SAN FRANCISCO – People weren’t looking. We’re used to seeing others craning their necks, giving us a thumbs up, nodding their heads, or even smiling in our direction when we drive a new car before it’s come to market. Maybe San Francisco wasn’t the best city, or Napa Valley the perfect region, for the first drive of the 2006 Chevrolet HHR, as we spent the better part of a day motoring along largely unnoticed. Maybe a small town in West Virginia, North Dakota, or Iowa – or some region in the back of the beyond – would have been better. After all, the Golden Gate city and its nearby wine country are populated with hip and trendy folks used to new-car parades snaking along the tarmac. Not only that, nearly every vintage and style of automobile crafted over the past 50 years putts or zooms down the local roads or ‘catches rays’ in farm fields. But, having come to this area for many new model introductions over the years, what stood out was that the all-new Chevy HHR didn’t stand out.

Built on the same small-car platform as the Chevrolet Cobalt, the 2006 HHR (Heritage High Roof) joins America’s booming market for crossovers of every size and stripe. Consumers are mad for car-based vehicles that blend the styling attributes and utility of SUVs, station wagons, minivans, and pickup trucks, thanks in part to a crossover’s higher vantage point for driving and usually available all-wheel-drive system. Borrowing its naming scheme from the Chevy SSR, a clever and attractive pickup that also pays homage to the past, the four-door, five-passenger HHR has been penned to honor the 1949 Chevy Suburban, a model that GM’s best-selling brand espouses as the first utility vehicle when the nameplate debuted in the mid-1930s.

Heritage aside, the retro-styled 2006 Chevrolet HHR looks a lot like the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a player that came to the party five years ago, and it wears practically the same outfit. In fact, the HHR’s dimensions are nearly the same, as well as the similar interior layout and seating positions. The likeness is not at all surprising since the same designer, Bryan Nesbitt, sketched both the PT and the HHR. Even though the “cute” factor is high (think panel or bread truck), the blocky Chevrolet is more masculine in appearance than the curvy Chrysler, thanks to its flat roofline and more angular detailing. Plus, by the end of our daylong ride and drive, we had to admit: There were some things we liked about the modestly priced HHR. But, a bold and important question loomed in our car guru brains: With Chrysler dealers giving away PT Cruisers, who will buy the essentially identical 2006 Chevrolet HHR?