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One of the most serious consideration in the selection of a car was our Irish Wolfhound. He is not comfortable trying to sit on a car seat. He loved the 4' x 5' open area in the van where he could stretch out on the floor where the second row of seats had been removed. We considered small SUV's, minivans and small station wagons. However, once we drove the Turbo PT Cruiser, we were hooked. Power and handling were superior to the minivans and small SUV's and with the back seats folded down and tumbled forward there was a flat floor almost as large as Patrick had in the van. The PT Cruiser is a fairly small car (14' long) that is long on practicality. The original design concept was to blend the feel of a 1937 Ford, the technology and comforts of a modern car, and the interior space of a minivan. The versatility is demonstrated in the seat arrangement. In normal mode, there are bucket seats in the front and a two piece bench seat in the rear with room for three adults. A separate trunk is accessed by a large rear hatch that opens from the roof to the bumper. The each seat can be individually folded down or individually tumbled forward against the front seat backs to open up a large flat floor. The rear seats are easily removed to further expand the open space in the rear. The front passenger seat back folds forward to make a flat area over 8' long. We drove both the standard PT with a 5-speed manual transmission and the turbocharged GT model with the automatic transmission. We were very impressed with the GT and liked the idea of the automatic transmission since much of the time the car is driven around town. The automatic transmission in the GT has the Chrysler AutoStick feature which allows manual up shifts by pushing the shift lever toward the passenger seat and manual downshifts by pulling the shift lever toward the drivers seat. The computer does not let you do anything stupid like downshift where you would be exceeded the engine redline (maximum recommended engine speed) or run the engine past redline in a gear before shifting. The largest drawback to the automatic transmission is the need for a Remco Transmission Lube Pump to be able to tow the vehicle dingy style (all four wheels down). The Remco pump costs approximately $1,500 installed. The PT Cruiser with the 5-speed transmission can be towed four wheels down by adding the proper tow bar. Below are photos of our new PT Cruiser Turbo when it was new. The color is Almond Pearl Clearcoat. The photo with the open hatch shows the rear seats folded down and tumbled up against the back of the front seats. The rear shelf can be placed in 5 different positions, including a rear tailgate table.
page updated 09/19/2008 |
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