Are PT Cruisers big in the US?

[Platypus]

ugh, that car is so unbelievably shitty it's unreal.

A coworker and I got sent last minute to Santa Monica a few years ago and the ONLY car that they had at the rental place we were told to book from was a fucking PT cruiser. Not only that.. but it was purple and a convertable to boot. This guy was a retired marine and a 'mans man' type of guy and he did not like cruising around Santa Monica one bit in that thing. I laughed pretty much constantly every time we had to use it.

 

[Bryophyte]

I only see older women driving them around here. Fifty to eighty years old, typically.

 

[DougK62]

You guys must live in a different USA than I do, because I travel fairly regularly for work and these things are all over the place in every city. Look around at every red light and you'll find at least one. Yeah, they're ugly and get bad gas mileage. But they're also reliable and can haul tons of stuff for as small as they are. I don't really see a reason to hate on them...

 

[Crusty]

Those cars have such a shitty turning radius, and yes if you see a PT Cruiser in Hawaii then you are looking at a tourist.

 

[BoomerD]

Huh maybe it's a rental car thing then.

Yep. They hold copious amounts of luggage for easy transport from the airport to hotel, get decent (although not great) gas mileage, and they're relatively cheap and plentiful. (for now)

Everytime we've been to Hawaii, we've seen them by the hundreds...and the Chevy HHR's as well.

 

[OutHouse]

very poplular with the rental car companies. i absolutely hate driving one. the other popular car that rental companies really like are the chevy HHR their version of the PT Cruiser. and i hate driving that one as well.

 

[slag]

Lame cars are quite fashionable.
See also: Mini Cooper.

Well now you are just talking out of your ass, as usual.

Having driven both cars, I can clearly state they are nowhere near the same class.

The mini cooper is anything but lame. it has great crash safety ratings, is a blast to drive, most agree its a nice looking car, and has good resale value.

Definitely not a lame car (and no, I don't own one).

 

[AMCRambler]

It's a retro design that looks like the old woody wagons that were made popular as the quintessential surf bum's car. Wouldn't surprise me if the rental car company's in Hawaii were trying to cash in on the whole beachy, surfer image by purchasing a bunch of these for rentals.

 

[oogabooga]

Well now you are just talking out of your ass, as usual.

Having driven both cars, I can clearly state they are nowhere near the same class.

The mini cooper is anything but lame. it has great crash safety ratings, is a blast to drive, most agree its a nice looking car, and has good resale value.

Definitely not a lame car (and no, I don't own one).

I thought the mini was lame.

Until I was actually in one. It us pretty large and roomy inside and it was actually pretty fast. I was pleasantly surprised and could understand now why someone would love that car.

 

[LtPage1]

They're one of the most unsafe cars you can buy.

 

[sswingle]

I just think its funny how Chrysler made the car thinking younger buyers would be buying them all, but all the old farts bought them instead.

 

[shortylickens]

I miss my cruiser. Nice car, horrible gas mileage. My Mighty Saturn is a horrible car with great gas mileage. Somewhere there is a happy median that I will find one day.

Toyota.





Ooops!

 

[shortylickens]

I just think its funny how Chrysler made the car thinking younger buyers would be buying them all, but all the old farts bought them instead.

This has been discussed a couple times in the Garage section and many times on other car forums.

You can NOT factory produce a hot rod.
Hot rods are what you get when individuals tweak their normal cars and put on sweet paint jobs.
The Prowler was an even better example of this fail concept.

 

[radioouman]

Well now you are just talking out of your ass, as usual.

Having driven both cars, I can clearly state they are nowhere near the same class.

The mini cooper is anything but lame. it has great crash safety ratings, is a blast to drive, most agree its a nice looking car, and has good resale value.

Definitely not a lame car (and no, I don't own one).

Do safety ratings make a car lame or not-lame? The Crown Victoria has excellent safety ratings but...

 

[KentState]

Didn't it win the C&D Top 10 and Motortrend CotY award? Funny how much of a fad it was back then.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

there seemed to be a lot of these in the hawaiian rental pools. hideous from the outside, pretty crap inside too IMO

 

[nerp]

This has been discussed a couple times in the Garage section and many times on other car forums.

You can NOT factory produce a hot rod.
Hot rods are what you get when individuals tweak their normal cars and put on sweet paint jobs.
The Prowler was an even better example of this fail concept.

The prowler was probably the most idiotic car ever built.

 

[alphatarget1]

It looked kind of nice when it first came out, but almost a decade later it still looks the same.

Chrysler = fail.

 

[thomsbrain]

You have to hand it to Chrysler for successfully finding a way to sell a gazillion more Neons to people after the Neon had already been branded as crap, without anyone realizing what they were getting. I imagine it was a very profitable car for Chrysler. Very low development costs, very low production costs, and big sales.

 

[shortylickens]

Well now you are just talking out of your ass, as usual.

Having driven both cars, I can clearly state they are nowhere near the same class.

The mini cooper is anything but lame. it has great crash safety ratings, is a blast to drive, most agree its a nice looking car, and has good resale value.

Definitely not a lame car (and no, I don't own one).

Yur cute. I like U.

 

[syee]

I seem to get one of these every time I rent from Avis in Denver. I must have really pissed someone off at the rental agency for them to rent this to me every single time.

I'd have to guess that 99% of these cars are rentals. I don't see how anyone in their right mind would buy this car. It's very basic, it's gutless and cheaply made. The only person I know who owns a PT Cruiser is one of my coworkers. He inherited it from his dad when he passed away. The only reason he's keeping it is because of the sentimental value of it.

 

[dawp]

This has been discussed a couple times in the Garage section and many times on other car forums.

You can NOT factory produce a hot rod.
Hot rods are what you get when individuals tweak their normal cars and put on sweet paint jobs.
The Prowler was an even better example of this fail concept.

I liked the prowler, but the engine sucked balls. If they had put a V8 in there or blown the hell out of the 6, turbo or supercharged, it could have been a decent car.

 

[shortylickens]

I liked the prowler, but the engine sucked balls. If they had put a V8 in there or blown the hell out of the 6, turbo or supercharged, it could have been a decent car.

That would at least make sense.
The Caterham is a silly little thing but when you join the interstate at 65 in two seconds no ones laughing.

 

[Fritzo]

PT Cruisers and HHRs- Keeping grandmas mobile in the 21st century

My wife bought an HHR a couple of years back, and she soon noticed that anyone else that drives one seems to be over the age of 60

 

[dfuze]

I do not like the style of them, but apparantly a lot of others do around here as I see them quite often.