Cool rental car

I went down to LA for the SpikeTV videogame awards last Friday… more about that later. While I was there though I found the first rental car I actually LIKE. Crazy!
Generally I figure renting cars is a very handy way to remind myself of which cars not to buy. I’ve never had a rental car I enjoyed, although a few of the recent sedans have been coming close. This weekend Avis gave me a Chevy HHR. It’s a weird looking thing, PT Cruiser-sized but a little bit gangsta. Small, yet lots of room inside.

Dave and I performed a Cannonball Run-style dash across the city Friday night to get our VGA tickets and then get to the event on time. I didn’t think we were going to make it. We took the backroads at high speed in an attempt to avoid traffic – specifically Mulholland Drive, which winds around in the Hollywood Hills in dramatic fashion. The HHR held its own, with enough oomph under the hood to keep up with the Audi A6 in front of us, and good solid stability in the twisty turns. Barely any body roll, no back-end sliding, nothing. Pushing the HHR wasn’t exactly like zooming around in my IS300, but it felt good and was fun.
To top that it off, the HHR costs just a little over $20K fully loaded. That’s just crazy! It’s so nice to see an American car that is a joy to drive.