I notice ads in a couple of magazines for the HHR and they seem very similar to a typical MINI add. Don't know anything about this car/truck but will it compete with MINI?

 

I think the obvious comparison is the PT Cruiser.

I drove an HHR for a week. While it was a really nice car, and I was plesantly surprised by it - it's not nearly as sporting as the MINI.

Hartz

 

The HHR is what is wrong with the auto industry... every-once-in-awhile a auto maker comes up with a good idea then it gets copied and beaten to death! Not that I was ever particularly infatuated with the pt cruiser but I am always happy to see an original thought.

 

I haven't gotten inside one yet, but the HHR looks much better in person then in pictures.

More of a tall wagon, but it looks bigger then the Forester.

Not sure I'd own one, but I wouldn't call it a PT Cruiser knockoff. Someone told me it looks a bit like a classic Suburban.

 

i sat in one while I was visiting my customer... it reminded me of a PT Cruiser but with the quality of a Protege5...watever that means. but the door shut pretty well with a nice THUD (like on more expensive cars).

 

I'd say not. It's aiming right for the PT Cruiser group. I have seen them side by side and their sizes are sooooo close. Trying to give people another option if they want space but not huge.

Not sporty at all.

 

Have you driven a Mini?

Regards,
Red

 

IMO, it's taking on the Mini only in that it is an automobile and therefore potentially a competitor.

It's built to a totally different philosophy, though. I agree that it appears to be a PT-clone but the models that I have seen on the road seem far more competant than the PT ever has, if for no other reason than it's not built on a little turd of a platform (sorry, I have quite a bit of animosity toward the neon since it displaced the AP-body back in '94). The PT always was a joke. It's tiny car built to look big and has never been a good performer. The HHR, like someone said above, looks like a modern rendition of the early suburbans. That is, it's a get-around car being marketed as such. I think it could have been far better as a RWD platform and with 6 and 8 cylinder options, but there are considerable legislative and monetary reasons why we don't see very many cars built that way any more. All that said, I see the HHR as a low-cost station wagon built built with kitschy styling to survive in a market where the minivan has dominated for two decades, but to justify a higher sticker price than a 4 cylinder fwd midsize really should. The Cooper, OTOH, is a subcompact touring coupe or a sport compact depending on how you look at it, and is priced kind of high in its class (the closest competitors IMHO being the golf/gti, mazda 3&6, focus, and sentra)

 

honestly....the only thing it is competing against is the PT cruiser and the chevy SSR for the crown of ugliest monstrosity on the road. and it looks like chevy just combined the PT and the SSR and somehow came up with a car uglier than both. officially making the HHR THE ugliest car on the road.

 

Do you know what a Pontiac Aztec is?

 

LOL!

Now THAT is a true statement! My friend has made up a game about Azteks much like the punch-buggy game. It involves shielding the eyes...

 

When the PT Cruiser first came out I had an opportunity to drive one of the first. At the time I thought it was cool because of the unique look. It did turn heads when it first came out. Once I drove it I was disappointed. To me it definitely did not have sports car performance. Yet the small size also made it not very utilitarian. Doesn't seem to be much of an economy car either. It seems to me it should have gone one way or the other. For me the PT had a unique look and nothing else. Since then of course they sold so many there is nothing unique about it anymore - it no longer turns heads.

Last Thursday as I was driving to work I saw a silver car that at first look I thought was a PT Cruiser - but it looked kind of cool and I thought someone did a fairly good job modifying their PT. On closer look I found that it was one of the HHRs. I find it very strange that someone would clone a PT. But they seem to have done a good clone. It appears bigger and the styling is slightly better. As the day went on I ended up seeing three more of these things. Is that odd or what? Until that day I had never seen (or noticed anyway) one or even heard of the HHR and in one day I saw four. Was this just a very strange coincidence?

Not having driven one I will withhold judgment but I am not a fan of Chevy and will not be rushing out to test drive one.

I did not see four MINIs that day or any other day that I remember (outside of the MINI dealer's lot).

 

I don't understand the SSR - a $50k very small chevy pickup convertible? Not that it doesn't make someone happy - I am certainly not thinking everyone should like what I like. But that has got to be a very limited market.

 

hahahaha. yes, my friend i do. hahaha. very good point. but as far as i know they are or are going to be discontinued.

 

THE AZTEC The people who designed that and the people who approved that for production should have been fired. That car goes into a special group with others like the AMC pacer ,Gremlin,Yugo, Chevette, Ford Pinto. DAMN I WISH I COULD SCREW UP AT MY JOB AS BAD AS THE MAKERS OF THOSE CARS DID AND STILL HAVE A JOB.

 

Taking on MINI? Hardly, I mean only Ferrari's 612, Bentley's Continental R and BMW's M6 are the only serious competition to our little M.5s.

 

The $50K SSR WAS a very limited market. Then they tried to sell them for 40, then they tried to sell them for 30, now the production is "on hiatus".

 

'Course the SSR's greatest problem is that it wasn't much of a Convertible, nor much of a pick-up either. If I were in the market for a clamshell topped V-8, I'd be knocking on the door of my Mercedes dealer rather than Chevy's door.

 

The HHR is the very best illustration why GM and other american car companies are dying.....5+ years after the PT is introduced GM finnally manages to get a car to the market to compete, and is still mundane and watered down by focus groups and efforts to appeal to the masses meanwhile companies like scion (toyota) have created an intesting eye catching compitor that is highly customizable right from the dealer and is rock solid reliable with toyotas high quality manufactuting

 

I sat in an HHR at the local car show. What I noticed was that it had the closed feeling of the Hummer. The belt line was very high. Also the windshield pillar was very large. There was a blind spot to the driver's left that would have me running over pedistrians at cross walks. The MINI gives me the visibilty that should be.

 

Chevy's ad agency may use a similar marketing technique, but I'm not sure I'd sy they're after the same market... Focus ZX3, VW GTI, Mazda3, Civic Si and RSX... those are more of the MINI's competition.

Speaking of the SSR, I know somebody who has one. It's... interesting... but then again so is he... It's a classic "mid-life-crisis" car if you ask me... but he's happy with it and that's all that really matters...

 

At GM that guy who designed the Aztec probably got a promotion.

Is the Aztec essentially the same as the Buick Ranier but with the Buick having a little better design? I read somewhere recently that the Buick Ranier was the best selling Buick - yikes - so maybe Buick will go the direction of Oldsmobile when their market eventually all dies off.

Pontiac does seem to have improved their designs. I am still not buying one but at least the new models are not quite as ugly as the Aztec and your average Buick.

 

Your post needs to be sent to all the execs and shareholders of GM and then someone should hold a gun to their heads to actually make them read and understand it.

It seems to me that the GM vehicles with the most redeeming qualities are those European and Asian nameplates that GM bought. I am sure given a few more years they will find a way to screw those up too.

 

Yes I own a MCS05. The ads just seem so MINI like. Maybe they have the same ad companyas MINI? I had never seen or heard of the HHR before these ads.

 

That is funny. I wasn't aware of that.

I like so many of the GM ads that try to portray a "young" feel. They especially like the use of hard driving classic rock for their ads and the Chevy motto now is "an American revolution". Thank goodness the forefathers of the American revolution were not GM execs.