“First things first, but not necessarily in that order. – Dr. Who
Authors note: I kind of half thought about approaching my return to this series chronologically, like an old-time film serial, but to honest, that’s a discipline that doesn’t come easily if at all to my mind. I like to say that I was born with a wide-angle lens (a more acceptable way of terming Attention Deficit Disorder?) as I have a lot of disparate interests with no obvious connections, and it is extremely difficult for me to focus on a single objective (like deadlines, for example).
Chrysler turned out a lot of concept cars during the ‘90s, and looking back, a lot the design cues, if not the entire concepts, eventually became visible as production vehicles. One of the most notable, known mostly as the Pronto, became the PT Cruiser.
At the mention of the PT Cruiser, I am visualizing this scene from Animal House:
Nearing the turn of the century, I was just past 40 and newly divorced. I had totaled the 1987 Volkswagen Jetta (story to come) I had gotten out of the divorce, and in a hurry had purchased a barely used 1995 Dodge Neon with under ten thousand miles on the odometer. It was a surprisingly good car at a reasonable price (around $8,000) and still under factory warranty. Once I had service done at a local dealer, I got on their mailing list and was soon inundated with announcements and images of the soon-to-come PT Cruiser. Once they were introduced, I liked them. They looked like nothing else, except perhaps . . .
In my formative years I was an avid car model builder, and Revell had released a series of model kits named “Deal’s Wheels,” models designed to resemble the caricatures of actual cars as drawn by artist, Dave Deal. This is what the PT Cruiser looked like to me. A full sized “Deal’s Wheels” model.
It was just the right size for me. (With a few exceptions I’ve lived by the idea that it’s best to live large and drive small.) It was based pretty much on the Neon platform that I had recently been driving. (There’s another car in between, another story to come later.) With a significant difference! A writer named Mickey Kaus wrote a very good piece in Slate about what he accurately termed “Cartoon Cars,” focusing mainly on the Cruiser but also taking shots at the then-new VW Beetle and Ford Thunderbird, and he mentioned a quote from celebrated Italian stylist Giorgetto Giugiaro (too many cars to mention) regarding the future of autos. He had stated, “I think cars will have to be approximately 2.5 inches taller.”
While the Cruiser was three inches shorter than its stablemate Neon, it was eight inches taller. The difference in cabin comfort and usable space between those two cars was amazing, to say the least. Kaus was not at all happy about the styling, saying among other things, “I keep expecting Jessica Rabbit to emerge from the back seat.” “It’s a costume, not a car.” That stated, later in the review he had this to say. “Unfortunately, I liked the thing. Driving it, anyway. The steering feel is excellent, and the optional fat 50-series tires on my test car gave it substantial cornering power. Plus, when you’re in the PT Cruiser, you don’t have to look at it! The inside experience is as unpretentious and pleasant as the exterior appearance is ostentatious and annoying. You’re sitting straight up, getting the job done, happy in your work.”
If you were paying attention at the time, you might remember that the PT was a huge hit for Chrysler. A couple of people I knew had purchased them and paid dearly to be early adopters. I remember bringing my three young girls to a dealer to take a look at one in the showroom and getting a strange look from a woman there. It happened that she had just purchased that car and was not happy to see strangers trying it on for size.
I guess it was just as well that I was in no position to buy a new car at the time. I was working in Emergency Procedures Training for Trans World Airlines (TWA) which we often said should have been labeled FTTWA for, “Financially Troubled Trans World Airlines,” and while early in 2001 it was announced we had been purchased by American Airlines, part of this process included having to endure yet another chapter 11 bankruptcy, and then came September 11, 2001. A devastating day for all of us, but the bottom basically dropped out of the airline business.
As in any merger or acquisition, among the advantages, at least on paper, is that there are opportunities for instant savings by eliminating duplicate departments. People were being furloughed (just as many had been when Ozark had been purchased by TWA), but because the crews would have to be retrained we remained extremely busy. That is until we finished training the American Airlines flight attendants who would replace all of the TWA flight attendants. After 25 years, I was called into the VP’s office and told it was my last day.
Without going into too much detail, let’s just say by the spring of 2004 I was gainfully employed and ready to move on from the 1992 Toyota Corolla I had been driving. Demand had fallen to the point where I was able to get a great deal. A discounted price, along, with an interest free loan and a rebate. The sticker on the “Bright Seamist Green Pearl” Touring Edition was (I think) around $22,000. The discount and rebate brought it to around $17,000 and when I calculated in the interest-free loan, figuring in the future value of money in the equation, it came out to equate to a price under $14,000. Sometimes it pays to wait. In addition, the front and rear bumpers, once black on all trim levels, were now matched to the body color. A small but significant improvement.
