The PT Cruiser is probably the worst car Chrysler ever manufactured, mechanically speaking. And that's saying something because basically every car Chrysler ever manufactured was the worst one they ever manufactured, but the PT Cruiser surpasses them all as the absolute worst.
My dad was a mechanic his whole life. After he retired, he got a PT, and he absolutely loved it. The only thing I can think is that after a lifetime of driving "mechanic's cars," the PT was brilliant by comparison.
Thinking back, he drove a lot of Mopars. What I can immediately remember:
67 Plymouth Fury
70 Dodge Polara
69 Plymouth Valiant
78 Chrysler Cordoba
All of those were in really nice shape. The one non-Mopar I remember was a 78 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, rusty as hell, which he gave me when he bought the PT so I could take it to the dirt track. And that was shortly before he retired. That Caddy had the 425 V8 making a whopping 180HP when it was new.
There’s no way the convertible Sebring from that era isn’t worse.
The battery is under the left front headlight and requires removing the wheel and fender liner to change
And actually the OG K cars were pretty bad too. My grandma gave her Reliant to my younger brother when it was 15? Years old, but had less than 20,000 miles on it.
On the drive home all the paint peeled off the roof and the first big rain storm the ECU module melted down.
I had one and God it sucked. Constantly breaking and the engine bay was so small and compact that it was difficult to do any repair especially if you're a big guy with big hands like me. I didn't even have an old one, it was the last limited PT Cruiser made before they discontinued them.
I will admit, I liked when they had the wood style design, it was fun looking. But mechanically the trucks were bad. Like worse than the Dodge Caliber, shockingly.