isaacm66

Hello everybody, I was thinking of taking a road trip on my HHR later this year. I am located in Floriday, and was thinking of maybe heading up to Washington D.C taking I-95 and then possibly come back down taking a more scenic route...possibly go down in the Carolina's using Blue Ridge Parkway which I hear as very nice scenary.

I was just wondering if anyone has taken there HHR on long road trips and would like to share their experiences. Both on the performance of the vehicle and any problems noticed in the long term trip and possibly any locations not recommended for our cars

Old Lar

I drive up and down I-95 from Florida to upstate NY, but I by pass DC.. Traffic there is just bad all the time. It may be ok if you have a GPS and can get around the traffic flow.

On the highway driving at the posted limits I can get 30+ mpg using regular in my 2.4L auto. Good gas stops at exit 3 in Georgia, Walterboro SC (exit 53) at Walmart or Manning SC (exit 119), a TA station.

I used to stop in Fayettevill NC (exit 49) for the end of the day. (Motel 6 or Super 8).

I end up getting off I-95 in Fredricksburg, Virginia exit 133 to by pass DC.

I have't taken many scenic routes on my trips north or south, but was thinking of stopping at the Luray Caverns in Virginia during one of the trips. This is off the Skyline Drive in Virginia, but on the west side of the state.

CarlsSS

I'm just dying to take another long road trip in my SS. I still think back to the first long trip I took thru the mountains in Wyoming and Montana with her. It was awesome! i never realized a little 2.0 turbo would be so killer!

Here is the thread I started while on the road back in 08. I had the car for about a month at that point. Still loving every minute of driving this car!

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/hhr-ss-45/great-mtn-car-14897/

ecl

I took mine on road trip about 5 months into owning it and it was flawless, and wouldnt hesitate to do again at any time. Im in northern Nevada and drove over to Mount Rushmore and then on to the Mall of America in Bloomington MN, and then back taken a different route that went through the rockies and up down the pass it was great nice and peppy to keep up on that long grade. Went roughly 4000 miles and went through 7 states. Would love to do again and evently will hopefully sooner rather than later, thinking about driving over to Florida.

87silver

Last summer I took my '08 HHR SS and 3 adults (total of 4 with driver) round trip from New York State to Cape Canaveral, Florida. We drove straight through both ways. About 1175 mi each way. Driving straight through may be tough for some, but because we guaged the time right, it put us going through Washington DC at about 12AM-1AM, which was a breeze.

The cargo area of the SS was loaded full. Under the load circumstances, the car performed flawlessly. Surprisingly, the preloads on the springs must have worked well, because there wasn't an extreme amount of rear sag like you see with some loaded down vehicles.

wolfman

I took mine on a trip from the DFW, TX. area to Aurora, CO. and back. I was quite happy withe the performance of the vehicle, as I logged just a hair under 40 mpg on the entire trip up, and saw my high tank of 42.5mpg on the return trip between Aurora, and Amarillo on the return. I had the car loaded to the max with miscellaneous stuff on the way home. One thing I found the need to rectify immediately was to get the front two windows tinted. Between the dark color of my HHR, and the summer heat through the side glass, I was getting baked despite the A/C. Getting the windows tinted made a huge difference.

twistrman

Slightly shorter trips here but I drive mine to Michigan all the time. One of the longer trips would be up to Mackinac island and back for a wedding. Heading back up to that area in a couple week to do some skiing, 7-8 hour drive each way.

The hhr does great though. It was loading with camping gear and formal wear on the way up last time. This time it will be every piece of equipment for the too many winter sports I do.

Looking forward to try out the new tires on a long drive too.

jx3

Tip for getting to DC on one tank of gas..........AmTrak Auto Train. Board in Sanford, next morning you are in Lorton, Va, only minutes from DC.

Comfortably Numb

I've been to Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, all through western Colorado and several times to Grand Junction and Cortez, CO as well as all around southeast Utah in mine. I'm leaving for Denver in the morning. The only issue I've had was paint coming off the rocker panels, the body shop told me it was because of water based paint, it's been figured out how to make it stick well to metal but plastic has not been figured out as well.

The Vegas trip was by far the longest and I took the long backway there and a fairly long way back. The Denver trip will be backways both directions.

I have no complaints about my car on the road. But I tend to drive slower than the majority of others and I don't expect the performance that most do even though the HHR accelerates faster and has a much higher top speed than my other vehicle with less than half as big of a motor. Everyone has different expectations.

isaacm66

Cool, i never knew Amtrak did that. JX3 have you ever used the Auto Train? If yes, how was your experience?