joseph mentioned, both were by the same designer, Brian Nesbitt. Bob Lutz was (2nd in command?) at Chrysler and inspired it. As I recall, not long after Brian did the PT Cruiser, he left Chrysler to do design work for a non automotive company. When Lutz went to GM he lured Brian there to design the HHR. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
I also remember references to the PT Cruiser being loosely inspired by ’40’s, ’50’s American truck design, maybe some Ford influence (?) but not a copy. The HHR as well as the SSR were influenced by the Chevy/GMC Advanced Design series of trucks.
Ooops, credit where credit is due. Brian Nesbitt.
I much preferred these to the PT. The HHR’s retro Suburban theme was proportioned more like a wagon, and I think it then cast the PT as looking all the more mini-minivan.
When introduced, there was a sidebar story on what was then a sophisticated stamping setup for the rear quarter panels’ sharp tail light punch throughs.
Drove a number of these as loaners and rentals and found them to be pleasant for their price point. I especially liked that the front passenger seat could be flattened, extending the load floor.
Least useful feature was that all the dropped passenger seatback surfaces were cheap slippery plastic along with the entire rest of the cargo area floor. The cheap plastic that gets scratched by anything sharper than a pencil eraser.
I can’t image what it’d be like taking your dog out for a ride back there on a winding road.
I like that you qualified that these were intended at a certain, lower price point, because (in theory, anyway), I think these did what they were supposed to do.
I look at them now as something like what a “tall” compact Cobalt wagon would have been like, but with very distinctive styling and a fun, overall vibe. Why can’t inexpensive look cool?
Exactly. A “relaxed fit” Cobalt wagon!
Rented one of these once in Florida for a week. If you don’t mind rattles and pushing the little wheezers up hill and then this just might be the car for you.
Hills? In Florida? What’s a hill? Seriously, cars that seem underpowered elsewhere, don’t SEEM so bad in Florida until you need to merge with any kind of traffic.
I was trying to remember hills during my years of living in Florida, but yes – driving north and south on I-75, there are sometimes ramps leading up to large waterways that require a significant amount of power or a downshift to keep up with traffic.
Combined with nearly always-mandatory a/c in pretty much that entire state, and with any load of cargo and / or other people, I can sort of see your point. A/C off made all the difference in both my four-cylinder Mustang and Probe.
The low step-in height is nice, as is the lack of black cladding. Too bad they’ve both fallen out of fashion in the CUV craze.
A single mom co-worker had one of these. Typical nickle and dime you to death vehicle.
Only it was $50 to $100 minimum each time.
Interior door handles break off? Have to replace the entire door panel from Chevy at
$400 + each. Wow!
Thankfully Dorman (a maker of various aftermarket parts) had just come out with a repair kit for only $100.
Windshield wiper actuator arms fell off, it had the ‘GM kill you ignition switch’ and a host of other problems.
Thankfully, the internet had plenty of ‘how to fix it’ info.
When I drove it I had a nice view of the sun visor out front and the top of the door window when looking out the side. The PT Cruiser was a much better fit for me.
She finally traded it in on a Rav-4. Smart move.
I spent a lot of time working on that HHR and was happy to see it go.
Except that she looked a young Dolly Parton from top to bottom and was just as sweet. Sigh !!
Probably the first post on the internet that had the words Thankfully and Dorman in the same sentence.
Not really a fan of either the PT Cruiser or HHR, but if I had to chose I’d take the HHR because it didn’t have the transmission problems that the PT Cruiser did. I talked to a tow truck operator who made a good living towing PT’s with broken transmissions. The place I worked at had a lot of very abused fleet HHRs, never had problems with wipers or door handles falling off, but almost all of them had cracked windshields.
The RAV Snore is certainly reliable, but zzzzzz…… May I suggest a
Mitsuoka Buddy instead?
Probably not, actually. Dorman’s enormous product line contains quite a lot of useful, cost-effective, well-made parts and hardware bits. Not everything they offer fits that description; they’ve shown signs in recent years of falling victim to MBA disease—it’s all just product, doesn’t matter whether it’s jelly beans or manifold studs or headlamps or carpet shampoo, and its actual quality is irrelevant as long as there’s a documented quality control protocol (doesn’t matter what the protocol is; it could be that a foul-tempered ape flings poo at every 12th part as it comes down the assembly line, as long as it’s documented. Are the documents faked? Of course not, just look at the documents; they say they’re legit!), etc. But there’s quite a lot of good stuff in the Dorman line.
Yes maybe I was too harsh on Dorman. I’ve have replaced window motors made by Dorman that actually seemed to have superior quality than the original Honda OEM units, but on the other hand I’ve had various plastic and rubber engine parts that disintegrated in short order when exposed to engine heat. A more fair assessment of Dorman would be they are hit or miss. They have a few gems, but a lot of Dorman stuff makes GM OEM look like it is made of gold.
The various forums on the internet seem to have Cardone and Dorman bashing.
Cardone-bashing is well and always deserved.
TornAuto, what you said about the nickle-and-dime experience of your co-worker echoed some of what I remember my brother-in-law having said a few years back.
