Reviews & Features

20 American Cars No One Should Ever Buy…Because They’re Bad

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2 Chevrolet HHR

Chevrolet’s HHR represented an attempt to try for a retro-styled minivan and station wagon blend, the result being a slightly larger, less efficient, and slower car that still couldn’t keep up with a true van in terms of overall utility. At least the HHR’s higher roof, with a squarer rear end, allowed for enough headroom in the back seats, though, because otherwise the rest of the concept was highly disappointing.

Part of the problem was that the HHR shared its drivetrain and layout with much smaller cars like the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5 with a weight that came in at almost 500 pounds, or around 20%, heavier.

Chevy introduced the HRR for the 2006 model year, though they should have learned from their competitor Chrysler’s PT Cruiser that the retro mini-minivan concept was dead on arrival. Instead, they almost mimicked the PT Cruiser with a few tweaks to the outer shell. But under the hood a 2.2-liter inline four produced 143 horsepower and 150 lb-ft of torque, and a four speed automatic came standard. In similar fashion to the PT Cruiser, even, Chrysler later added a turbocharged engine. Today, a used HHR can be had on the cheap, but even for free it would seem like a bad deal.

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