So yesterday I got a renta car while my 2010 Focus SES gets worked on. At enterprise and they have this nice looking red HHR out front. I was thinking, or hoping, i would get one of the elantras or the such. but all they had that i could get right then was the HHR. So I took it instead of waiting for one of the other cars to be prepped because I was i a hurry to get to my second job. First impression, sitting in it it looks pretty cool. Go to put my seatbelt on....., WTF is this, a fold down armrest? lets move this out of the way just so I can get my seatbelt into the latch, DUMB. maybe with tiny hands it would be possible with the armrest down. Hmm whats this i see under the passenger armrest? oh thats the e-brake handle. lets just fold up the passenger arm rest so I can get to the button to put the handle down. Ok, now I have no where to rest my elbow since Chevy seems to think consoles are not neccessary. Hmm, uncomfortable, lets put the armrest back down. now if this was a manual trans then this would suck to use the ebrake every time you park. Sooo, i get down the road and start to get a little warm, lets turn on the A/C. whats this i hear? mice in the dash? a bird? no its the blower motor chirping away, this is going to be great. Then a little farther down the road "DING DING DING" whats this i see? Change oil soon on the display screen? F U rental car, no jiffy lube for you, you are mine for the week, not even my focus is getting the oil change it is asking for. So along I go, a/c noise is annoying, lets just roll down the windows. hmm, tick tick tick, now wtf is going on here mr. goodwrench, quit messing with me. I get to work and look at the wheels to see whay they are ticking, i thought they were the nice looking 5 spoke alloys. Hmm Mr Goodtimes fooled me again. they look like allows, but are 5 spoke steel wheels with perfect fitting 5 spoke hubcaps covering them an they are just happy to tick and tock and annoy the crap out of you. Soooooooo now its time to work. My job at night is delivering pizzas, can you tell now how awesome my night is going to be? A/c makes noise, roll down the windows, and hear hubcap noise, change oil ding dong the motors dead noise, ohh, lets not forget to put your seat belt on so it dosnt make more fabulous ding dongs at you, oh, wait, remember earlier, the stupid arm rest is in the way. so now all night the arm rest is going up and down like a flippin pinball paddle, now the WHO is stuck on your mind "Sure plays a mean pin balllllll" woohoo, having a great time now. After a couple hours i zone out the stupid racket mentioned earlier. BUT WAIT Theres more!! Drive now and we will include a rattling headliner right above your head free of charge. Well Thank you Billy Mays, messing with me from above huh? And that is just day one of the fun with my Enterprise Rental HHR. You are mine until Tuesday.
One positve about the car is that it has surprising power for a 4 cylinder in that size of car, I believe its faster than my Focus.
I drive a HHR at work and it pretty comfortable but the visibility is terrible because its one without the windows...not to bad other wise besides the point that its a Chevy!
besides the stupid armrest in the way of the seatbelt, I like the seats. Already thought about putting them in a Maverick. Would be nice to have armrests and they are comfy. Car has decent power just seems that build quality is terrible, and this is only a 30k mile car.
I rented one when i was in Fla a year ago. or that's what they gave me. Ugly little car. It did drive good. good power. In a week I never got the seat to be comfortable. it was electric as I remember but I just could not get it to fit me right. I didn't have any of the problems you did. I still wouldn't want to own one. Way too much like a PT cruiser, grand mothers car
We almost bought a manual shift one a few years ago. Went back and they had done sold it, so we got to trying out PT Cruisers and ended up buying one of them. The manual HHR had plenty of power, but the auto's we drove were dogs. The PT auto would run circles around one. After a while, the PT turned out to be a POS. Actually, I think they just left the letters out of the name: Piece of ***T. Don't think I'll stray from the Ford family again.....
hhr's we use hhr's for our service vehicle the panel model no rear side windows its a bitch for visibility but i fine it comfortable over all and i'm 6ft1 its perky too but i just did some unauthorized body work lol hit a sign trying to avoid a deer
Take the car back to Enterprise, complain LOUDLY about the poor quality of the car and ask to speak to the manager. 9 times out of 10 you'll get an upgrade to a better car. If they won't do anything for you, get the district manager's number and call them. -Scott H.
