{"id":241580,"date":"2023-04-15T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-15T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=241580"},"modified":"2023-04-15T12:01:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T16:01:01","slug":"the-rearview-mirror-the-chrysler-pt-cruiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2023\/04\/the-rearview-mirror-the-chrysler-pt-cruiser\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rearview Mirror: The Chrysler PT Cruiser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to remember just how popular the Chrysler PT Cruiser was after its introduction this week 23 years ago. As is typical of the latest automotive couture, customers paid above MSRP to buy one and dealers were short inventory for many months after its introduction.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sucker was hot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe PT Cruiser, which gets kind of hammered by a lot of people, really hit a spot. You know, we sold 1.3 million of those things,\u201d said\u00a0Tom Gale, former vice-president of Design for the Chrysler Corp.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>And we were always enjoying success as a company when we were maybe just a little bit different than some of the other guys, like shading a segment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as anyone who\u2019s shopped at Zara or H&M can attest, fast fashion quickly becomes yesterday\u2019s news. And so it was with the PT Cruiser. But to dump on it is to be shortsighted; it would even become\u00a0the subject of a song<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by Beach Boy Al Jardine. Everyone sang it praises \u2014 at least initially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser’s instrument panel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A mini minivan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Chrysler PT Cruiser\u2019s birth had its gestation with the success of the Chrysler minivan in the 1980s. As a follow up, the company sought to make an even smaller minivan. Dubbed the Z Body, designers started rendering modern tall wagon concepts, but nothing quite worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the Mitsubishi-developed the 1989 Eagle Summit was offered. Produced through 1996, it landed with a resounding thud.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brian Nesbitt’s PT Cruiser Concept sketch.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But company executives thought that there was still a market for such a vehicle, and Chrysler\u2019s Bob Lutz pushed for a retro-design solution, with most of the solutions running wide of the mark, being either too retro or too modern. But designer Brian Nesbitt finally hit on the right design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe PT Cruiser could have been for my taste a little bit more contemporary, but Bob and others obviously they had other thoughts,\u201d Gale said in an exclusive interview with TheDetroitBureau.com. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know, sometimes those things happen whether it’s what you’d like to see or not. But you know, all of those things play into it, and there are thousands of reasons why things turn out the way they do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It took some discussions, especially with chairman Bob Eaton, who wasn\u2019t convinced. American automakers never made money on small cars. But the vehicle\u2019s minimal development cost \u2014 $400 million \u2014 would ensure it made a profit, while its classification as a truck would help the company meet the EPA\u2019s Draconian fuel economy rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was approved, and went from sketch to clay model in a record eight weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chrysler trotted out any number of concepts that previewed the PT Cruiser, which was slated to go into production as a Plymouth as a follow up to the similarly retro Plymouth Prowler. But then a funny thing happened; Chrysler closed the Plymouth brand. The new vehicle would come to market as a Chrysler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A 2006 freshening proved less popular. A 2009 Chrysler PT Cruiser Limited shown. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The debut of something special<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When it debuted this week in 2000, the PT Cruiser was offered in Base, Touring and Limited trim powered by a 150-horsepower, 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine driving the front wheels through either a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic transmission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More power arrived in 2003 with the debut of the PT Cruiser GT, which benefitted from the extra muscle of a 215-hp turbocharged 2.4-liter 4, joined by a 180-hp version of the same engine the following year. It was optional in Touring and Limited models. Meanwhile, the GT saw its power jump to 230 horses.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2005, Chrysler launched the PT Cruiser Convertible, which a large basket handle hoop to reinforce the body structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chrysler PT Cruisers also got an updated instrument panel for 2006.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The changes didn\u2019t stop for 2006, when it received its only design update. The grille got shorter and headlights were restyled. The cabin received a makeover as well. But for some reason, the revisions weren\u2019t as widely loved, and sales started to decline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help stoke interest, there were any number of special edition models offered, such as the 2006 Street Cruiser Route 66 Edition and the 2007 Street Cruiser Pacific Coast Highway Edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The car would last through 2010, and Chrysler wouldn\u2019t replace it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it faced competition from a similar vehicle created for 2006 by General Motors. Dubbed the Chevrolet HHR, for Heritage High Roof, its design was based on an old Suburban. Unlike the PT Cruiser\u2019s Ford-like knockoff, few could relate to the HHR. It failed after five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the man who designed it? Brian Nesbitt \u00ad\u2014\u00a0proving that lightning never strikes twice in the same place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Popular, fashionable and uniquely individualistic, the 2000 Chrysler PT Cruiser was a surprise hit. TheDetroitBureau.com looks at the one model that best represents Detroit\u2019s brief fascination with retro design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13752,"featured_media":241574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[905,7,8,5,1608,1164,3541,2648,1347],"tags":[9750,4397,10538,10540,10539],"make":[46],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241580"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241675,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241580\/revisions\/241675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241580"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=241580"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=241580"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=241580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}