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PT Cruiser Review: Updated from the 2008 Archives
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Feb 4, 2025
We took this 2008 PT Cruiser review from our low-res archive and updated it for 2024, just 16 years later!
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0:01
[Applause]
0:03
my name is Dave and I'm going to be
0:04
guiding you through this 2008 PT Cruiser
0:06
that we have one of the last of the pts
0:09
possibly this one's an automatic it's
0:11
got the standard 2.4 L engine which is
0:14
all that you can get
0:16
now we're just going to go for a little
0:19
ride we started at dead cold it's about
0:21
freezing right now we're now on a
0:24
concrete road and we can feel that we're
0:26
on a concrete road but we're not being
0:27
bruised by it it does a pretty nice job
0:30
of
0:30
cushioning from the start it has very
0:32
comfortable
0:33
[Music]
0:36
pickup the engine gets a little bit loud
0:38
as we rev it when you're coasting it's
0:41
nice and quiet once you're already
0:43
moving there's sometimes a little bit of
0:44
a pause if the engine gets stuck in low
0:47
RPMs as the transmission downshifts
0:49
pretty quickly usually so that's not
0:51
much of an
0:52
issue the cornering is really
0:54
nice it handles much better than a car
0:57
of this size and shape really should
1:06
[Applause]
1:12
so you pull away nicely from the curb
1:14
it's noted exactly in sports car
1:16
territory and you can see that while you
1:18
get off to a pretty good start it really
1:20
likes to rev up over 4,000 RPM so if you
1:23
get a stick shift you can maximize that
1:26
the only real downside is the gas
1:29
mileage which which is not what you'd
1:31
expect from a car that's a little bit
1:32
smaller than a neon on the outside the
1:34
EPA says that we should be getting 19
1:36
City and about 25 Highway keeping in
1:39
mind that those are the 2008 numbers
1:42
which are a lot tougher than the 2007
1:45
numbers what we've been
1:48
getting including a trip into New York
1:50
City and a little bit of highway mileage
1:52
is
1:54
19.6 on this car whose engine is nowhere
1:56
near being broken
1:57
in so I suspect that EPA has this one
2:01
pretty nailed down that you don't hear
2:03
any Tire squealing which is just a
2:05
wonderful thing you can feel when you're
2:06
at the limits but you can't really hear
2:09
it as
2:10
much that's very nice because you don't
2:13
necessarily want people to stop and
2:14
stare at you particularly people wearing
2:17
blue uniforms with little silver
2:20
badges you plant your foot in it you get
2:22
a nice
2:24
downshift and off you
2:27
go there's a lot more sound insul
2:30
they I think try to do a little bit more
2:33
aerodynamically on the other hand when
2:35
you turn up the fan you can hear
2:37
it a lot more than you
2:40
could at the first
2:45
generation in some ways I like this a
2:47
little better than my PT Cruiser I like
2:49
the way that the seats the cloth seats
2:51
grip me when I go around turns in my own
2:54
I have to generally clamp onto the
2:57
armrest and I like the more compliant
3:00
suspension I like the way that it damps
3:02
out bumps a lot better than my car does
3:04
on the other hand mine does have one or
3:06
two advantages the main one being that
3:08
I've got the turbocharged engine which
3:10
is no longer
3:11
available and although the interior on
3:14
this one in some ways looks a lot nicer
3:16
particularly with the body color
3:18
panels the bigger gauges in other ways
3:22
mine has a brighter and aier feel
3:23
because the dashboard is smaller and I
3:26
like the air vents in my car better
3:28
because they direct the air more quietly
3:31
on the other hand this car starts at
3:33
$155,000 and that makes it almost a
3:35
bargain today and if if somebody asked
3:39
whether I'd recommend one I'd still have
3:40
to say yes I think it's still a good car
3:42
for the
3:45
money hi uh this is Dave and it's a few
3:49
years past 2008 sorry I didn't take
3:52
photos of the outside of the car like a
3:54
normal person would or a video of the
3:57
outside of the car which would have been
3:58
even better don't know why I didn't uh
4:01
but apparently I didn't I wanted to just
4:03
go back and say I really like the PT
4:06
Cruiser it was a comfortable quiet car
4:09
it was a lot smaller than a neon in its
4:12
footprint and it was huge inside in
4:14
terms of usable space it was really a
4:16
Triumph of packaging and it was really
4:19
incredible and for the money that they
4:21
spent developing it it was even more
4:23
incredible now people mocked the
4:26
acceleration although it was as good as
4:28
a Honda Civic EX so so just remember
4:30
that and people mocked the handling
4:33
although it was as good as a Honda Civic
4:35
EX which is the top of the Honda Civics
4:38
other than the SI which doesn't really
4:40
count and then people mocked it because
4:43
the fuel economy was bad and then when
4:45
GM made a vehicle that was just like it
4:48
guess what they had similar economy they
4:52
had similar acceleration that's just the
4:54
way it was when you made a car that size
4:57
that could get the safety ratings that
4:59
it sh from the nhtsa the PT Cruiser was
5:03
badmouthed a lot uh the people at
5:05
Daimler didn't like it because it was in
5:07
the works before they got there a lot of
5:09
designers didn't like it because they
5:11
didn't like the Retro thing the
5:12
throwback look uh and it was really
5:17
really popular when it came out and
5:19
things like that often don't age well I
5:21
mean think about the new Beetle a lot of
5:23
people crowded right from new Beatles
5:25
into PT Cruisers and then on to the next
5:27
big thing and just remember that the
5:29
next time that you think about plunking
5:31
down a few thousand extra on a next big
5:34
uh stylish car because in a couple years
5:37
it'll be the thing that people laugh at
5:39
but there are people who still have
5:41
their pts and who love them because they
5:43
are an amazing car they are one of the
5:45
easiest cars to park and yet they've got
5:47
tons of interior space and they feel
5:49
expensive inside uh PT cruiser.com if
5:53
you spell it with a z is still up that's
5:55
the old site that I set up I don't own
5:57
it anymore but it's still up there and
6:00
so far I haven't put anything about PT
6:02
Cruisers on motels.com but do visit
6:04
motals anyway because I cover most of
6:06
the other Mopars
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