2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser Touring Edition from North America - Comments

Nothing has gone wrong with the car.

But since I bought it used, it needs a couple of things repaired.

The power mirror switch won't move the mirrors up or to the right.

When started in the morning, the engine doesn't idle fast and slowly drop down like normal, and has stalled in the morning twice.

I asked a mechanic about that problem and he said it sounds like the idle control sensor. No big deal, the car runs fine and I will fix it in time.

The adjustable shelf in the rear seems useless... but I think it's because it's missing a part at the end of the fold up leg.

The car is the most comfortable car I have ever owned.

The stereo is awesome and the speakers compliment it very well. But I will eventually put my Pioneer in since I like the button layout on it better.

I enjoy having the outside temperature and compass display.

The layout of the dash is great and I love the fact that the instrument panel and place above the glove box match the exterior paint job color.

The ride is very comfortable, it corners well for its size, and the brakes are great. I feel confident about the brakes on this car.

I really like the window controls on the dash. It took a little getting used to though.

Though the rear adjustable shelf is useless to me, I can store it directly behind the rear seats and have full trunk space when I need it.

I love the fact the passenger side seat folds down flat. More storage!

Gas mileage surprises me! I get better gas mileage in my PT Cruiser than I did in my Ford Focus. And my PT Cruiser has a slightly bigger motor and the body is much bigger.

I am the poster of this review.

I wanted to tell everyone who reads this how the PT Cruiser does in the mountains.

A couple of weeks ago me and a friend of mine drove to Yosemite National Park on 3/3/05. It is located about 5,000 plus feet above sea level and there is lots of climbing up and down on the hills of course.

The engine is gutless the higher you get and the steeper, but keep in mind if you have the 4 cylinder engine with no turbo, it's going to do that.

It helps a lot keeping the gear stick down in third instead of overdrive, it keeps the engine revving higher to keep up to speed, but a few times I needed to shift down to first gear as the hill was really steep and we were around 4,000 feet up. This was all done with the automatic transmission to all who may not be sure.

Yosemite has lots and lots and LOTS of twists and curves, my PT Cruiser didn't even break a sweat. There is definitely little body roll, cornering is very solid. To give you an idea how well it does, the curves have 25 MPH signs posted on them and I ended up doing 40 MPH around most of them since I wasn't used to driving up and down steep inclines.

I hope anyone and everyone who has or is looking for a PT Cruiser is helped out by my review and comment.

I enjoy every moment driving my PT Cruiser.

Buy one or two if you can!

I'm the original writer of this review.

I'm commenting again to update anyone on my experience with my PT Cruiser Touring Edition.

I now have over 60,000 miles on my car and it's running great, as it is to be expected.

The only things that I am needing to get replaced so far are the rear brakes, they're screeching badly, and the belt. I know it's about time for that.

As for anything else, there have been no other repairs or replacements needing to be done.

I am still enjoying every drive in my PT Cruiser and know I will be for years to come.

I have now owned my PT Cruiser Touring Edition for a year from 1/28/05 to 1/28/06.

I am still commuting to work, about 50 miles per day, and getting the same fuel mileage as when I purchased my PT Cruiser. I drive my tank down to half a tank and get about 180 to 200+ miles, depending on how my driving is from one tank to the next.

I will not give up my PT Cruiser for anything. Not now, and not ever. When this engine goes, another is getting put in its place. That's how much I love my car. I am down right picky and it takes quite a lot to make me happy with a car and I couldn't be happier.

Have you figured out the package shelf yet and have you realized

no parts are missing?

Yes. I have figured the cargo shelf out.

I felt like a dummy when I finally read the instructions and found out how to use it.

I am the original writer of this review, again.

I have hit just over 82,000 miles on my PT Cruiser Touring Edition.

At around 65,000 miles my trunk light has quit working.

At around 67,000 miles the thermostat destroyed itself.

When I replaced it, the thing came out in 4 pieces. Fortunately none of it went into the radiator.

It was a very inexpensive repair, done yourself. But will cost about $120 at Chrysler dealer to do it.

My only complaint is, it is so darn hard to get around in the little area 'cause I have big hands.

My suggestion that I will pass on that I read on Auto Zone's website is replace your thermostat every 2 or 3 years to prevent this from happening.

I didn't listen and it happened.

Also, I wish to let everyone know how well a PT Cruiser holds up in a fender bender.

On 12/13/06 I had a guy make a U-turn into the driver front fender and door of my PT Cruiser.

My car held up better than the '95 Toyota 4Runner. His radiator got punctured by his bumper. I believe he had front end damage already though.

My fender is dented as well as the door, which is also slightly sprung.

A word of wisdom. When the fender gets bent, it bends the splash guard towards the tire and it rubs. And also the way the fender and door are made the metal bent kinda weird, so I had to exit my car from the passenger side.

I was able to bend the fender back to where the guard doesn't rub the tire and I can open my door.

PT Cruisers are not cheap to fix. $2,015 to fix my car. Thank goodness for insurance.

Unlucky for the other guy, though. His vehicle was totalled out.

I am the owner of this PT Cruiser. I have an update.

About my trunk light. I got it working again. It seems the light bulb came loose and I just needed to get it to go back into the socket properly.

