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It gets 30 miles per gallon on the highway and two thumbs up for looks.

With its second-row seats raised, it carries five people and several pieces of luggage. With the seats lowered, it hauls enough supplies to take care of a family of five displaced by the winds and waters of Hurricane Katrina or by her equally vicious sister, Rita.

It accepts regular unleaded gasoline, and it doesn’t mind tight urban parking spaces. It’s made for the city.

Chevrolet calls it the HHR — the Heritage High Roof — in homage to the 1949 Chevrolet Suburban wagon and its 1936 predecessor, the Carryall-Suburban.

But that’s Chevrolet’s problem. Its marketers know product history, but they often demonstrate a lack of intelligence for marketing. Few automotive buyers in the United States today know or care anything about the Suburban’s wagon heritage. Most people think of it as a gargantuan, fuel-sucking sport-utility vehicle, which the HHR is not.

On the streets of the District of Columbia, at rest stops in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and at Harpers Ferry in West Virginia, people crowded around the little HHR and gave it kudos for being “hot” and “hip” and, as one D.C. dude praised it, “ready.” There’s your name. There’s your image. There’s your potential bestseller — the HHR/Hot, Hip and Ready.

Maybe Chevrolet is saving that appellation for the day it sticks a V-6 engine in the front-wheel-drive HHR, or when it adds all-wheel drive. Those things will happen, even if U.S. gasoline prices hit $5 a gallon for regular unleaded. People are funny. They complain about high pump prices; but if a vehicle lacks zip, it’s a product they’ll skip.

There is zip enough for normal drivers in the current versions of the HHR, sold as the base LS, mid-line 1LT and upscale 2LT. All of those models come with fuel-efficient inline four-cylinder engines, including a 2.2-liter, 16-valve, 143-horsepower inline four for the tested HHR 1LT, and a 2.4-liter, 172-hp version of that engine for the 2LT.

Valve technology is important here. Valves open and close to admit air and fuel into engine combustion chambers, where the mix is compressed and burned, thus producing the power to drive the vehicle’s wheels. Exhaust valves release the burned gases, which are further treated with catalytic converters to help reduce emissions before escaping into the atmosphere.

The more efficiently those valves work, the better the engine works, producing more power without using more gas. Four valves per cylinder generally do the job better than the traditional two valves per cylinder; and increasingly, over the past decade, car and truck manufacturers have been using the four-valve setup.

That is what General Motors has done with its Ecotec (short for Ecology Technology) 2.2-liter and 2.4-liter inline — the cylinders lined up in a straight row — four-cylinder engines used in the HHR.

I congratulate GM for taking that approach in a wagon that also can be used as a truck. It’s a risky but common-sense move in a market in which, despite continuing gas price shocks, many Americans labor under the illusion that they can hold onto cheap gasoline when consumers worldwide are demanding and using more of the stuff, and often are paying more for it than their American counterparts.

Americans crave power. It matters not that the HHR’s engines, as currently configured, offer more than enough zip for urban commuting and hauling. There remains a consumer lust — willingly and deftly exploited by every automobile manufacturer doing business in the United States — to hear those engines roar, to have them propel cars and trucks from 0 to 60 miles per hour in five seconds, which is about twice as fast as the HHR can make that run.

So, you can bank on GM boosting the power in pursuit of putting more money in its bank. But, for the moment, the four-cylinder machines do what they do exceptionally well. They haul people and their stuff in small-wagon safety and comfort with a lot of style at a very decent price.

2006 Chevrolet HHR

Downside: Power freaks complained that the tested HHR 1LT took too long, especially in hilly and mountainous country, to exceed posted speed limits. I was one of those complainants — until it dawned on me that state troopers in Virginia and West Virginia were willing to give me the same speeding tickets they were handing out to people in Porsches. And, funny thing, not one of those law enforcement officers seemed terribly interested in the HHR’s 0-to-60-mph time.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Good in all respects for normal drivers — people who drive at reasonable speeds, who want to save fuel and who want to get to where they are going in reasonable comfort and safety at reasonable cost.

Head-turning quotient: Two enthusiastic thumbs up. Of course, there were the inevitable comparisons to the retro PT Cruiser made by the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler Corp. But everyone who crawled in and out of the HHR said that it was bigger and more useful than the PT Cruiser, and every bit as cute.

Body style/layout: The HHR is a front-engine, front-wheel-drive, four-door wagon with a rear hatch that means it also can be used as a small truck. It shares basic underpinnings with the front-wheel-drive Chevrolet Cobalt sedan.

Engines/transmission: The HHR 1LT comes with a 2.2-liter, 16-valve, inline four-cylinder engine that develops 143 horsepower at 5,600 revolutions per minute and 150 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000 rpm. The HHR 2LT gets a 2.4-liter, 172-hp version of that engine. Both engines are linked to a standard five-speed manual transmission. A four-speed automatic is optional.

Cargo and fuel capacities: The HHR has seating for five people. Cargo capacity with second-row seats up is 23.8 cubic feet, and 63 cubic feet with those seats down. The HHR can be equipped to tow 1,000 pounds. Fuel capacity is 16.6 gallons of recommended regular unleaded.

Mileage: In the automatic HHR 1LT, I averaged 27 miles per gallon in highway travel. The five-speed manual offers better mileage . . . and a lower purchase price.

Safety: Standard anti-lock brakes and side air bags. I also recommend the optional OnStar emergency communications system for $695.

Price: Base price on the tested 2006 Chevrolet HHR 1LT is $16,425. Dealer’s invoice price on base model is $15,357. Price as tested is $18,790, including $1,800 in options and a $565 destination charge. Dealer’s price as tested is $17,506. Prices derived from Chevrolet and Edmunds.com.

Purse-strings note: Compare with Chrysler PT Cruiser. The HHR is a good value, a solid buy.