2006 Chevrolet HHR

We had the misfortune of renting this car through a major rental car company to drive on a recent business trip. The car we requested wasn't available, and the rental car company put us into this boxy misconception. I've never been a fan of the PT Cruiser "style" and this wanna-be knock-off is even worse than the original.

First, this car (if in fact, one would call it that) feels like riding in a small mini-van, or a hearse. The ride is tiresome, seat cushioning uncomfortable, and road noise annoying. Tall people will appreciate the roomy leg-room in the front seats, however a midget would be uncomfortable riding in the back seat and it would be unthinkable for anyone taller than 5'.

The interior of the car is made from very cheap-looking plastic and doesn't inspire any confidence in reliability or safety. The cloth on the seat looks equally cheap, feels cheap, and apparently stains rather easily.

For reasons only the engineer knows, the controls for the power windows are located just above the gear shift and have some ill-defined symbols to distinguish what button is supposed to control what window.

The climate control was effective, but again the controls weren't marked very well and it was hard to discern which way to turn the knob to adjust the air temperature. Not to be outdone, the radio display couldn't have been more confusing. The buttons for the different radio stations are thin and too small to punch on the first try and are not marked at all. The buttons are at the bottom of the main display for the radio, and the display shows all the radio stations. So, when you look at the display, you see 7 radio stations all clustered along the bottom of the display. This makes it impossible to figure out at a glance what station you are actually listening to.

The cup holders are placed directly beneath the arm rests in such a way, that the only way to access them is to lift the arm rest up. This isn't the only way this car is poorly designed. Although there are two power outlets, the second one is located on the side of the center console in the back seat. Which to our dismay wasn't working. NOTE: Car had less than 30,000 miles on it.

Other design flaws concern safety. There are at least 3 blind spots in this vehicle, making it worse than my 1994 Del Sol. Also, the cruise controls are not clearly marked and are difficult to figure out. Steering was responsive, but listed in tight curves. Acceleration was decent, braking very good. Trunk space was smaller than one would expect in a car of this size (I actually have more room in my 2-seater, Del Sol) which is surprising. Interior lighting is inadequate, the light in the ceiling of the car is centered in the middle, making it difficult to access for map reading. It required me to remove my passenger seatbelt and turn around reaching way back to turn it on. Gas mileage was worse than expected, expect about 19-23 mpg.