I always thought the HHR was a pretty quiet car on the interstate. Most of the highways in Florida have a paved surface and provide a pretty quiet ride compared to the minivan I used to drive. The wind noise is lower also.

However, last weekend I took a trip to Atlanta. Both I-75 and I-85 are mostly concrete surfaces. I had to turn the radio way up just to hear it and there was no carrying on a conversation. I really feel sorry for you guys who have to drive on concrete roads all the time. I feel your pain!

 

Concrete roads are noisy no matter what you drive.

When on vacation a few years ago, we had to travel on concrete highways for quite awhile.
Between the bumps and the noise, it was brutal.

 

except for this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovercraft

 

The concrete joints wear on you after a while too. Badump - Badump - Badump - Badump - Badump - Badump - Badump - Badump - Badump - Badump - Badump - Badump - ...

 

The best is driving on a freshly paved asphalt rd before they have chip sealed it. Its so smooth and quiet I wish they could just leave them like that

 

Around here the Dept. of Trans. has cut grooves in all concrete roads that run with the traffic, so when you are driving, your tires want to follow the cuts, which causes the car to "shimmy" back and forth. Very irritating. Also causes more road noise, and does not help with water drainage at all. we have a saying here that if something doesn't make sense, that's the way MODOT will fix it. And as is the case here, the "fix" usually makes things worse.

 

Those two roads are some of the worse. They are the main ones used for traveling to/from Florida. I-26 in SC is concrete and it is a lot better than I-85. Been years since I was on I-75.

 

I-10 in north Florida used to be like that. Then they put a layer of asphalt on top and now it's smooth sailing!

So, do you guys think the noise level is worse than other cars? As I stated earlier, the wind noise is much lower in my HHR compared to my minivan. That alone makes it a much more enjoyable ride!

 

Living in pa you get used to noisy roads. I'm pretty sure that we have the worst roads in the US. If you ever really wanna learn to enjoy your home state get on I-80 and drive from jersey to ohio, you will want to jump off the first bridge that you cross.

 

As long as we're talking roads.....

The worst I've ever seen (for major roads) is the 2 toll roads on Interstate 44, in Oklahoma......from OK C to Tulsa then Tulsa to the NE corner of the state. Man they rattle your teeth with expansion strips, cracks and cobbled repairs. And notice I said TOLL ROADS. Us travelers pay a handsome fee compaired to the locals.

Be interesting to see what the HHR does in about a week when I travel through.