The PT Cruiser is probably the worst car Chrysler ever manufactured, mechanically speaking. And that’s saying something because basically every car Chrysler ever manufactured was the worst one they ever manufactured, but the PT Cruiser surpasses them all as the absolute worst.
This isn’t a driveway, its a boneyard.
My dad was a mechanic his whole life. After he retired, he got a PT, and he absolutely loved it. The only thing I can think is that after a lifetime of driving “mechanic’s cars,” the PT was brilliant by comparison.
Hahaha, damn, that’s saying something.
And I grew up in a shop. You couldn’t give me a Chrysler product.
Thinking back, he drove a lot of Mopars. What I can immediately remember:
- 67 Plymouth Fury
- 70 Dodge Polara
- 69 Plymouth Valiant
- 78 Chrysler Cordoba
All of those were in really nice shape. The one non-Mopar I remember was a 78 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, rusty as hell, which he gave me when he bought the PT so I could take it to the dirt track. And that was shortly before he retired. That Caddy had the 425 V8 making a whopping 180HP when it was new.
Rich. Corinthian. Leather.
Ive been a mechanic for 11 years and you couldn’t even pay me to take one.
PT cruisers are the only cars I’ve ever seen pulled over because the engine was on fire.
Postal truck for me. That thing burned like you wouldn’t believe.
You’re omitting the neon.
Granted it was just the pt loser in a different body
There’s no way the convertible Sebring from that era isn’t worse.
The battery is under the left front headlight and requires removing the wheel and fender liner to change
And actually the OG K cars were pretty bad too. My grandma gave her Reliant to my younger brother when it was 15? Years old, but had less than 20,000 miles on it.
On the drive home all the paint peeled off the roof and the first big rain storm the ECU module melted down.
I had one and God it sucked. Constantly breaking and the engine bay was so small and compact that it was difficult to do any repair especially if you’re a big guy with big hands like me. I didn’t even have an old one, it was the last limited PT Cruiser made before they discontinued them.
I will admit, I liked when they had the wood style design, it was fun looking. But mechanically the trucks were bad. Like worse than the Dodge Caliber, shockingly.
The Caliber was the same engine lol and the subrames rot out of the calibers. You see more PT’s on the road now than you see Calibers.
I thought the motors and trans on them were fairly reliable if you did basic maintenance on them
Nah man, Dart has the worst title by a fucking long shot. The GT PT is pretty cool if you know what it is.
All but one PTC are donors.
i rented one once because it looked interesting on the outside, like a 1930’s delivery truck. inside all of the materials were of very poor quality and not put together well, everything inside was like poorly painted plastic and rattled even at low speeds. the engine didnt want to go, and the steering was poor. i still like the form factor, if it was much larger and built well.
What you’d really want is the Chevy HHR SS Panel.
thats cute too. but i really want a brubaker.
Both were designed by the same person interestingly enough.
Yeah these were just way way better cars
I think I’m stuck in the matrix. The open world suddenly spawned 7 of the same car.
The person with all these PTCs is doing the world a favor by putting out to pasture so they can die. This is what a hero looks like. It’s not pretty, but it’s who we need.
I’d love to know the backstory here.
PT Cruiser people are weird.
And/or older.
Young people buy them too.
They’re ridiculous. But it does happen.Oh, I believe it. They’re not great, but they are often a common handme down to the poorist relatives when an older member of the family dies, as well as just generally being cheap to get.
My little cousin got one because she loved how “cute” it looked
Coming from someone who’s dad has a PT Cruiser: yeah they’re weird
He buys one because the wife likes the look of it.
A few years later it needs some major repairs and he’s mad. He sees they now sell pretty cheaply used and buys a bunch to do the future repairs himself. Before you know it…
Or it’s a composite photo. Wouldn’t be hard to put a camera on a tripod and move the car around.
Ahhh, a composit photo makes sense.
I could also understand multiple cars for parts, but the identical color threw me. I’ve got a neighbor with a dozen miatas on his property at any given time. He races them and parts them out.
The pt cruiser handles surprisingly well. It’s not good just not awful. It also gets like 18 mi a gallon.
At low speeds. My grandfather has one (a really low milage one he inherited) and I’ve driven it a bit. It’s a small, cheap car that doesn’t get good milage at all (a 90s camry will get much better), but if you just want something to putter about in it works. Easy to park, cheap so you don’t have to worry about people messing with it, and pretty simply designed.
Lol, so will a late 90’s v6 Honda accord. Got like 22mpg with my lead foot.
I get 30+ highway and 25 combined average in my 2002 V6 Accord. In a 4 cylinder you can get 3-4 more to both
It has like 300K, I grew up in the thing, parents gave it to me and I drive it now. It was not even well taken care of lol
And yet… it won’t die
De gustibus some disputandum
PT Crusier was the first car (non exotic) I ever saw sold new with a “dealer markup” above MSRP. Curious, I sat in the back seat and it felt like I was sitting on a bag of sawdust.