A friend of my sister and BIL were looking to purchase a used HHR, and if I recall correctly, it wasn’t so much that the HHR was a bad vehicle (though perhaps too small for the friend’s family), but the number of miles on it was probably going to negate the lower price-point of that particular HHR with all the repairs my BIL was anticipating.
We test drove a 5 speed HHR at our local Chevy garage and I was not a fan…I’m only 5’8″ tall and it felt like the bottom edge of the roof was in my sight line. Took a hard pass.
My brother-in-law also mentioned to me how these are much smaller vehicles than they appear on the outside. I wonder what it is about the styling of the HHR that makes it look bigger than it is. It must be the mini-Suburban styling.
Now I want a grape popsicle!
I always liked these, but thought they needed a piece of trim (or at least a pinstripe) right where the color separation line is on the purple/white one.
What’s funny is that after I had finished the first draft of this short post and went grocery shopping, of course I had to come back with some popsicles. Hooray for summer!
Thanks, Joseph. Your references to your mom continue to fill in a paint-by-numbers of a woman not to be reckoned with. I’m sensitive to this because my own mother, although very caring and attentive at most times, had a stubborn/frustrated streak that appeared unexpectedly and with respect to the oddest things – I remember being rudely surprised quite often at the trivial things that would set her off.
Anyway, the paint scheme does remind me of those sundaes in a cup in which a fruit (apparently raspberry here) was swirled with vanilla, which came with a wooden spoon in a paper wrapper – it looked almost like a band-aid package. the texture of those spoons on the tongue was wonderful, and the memory reminds me of Summer, like the smell of burning leaves, Autumn.
Thanks, Alan. And, yes! I know those sundae-in-a-cup things you’re talking about! those are great. I think another thing I came to associate with summer was the taste of a wooden stick, whether attached to a frozen popsicle or ice cream bar, or as the spoon for a small ice cream or sundae cup.
I wonder why I never got any splinters on my tongue! Or, maybe I did and I just blocked it out. 🙂
I too sometimes wonder about why no splinters (none that I can recall), but those spoons were exceptionally smooth and well crafted, for a throwaway wooden item that was probably manufactured in the billions! I would always marvel at them for a second or too when first unwrapped, before diving in –
Funny how such a little thing triggers happy memories later in life.
The most interesting thing about the HHR panel trucks is the variants. While the most common is the type featured with the shaved door handles and blocked-off panels for both the rear door and quarter windows, I’m reasonably certain you could get one where just the quarter windows were blocked-off, somewhat reminiscent of the old Chevy Vega Kammback panel delivery. I vaguely recall seeing at least one outfitted like that.
It should also be noted that the HHR wasn’t an exact copy of the PT Cruiser, primarily in that the PT had an easily removable rear seat (which allowed it to be classified as a truck). The standard HHR did not have a removable rear seat which could explain the panel versions that replaced the rear seat with a plastic platform. Occasionally, you’ll still see one in operation as a legitimate panel delivery for a small business.
FWIW, these retro-panel trucks are an example where the people that bought them didn’t quite line up with the intended market demographic. The PT and HHR quickly became darlings of the geezer group who liked their low price, high seating position but low center of gravity for entry and exit, and practicality for a smaller vehicle.
When they ended production, seems like the geriatric set moved on to the Kia Soul as their preferred ride.
You’re right, there were both “full panel” and “half panel” models, and both had SS variants.
I had one just like that in silver, 5 speed, 260 HP turbo. Fast, great handling, (mostly) trouble free for 120,000 miles
When you mentioned the doors, one thing I didn’t find a way to incorporate into this short piece is how odd the windowless rear-side doors looked to me while open, with that plastic panel where the window ought to be.
As you pointed out, I could totally see one of these being, maybe, a flower delivery vehicle, or for a small nursery.
Yep, some sort of floral or garden-oriented small, local business would be perfect for the HHR panel.
In fact, if they had kept it in production just a bit longer, maybe they could have come up with a plug-in PHEV version with Volt mechanicals. That would have been great for local business delivery.
OTOH, Ford teamed up with a third party to build exactly that with a converted EV version of the 2012 Transit Connect. It was expensive and only had a 50 mile range. The only ones I’ve seen were as Ford parts department runners. They didn’t build many and it didn’t last long.
I’ve seen an orange metallic HHR SS Panel truck running around Santee, CA periodically. It’s a pretty rare vehicle, according to this article it is 1 of 216 built.
https://chevroletforum.com/articles/chevy-hhr-ss-panel-the-quirkiest-panel-van-you-will-ever-see/
That is such a low production number for a major make! It has been a while since contributor William Stopford’s pieces on limited edition models had originally run, but now I’m curious as to whether he had included this one.
Had one as rental for 2 weeks- Tucson- Flagstaff- Vegas- Yosemite- San Francisco. Other the the plastic interior, I liked it. I was pleasantly surprised by the ride & handling, I gave a work out in the Sonoran Desert, and it handled the bumps as well as Anne’s Peugeot.
“Ours” was the base model, as I found out when I scrounged a brochure from a friendly Chevrolet dealer. Make mine the SS version please.
My first reaction to this was darken and reverse the colors and you’d have British Rail “blood and custard” livery. The HHR seemed of a piece with the PT Cruiser as something different looking but nothing special dynamically. The panel trucks actually seemed like useful vehicles before the Transit Connect took over the niche.