I love my HHR, but I find that it doesn't have much clearance and thus you end up plowing snow when it's more than six inches deep. I also have had problems with snow building up behind the frint wheels.

 

I've had that similar issue, but so far have never been stuck.

 

I'm guessing your at least the second owner of this particular HHR. I'm also guessing the previous owner/owners {or perhaps even you}may well have lowered the car. Its a very popular thing to do with these little trucklets.

Personally I think its just an unnecessary waste of time and money. I suppose if they did other mods to make the car go faster or something there may be an advantage to lowering the center of gravity but in my not so humble opinion,... that too would be a waste of money and time.

It might be tough to tell if they lowered it or not. You can measure the distance from the top of the tires to the wheel well opening and probably tell if this has been done. It would be nice if you could find another HHR near you and park beside it and compare yours to it. With luck the other one won't be lowered so you would be able to tell easily enough.

If it has been lowered you would need to replace the struts and rear springs and more than likely the rear shocks. You might regain a few inches of clearance.

We have had our HHR for at least 4 winters now and have never been stuck. Of course where I live in north western Illinois we have been having what I call 'California winters' the last few years. Last year was the first year in a long time that we actually got significant snow fall but I had no problems getting around in it.

 

Buildup behind the wheels is normal.

We had a snow that I couldn't clear a year or two ago. All of MY neighbor's were leaving tire tracks that I couldn't get into.

 

Hummm, interesting hypothesis, mine is lowered 1.5 inchs up front and 2 in us in back.
I've owned it for 5 years now and I lowered it 4.5 years ago, so 3 full winters and never been stuck so maybe it's my driving skills.
Hold on now, I lowered our Sunfire GT 10 years ago and my wife drives it through 9 full winters never missed work a day, never got stuck! However I did teach her how to drive 45 years ago.

 

Stuck isn't the problem here. The plows don't get to my street for 2-4 days when we get enough to worry about, if it's enough to worry about I can't get onto the street much less drive on it.

Mine is stock LT.

 

we don't see a plow on our street for 2-4 days either and I can get through to the main roads.

 

thats why im kind of afrraid to go any lower than ss springs for this reason haha..but here in Ontario Canada, when it snows..it snows! So far so good, havent been stuck. I do have winter tires on all 4 corners. Sometimes we lose the back end fishtailing but adding some weight in the back calms her down.

maybe you need to rig up a plow at the front

 

Have to say, I can't seem to teach my wife anything about driving... She still sometimes gets the Traverse on the lawn in the winter for no obvious reason... I have been trying for 21 years, though!

The SS is a handful getting up our hill though. Low ride height doesn't help, but it's the torque that seems to make it touchy. My last car was a Saabaru 9-2X (Subaru-built Saab), and I obviously got spoiled by the AWD.

 

Our first date, she came to the dirt track races on a Saturday night, I won my late model feature. She asked me to teach her how to drive , so next day we went to the Sunday night track early and I asked the pit steward oh I could take a few laps in my pickup.
I showed her how to use the gas to steer and stay off the brakes.
She did 5 laps and quickly got the hang of it! She's been drifting down those back roads to work now 40 years this past July, it's her stress release after a tough day at the office.
Ice and snow or wet clay or gravel won't intimidate her!