I was, like Holly Martins in “The Third Man,” happy as a lark. It was the first new car I’d bought for myself in over 20 years. It was a bright color and very rare as it had been discontinued. (My future wife said she could understand why.) It had alloy wheels with 205/55-16 tires and the interior was very pleasant, a mixture of gray and chalk white, with exterior colored panels surrounding the instrument panel and facing the front passenger seat. It had a six CD changer and a moon roof. The seating position was upright and the visibility was excellent. This was also the first new car I had ever purchased with an automatic transmission, so while I missed the driving engagement necessary to shift a manual, I came to appreciate how much easier it was to drive in traffic. Two of my daughters took their driving part of their license exam with it.
Yes, it was relatively slow to accelerate, and for being so slow it should have gotten better mileage (averaged 23-25 mpg). But once you got to freeway speed it had more than enough power and was very stable.
The back seat was slightly higher than the front, which (along with the upright seating position) gave rear passengers a very open experience. And the space behind the rear seat was amazing. “But,” (as they say on the late-night television commercials) “that’s not all!” The rear seat backs could be folded down (separately, with one on the left and/or two on the right) or could be pushed forward down into the footwells. Or if need be, completely removed from the car. The front passenger seatback folded down as well. (And when combined with the rear seatbacks folded and the rear compartment tray moved to a lower position provided a level space that was eight feet long by at least two feet wide. It was how we brought our Christmas tree home for years, as there was still the left rear seat available for my wife to sit in on the way home.)
We live close to the Katy Bicycle Trail and was a common weekend activity to drive to Defiance, take the trail to Augusta and back, and drive back home. We never had to fool with racks, just folded the rear seats forward, removed the front bike wheels and we were good to go. My wife and I had never taken a driving trip, but now with our airline careers behind us, we planned a vacation to Deadwood and Keystone (home of Mount Rushmore) in South Dakota. The Cruiser was an exemplary road trip car.
Even by 2004, the novelty had not quite worn off. Not only would you see Cruisers at cars shows, there were clubs and PT Cruiser only exhibitions. Honestly one rarely saw any cars that had been modified (although I once did see a gold limited edition model that had been transformed to front engine/rear drive configuration using a Buick V6 and running gear); most were decorated as you might decorate your table at a trivia night. And just this week, among a collection of true classics, a Cruiser modified into a covered bed pickup, much like the Chevrolet SSR.
Our daughter volunteered to take our cat Chip for a week while we went to Florida. She lived in Columbia, Missouri (about 100 miles away). Chip was (and pretty much remains) a pretty cool cat, but never more cool than on that trip. I had belted his carrier on the passenger seat, and placed his litter box in the back. I dropped the single rear seat back on the left. After we got on the interstate I opened the carrier door. Ever curious, Chip rotated from looking out the front passenger window, sitting on the folded seatback and looking out the left rear passenger window, proceeding to the rear to use the litterbox, then peering out the rear window, and every now and then placing his front paws on the passenger or driver’s armrest and looking through the windshield.
I had only a few gripes about maintenance and reliability. First, it was easy to maintain. Yes, you had to remove the intake manifold to replace the plugs. But I don’t think I ever owned a car that was as easy when it came to changing oil. My old ramps were too steep to get the car on. So I just nailed a shorter section of a two by ten on top of a longer section, made two and just by driving on to those and lifting the car not quite four inches I could get under, remove the plug, remove the filter, let it drain while I did something else, then replace the filter and plug, fill it and move on. Twenty minutes of actual work.
It did require a new head gasket at around 130,000 miles, and it went through two steering racks. (I had never heard of a steering rack failure, but my Neon had to have the original replaced while under warranty.) The body held together very well, with only a few subcutaneous blisters appearing shortly before I sold it in 2017. So did the cloth, described by author Lee Child as “mouse fur” seats. (Truth be told, I’ve never been a fan of leather interior.) Since it had been garaged and presented very well, I had no shortage of prospective buyers when I placed it in Craigslist, even with mileage north of 170,000. However when a buyer requested a state inspection I discovered it needed a new catalytic converter. I was not going to do this myself, so I wound up selling it for $800 to someone who was willing to tackle the job.
