Why the Chevy HHR SS Was Unique
The Chevy HHR SS was only around for a few years, but car lovers still talk about it today.
Written by Alexandra Maloney
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Table of Contents
Hitting the roads in 2008, amid a financial crisis in the United States, the Chevy HHR SS had a lot stacked against it to prevent the car from succeeding. While no drivers asked for the eclectic-looking, powerful car, many were drawn to its unique nature.
Although it didn’t last long before
Chevrolet
pulled it off the market, the Chevy HHR SS made a big impact for the time it was available to American drivers. Car history
Before there was the Chevy HHR SS, there was the base model, the Chevy HHR. According to
Autotrader
, the Chevy HHR was a pretty standard car for the early 2000s. It featured a four-cylinder engine, simple features and trims, and a rather unexciting interior. The Chevy HHR also came in a panel-van version, which was interesting, although not practical, because it featured rear doors without any exterior rear door handles. Today, it’s extremely rare to find a Chevy HHR Panel Van for sale, because so few were made.
In an attempt to excite drivers and create more interest in the Chevy HHR, the car brand came up with the Chevy HHR SS—which turned out to be a serious upgrade from the previous model. The Chevy HHR SS was unique because it came during a recession, but still focused on high performance and quality, a thing many car brands weren’t doing at the time.
In 2009, Chevy followed up the HHR SS with its own version of the unique panel van. Unfortunately, the HHR SS Panel Van was offered exclusively in 2009, and the regular HHR SS model was discontinued soon after, in 2010. Although the HHR SS was only on the market for two years, it’s still a car people remember.
More on the Chevy HHR SS
The HHR SS and its panel van counterpart were an upgrade in power and speed to the base model of the HHR.
Both the Chevy HHR SS and the Chevy HHR SS Panel Van used a turbocharged 2-liter, four-cylinder engine that produced 260 hp, a rarity for the time during the financial crisis. It could accelerate from 0mph to 60 mph in just 6.3 seconds. Compare this to the original HHR engine, which only produced up to 175 hp, and it’s clear why the SS version was such an upgrade.
Because this car was only in production for two years, finding one today isn’t an easy task.
According to
The Drive
, a 2009 Chevy HHR SS was for sale in Texas a few years ago. While the car had less than 10,000 miles on it and was still in good shape, the asking price was $33,000. Other HHR SS cars have sold for around $20,000 over the years, but they did have more miles on them. Don’t forget your car insurance
Unless you’re a car collector, it's unlikely that you’ll be purchasing a Chevy HHR SS anytime soon. Despite that, if you’re looking to purchase any kind of car in the near future, it’s important to get car insurance to cover yourself for anything the future might hold.
4.7
