2blue

I couldn't find anything about this doing a search, but I believe my 2007 HHR with standard engine did this with my 31 year old daughter driving. She came off a 4 lane under cruise control and stopped for 4 to 6 redlights on her way into town. As she described it, when the light changed to green, she slowly accelerated following the car ahead of her. As she approached this car, she applied her brakes lightly to slow down a little. Then, the car took off by itself, down shifting maybe, while the engine was getting louder as the throttle blades must have opened. She immediately got on the brakes as hard as she could, but the car kept moving and wouldn't stop. She steared to her left around the car in front, but cars were coming the other way and there was a lot of foot traffic on the right sidewalk. She turned the key to "off", which allowed the car to slow somewhat, but had to hit a telephone pole to avoid pedestrians. Several bystanders came forward and told the investigating police officer that she did a good job not to hit anyone and her brake lights were on the whole time. She left tire marks from the front wheels spinning trying to go and the rear wheels locked up trying to stop. Now, why did this happen? Her small feet and not wide enough to hit the brake and gas pedals at the same time. If the cruise control initiated the acceleration, hitting the brake pedal should have cancelled it. I took the car to Mr. Goodwrench with the police report, but they couldn't find anything, and they said the engineers at Chevy had never heard of this before. Has anybody heard of this happening to a HHR before? Any reports of strange electrical or computer behavior? Any Techinical Service Bulletins? I really didn't expect Mr. G. to acknowledge a problem. (It took Toyota a couple years and a number of incidents to finally say this has happened, and they started off blaming the floormats.) For my daughter and I, we are not trying to get off the hook by associating this incident with Toyota. What we are really concerned with is this incident ever happeneing again. Fortuneately, the HHR was going slow enough when the right front of the bumper hit the pole that she was not hurt and the airbag did not deploy.

SmootHHR

Some crazy stuff! Glad to hear that she was unharmed and got it stopped...albeit by a tele pole. Never heard of anything like this with any Chevy product. Keep us posted if you would.

HillsdaleHHR

I had this happen to me in my first HHR. It was a result of the thick winter floor mat causing the gas pedal to become lodged stuck. Lucky for me, I was outside of town and no one was in front of me and I was able to figure it out in time. Don't know if that was the case with yours.

Check out my situation here: Warning for those with thick floor mats!!!

tireman1554

DAMN! Sounds like the HHR is built by Toyota now.

Don06

It's real easy to hit the brake and accelerator at the same time on the HHR. Owners with sticks must find this happening.

In the winter, if I wear a boot type shoe, I sometimes find my toe under the brake pedal.

Snoopy

Everybody is going to criticize me about this BUT,

I believe in the OP's story like I believe that pigs can fly (yeah I saw the pictures already).



Of course, it is his daughter TELLING HIM how the accident occurred

urbexHHR

I didn't think it was possible to turn the key to off while the car is in drive... I don't know though, I've never had the need to try it...

Greybeard999

With an auto, you're not supposed to be able to turn the key to off with it in drive.....



Glad everything worked out okay for the OP and daughter.....

hyperv6

I am not going to call BS here but My gut says human error. Many of these cases [not all] even Toyota are human error.

Just go out and stand on the gas and brake and you will find the HHR will stop. The 2.2 is not so strong to over come the brakes.

pitbull76

You can't turn it to off, but you can shut off the motor by turning it to the acc position.

As to the cause, It is hard to say what happened because we weren't there. I think part of what happens in some of these acceleration cases is people freak and just don't stand on the brake hard enough. In a stressful situation, you don't always have the time to think and react like you should so many times you make a mistake. Magazines have tested many cars recently and all can be stopped by the brakes even with the throttle stuck wide open but those folks were expecting it.