All in all, it was a pleasant ownership experience. I never owned a more versatile car. A late friend of mine used to like to say that, “A multipurpose tool never does a single thing excellently.” But I have to say, unless you were drag racing, the PT Cruiser did a lot of things fairly or very well.
This reminds me that it has been a while since I’ve seen one of these, odd for a car that was produced up until 2010. Of course, I rarely leave the house anymore, so it’s been a while since I’ve seen many cars.
I just checked cars.com, and it is not my imagination – there are only 7 for sale within 50 miles of me, and they are all $3K or less at buy here pay here lots. These used to be everywhere.
Thanks for a great write up and congratulations on a good experience. The pt cruiser really was an amazing combination of packaging, style, and price, to the point that gm had to copy it with the hhr. They were much shorter than the neon and had much more space inside and as you mentioned were versatile. Chrysler managed to get the feds to classify it as a truck which I’m sure worked cafe miracles. They seem fairly durable if cursed with the typical chrysler problem of eventually needing an expensive repair and rather than get fixed like a honda or toyota, gets sold cheaply as you did or junked. To me the only thing I really disliked about these was the interiors were nauseatingly cheap. Overall. a solid hit for Chrysler even though for some reason some people hate them. This should have been updated and restyled like the beetle rather than give way to the caliber, which was awful in new and unprecedented ways and a much worse car.
FWIU the biggest problem caused by the retro design is engine access for repairs and service items like timing belt changes. I wonder if the survival rate would be higher if they gave it a deeper, clamshell hood.
At one time our motor pool consisted of the aforementioned Cruiser, my wife’s 2007 Mini Cooper Convertible, a Honda 1100 Shadow Aero and a 2002 Thunderbird. The overall build quality of the Cruiser was definitely better than the T-Bird, as was the interior. The Mini has turned out to be an excellent car (185,000 miles and still going strong) but the interior is nothing short of abysmal. It’s like they didn’t budget for it and had to use the cheapest available materials. The fabric on the driver’s seat began to fray a few years ago and many of the snap-in pieces in the cabin and trunk, such as the fusebox cover, have deformed over the years and no longer fit well. I thought the Cruiser interior was highly functional, and have always preferred the rotary dials for controlling the ventilation system (allowing the occupants to choose, for example, the ratio of air to the vents vs. the floor duct vs. the defroster outlets. I also like the instruments being set back into the panel, preventing my wife from keeping tabs on my speed.
These are still relatively common here, looking and sounding healthy.
What makes a good retro? Hard to define. The PT is good, and the new T-Bird and Fiat 500 are good. All others, including Chevy’s HHR, are wrong. The wrong ones seem more like nasty parodies, an in-your-face punishment to “neanderthals”.
“Revell had released a series of model kits named “Deal’s Wheels,” models designed to resemble the caricatures of actual cars as drawn by artist, Dave Deal. This is what the PT Cruiser looked like to me.”
Revell also did a model kit of the stock PT Cruiser, in both wagon and convertible forms. It has the early-style automatic shifter – no cueball, just a standard late-90s parts bin item – and a clutch pedal. Otherwise it’s a pretty good curbside snap kit although it’s plagued by those taillights molded in transparent-red rather than clear plastic which make it impossible to get the amber sections looking 100% right.
Since you mentioned it…..
An example of his caricature drawing.
And the Model.
TWA wasn’t the only one. Chrysler for many years until Daimler took over was often referred to in the media as “The financially troubled Chrysler Corporation.”
And after Daimler milked Chrysler of its cash reserves while saddling its cars with blocky, unattractive styling and austere, uninviting interiors, and then cast it off like an old dishrag, the same could be said again.
I used to think of DCX-era styling as being what Germans thought Americans wanted. And the interiors were like the aftermath of Benz’ people going on a sort of Rumspringa of cost-cutting.
Actually when Diamler-Benz bought Chrysler, Chrysler was in quite a role! The minivans were quite popular, the new pickups, LH cars, cloud cars and Neon were also quite successful as were the Jeeps. Chrysler had a significant amount of money in cash reserves and was considered the darling of the US auto industry. Under Daimler it all went down the toilet.
Morning, Neighbor!
Having zero experience with a PT, it was enjoyable to read about yours. About five years ago I learned of a guy here in our state capital who was collecting PTs, having somehow acquired several from New York after the hurricane hit there.
