My wife and I bought a new PT Cruiser(Touring) in July, 2003. We've had the car now for about 4,5 months and driven about 6400 km:s with it and are just as happy with it as we were on the day we bought it. You've all heard this before:

* cute looking car, styling a real masterpiece,
* functionality inside very good,
* good handling capabilities,
* practical seats that can be folded according to one's needs,
* seating position relatively high, good view of road,
* very comfortable to drive, sit in for long trips.

There are also things I'm not so happy about, but they are minor things like:

- petrol tank cap somewhat difficult to open/close sometimes,
- hand brake position a bit awkward, should be closer to driver,
- rear part of car gets very dirty in rainy/snowy weather.

One thing that was a pleasant surprise for me was the petrol/km rate. After having read a lot of critical comments on different web pages I decided to test it out myself. On a 1000 km return trip to another
part of Finland I received the following results (speed 80-100 km/hr, no AC on, winter tyres on):

* petrol consumption, pure motorway driving: 7 l/100 km
* petrol consumption: half motorway/half town: 9,2 l/100 km

It's also been interesting to see how different the pro:s and con:s can be in different countries. I've noticed that in the USA many people seem to get annoyed by things that don't have much importance over here, for instance:

* the window up/down switches are OK to me (I use them maybe 2 times a year)
* the motor noise, we can legally drive 80/100/120 km per hour on our roads,
so there's no motor noise to speak of, in fact I've never driven this silent a car before)
* acceleration is fast enough for me, with a 2.0 l engine and manual gearbox (why would anyone want a car with automatic gears, beats me?)

My wife, who maybe was even more enthusiastic about the car than I was when we actually bought it lists things she likes as follows

* the colour (metallic red), styling, interior design (e.g. hand rest)

Whenever I pick her up from work she always seems to get in a good mood when she lays her eyes on the car (so the "wow" factor still seems to work for her!).

The Bottom Line: People are different and therefore there are so many car makes and models to choose from.
Eventually everyone should find a car that fulfills their needs and wishes. We chose a car that looked harmonious, had a "soul" inside, has been just as practical and useful as we expected.
Congratulations, Chrysler, you have two satisfied customers in us!

Amount Paid (US$): noidea