Auto Car | Chevrolet HHR SS in 2008 | This car has been on the roll as of late with new vehicles like the Saturn Aura, Cadillac CTS, Chevy Malibu and the line of redesigned trucks and SUVs that have been gathering good reviews and customer attention. some of the companies want to include this car in for testing in test drive the new Chevrolet HHR SS to see if they've knocked one out of the park, dirty hit or, ahem, missed the ball completely when changing a little retro-mobile into a Super Sport.
Here's how it works. Put the car into "Competitive Mode" by hitting the stability control button twice. Come to a stop. Floor the throttle. Release the clutch. Next up is the no-lift shift to second. You'll likely never tire of holding the go-pedal to the floor and slamming the shifter into the next gear. Reward yourself by keeping the engine at full power with no loss of boost pressure by no-lift shifting into third and you'll be staring at triple-digits on the speedometer. Hold off the throttle pedal a bit and you'll be able to get near 30 miles per gallon on the highway, according to the EPA.
Keep an eye on the boost gauge, which has been added (seemingly rather hastily) to the driver-side A pillar. Depending on your choice of color, consider the red or our favorite, the silver interior schemes. The FE5 suspension that comes standard in the SS model strikes us as a good balance between the necessary freeway drones we all are forced to contend with and the twisty backroads that we all love to play with. The go-fast crew at GM played around with the settings some, but ended up only dropping the ride height a few millimeters.
We thoroughly enjoyed our track time with the HHR SS at the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. We flung the little SS around with no mercy and were quite impressed by how rewarding driving the tall wagon proved to be. The limited slip differential was a very welcome addition, and after a few hot laps, the optional Brembo brake package proved that it is indeed worth whatever extra GM decides to charge for it. We had the most fun with the stability control left in "Competitive Mode". According the the GM people, the HHR SS holds the lap record for its class at the Nürburgring. We doubt that we set any records at Bondurant's track, but we had fun trying.Of course, all is not perfect with the HHR SS. We wish that GM could have offered more than four forward ratios in the automatic model. Again, we stress that we highly recommend opting for the 5-speed stick. Speaking of that tranny, Chevy assured us that it tried using a six cog unit but found that the car was actually slower with it. Whatever the case, five forward gears was enough for us anyway. Other gripes include the lack of an available navigation system despite there being an excellent place for it at the top of the dash. And even though it's a high-roof, this tester's hair brushed the ceiling on sunroof-equipped models.
All of those criticisms miss the fact that for $22,995, the General has made a pretty darn good performance bargain with a giant boot to match. Launch control works well, and frankly we are a bit surprised that the feature, along with no-lift shifting, made it into production despite all of the people who could have axed it. In conclusion, the car performs as you'd expect an SS to perform. If you just can't live with the HHR's style, the Cobalt SS will soon be offered with the same engine and transmission package, including the launch control and magic shifting. Even better: wait a few months for the SS Panel to hit the dealers showroom. Trust us: you could so rock the Panel.
Here's how it works. Put the car into "Competitive Mode" by hitting the stability control button twice. Come to a stop. Floor the throttle. Release the clutch. Next up is the no-lift shift to second. You'll likely never tire of holding the go-pedal to the floor and slamming the shifter into the next gear. Reward yourself by keeping the engine at full power with no loss of boost pressure by no-lift shifting into third and you'll be staring at triple-digits on the speedometer. Hold off the throttle pedal a bit and you'll be able to get near 30 miles per gallon on the highway, according to the EPA.
Keep an eye on the boost gauge, which has been added (seemingly rather hastily) to the driver-side A pillar. Depending on your choice of color, consider the red or our favorite, the silver interior schemes. The FE5 suspension that comes standard in the SS model strikes us as a good balance between the necessary freeway drones we all are forced to contend with and the twisty backroads that we all love to play with. The go-fast crew at GM played around with the settings some, but ended up only dropping the ride height a few millimeters.
We thoroughly enjoyed our track time with the HHR SS at the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. We flung the little SS around with no mercy and were quite impressed by how rewarding driving the tall wagon proved to be. The limited slip differential was a very welcome addition, and after a few hot laps, the optional Brembo brake package proved that it is indeed worth whatever extra GM decides to charge for it. We had the most fun with the stability control left in "Competitive Mode". According the the GM people, the HHR SS holds the lap record for its class at the Nürburgring. We doubt that we set any records at Bondurant's track, but we had fun trying.Of course, all is not perfect with the HHR SS. We wish that GM could have offered more than four forward ratios in the automatic model. Again, we stress that we highly recommend opting for the 5-speed stick. Speaking of that tranny, Chevy assured us that it tried using a six cog unit but found that the car was actually slower with it. Whatever the case, five forward gears was enough for us anyway. Other gripes include the lack of an available navigation system despite there being an excellent place for it at the top of the dash. And even though it's a high-roof, this tester's hair brushed the ceiling on sunroof-equipped models.
All of those criticisms miss the fact that for $22,995, the General has made a pretty darn good performance bargain with a giant boot to match. Launch control works well, and frankly we are a bit surprised that the feature, along with no-lift shifting, made it into production despite all of the people who could have axed it. In conclusion, the car performs as you'd expect an SS to perform. If you just can't live with the HHR's style, the Cobalt SS will soon be offered with the same engine and transmission package, including the launch control and magic shifting. Even better: wait a few months for the SS Panel to hit the dealers showroom. Trust us: you could so rock the Panel.
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