I have a 2004 PT with the Turbo. I rented a non-turbo unit once while on vacation, and the difference was quite noticeable, if not shocking. Mine has some good zip. The non-turbo was a brick.
I haul stuff all the time. Without adjusting the back seats at all, I can accommodate at least 8 grocery bags.
Mine’s an automatic. Much more convenient when driving in rush hour traffic.
Overall, I like it. I did have to replace the right fron wheel bearings, but that’s about it other than normal maintenance. It’s just over 70,000 miles now.
The turning radius is wide, no doubt. Getting used to the window buttons in the middle of the dash took a little while.
Mileage is pretty good on the highway when I don’t really get lead footed.
I drive a 2006 PT Cruiser Limited Edition. Not the best car I’ve ever owned, but certainly not the worst.
Performance is OK; steering is a little mushy, and I’d love it if the thing could accelerate with a bit more in the ‘balls’ department. It looks sharp, but doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of cargo space it looks like it should from the outside (although the rear seats both fold down and that helps a bit).
Tell you what; come across with $6,000.00 and you can drive it home…
In addition to all of the functional and reliability complains about the PT Cruiser upthread, I happen to know that its structural and stability capability in impact is very poor, one of the worst vehicles in current production. This is comfirmed by IIHS testing, which declared this vehicle to be “PT Cruiser Most Dangerous New Small Car In America”.
There are much better vehicles available that would meet the o.p.'s criteria, including the Subaru Forester and Toyota Matrix which are both safer and more practical. They lack the (dubious) cool factor of the PT Cruiser, but you won’t look too cool broken down on the side of the road or laid out on the morgue slab, either.
There are very few cars that everybody hates (some even liked their Yugos!), but consider this: hardly anyone with a Toyota or Honda hates it. So when you ask if the PT Cruiser is a good car, some say yes and some say no, but when you ask if a Toyota whatever (or Honda whatever) is a good car, almost everyone says yes. Chances are good you’d be happier with one of those than with the PT.
I’m thinking along the lines that for the same money, an older Toyota with more miles on it is still a better choice. I wouldn’t be surprised if it still lasted longer, cost less to maintain, and was more pleasant to use.
Well, I just bought a 2008 PT Cruiser, the Sunset Blvd edition with 5700 miles. Its only been a month, so I don’t know about the maintenance issues. Nothing so far anyway.
I kept my old 1996 Honda Civic DX, and I have to say the PT is way easier to get in and out of. The interior is much roomier and I’ve had no problem figuring out the dash and other options.
It takes a couple days to adjust, i.e. automatic window buttons over the radio in the center of the dash instead of those lovely manual hand cranks on the door.
Sitting up higher, so I’m not staring into everyone’s grill or undercarriage as I drive down the street.
The turn radius is wider than the honda, no making tight cornered turns anymore, but I haven’t noticed it being particullarily slow or pokey driving. It seems fine to me.
I guess if I was looking for a hot rod, I would have bought something else.
I like it, so far, and its very very pretty.
Like they say those, with these PT’s, either you love them or hate them.
My Neon was a first edition model; I understand they were cursed with a very serious cylinder head issue which caused it to consume oil excessively. In a similar vein, the first year edition had serious paint issues: paint would flake off in saucer sized pieces. I hope later models were improved but once bitten, twice shy would describe how I feel about them. I’m not even sure what year model it was, its been so long ago. 1990 maybe?