On the flip side, I do have experience traveling with a cat. Your experiences sound much more pleasant.
‘Travels With Cats’ could be a story unto itself. My sister’s Siamese hated car trips, and would sit and yowl as if on kitty Death Row for the entire trip.
My calico grew up in a barn on a dairy farm, and understood vehicles, machinery and their noises. A very chill traveling companion, nothing bothered her.
Yeah it totally depends on the cat. Sister’s all black mix turned into a hissing blender from hell once you got moving. My Himalayan was passable but he always wanted to be on the floor for some reason, so only out of the carrier once on the highway (he tried to jump into the pedal footwell once while I was in city traffic. Lesson learned). The family Cornish Rex was never fazed; we drove from Minneapolis to Tucson with him, nary a problem or peep.
I only had one trip with a cat, a shared ride with a friend and his cat.
That time the cat was belted in his carrier in the backseat. The journey from Brno, CZ to Nitra, SK is mostly highway, but since it tends to be jammed on Friday evenings (our case), one can skip the highway leading through the capital city and drive instead through windy roads in the forest. The cat was a good passenger for most of the time, but as we were driving through the windy roads, he started to meow loudly. Maybe it had something to do with me accidentally touching the USB cable and suddenly stopping the music, at least we thought that. So I reconnected Android Auto in order for the furry passenger to be happy. As the windy roads were gone and we were back on the highway, a thought came up:
Me: The last time I shared a ride this way, the driver said it always smells of some gas leak in here.
Matej (driver): Really? I have never thought of that.
*silence*
Matej: I think I can smell some kind of gas, you know.
Let’s just say our cat’s travel setup wasn’t as generous as RetroJerry had provided. So what the above-mentioned Chip could have done comfortably in the trunk-located litterbox, could our poor Buro only execute in his carrier. The windy roads taken in the fastest car in the universe – a silver Škoda Octavia Combi, my friend’s company car – were too much for him to handle. A stop on the first possible place had been done to recover the damage.
Shorter journey than I’d thought at first!
I unpacked “SK” as Saskatchewan at first before I realized you were talking about Slovakia.
I seriously recommend not traveling with a cat outside of its carrier. A while ago a highschool classmate of mine was traveling with a cat in his folk’s Chevy Suburban. Out of fear the cat jumped up on his shoulders and dug its claws into his neck. He lost control of the Suburban, and rolled it over in a ditch. Fortunately he was okay, I’m guessing the cat too. The Suburban was totaled.
Our vet of choice was 45 minutes away. Griffin would be quiet for about 20 minutes. Then came the yowl that mean ‘I’m gonna throw up” followed by several more yowls that steadily escalated in volume, then a ‘yurp, yurp, gaack’. We learned to put a towel in his carrier and some baby wipes to clean the carrier, although he would stay away from the dirty part of the carrier and well, cats are self-cleaning.
No personal experience with a PT. I see one now and then at our local BH,PHs, but rarely on the road. For a vehicle that was so popular and was still being made 11 years ago, that rarity is a bad sign.
What’s your 20?
I had a PT Cruiser as a rental for a weekend in 2009, and I quite liked it – mainly for the fact that it was just different in a good way. I’ve also had a few Dodge Calibers, and I have to agree with Savageatl – the PT was a much better car. A friend of ours has a Caliber, and he hasn’t been too happy with it over the last while. Back to the PT. Still a cool-looking car, and I wouldn’t mind one of the convertibles for a summer toy.
My compliments to whomever took the cat picture.
+1.
@ polistra; what about the current mustang. the challenger, the camaro, the audi tt, and the fj cruiser? The current mustang is pretty retro and I love it, as well as the challenger. The camaro is ugly and squashed. The audi tt is good looking (they still make it, I think!) I liked the fj cruiser.
We looked at the caliber when dad was looking for a new car in 2011. I can usually find something nice to say about a car, but this car failed on every level even by aunt Martha standards. It was cheap, flimsy, uncomfortable, and the cvt droned and was unresponsive. Just horrible at any price.
I did a double take, and then I realized that Chip was peering, not peeing, out the back window!
I once put 15 miles on a friend’s PT Cruiser. I didn’t care for it. Subjectively it seemed top-heavy, but my then daily driver (Audi 4000 quattro) was a tough act to follow in that regard. My friend owned the PT Cruiser for quite a few years and was happy with it.
