Built in Mexico, RHD versions of the PT Cruiser will soon cease to be made. Good riddance? Don't know. Over 1.3 million of 'em have been built since 2000, and in the early years supply couldn't keep up with demand! I never realised they were so popular.
Not my cup of tea, but hats off to Chrysler for daring to be different. Perhaps this car was their success story of the decade?
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Had one of these as a hire car in the US in 08 - I was surprised to see them still in use this year. It proved a blameless little car over a couple of thousand miles - the only complaint was that a second suitcase had to be stowed on the back seat.
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i wonder why i always think PT means part time in my head?
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I say, I hope it isn't dead yet. I have one of these and have been much teased for it by Certain Elements who Richly Deserve to be Nameless.
It's a very early (2000) 2 litre that's only done 60,000 miles, sweet as a nut for one of these. I'm worried about its cambelt but on time, not mileage. It's due a major going over before we go to France mid-May. If I wasn't homeless and essentially doing skippers at the moment I would do all the routine stuff - oil, filters, brake fluid, plugs - myself and might go for the 'performance' options in particular a K&N air filter which probably really does make a difference... every little helps with a not-very-economical non-driver's limo. In fact I'm tempted to go up by my nice car-freak BiL in Neasden if he's in the mood and do it all there. That way I can leave the real heavy stuff to my very good indy down behind where I used to live: essentially the cambelt, and I do believe some suspension bushes especially at the back end where there's an occasional rattle. One can get sets of polyurethane bushes and the non-repairable locating rod widget at the back online.
It's not a bad motor really. Seems pretty reliable and can do the work.
I wonder if PU's hire job had a full-sized spare in the boot instead of a carp skinny job underneath like mine? It's true the boot's not like a Merc or Bentley one but it'll hold two big suitcases plus the odd squashy bag and small object. But it won't with a proper spare in there. I want to get one.
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>> I say I hope it isn't dead yet. I have one of these and have
>> been much teased for it by Certain Elements who Richly Deserve to be Nameless.
That would be me then. The nameless one.
I wouldnt say the PT was dead, more like dispatched by a bolt to put it out of its misery.
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but Zero all your posts add up to nothing
geddit
;-)
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Ah maybe my memory plays tricks - may have been we bought a third suitcase (2 dollars to the squid back then) to accommodate our plunder and it was that that went on the back seat !
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>> dispatched by a bolt to put it out of its misery.
Does the name Chigurh ring a bell Zero?
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If you mean "No country for old men" - yes it does.
That film infuriated me, I threw my shoes at the TV screen in frustration at the ending.
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Perhaps the book is better. Very black though, and a bit potboilerish, perhaps intended to become a film script.
If you haven't read it I would recommend Blood Meridian. A great and terrible historical novel about an important era of US history, much glossed over: the genocide. Fanciful in McCarthy fashion and all the better for it, with a plausible character who seems to be, er... but I won't spoil it if you haven't read it.
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Read The Road by the same author AC. Having not seen the film I can only guess that the book is better - beautifully written with a twist at the end. Enjoyable - I shall now get Blood Meridian seeing as your last recommendation worked out so well.
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LHD production of the PT Cruiser is continuing for the foreseeable. It now has a 2.4l engine I gather. Will be a collector's classic in 10 years' time ;-)
Anyone remember the convertible version?!
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The guy who helped unscramble my brain after I lost Mrs P had a PT - he hated it with a vengeance, I often wondered who was counselling who at one point.
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A work colleague has a diesel on an 02 plate. Uses the 2.2 common rail diesel from the Mercedes C Class apparently, and he's racked up 100k with only a couple of minor niggles. He loves it.
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I quite like the look of them. At least there's one manufacturer prepared to make something different but still practical enough to be sold in reasonable numbers.
Wouldn't want one myself though!
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I roadtested one but decided on the Almera because I saw the PT as a marked car.
As in - the s/bags would be itching to mark it.
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I was rather drawn to them when they were launched because they were different. Maybe there is some ZZ Top in me. :->
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I still quite like them and I always 'look again' when I see one.
Ladydog luvs them but - she's guided by my Vulcan logic, you see.
