When you're working with a finite budget, finding a car that's packed with personality can be an enormous challenge. In most cases, you're relegated to mainstream (and very modest) style, bland performance and an overall panache-deficit.
It doesn't always have to be that way, of course. The Volkswagen New Beetle shrugged off convention with spectacular style when it arrived a few years back. (The New Beetle also happens to be a very good car.) Just last year, Chrysler rocked the affordable-car status quo with the daring PT Cruiser. Inspired by a show car called the Pronto, the PT Cruiser is stylistically very true to the outlandish original vision of a nouveau/retro tall sedan. When the car debuted as a 2001 model, people were paying well over sticker price just to get hold of a PT Cruiser. To say that the car was well received would be a massive understatement. While not everyone loves the PT Cruiser, it certainly has more than enough takers for Chrysler to further boost production in the Toluca, Mexico factory where they're built.
So is the PT Cruiser really any good, or is its appeal based on its style? Yes to both questions, actually. It's a fine-performing, affordable car with special qualities that make it particularly versatile. And it looks great and is fun to drive. Buy it for impetuous emotional reasons; you can be confident that it won't disappoint your practical side.
Author: Jeff Karr
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