I once had a Dodge Caliber rental for a couple of days and did not like it. When I needed a rental a few weeks later, I said, “Anything but the Caliber!” Around that time I read an online review of the Caliber that said in effect, “The Caliber is so mediocre that the upcoming Dodge Dart will have to be better.”
Great writeup — I definitely understand the appeal of PT Cruisers… though when they came out, I wasn’t much of a fan. I do wish I’d driven a PT at some point, because my experience with (rental) Neons was pretty poor. I wonder if the package, when wrapped in the PT body, would have been more appealing to me?
I really like that Seamist paint. It probably is my favorite on the PT. But even as PT Cruisers were so common, it was apparently a seldom-selected color.
The 2.4L I-4 in the PT Cruiser doesn’t feel strong off the line. It has to be revved to make torque. Once underway it is fine. RLPlaut did a COAL on his 2002 PT and said it accelerated as well as his Miata, maybe a smidgen better. But his was a five-speed manual car; the automatic saps power. Even the turbocharged PT has a bit of that tendency; though it comes on strong pretty quickly and has a broad torque band, it really sings at higher RPMs where it pulls like a V8 while drinking gas like one, too.
I can’t recall seeing that color, but it suits the car very well. As do the other somewhat “different” colors such as yellow, purple, etc.
I have not driven one either and didn’t have a very high opinion of them when new. I did however drive several Neons and generally enjoyed them. Nowadays the PT’s package holds more appeal although the herd is thinning rapidly likely due to uneconomic repair costs and difficult underhood access. On the plus side, for anyone who has one, it is currently very simple to find replacement and/or upgrade parts at practically any junkyard, especially body and interior pieces.
The seats in my Scout are from a 2005 PT Cruiser, purchased 6 years ago to replace the janky Shelby seats the PO had welded to the bases. Somebody in the Scout world did some investigating and found that they are direct bolt-in replacements. I bought a gray pair but I’ve got my eye out for a black cloth set. There are usually 8-10 to choose from in the local yard at any point; the trick is getting them before they get wet. They are an order of magnitude better than the stock buckets on long trips, although they are an inch or two higher off the floor.
Just today I saw a creme colored PT convertible. I always thought these were interesting looking cars, and came close to buying one once, though used. Even 15 years ago I could see that these were going to be a stylistic dead end so I couldn’t quite take the plunge, even on a used one.
A great write up-I test drove a PT Cruiser once and liked it but even with the rear seats removed it was simply too small for my use-I was showing dogs at the time and had an Alaskan Malamute. Simply not enough room for the dog and all the requisite equipment. I ended up buying a Plymouth Voyager.
Great COAL in a rare color that looks good on it.
My PT was a 2001 Limited with a manual. I bought it at 5 years old with 60,000 miles. Put 100,000 miles on it in 9 years. Traded it in 2017 for basically scrap price. It still ran great and was absolutely reliable; my last trip in it was 150 miles to hand it off to the dealer.
All the advantages of this vehicle that you mention are absolutely true. It was a roomy, comfortable car (the back seat was amazingly spacious), easy to configure to carry “stuff”, and overall pleasant to live with.
So, why will I likely never purchase another Chrysler (FCA? Stellantis?) vehicle? My experience with this, as well as with other Chrysler products (friends and family) has been less than great. My PT used oil when I got it, and used the same amount of oil at the end of my ownership; also lost coolant- never did figure out where it was going. ANYTHING that needed work called for a contortionist.
What went wrong? Power steering hose fracture, cam position sensor (x3), A/C leak, exhaust leaks, Rear suspension issues (Watts link x3), wheel bearings, tie rod ends, clutch slave cylinder, chrome-clad alloy wheels peeling…I could go on. Oh, and rust. Amazingly, with this laundry list of issues it always ran well (getting crappy fuel economy in the process) and never stranded me.
Bottom line: This car was cheaply made, using the cheapest parts they could penny-pinch out of their suppliers. (Stamped tie rod ends? Really?) Chrysler products do not age well here in the Rust Belt.
Cool to see a write up on these. My first car in HS was a former rental 2008 PT Cruiser. It had a badly repaired crash behind the bumper cover, but it was still new looking when I got it in 2010 with 50k miles. Drove that car through college and part of grad school for the next 8 years. Helped me move quite a few times with the sizeable cargo space described, though mine had a 10 inch subwoofer taking up a nice chunk of trunk (the round shape of it made it an awesome listening space for music).