My PT Cruiser has over 90,000 miles now and I have never given it a tune-up. Bad idea. At 90,500 the spark plugs and wires gave out on me and it started to run terribly.

I could not go faster than 60 MPH without the engine bogging down and cutting out.

Took it to my local Chrysler dealer with a coupon on a discounted maintenance tune up.

After the discount for the tune up it was only $155. Not bad at all.

Now my PT Cruiser is running even better than when I first drove it home.

I do want to let all PT Cruiser owners know that it is wise to get a tune-up every 30,000 or so. I waited way too long and almost got left stranded.

If your engine starts to miss fire when you first start it up after sitting for awhile or has a rough start or starts to idle roughly and won't accelerate smoothly get it checked out as soon as you can.

These are all symptoms I had.

It took only ONE WEEK for my engine to show these signs and get to the point it would hardly run.

Have you changed the timing belt? When the timing belt goes out, it will damage the whole engine.

I am the poster of this review.

Just updating on my '03 PT Cruiser.

I now have over 102,000 miles and my PT is still running strong. I recently changed the coolant which was really easy to do fortunately.

Next on my list is the tranny fluid and getting the timing belt and serpentine belt replaced. Not looking forward to that expense, but if it saves me an engine I'll go for it.

I also want to note if anyone has a problem with pulsating lights while driving at night you might want to get the battery checked out. My battery was bad and I didn't even know it until one morning the engine almost didn't crank over. Once I replaced the battery, not only did the pulsating lights go away, but the engine runs much stronger and smoother at highway speeds. I think it was the alternator trying to keep the battery charged and was sucking power from the motor.

Please note that Wal-Mart will not replace the battery because it is too labor intensive. Apparently the air filter box has to be taken out to get the battery out which in all takes about 45 minutes.

I got lucky though since I work in the Tire & Lube Express at the Wal-Mart that installed my battery so the tech did it anyway.

OK. Never mind what I said above about Wal-Mart not being able to install the battery in a PT Cruiser. They can. It's just going to take a long time because the air box has to come off as well as a couple of other things.

Giving an update on my PT Cruiser.

I have nearly 108,000 miles on it now with no problems. Today 4/11/2008, I am doing some preventative maintenance. I am getting the timing belt, water pump and main drive belt replaced. The whole repair cost estimate is $558. Not a terrible price, it could be more, but it could be cheaper also.

My PT Cruiser is still in the shop and am just killing time for now. The maintenance is going to take about 5 hours.

I will update how things went and if the price changed on my next comment.

Here is the update on my post above.

It did not take 5 hours to get the work finished on my car. Instead it took the whole weekend because one of the tension pulleys' spring was broken and the mechanic had to order both tension pulleys mainly because it was better to replace both. That cost me an extra $127 for parts and whatever labor. And since the work I was getting done was on Friday, luckily no one had the part in locally to pick up so it had to be ordered which would take all weekend. yay.

I had to borrow my mom's car... which wasn't all bad. '92 Chevy Caprice in near mint condition with a 5.0 under the hood. Yeah. That car floats down the highway to work.

After I get my car back and pay the $685 it took to get everything done I take my car for its first drive with the new timing belt... it doesn't idle quite right and my A/C won't turn on.

I had to take it in the next day and have them check out the A/C. That was just a plug that came loose from somewhere and had to be plugged back in. As for the idle, the mechanic said the engine has to time itself back in because with the new timing belt it cannot be timed precisely.

It has been 2 weeks now and the idle is still off a bit.

If anyone could help me out with the honesty of the "Cannot time a new timing belt perfectly" would be really appreciated.

You can either comment to this or e-mail me at goodude26@att.net.

Another update:

I took my PT in to the shop to see what was going on with the idle. After only about an hour and a half the guys found there was some moisture under one of the spark plugs and the moisture made its way down into the cylinder where it would arc when the plug fired, thus causing undesirable idle.

All they did was take the wire off and took the plug out, inspected everything and blew out and cleaned out the moisture and any other contaminants on top of the engine. Now the idle is better, but still not as good as before the job was done. But it is better; all I want to know is there is nothing wrong with my car.

On to the cause of the moisture.

Everyone here who has a PT Cruiser knows that there is a nut very close to the oil cap AND the washer fluid reservoir is in an awkward place on the passenger side. When I got my oil changed after my timing belt was replaced, the guys that changed the oil spilled some oil onto the top of the motor and it settled into the hole where the nut is. And when they filled the washer fluid, when they pulled the filler hose over the engine they must have squirted some on the engine by mistake and didn't clean it up well. That is the only way I can think of this happening because I don't use green coolant but the washer fluid they use is green.

Be sure to check things out when you get your oil changed. Otherwise you might end up with a similar problem to what I had.

Okay, another update.

I replaced the front brakes and rotors on my PT Cruiser.

The original brake pads did not cover the entire surface of the rotors so they made a wonderful groove in them so I had to replace the rotors too.

The parts I purchased are Raysbestos. Rotors were just over $100 for the pair and the brake pads were $65 for the set.

I still have an intermittent problem with the drum brakes squeaking and squealing. I checked them myself and they are still good. Oh well, drum brakes suck anyway.