2007 Chevrolet HHR

2007 Chevrolet HHR

The good: Making a very strong styling statement, the 2007 Chevrolet HHR offers MP3 playback through CDs or its auxiliary audio input. XM radio is also available.

The bad: The HHR has very loose handling, while its four-speed automatic produces very noticeable shifts. OnStar navigation is only available through a subscription, and doesn't work well out in the boondocks.

The bottom line: Although we aren't crazy about the exterior of the 2007 Chevrolet HHR, we give it credit for making a strong statement. The car is meant for cruising, not for speed, and although it has a full range of tech gear, we don't find OnStar as convenient as onboard systems.

If this were 1950, we would be pretty impressed by the Chevrolet HHR. Its body style, although lower down with narrower windows, would fit right in with the line of Chevy panel trucks. The automatic transmission would seem a bit luxurious, like something out of a Cadillac, and we would probably try to jam a 45 record into the thin slot below the radio display. The handling would feel in line with most other cars on the road.

But it is not 1950--the 2007 Chevrolet HHR's retro look borrows heavily from Chevy panel vans of that era, which makes it a polarizing car. Similar to the Honda Element or the Scion xB, you're either going to love it or hate it. We're not crazy about the HHR's style, although it's a pretty good take on a 1950s car. The hood and fenders are pretty obvious features hearkening back to the original, but even the tail lights copy those of the 1950s-era panel wagon.

The HHR clearly lacks driving excitement, opting instead for fuel economy with its four-cylinder engine. But that lack of excitement extends to the primitive transmission and the poor handling. For interior tech, the HHR gets a stereo that uses GM's ugly, but functional, interface for terrestrial and satellite radio tuning, and MP3 CD track selection. As is common in GM cars, in-car phone functionality and navigation is left to OnStar.

As we feel the whole point of GPS navigation is not having to ask for directions, we haven't really given OnStar navigation a try. But we try to be thorough, so we decided to use the OnStar navigation service in the Chevrolet HHR. It definitely qualifies as a tech feature, and GM was kind enough to give us an operable OnStar account for our review period.

We used OnStar navigation twice: once in the middle of San Francisco and once out in the boondocks, on the coast near the town of Pescadero. In our city test, we pushed the OnStar button located on the rearview mirror frame and requested directions to a local address from the OnStar operator. The operator sent the directions to the car, and we were set. We started driving and the onboard OnStar system gave us route guidance by voice and through the radio display. The voice guidance wasn't the OnStar operator, but instead the same kind of voice guidance you get from a full GPS navigation system. We were impressed that the voice guidance could read out street names, and the radio display showed upcoming turns and their distance from the HHR.

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