I did Uber with it in the Bay area in California, sometimes getting 14mpg on the famous hills. But the size and reliability made it a great companion for that job, sometimes doing it for 10-12+ hours non-stop. It was interesting to see people make remarks about it, either for it being nicer than they expected, or just their first experience in one. For a while in the internet, the PT Cruiser didn’t have the best reputation (mainly looks wise), so it’s been cool to see it kind of change over the years.
My usual mpg was 18-20, best ever was 24 if I drove at the speed limit on the freeway, managing 360ish miles to a tank. The big tank was nice but the 4 speed was probably the biggest detractor for me. It drove well (3rd gear was good for passing) and I liked the hard hydraulic rack, but if it had had at least another gear, it would have improved the mpg to a passable level.
My only issue with it was AAA frying the computer during a battery change. After that it developed a problem where it shut down but that turned out to be just a broken battery terminal. By then I’d gotten a Fiat Abarth 500 (I seem to like FCA and retro looks lol), and gave it away to a family friend. It somehow died from overheating soon after, which is a true shame. The odometer didn’t work for a while due to the computer issue, so I never knew the true mileage but I want to say it was close to 200k with Ubering and CAs long highways. The silver paint still shined and the grey interior didn’t show its age either.
A great first car and one I will never complain about. I sometimes joke mine was built on a nice Wednesday, given how little issues it gave me. Not even the trans, which is something I hear about with these sometimes.
Someday I’d like to get one of the H.O. Turbos in manual, at least to try it.
Man, I wrote much more than I expected. Haven’t posted here in like 7 years lol. It’s cool to see quite a few of the OG names still around. Great to see this place still rocking. Hope to lurk less.
These are solidly in hoopty status in the northeast now. Well, mostly in junkyards, where one can find rows of all years, colors, body styles and trim levels.
They heavily populated rental fleets in my time working in that field, and between the folding seats, excellent space utilization and super-trick rear package tray, the utility of these impressed the heck out of me. The driving dynamics were never to my taste, and the fuel economy was a true letdown. IIRC our company purchased 50 or so 2007s in 2007 from Enterprise, all with less than 10k miles, some without cruise or keyless entry and some with heated leather and sunroofs (i.e. all over the map with options) for a standard price of $7500 each in one fleet buy. Kept them until around 20k miles and sold them on for a modest profit, plus the rental income earned while running them. Of course they were trouble-free at that age.
Most people I know recommend selling them on rather than tackling the timing belt. No shops even want to bother with it anymore. And most in the junkyard have no/very light visible damage.
I am another who has never so much as been inside of one of these, and appreciates the first-person experience. I am also another who likes the color.
As a PT owner I enjoyed and mostly agree with you comments about it. I bought mine used in 2013 with apx 45K mi, its a 2008, so it has the updated interior and exterior styling. Currently it is approaching 200K and Ive been weighing the choice of replacing it or doing required maintenance (replacing timing belt). I replaced the belt myself when it got near 100K mi, not a fun job, but can be done. Looking around online with something to replace the PT with Ive come up with NOTHING. The only thing on the market (new or used) that is close to being as practical and versatile is the Kia Soul. I don’t care for the boxy styling of the Soul at all and from what I understand it makes the slightly underpowered PT seem like a hotrod. In my almost 150K mi of ownership Ive had to make very few repairs outside or wear items like timing belt, brakes, and tires. Like you, I did have to replace a clogged catalytic converter, left front wheel bearing, and I had 2 cam sensors go bad (easiest job ever, right next to the battery on the end of the valve cover, done in 5min). At this point I’ve decided I would rather keep the PT than replace it with something else, I figure I can get at least another 100K out of it, even if I have to replace a transmission or engine I will still be ahead and won’t have a monthly payment.
Yeah, the styling is love it or hate it and it has its shortcomings but I’ve never owned a more useful or versatile car and doubt I ever will. Long Live the PT Cruiser.
I’ve never seen one in this color, it suits it well. I read a few articles from their debut–they were well reviewed for the most part. Slow, but solid, quiet, good steering and a quality feel. The midcycle refresh really did a number on it, making the interior look very cheap and removing the better styling touches from the exterior.
These were dirt cheap during their last year of production, with big, big discounts advertised to clear them off the lot. Unfortunate a redesign never occurred, I still think the originals are cool.
