Let’s Dig Deeper Into GM’s History To Make A Next-Generation Chevy HHR

You have to feel for certain well-known celebrities. Some of them are so intrinsically linked to certain parts of their career that they have no chance of escaping them. They’ve been typecast.

Take Matthew McConaughey for example. He’s an outstanding talent and winner of an Academy Award for his work, yet without fail any interviewer will ask the prolific actor to reprise lines from his breakout role in the film Dazed And Confused. Like it or not, Matthew probably knows that he could live to be 120 years old, and yet late-night television hosts are guaranteed to force an “alright alright alright” out of him.

The same might hold true for Bryan Nesbitt, the person recently tapped to take on the vaunted role of leading Global Design for General Motors: a position once held by legends such as Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell.

A thirty-year industry veteran, Bryan has had a hand in the design many nice-looking and innovative cars including the 2CV-inspired Chrysler CCV, the Buick Lucerne, the Pontiac G6 coupe, and the Saturn Aura to name just a few. However, none of those products seem to matter that much to many automotive websites, ours included. The headline of any article on Nesbitt will almost certainly refer to him as “the designer of the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Chevy HHR.”

Thanks to Nesbitt working on these two controversial cars (though not necessarily designing them entirely), the internet is abuzz with a lot of silly conjectures from the peanut gallery. Some are terrified that a new retro vehicle will appear again, while others like our own PT-and-HHR fangirl Mercedes Streeter have their fingers crossed that this revival scenario will indeed play out.

Personally, I’m down with another throwback product, but I’d like to see something other than a rehash of these two rides. There are far more products from GM’s illustrious history that could be reborn, and one iconic truck could be an ideal candidate for the treatment.

Turning Nostalgia Into Dollars

In the late nineties and early 2000s we started to see the rise of things that were both loved and despised in equal measure: reality television shows, movie “reboots,” and “retro” cars. The entertainment value of each was balanced out by critical lambasting for lack of creativity/lack of new ideas.

The Volkswagen New Beetle seemed to lead the charge in 1997, followed by the reborn Mini Coopers in 2001. While these cars were almost universally well-received, the American ones that followed met with decidedly mixed reactions. The 2002 two-seat Ford Thunderbird had little more to offer than a nostalgic appearance to those who remember the 1955-57 model. The V6 under the hood (and four-speed automatic) of the Plymouth Prowler caused many buyers to overlook its undeniable positive attributes. Chevy’s SSR convertible pickup came off as impractical and cartoonish to more than a few critics.

Chrysler’s 2001 PT Cruiser also polarized buyers. The general inspiration of Nesbitt’s creation was cars of the 1930s and 40s, particularly Chrysler’s 1934 Airflow. With a rather upright back and front drive mechanicals, the design didn’t compromise practicality for its style.

That “style” was dismissed by some as a rather lumpy and dumpy cash grab for boomers wanting something “cute.”

Still, the PT Cruiser did have plenty of fans and a loyal following. By the time production ceased in 2010, 1.35 million PT Cruisers had left the factory. That’s more than the New Beetle’s total numbers, even though the VW had a slightly longer production timeline.

The Chevy HHR debuted five years after the PT Cruiser; it was designed by Nesbitt (at least partially) as a modern interpretation of postwar trucks, in particular the 1947-55 Suburban “Carryall.”

More squared-off looking than the PT Cruiser, the HHR still seemed to be aimed at the same market as Chrysler’s retro ride.

Chrysler showed concepts of a “panel wagon” version of the PT Cruiser, but never actually built it. However, Chevy did have the guts to put a production version of the HHR panel wagon into showrooms.  There were actually two options: one that blocked off the rear quarter windows and one that filled in both quarter and back door glass. The latter of those had the outside door handles removed for a clean look.

Thanks to the less bulbous styling or whatever other reason, the HHR has never seemed to be the brunt of as many jokes as the Chrysler that Michael Scott drove a convertible version of. Naturally, Chrysler had a jump on the niche so the HHR never really stood a chance of approaching the PT Cruiser in the market; overall sales were about half of the Mopar competitor’s numbers when the HHR was discontinued in 2011. Still, 527,000 units produced is a pretty impressive figure for this throwback wagon. [Ed Note: And with the extremely-reliable 2.2-liter Ecotech and nice Getrag five-speed, these were known to run forever (I used to own one). -DT]. 

Now, nearly a quarter century after the beginning of the last Retro Boom, and with one of the key figures of the trend now in a position of power at GM, is the time ripe for the next craze?

Simplify And Add Lightness

You can’t please everyone, and sadly I don’t think I have it in me to make our own early-2000s retro car fan Mercedes Streeter happy by creating the new PT Cruiser or HHR she asked for. I’ve never met Bryan Nesbitt, but my guess is that he really wouldn’t want to dredge up his past, either.

If you type in “modern PT Cruiser” or “New HHR” into Google you’ll see that many Photoshoppers have already done this task and proved why it isn’t a good idea. They’ll throw on more current wheels, sharper body creases, modify the greenhouse and stick on thinner LED headlights in a way that Ford seems to have been doing with every new version of the Mustang since 2005. While I tend to bemoan this 1968-every-year continuum on the famous Pony Car, at least the modernization seems to work. The PT Cruiser and HHR, on the other hand, are far more difficult to do that with. Mess with the shape too much and it’s no longer a PT Cruiser or HHR; the more you “modernize” it the less “retro” it becomes.

Also, nostalgia is usually a moving target. Disco-era people in bell bottoms and “groovy” colors watched movies and television shows about the fifties, like American Graffiti. Decades later, we’re putting funky stripes in those colors from the seventies onto brand-new Broncos in a tribute to the Studio 54 years. Why should throwback cars still be seeking the same inspiration that they were in the early 2000s? Can’t we do “retro” with designs from later eras than the thirties and forties?

