Being totally unfamiliar with the characteristics of the HHR I'm curious what to expect out of the critter in winter.

I live in an area of hills and curves. Winter isn't too awful bad about snow and ice but it does occur. Obviously that low hanging nose means more than four inches of snow we will be using the 4WD SUV

Haven't had a chance to play with the heat except to know that it'll put some heat out and the car does have a strong blower. Mighty small vents on top of the dash so fogging could be a consideration.

In general, how winter friendly is the HHR? Any recommended mods or limits I should be aware of?

Wren

 

I don't know what the winter low temps are where you live but I can tell you I have had no problem with the heat when the temp drops into single digits. As far as snow and ice, I've only driven mine in snow once (about an inch or two) and I thought it did fine because of the front wheel drive.

 

I live in northern Illinois where we get a ton of snow and ice. with a good set of tires the HHR is excellent. My SS HHR not so much because of the tires.

 

Biggest problem with most cars during the winter is the nut sitting behind the wheel...


That being said, the HHR is more than capable as a winter car unless the snow gets beyond 6 inches deep or so. At 6 inches it starts plowing snow which is something they aren't very good at.

 

It is just like any other fwd car. The driver and the tires are a lot more important.

 

A couple of inches of snow, no problem!

The HHR is very capable of handling snow and ice.

 

X2. I drove mine to work (20 miles) last winter in 10 inches of snow and a blizzard. This was mostly on the freeway. That storm pretty much shut the city down. The trick with that kind of snow is once you get rolling don't stop if you don't have to. Where it get's dicey with any car that's not 4WD or AWD and is in partially plowed intersection or turnouts. But generally 6 inches or less only slows people here down, doesn't stop too many of us.

 

After driving on wet clay on Saturday nights , ice and snow are easy peasy

 

The only problem I have is the nose is so low if the snow is more than 6 inches deep it just won't go.

 

Couple of winters ago I had to drive home in a storm... They hadn't prepped the roads before hand because it was rain that turned into snow and then it built up fast. So, ice under the wet snow. The crosswinds were so bad that for most of the drive I was turning right to go in a straight line. This is all rural back roads, up and down hills, "follow that cow" twisties out here. About two miles before I got to my road I had to pass a snowplow that had blown off the side of the road. You know it's bad when the county plow truck can't get through and is laying on it's side in the ditch... Right after you turn onto my road it goes about a 1/4 mile straight up a hill of about 25 or 30 degree slope, it was not plowed and two cars were already in the ditch. At the top of this hill is my 1000 foot unplowed gravel driveway...


That drive, which is normally about 45 minutes took over two and a half hours... Other than it being a hassle and the ice buildup on my windshield wipers, I didn't have any problems.