LAS VEGAS, NV: Part of the way round the drive route on the Chrysler PT Cruiser press there's a parking spot on a promontory overlooking the Red Rocks area outside of town.
We've stopped to change drivers, share impressions, toss questions at the hovering DaimlerChrysler engineers, take some pictures and generally consider the new SUV-minivan-sedan-whatever.
But with a goodly number of the public in attendance, the time is taken up with other things. Everyone -- and I mean EVERYONE -- is all over the PT Cruiser, asking questions, admiring the vehicle's lines, peering through the glass, touching the fabric, asking questions, peering, touching, admiring and asking, asking, asking.
The four pre-production models of the car that will go on sale in March are swarmed by everyone who sees them, either at that stop or at any other opportunity. Even the couple in the Porsche Boxster pull over to look and touch and finally pronounce it "cool."
Well, not everyone is swarming the Cruiser. The couple who are driving the VW New Beetle are not charged up about it, since they are very clearly unhappy about their car being upstaged. But upstaged the Beetle certainly is, and soon enough it slinks away to the notice of absolutely no one except your faithful correspondent, whose job it is to watch things like the torch of automotive fashion being passed around.
Having that torch go from Beetle to Cruiser will be important news to the folks who want to have the trendiest auto, and there are lots of them.
But the really good news is for the folks who wouldn't mind having the trendiest auto as long as it's worth having for other reasons, since the PT Cruiser turns out to be a fine little vehicle.Specifically, it is fine entry in a segment that has previously not done too well in North America -- the mini-minivan, former and failed examples of which would include the Nissan Axxess and the Dodge Colt.
The marketing wizards at DaimlerChrysler will dispute this, of course, since they will try to convince you that the PT Cruiser is an envelope-shredder and a segment-buster.
What the PT Cruiser does bust is the design barrier, since the folks at Auburn Hills, Michigan, who created this thing have come up with an exact replica of a vehicle that never existed, though swarms of old car bores will insist it's a modern interpretation of the 1937 Ford Rotunda or something.
Along with milking the nostalgia market, the Cruiser design allows taps into the psyche of people who like futuristic style, since many people in clinics think this is one of the most cutting edge designs of all time. Cute trick, working both sides of that coin.None of this will matter to the person looking for a decent, useful vehicle that doesn't require the amputation of any limbs to pay for.
Though I was expecting the usefulness (it is a minivan), I was surprised that the PT Cruiser was decent, and here I am using the word as a synonym for "not bad." Following up on that point, it is fair to say that nothing about the PT Cruiser is bad.
Thanks to the relative distances of the vehicle's floor and roof to the ground, the Cruiser is easy to get into and out of.
For myself and the other media hacks who tried it, the seating position was also quite fine, since it was easy to get comfortable and stay comfortable while reaching the steering wheel and any of the control knobs.
And those control knobs felt good and solid and true, which you don't always get on a car that far ahead of production or sometimes ever with a car behind a Chrysler badge.
Best of all, the good feeling you get from looking at and sitting in the PT Cruiser continues when you actually start to drive it.
Since the shape of this car suggests something that many of them have souped up, the old car bores have been thinking that there will be something of the hotrod in the PT Cruiser. Well, as the DaimlerChrysler folks said over and over, we didn't call it a "cruiser" instead of a "hotrod" for no reason.
This is, after all, a truck-designated vehicle with a lot of commonality with Neon and a 2.4-litre inline-4 that delivers 150 horses at 5800 rpm and 162 pound-feet of torque at 4000.That's more than enough power to glide you around town running errands and drawing stares of envy and it will get you quickly beyond a doddling sport-ute on some two-lane or up an onramp and safely in front of a rumbling transport truck on the highway.
DC has shown off a GT iteration of the Cruiser at auto shows and that turbocharged version will probably be an easy aftermarket possibility not longer after the production model hits the streets, but there will be a significant price penalty for that.
The regular handling of PT Cruiser is surprisingly good, especially in a curve since the vehicle shows little tendency to lean, as such high-roofed vehicles traditionally do.
Thanks to MacPherson struts up front and a twist beam with trailing arms and a Watts link in back, the PT Cruiser goes where you point it with considerable ease, even when you're going at speeds that will draw the attention of any cop in any jurisdiction in North AmericaProduction cars will be available with an optional touring suspension (bigger tires, harsher settings, aluminum wheels) that delivers even better handling.
The one and only engine comes with a choice of transmissions -- a 5-speed manual that you grip a cueball shifter head to change, or a 4-speed automatic.
It's way cool to fondle that shifter head, but for real world driving the automatic is probably more useful. It's exceptionally smooth with this engine and almost never wrong-foots while slipping up and down the gear range as it responds to what you're doing.
Along with its funky look, the PT Cruiser is also heavy with pragmatism. That's obvious the moment you slip through the big doors into the big front seats or check out what's behind them. DaimlerChrysler has gone for maximum versatility here, with a rear split-fold seat that's easy to remove and a front passenger seat that also folds flat, for more carrying capacity.
There's also a multi-purpose storage rack just inside the Cruiser's tailgate, which changes to suit the driver's needs. Looking at this vehicle from the back, you see that it's about versatility, and you don't mind.
Prices have not been set as yet, but a cheque for $30,000 should cover all the PT Cruiser you could want, with taxes extra.
Chrysler PT Cruiser brings look-at-me styling to a segment that normally has no cachet whatsoever, while delivering exceptional utility and comfort. It will be an unqualified hit and rightly so. I'm already thinking it's the leading candidate for North American Car of the Year in 2001.
