Jim Ellis Chevrolet Atlanta

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Driving Impressions

The Chevy HHR's 2.4-liter Ecotec is a wonderful little engine, and it has a slight boost in horsepower and torque numbers for 2007. It's an aluminum four-cylinder, with 16 valves, electronic fuel injection and variable valve timing. It makes 175 horsepower and 165 pound-feet of torque at 5000 rpm, numbers which don't indicate anything special. In fact, that torque peak suggests that the low-rpm pulling power might be weak. But it's not. We drive up a steep, slow hill every day, and the HHR plugged up the hill like a tractor, with no shifting-down of the automatic transmission.

Transmission ratios have a lot to do with this efficient delivery of power. Curiously, there's nothing in the ratios of the HHR four-speed automatic that indicate it should make this hill so easily, either. All we can say is that the pulling power of the HHR 2LT is excellent.

We suspect the five-speed Getrag manual transmission (same as in the PT Cruiser) would be a better bet for the HHR than the automatic, but we have no complaints with the four-speed automatic. The automatic includes remote starting, and climbing into a toasty car on icy mornings after starting it from a warm house during morning coffee is a nice luxury. We liked the way the automatic could be easily manually downshifted, even though it doesn't feature a separate manual mode. And we liked how it held second gear going down that same steep, slow hill.

Acceleration was equally impressive. Onto the freeway, foot on the floor, and the HHR 2LT really scoots, which makes it a lot of fun. The 2.4-liter engine is quiet, thanks partly to special laminated steel in the firewall.

The 2.4-liter engine is efficient, also. It gets the same EPA-rated 22/27 mpg City/Highway (with manual transmission) as the standard 149 hp, 2.2-liter engine. Premium fuel is recommended but not required for the 2.4-liter. During one week in the 2LT, we averaged 23.4 miles per gallon, as indicated by the digital data on the dash. That included mostly around-town driving, plus about 120 freeway miles with a full load of passengers and the cruise control set at 70. The HHR got slightly better mileage at that freeway pace than it did light-footed around town.

The 2LT has a sport-tuned suspension with 17-inch aluminum wheels, as well as anti-lock brakes. There is no harshness to the ride around town, or over freeway bumps for that matter. The HHR is nimble, though the suspension shows its limitations when driven like a sports car. Chevrolet said it put a lot of time into the calibration of the rack-and-pinion steering with power assist, and we would say it feels just right, around town.

The brakes are 11.65-inch discs in front, 10-inch drums in rear, and have an easy feel. Electronic brake-force distribution, which electronically adjusts the braking so that the rear wheels don't lock up, is not available.

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