I had read all about these in the buff books for years before they were produced. I had one for weekend rental and drove it from San Luis Obispo to the Bay Area when my Chrysler minivan broke down. Overall I was impressed by the utility of the interior and how spacious it was. I was disappointed by the poor fuel economy and lack of power. I had driven an Olds Alero on a round trip from San Jose to Anaheim and back, cruising at 75 to 80 mph. and had achieved 28 mpg. That was a real surprise. The color of the featured car is amazing. It’s funny, as I get older I like lighter and brighter colors better. No more black cars for me.
When I had to pick a new lease car, I tried the then new PT Cruiser because I liked its out of the ordinary styling. It seemed practical too.
But then when I looked at it in the showroom I knew I could not live with that cheap interior. A big painted plastic dash and cheap looking material everywhere.
Went for a Renault Laguna instead. Had to order the optional “sports” seats though as these had a nice black fluffy cloth instead of the standard dreary grey flowerish cloth which reminded me of my grandmothers curtains.
Looking at the first years and final years of production of these are kind of emblamatic of the country as a whole: America pre-9/11, happy go lucky, exciting new product, optimistic. Final years: dour recession era, cost cut miserable old car sold mostly to fleets and then onto the bad-credit crowd. There’s a lot of the later cars in the junkyards right now, often in decent looking shape. Not sure what takes them off the road, I suspect the later cars have the problematic TIPM relay blocks, I’d like to think the engines/trans were well sorted by then but with poor QC and what all was going on at the time, who knows.
I was selling cars at a local Chrysler-Plymouth-Jeep dealer when these were launched. I cannot describe the demand for them and how people waited for over a year to take delivery.Most salespeople didn’t want to fool with prospects because the sale was so far in the future, so I volunteered to keep all customers updated on order status. As salespeople quit or got fired I would inherit any of the PT orders they had placed. A transport truck would roll up and often I had sold every one of the cars on it, so I have a very fond spot in my heart for them. They were the right car at the right time, and while I was never tempted to buy one myself I absolutely get the appeal. A limited with all the extras was around $20,000, and while it wasn’t exactly pretty it was distinctive. Buyers were all over the map, young and old, and the most varied trade ins I have ever seen.
For quite a few years, a PT Cruiser was the only Chrysler product I’d happily accept as a rental; they seemed several significant notches better than the others. The sightlines were excellent, the controls and displays were thoughtfully configured (I really liked that billiard-ball gearstick knob), and the driving experience was pleasantly livable.
I liked the placement of the window controls on the center stack, and while the placement of the rear controls in the rear of the console confused first time passengers I thought that too made sense (one less wire into the door). However, speaking of rentals, a friend of mine rented one on a vacation with his wife and two children when all of a sudden the rear windows opened and couldn’t be closed. Long story short, after a while they discovered that one of the children had moved an object on the floor and it had depressed the switches.
Strangely my “old German” father still has one. It has nice aftermarket matte black 12 spoke wheels and Continentals. A Yakima or such roof rack with bike setup, it looks rad. He’s fixed a number of Chrysler like odd problems and the usual problems as well, 20x,xxx miles. Because he’s a German he takes methodical care of it and only buys EOM everything. I can see how many end up in junk yard when mechanics throw their hands up and the car is only worth xxx and the bill is xxxx. The seating position is great with plenty of drop before the floor, even better than some trucks, reminded me of his old Astro seat position. The room behind the back seat is a big surprise as others have mentioned.
If I had plenty of storage space I might make a convertible PT cruiser part of my collection. Good deals on them right now. Seems like they would be a good candidate for a Tesla powertrain conversion kit at some point in the near future.
Apart from the cartoonish styling these were actually decent cars and the combination of striking looks and useful interior space meant a lot of PT Cruisers were work vehicles. With vinyl wrap or signage and occasional roof racks they filled the same niche as European car based vans for delivery and service work and doubled as advertising. When the Ford Transit Connect came to the US, early marketing material specifically mentioned the PT Cruiser and Scion xB as vehicles the Transit Connect replaced and cited the TC’s square shape and flat surfaces as a superior basis for vinyl wraps.
The only PT Cruiser in my neighborhood is suffering an ignominious old age under a coat of purple truck bed liner when it would have been much happier with pinstripes.
As a random thought I’d like to see a light colored PT Cruiser given a Japanese VIP style treatment with tinted windows, subtle pin strips and slightly lowered with large alloy wheels.