Let’s say that, much to the joy of the Mercedes Streeters of the world, GM does want to make a retro machine in the same vein as the HHR that Bryan Nesbitt contributed to in those years when cars still had CD players. The Chevy Equinox is probably the most likely candidate for an HHR-style treatment in today’s lineup. What could we do?

The Equinox represents Chevy’s most current aesthetic for virtually all of its crossover sport utilities, and to me it’s rather hard to tell them all apart without parking them side by side or getting a tape measure. Aesthetically, it’s typical of most products in the segment in that there’s A Lot Going On with the surfaces. Fifty years ago, you paid extra money to obtain a more gilded, busier-looking ride, yet today the opposite appears to be the case: you seemingly need to shell out big chunks of change to get a machine that’s free from this ornamentation. Why do I need to spend vast sums on the likes of a Range Rover or Porsche SUV to obtain a clean, unadulterated shape? How could this HHR “reboot” bring some GMT400-level purity to the everyperson-Chevy?

Well, one of the successors to the 1947 Chevy Suburban that the HHR was based on had such a pleasing utilitarian design. General Motor’s first generation of what would be known as the C/K line of trucks was introduced for 1960, and it was available in a number of body styles to complement the ubiquitous pickup versions. Once again, a Suburban Carryall “station wagon” variant was offered:

Unlike the 1940s machines that the PT Cruiser and HHR were based on, the 1960-66 C/K was from the next phase of American truck design where the pronounced, separate-looking fenders were gone. The “loaf of bread” form featured a recessed cavity that ran around the front and sides of the truck to break up the mass, and a low, thin, horizontal radiator opening visually did the inverse of what today’s “look-how-tall-I-am” blunt-front pickups do with their headlights mounted way up near the hood above massive grilles. Later iterations of this C/K Suburban lost the very fifties “wraparound” windshield for an ever better look:

This mid-century gem is one of those trucks you kind of forgot about; it’s been overshadowed by many of the C/K generations that followed, yet this version deserves some serious respect. It’s amazing how just adding a cool set of wheels and modern tires to properly fill the wheel wells immediately brings out the best of the shape on these workhorses, as on this criminally dope ’64 example below with virtually no other customization:

I’ve already done a bit of tribute to GM’s “Action Line” of 1968-72 C/K trucks with my JAM Big Timber, so why not use that truck’s underappreciated predecessor to inspire our next-generation HHR?

The Chevy CKR

To make our Chevy CKR (C/K Revisited), we’ll start by taking an Equinox and stripping it down to a more basic shape. Like the Gen 1 C/K, a concave cut will run down the sides just below the beltline and across the nose, with space for the turn signals. A low-mounted grille similar to the old 1960 truck draws your eye down to disguise the tall front end.

I’m not opposed to four doors pretending to be two doors; I just think a lot of them do it poorly. I’ve hidden the rear door handles in the split line of the rear quarter windows. The flatter roof terminates in a slight overhang similar to the original C/K. Forget the ever-present black-painted alloy wheels; we’re going with the simplicity and beauty of white stamped steelies with chrome trim rings (you can tell that I’m a big fan of Detroit Steel Wheels, just down the street from where I went to school).

Here’s an animation of the changes:

[Ed Note: Yikes, that nose! -DT]. 

The distinctive taillights of the old C/K are mimicked in back with a wide LED strip that terminates in points above the concave side cutouts. The “duck bill” extension over the rear window hides the wiper, and the Chevy logo is actually a handle to lift the rear glass (the tailgate below folds down) so that even the ornamentation serves a functional purpose.

Let’s see the transformation of the Equinox base:

You know we have to make a panel van version as well, right? Just like the HHR panel, there won’t be any rear door handles on the outside to kill the look of Jason’s company van (slogan: “Our Service Is Torcher”).

My CKR concept is really a rather unremarkable looking thing, but when you observe the animations of it over an Equinox you can see how the simple, purposeful appearance sort of  relegates the Equinox shown in exactly the same Forest Service Green to be almost a pure poseur. It’s like being at a child’s birthday party where you’ve just downed a bunch of sugary drinks and sheet cake and then grab a bottle of plain water: it just tastes so refreshing. Could the clean look help to increase the popularity and give us retro that won’t be the object of ridicule in ten years? Maybe less really is more.

We’re A Decade Away From A Retro Chevette

Look, with over a million and a half PT Cruisers and HHRs built there are still a bunch out there if you still want one. Love them or loathe them, they served their purpose well a quarter century ago in adding some extroverted character to the then-sterile world of economical cars. Today, we almost need our retromobiles to do the opposite and provide simpler forms.

I might not be as excited as Mercedes Streeter is about the distant possibility of a new PT Cruiser or HHR, but I certainly see reasons to be happy. Bryan Nesbitt has shown that he looks at the illustrious histories of the companies he works for, and we know that he’ll see some great examples of GM design like the legendary C/Ks for inspiration. Even if he doesn’t give PT Cruiser and HHR fans exactly what they think they want, the future is indeed looking bright.

I Used This Wooden Toy As Inspiration For A Real Pickup Truck Design, And It Looks Awesome – The Autopian

Here’s What A ’50s Nash Metropolitan Would’ve Looked Like In 1985 – The Autopian

How A Japanese Funky Car Builder Could Turn A Nissan Rogue And An Infiniti QX80 Into Amazing Retro Machines – The Autopian

The Chrysler K Car Was Bigger Than A Kei Car, But Not Much Bigger Than Our Mini-Based Mitsuoka Tribute – The Autopian