We've stopped to change drivers, share impressions, toss questions at the hovering DaimlerChrysler engineers, take some pictures and generally consider the new SUV-minivan-sedan-whatever.
But with a goodly number of the public in attendance, the time is taken up with other things. Everyone -- and I mean EVERYONE -- is all over the PT Cruiser, asking questions, admiring the vehicle's lines, peering through the glass, touching the fabric, asking questions, peering, touching, admiring and asking, asking, asking.
The four pre-production models of the car that will go on sale in March are swarmed by everyone who sees them, either at that stop or at any other opportunity. Even the couple in the Porsche Boxster pull over to look and touch and finally pronounce it "cool."
Well, not everyone is swarming the Cruiser. The couple who are driving the VW New Beetle are not charged up about it, since they are very clearly unhappy about their car being upstaged. But upstaged the Beetle certainly is, and soon enough it slinks away to the notice of absolutely no one except your faithful correspondent, whose job it is to watch things like the torch of automotive fashion being passed around.
Having that torch go from Beetle to Cruiser will be important news to the folks who want to have the trendiest auto, and there are lots of them.
But the really good news is for the folks who wouldn't mind having the trendiest auto as long as it's worth having for other reasons, since the PT Cruiser turns out to be a fine little vehicle.Specifically, it is fine entry in a segment that has previously not done too well in North America -- the mini-minivan, former and failed examples of which would include the Nissan Axxess and the Dodge Colt.
The marketing wizards at DaimlerChrysler will dispute this, of course, since they will try to convince you that the PT Cruiser is an envelope-shredder and a segment-buster.
What the PT Cruiser does bust is the design barrier, since the folks at Auburn Hills, Michigan, who created this thing have come up with an exact replica of a vehicle that never existed, though swarms of old car bores will insist it's a modern interpretation of the 1937 Ford Rotunda or something.
Along with milking the nostalgia market, the Cruiser design allows taps into the psyche of people who like futuristic style, since many people in clinics think this is one of the most cutting edge designs of all time. Cute trick, working both sides of that coin.None of this will matter to the person looking for a decent, useful vehicle that doesn't require the amputation of any limbs to pay for.
Though I was expecting the usefulness (it is a minivan), I was surprised that the PT Cruiser was decent, and here I am using the word as a synonym for "not bad." Following up on that point, it is fair to say that nothing about the PT Cruiser is bad.
Thanks to the relative distances of the vehicle's floor and roof to the ground, the Cruiser is easy to get into and out of.
For myself and the other media hacks who tried it, the seating position was also quite fine, since it was easy to get comfortable and stay comfortable while reaching the steering wheel and any of the control knobs.
And those control knobs felt good and solid and true, which you don't always get on a car that far ahead of production or sometimes ever with a car behind a Chrysler badge.
Best of all, the good feeling you get from looking at and sitting in the PT Cruiser continues when you actually start to drive it.
Since the shape of this car suggests something that many of them have souped up, the old car bores have been thinking that there will be something of the hotrod in the PT Cruiser. Well, as the DaimlerChrysler folks said over and over, we didn't call it a "cruiser" instead of a "hotrod" for no reason.
This is, after all, a truck-designated vehicle with a lot of commonality with Neon and a 2.4-litre inline-4 that delivers 150 horses at 5800 rpm and 162 pound-feet of torque at 4000.That's more than enough power to glide you around town running errands and drawing stares of envy and it will get you quickly beyond a doddling sport-ute on some two-lane or up an onramp and safely in front of a rumbling transport truck on the highway.
DC has shown off a GT iteration of the Cruiser at auto shows and that turbocharged version will probably be an easy aftermarket possibility not longer after the production model hits the streets, but there will be a significant price penalty for that.
The regular handling of PT Cruiser is surprisingly good, especially in a curve since the vehicle shows little tendency to lean, as such high-roofed vehicles traditionally do.
Thanks to MacPherson struts up front and a twist beam with trailing arms and a Watts link in back, the PT Cruiser goes where you point it with considerable ease, even when you're going at speeds that will draw the attention of any cop in any jurisdiction in North AmericaProduction cars will be available with an optional touring suspension (bigger tires, harsher settings, aluminum wheels) that delivers even better handling.
The one and only engine comes with a choice of transmissions -- a 5-speed manual that you grip a cueball shifter head to change, or a 4-speed automatic.
It's way cool to fondle that shifter head, but for real world driving the automatic is probably more useful. It's exceptionally smooth with this engine and almost never wrong-foots while slipping up and down the gear range as it responds to what you're doing.
Along with its funky look, the PT Cruiser is also heavy with pragmatism. That's obvious the moment you slip through the big doors into the big front seats or check out what's behind them. DaimlerChrysler has gone for maximum versatility here, with a rear split-fold seat that's easy to remove and a front passenger seat that also folds flat, for more carrying capacity.
There's also a multi-purpose storage rack just inside the Cruiser's tailgate, which changes to suit the driver's needs. Looking at this vehicle from the back, you see that it's about versatility, and you don't mind.
Prices have not been set as yet, but a cheque for $30,000 should cover all the PT Cruiser you could want, with taxes extra.
Chrysler PT Cruiser brings look-at-me styling to a segment that normally has no cachet whatsoever, while delivering exceptional utility and comfort. It will be an unqualified hit and rightly so. I'm already thinking it's the leading candidate for North American Car of the Year in 2001.
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