Chevy HHR panel van offers utility with retro styling

Chevy HHR panel van offers utility with retro styling

2007 HHR Panel LS
By: Rob Beintema

Everything old is new again. Beetles, MINIs and now Chevy’s new HHR panel van, a cargo carrier that hearkens back to the delivery trucks of a bygone era.

It’s an interesting and natural addition to the HHR lineup, an evolution of design that General Motors traces back to its trucks of yore, platforms that also boasted panel versions.

Isn’t that a cute little heritage story? But we all know the HHR is really GM’s take on Chrysler’s PT Cruiser, albeit wearing an oversize Chevy bowtie, mounting ancient Corvette-style tail lamps and sculpted with just enough 1949 Suburban styling to allow Chevy designers to face themselves in the mirror.

Which is okay, really. The HHR works well enough in its own right, offering customers a different flavour in the market of compact, retro-styled tall wagons.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Chrysler should be blushing pink. But while Chrysler also toyed with the idea of a panel version, showing a very nice 2-door, wooden-floored PT Cruiser Panel concept at the 2000 Detroit Auto Show, they didn’t have the push or the pockets to build it.

So, bonus points to GM, for having the guts and for creating a new niche in the commercial market.

The HHR Panel differs from the passenger model by virtue of its smooth exterior, featuring windowless side panels and rear cargo side doors instead of the conventional second row doors. The flush side cargo doors don't have external handles. They are opened with dashboard release buttons or by simply reaching in for the inside door releases. Those side cargo doors open nice and wide for loading and there’s access from the rear as well, although taller drivers like me will find it a literal pain-in-the-neck, ducking under the compact car height tailgate.

Steel inserts in the windows, solid doors, it’s a simple engineering change, but with significant styling impact. Not exactly an extreme change. But in a world of bland universality, it’s enough to create extreme reactions, ranging everywhere from “pretty cool” to “pretty stupid”.

Personally, if the HHR Panel was designed to mine the nostalgic past of the Boomer generation, well, as soon as I slipped into its steel-walled confines, it worked for me. I was instantly transported back to my teenage, delivery driver days.

Although, as I recall, the piece of s#$! van that I drove back then had a “three-on-the-tree” shifter, occasional heating, an oversized, battery-operated transistor radio wired to the defroster vents, holes in the floor and the ambient inner aroma of something long gone dead.

The HHR Panel is a little more luxurious than that. Carpeted, well mannered and snug with a delightfully retro-styled design. The overlaid gauges are particularly handsome. In fact, from nose to B-pillar, this panel van is the same as the HHR passenger version, coming in the equivalent LS and LT trim levels, and offering all the sedan-like amenities and options we’ve come to expect nowadays.

But my flashback reversion to the old delivery driving days comes in handy anyway, because, driving the HHR Panel, you have to shift into that truck driver state of consciousness, relying on your mirrors and paying heed to the traffic around you.

“How do you manage with those big blind spots?” people would ask me.

I guess I could have explained that, in theory, that there are no blind spots if your mirrors are positioned properly. But I must confess that I still glimpse over my shoulder occasionally too. So all you can do in the HHR Panel is watch the mirrors, drive carefully, remember your place in the traffic flow and pay attention.

It certainly makes life interesting when you forget to back into a parking lot spot, and find yourself having to blindly inch backwards into the cross traffic of other drivers who somehow, inexplicably earned the same driver’s license as you.

There’s not a lot else that’s different about the HHR panel. Carrying over most of the regular HHR content has allowed GM to keep the cost down to roughly the same price as the regular version.

GM talks about the flat load floor that provides more than 1,614 L (57 cubic feet) of cargo space but the original HHR was initially designed with fold-flat seats so there’s little cargo gain there. Two underfloor compartments where the second row would normally be, offer an extra 141 L (5 cu. ft.) of covered storage. For some reason, GM nickels and dimes you $35 for locks on those compartments.

Under the hood, the HHR Panel boasts the same ECOTEC engine choices – the base 2.2-litre making 149 hp @ 5600 rpm and 152 lb-ft of torque at 4200 rpm or the 2.4-litre engine with 175 hp @ 6200 rpm and 165 lb-ft of torque at 4800 rpm.

Engine power may not be quite up to the “riveting performance” boasts of the sales brochure, but who cares?

Commercial customers will be more interested in the 10.2L/7.1L/100km (city/hwy) fuel economy rating that combines nicely with the entry level pricing. Gearheads will just have to wait for the 260 hp turbocharged SS passenger version due out near the end of the year.

HHR or HHR Panel? I’m not sure which way I would swing, given a choice.

While the HHR panel has the flat floor with extra storage spots, added cargo security and edgier styling courtesy of the smooth steel walls that offer either a blank canvas for the customizer or a clean slate for commercial signage, I like the seating versatility of the passenger HHR, which, as I mentioned, also has flat-floor cargo ability. And, hey, if they can wrap a bus with those big vinyl signs, I’m sure they could manage a regular-windowed HHR.

Nevertheless, there is a definite market for the HHR Panel. With an affordable entry price, excellent fuel economy and more styling impact than any other commercial delivery vehicle that I can think of, the HHR Panel should tweak the interest of fleet owners in all levels of business.

And maybe tweak the interest of customers who just want to buy something that’s a little cool and a little different.

The 2007 HHR Panel starts at $19,480. Expect a price bump up of a few hundred dollars for the 2008 model year.

CHEVROLET HHR PANEL 2007 AT A GLANCE

BODY STYLE: Compact utility vehicle.

DRIVE METHOD: front-engine, front-wheel drive.

ENGINE: 2.2-litre (149 hp/152 lb-ft) or 2.4-litre (175 hp/165 lb-ft).

FUEL ECONOMY: 10.2L/7.1L/100km (city/hwy)

PRICE: 2007 HHR Panel LS - $19,480

             2007 HHR Panel LT - $22,120

WEB: gmcanada.com

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