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I quite like the way they look too. Not all retro pastiche designs come off, but this one does whatever Zero may think.
PU, my daughter gave me The Road when it first appeared. Took me a couple of years to work up the courage and optimism to read it, but of course I liked it when I did. Not my idea of the end of civilisation, so not too scary.
Blood Meridian is another matter though, downright terrifying about events 150 years ago and less, because they really occurred, on a big scale too. Cormac McCarthy is that rare thing, a great writer. There are quite a few good ones but not many of those.
And Dog, no one seems to take against it despite its flash demeanour. Actually I think the sort of people who might be resentful like that like the car too much to want to harm it.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 25 Apr 10 at 16:28
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> Not all retro pastiche designs come off, but this one does whatever Zero may think
It looks like someone designed it, screwed up the artwork and threw it in the bin, then someone pulled it out again to make it, but didnt smooth the paper out.
The problem is, it doesent look retro from the front head on view, the engine bay nose are too wide and screams "look at me - no compact V8 in here"
Too many compromises were made with the design to fit the available platform.
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I agree the snout is the worst bit Z. I don't see what's wrong with it not looking as if it has a V8 though. I much prefer a wolf in sheep's clothing to a sheep in wolf's clothing. But I agree this is a llama in llama's clothing.
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>> . I don't see what's wrong with
>> it not looking as if it has a V8 though.
Because the original hot rod concept was based on "look how much engine I have, take me on if you dare" they completely missed the point of hot rods.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 25 Apr 10 at 18:19
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Honestly Zero, the pastiche is of a smallish late forties American car, absolutely not of a hot rod.
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nope - you missed the point too. It was designed as the pastiche of a hot rod.
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Ovoids young man. I don't think you know what a hot rod is actually.
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I think a hod rod was a smallish late forties American car, into which was dropped a V8?
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I would be inclined to go along with the retro pastiche custom street rod way of thinking ~
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_rod
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>> I could be persuaded to live with one of these
Not me Dog. The monocoque's pretty floppy to start with. Of course if you're just going to waft around.... but you may have to hurry one day.
And think of your toerag neighbours with their Stanley cutters... shudder.
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>>> And think of your toerag neighbours with their Stanley cutters <<<
Yes! That is the trouble with ragtops - I had enough of the MGB in the ole kent rd. :)
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>> I think a hod rod was a smallish late forties American car, into which was dropped a V8?
A lot of smallish forties American cars came with smallish V8s in the first place Swiss. Hot rod culture is very diverse. But a stripped and lowered look, often with exposed and chromed engine, is usually to be seen with a genuine hot rod.
There is or was a Chrysler model designed to look like a hot rod, but I can't remember what it's called (not the hideous Crossfire, another thing). It's rare, I've only seen a couple. Wouldn't want one at all. Has separate outboard front wings and exposed suspension.
The Cruiser might I suppose be called a production car with street rod styling. One has to remember though that the aesthetic advances made by customisers making rods like the gorgeous Mercury in Dog's link were often used and adapted by Detroit stylists. For example the lights on the Cruiser being smeared round the corners instead of just being round units pointing fore and aft... there's hardly a medium-sized car in the world now without some variant of that.
Hot rods are usually startlingly crude devices that you wouldn't want to drive far.
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>> As in - the s/bags would be itching to mark it.
>>
Can I take that as a hit then?
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I think the hot rod that Mr. Coussine is alluding to above is the Plymouth Prowler?
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Thank you Nick, the very thing. But a production car so just hot rod-oid really. Not really marketed in Europe. Probably a V6 at best too.
Real hot rods are baroque looking and obviously tiring and a bit dangerous to drive fast on the road, but able to accelerate like jackabbits up to 140 or so. They aren't usually proper cars to tell the truth although one supposes some must be really terrific. But not many I think.
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>>> They aren't usually proper cars to tell the truth <<<
No, but street rods are - that's why they're called street rods (geddit) :)
I've tuned a few in my time, usually based on the Ford Prefect with the Rover V8 shoehorned in.
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Chrysler PT Cruiser - RIP! - R.P.
