Faults:

Each year, without fail, the battery goes completely dead in the summer. There is no warning whatsoever for this. For this reason, I have to have the vehicle towed to the dealership each time to have the battery replaced. The positioning of the battery under the engine requires that it be replaced by a professional. According to several professionals, there is nothing at all wrong with the alternator to cause this. Towing and labor costs are high, and the inconvenience of being stranded on the roadside is inevitable.

On two occasions, the dashboard lights have shut off during operation.

The adjustment knob for the headrest on the front passenger's seat broke within 30 days of purchase.

Three circular areas of paint peeled off the roof of the vehicle during a routine washing. These areas were about 1 1/2" in diameter.

The brakes are prone to squeaking. I have had it serviced several times for the squeaking. The adjustments are made, and the squeaking will cease for about a month.

General Comments:

Even with it's shortcomings, I do like the vehicle and consider it to have a lot of advantages.

The interior area is quite roomy. The versatility of being able to remove the rear seats, and fold the front passenger seat flat dramatically increase it's utility. I was able to move a love seat in the back of the vehicle.

The seating is comfortable enough for five people.

I am very please with the amount of cup holders in the vehicle. Also, the large cup holder is an added benefit.

The heating and air conditioning system is far superior to any vehicle I have ever owned. It warms up quickly in the winter, and cools down quickly in the summer.

On the other hand, the acceleration could be a lot better. I find it to be weak, especially in passing situations.

For the engine size, it should receive better gas mileage. It seems to average around 19 miles per gallon. At best, it may achieve around 21 miles per gallon on the highway.

The turning radius is large for a car of its size making U-turns and parallel parking quite a feat.

Faults:

Well I bought the first Cruiser that came out in Augest of 2000. It was the very first one, so I did pay about $30,000 for it, and it was the top of the line.

Things that have gone wrong with this car...

Well it was never really the car, but there has been a lot of recalls of course, I'm sure because it's the first one.

Well... In the winter of I think 2002, I was taking a left hand turn and it was very slippery out, and my car slid right into the curb breaking a chunk of the chrome rims off. When I took it in to get fixed and things, a new rim for this model was $750 just for one of them! So I got just an after market one for the two front wheels, and had that for a while.

Something that really bothered me was that the brake pedal started to go to the floor when I was stopping, and sometimes it would go to the floor and the car would not be stopping. I had to get it towed to the Chrysler dealer because I almost got in an accident because of this. This cost over $600 dollars to fix because somehow engine oil got in the brake fluid, and I think it was the dealers fault because no one at my house messed with the brakes in my car. The guy at the dealer said that if it started to pull to the left sharply, that the WHOLE ABS stystem would have to be replaced and he said it would cost "Thousands" of dollars to get it fixed.

There was something in the winter time that would get very very annoying, and that was the traction control. Every time I was moving or starting to go from a stop sign or light, it would turn on because of the front tires "slipping" and it would make this very annoying noise that was like a really weird loud clicking noise, and the "TRAC" light would flash. I know this is normal, but it just got to be very loud and annoying.

So just this year in February of 2005, I got in an accident with this car. It was snowing out and I was on the freeway going probably 35mph, and a kid came flying around me and he tried to cut in front of me, and his tires hit a rut of the snow between lanes, and it made him spin out. I saw him and then there was a Semi Truck coming on the freeway, and I had my foot on the brake and the ABS light came on, and the ABS was working for me, but it just didn't stop me in time. I hit the kid right on the bumper, and it smashed the whole side of my Cruiser, and bent the door and smashed the front side of the car, and my car flew into the ditch.

The accident turned out to be not my fault, but I know my PT Cruiser did all it could to not hit the car.

The most recent thing to go with it, was that the fog lights didn't work for a couple of years. I guess they did work, but "too" well because they would stay on when the car was shut off, and it ran down my battery. So we just took the fuse out and left it like that for a couple years, then I decided one day to put the fuse back in just to see if they would turn off, but they didn't. I noticed if you turned on the left blinker they would shut off, but then a couple days later it started smoking in the steering column, and it was smelling very bad and smoking a lot.

So I had to take it in to the dealer and get that fixed, and that cost $300 dollars just for the dang blinker and headlight controller thing.

General Comments:

So far I think this car has been a very good, mostly dependable vehicle. I think it has nice safety features like the ABS, traction control, side airbags, and so on.

This car does not get very good gas mileage though, only about 27 mpg freeway. It has good pick up though - I drove down to Missouri and I was passing people left and right. But if the air conditioner is on, it really does bog down the car and doesn't make it have as good pickup.

It is hard to drive in the rain and in the snow, because the tires spin very easily. But hey, I guess that's what the traction control is for.