I recently visited Houston, Texas, and needed to rent a car. I was surprised to see the PT Cruiser as one of the lowest priced rentals (at Thrifty) in the area. So, since I was curious about this car, I decided to check one out.
Exterior:
Okay, this is the part that gets most people. It is getting a little old, and also getting copied (see the Chevy HHR) but it is still a pretty good look. My rental came in a nice shade of silver, and I have to say it was a really nice looking car. The retro look is pretty cool, and if you buy this car just for the looks, you cannot lose there. I cannot wait to see what they do with a next generation, however.
Getting into the car is easy, no matter what door you chose. I have heard complaints that the hatch could use a remote release, but in the model I drove, there is a release in the hatch itself. All you have to do is unlock all the doors, and then hit the release in the hatch and you are in. It is the same as the ChryCo minivans.
My, what a big hatch it has. Bug enough to, say, move furniture. I only had one suitcase, so this car was overkill even with the privacy shelf in place. But with seats down and privacy shelf out of the way, this thing can do some serious hauling. Heck, why did I even get a motel room, I could have camped out back there.
Interior:
This is not a bad place to be. Like its sibling, the Dodge Neon (which I have also driven and reviewed on this site) it feels well put together. The cloth seats (grey on my car) were grippy and comfortable. The dash, with its retro styling, was pretty cool. The gear shift in the automatic is a chrome stick with plastic ball. The power window switches are in an odd, but nice place in-between vents high in the middle of the dash. The radio and HVAC controls are nicely placed below that. The gauges were a white background with green letters during the day, and green lights with dark background at night, and it worked well for me. This combo does not work with all cars (like the 㤌 Toyota Corolla I tested and reviewed on this site).
Speaking of the radio, like in the Neon, I like it. It has some nice sound, and pulls in the stations from far and wide. It can be loud, have a lot of bass, or go soft, and not skip a beat in sounding good.
Cruise control, like other ChryCo products I have driven recently, is pretty well put together. The controls are on a stalk sticking out behind the steering wheel to the bottom right when you are going straight. Up will set cruise and accelerate (2 mph at a time) and down will resume and decelerate (1mph at a time.) Pulling back on the stalk will cancel your cruise setting, and a button on the end of the stalk will turn it on and off. I like to drive with my hands, so a cruise control that reacts quickly to changes and keeps close to a speed once set. This cruise control fits the bill nicely. The only problem I saw was when resuming, sometimes it would overshoot the speed I had previously set by 5-10MPH before settling back down. Not good if the police are nearby. But overall the cruise control is very good in my book.
Engine/Handling:
I liked the engine in the Neon. It was a 2.0 liter 132hp inline 4, and this 2.4l 150hp inline 4 does well in this application. I do not think it will beat a lot of other cars from the stoplight, but it merges into traffic well, and cruises down the highway with little clatter. I did not get to aggressively drive this car, but for the driving I did, the suspension seemed smooth for a small car. It reminded me again of the Neon.
I did about 300 miles in this car, and I returned it with the empty tank light on. Fuel mileage should be about 338 miles for the whole 15 gallon tank (25mpg combined) so I am guessing I was right on that target. I used the AC most of the time, and did about 2/3 highway driving.
All in all, this is a really nice car. If you buy it for the looks, you will be happy with the entire package. If it were me, however, I would buy this car for the utility only. I would buy a Civic for all of its car goodness. And Toyota has the Matrix, which I have driven in the sportier model without review here, which with the base engine gets comparable or better mileage numbers, and has Toyota quality. The Chevy HHR might be nice, but I cannot say anything about it. But the PT Cruiser, with retro styling and overall good design will not do you wrong.
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