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Chrysler PT Cruiser (2005 and earlier)
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Regarding #53. Fish, when you're ready to buy consider a Toyota. The workmanship, reliability and resale value are all outstanding. As for Jeeps, Consumer Reports gave the Grand Jerokee its worst rating ever in the area of reliabilty. Chrysler can barely give the Grand Cherokees away at this point. They are selling for thousands under invoice and the dealerships are still over stocked with them. I actually considered buying a Grand Cherokee until I researched reliability in Consumer Reports.
And I have to agree, I'd prefer the Toyota myself, even though the PT Cruiser is pretty cool.
Back to the PT cruiser: One thing the PT has going for it is it's looks. Time will tell about it's durability.
2001 PT $17,960 plus tax & tag..in stock !!!
Pocahontas
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Hatchbacks/Station Wagons
I think DC is on the right track and look forward to many more miles in DC products.
Tom
Checked mileage this tank and got 22.6 mpg. I have the Limited with auto and ABS. There are very few things that I would change on this car. I find the power very adequate.
Wish list for future Cruisers:
Full electric driver seat with 2 position memory.
Wider stock rim so that I could put a wider set in the back for shows or special occasions.
Daytime running lights.
Automatic head lights. This is hard to get used to as my Chevy Silverados lights come on automatically.
Any other ideas?
Hey other owners lets get some reports on how things are going!
If you're in the Philadelphia area, you definately want to buy from Videon Chrysler in Newtown Square (Route 3). These guys do not bump-up the price, they're straight forward with you about wait times, and they give you a free 1,000 mile check-up and your first oil/filter change. As an aside, their service department is pretty swift, too. They had me in and out on schedule and in a flash, and when my Voyager was recently stolen and recovered, they arranged towing, and did a nice quick repair job that came in under the insurance company's reimbursement cost. Very professional. AND NO, I swear I don't work for these guys! 'Just a satisfied customer.
Has anyone noticed that oftentimes the rpm's go up to about 5000 before shifting to the next gear (perhaps this is one of the car's problems), or is this due to the weka engine (my only other complaint.....
Last question - I'm missing my storage drawar beneath the passenger seat- Is this standard or must I pay extra for this option (I can't imagine, but...)?
All said, I still love this car!
What I cant figure out is how do you get the rims that come standard on the touring edition on the Limited edition? I went in for an oil change last week and asked them if they knew how. The guy took me back to the terminal and we started entering an order and do not know how to add those rims?? They are the chrome rims just like the Limited but with the dimples at the end of the spokes. I have seen people selling their Limited rims on the net and they have the upgraded rims??
Steve
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thanks
golf12
To everyone- For more notes (monthly articles) on the PT Cruiser, don't forget to check out Edmunds long term road test of their 2001 PT Cruiser. Each month you'll find new information. Here's the review for September 2001. Look for other months/articles in the right hand column of the page. Hope this is helpful. Happy Motoring! ;-)
Revka
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Steve
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I had a ford like that many years ago and it was very difficult to figure out the problem. Finally the shop(I would rather give a wild cat an enema than deal with Ford) miked the shaft and found heavy scouring on the journals. The symptoms were: 1. Increasely poor gas milage 2. hard to start when engine was hot. 3. Batteries died frequently. 4. starter had to be changed often. 5. Tranny would shift weird with clunks.
4. As milaged increased engine power faded.
Ford laughed when I asked for a new engine!
The PT would be great with a 3 diamond Mitsy engine, like the old days. American Manufacturers
will not build good engines due to the "Screw the customer" approach of selling cars.
No thanks, I'll pass on the PT!
PS: I sold the ford to a poor smuck.
I am not sure where he is getting that Mistubishi engines would be better. All Hyundais older than 5 or 6 years had Mitsubishi engines, and we all know how reliable those Hyundais were (I think Hyundai started manufacturing their own engines in 1996).
Tom
Well, not to my surprise (as an ex and never to be again Chrysler owner), the thing is not very impressive. Very noisy engine! Seats are Ok, but felt very cramped. Owned a VW Golf TDI last year so I know what a small car can be like, but this thing feels very cramped in the drivers seat. Door closed on my kneecap. Can't see out the windshield, it's roof line is too low. Cost of Cool shape I guess. No doubt, it has an interesting look about it. But as has been said many times, if only Chrysler could build a car (or van) as well as Toyota, they'd kill the market.
Now, where's my 50 bucks!
The written word can certainly be misunderstood. Looks like I misread your posts then. When I read your (illini4) post, it read like you thought that the symptoms had occurred on a PT Cruiser ("The assertion that a typical PT Cruiser has a scoured crankshaft is preposterous."). In shellymeister2's post, "No PT Cruiser on the planet has the problem you have alluded to...", I took "the problem" to mean the symptoms he described for the Ford instead of "the PT engine crank binds and won't rev up properly."
After reading your response, and rereading the messages, I see that I made some incorrect assumptions when I read them originally. Sorry.
Tom
The engine is a bit noisy under accelleration, but the car cruises very quietly. It also has a very flexible interior and provides a tremendous amount of space for such a small car.
The controls are a bit eccentric and take getting used to, but do fall readily to hand. I will say that Chrysler did listen to the comments of the early buyers. Two of the big complaints of about the 2001 model year were the lack of a passenger seat armrest and the rear window controls. For 2002 an armrest was added to the passenger seat and a set of rear window controls was added to the front console, a second set still remains at the back of the floor console.
I'm sorry that you didn't like the car,
All things said, I love my 2002 Touring, I'm sure I would love it more if my wife would let me drive it. :-D
That said, I love my Inferno Red Touring Edition. I suspect I would love it more if my wife would let me drive it.
For the record, we do not own a PT, but was trying to find out if anyone else has seen this. And if not, to let you all know that this needs to be checked on your own vehicles just to be on the safe side.
Sue
Resale value appears to be in "Toyota/Honda" territory according to CR.
Autoweek magazine just finished a long term review on the PT Cruiser and the car got high marks for quality and reliability which is unheard on a DCX product.
Congratulations, PT Cruiser owners, you have one of the best cars out there...
Revka
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Hatchbacks / Station Wagons / Women's Auto Center Boards
All the early car reviews commented on how tightly the car seemed put together. That was also my impression based on 1.5 months of ownership. It's good to see that that initial impression is being upheld, a year down the road.
does anyone know when or if it will be available?
MSU
Revka
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Hatchbacks / Station Wagons / Women's Auto Center Boards
When I first drove the car (It is primarily my wifes car) I was bothered by two things. The first was reflections off the trim panel covering the passenger air bag, passing trees would reflect off the shiny panel and I would see movement out of my peripheral vision. I have gotten used to that. I was also troubled by a rattling sound from the passenger compartment. I discovered the source and Chrysler had nothing to do with it. My childs booster seat was rattling slightly when he wasn't riding in it.
Early reviews focused on two complaints, the lack of a passenger armrest and the odd placement of the rear window controls. By 2002 both were corrected with a duplicate set of rear window controls placed on the dash and the addition of a passenger armrest.
My interest is piqued in the PT Cruiser. Fitzgerald's (www.fitzmall.com) seems to have several on sale up to $300 below invoice. I am sort of curious as to how these cars can go from selling well over MSRP earlier in the year to under invoice now. Is it the case of production finally catching up with demand? Has the novelty worn off? Or is there some other story? By the way, the particular one I am looking at is a 5-speed 2002 basic model with power package for around $17K.
Would appreciate any comments.