Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Jake]

I'll go ahead and toss in a quick writeup. This is half-passenger/half-driver.

There I was, standing in the parking lot across from Showker, waiting for fellow MMers to arrive so we could go to the swankiest MM meeting ever - Justin and Casey's wedding. I hear a "meep meep" similar to the Road Runner, and look up to see Kyle and Julie waving from what is definitely not an STi or Civic. It was this:



A 2007ish PT Cruiser, with the "Touring" package.

I stood there in my classy attire, sipping my Starbucks, and Mike D'Amico and Aaron pull up in the SLK and honk to say hi. Kyle honks back, takes his hand off the horn, and the car is still honking. This went on for a good 15 seconds before the PT decided that sufficient greetings were had.

I wanted to put my gift to the Mr. and Mrs. in the back, and Kyle quickly stopped me. "Hang on... it doesn't open without the key." Whattttt? But it didn't. Something broke, obviously, in the 27k that this PT had.

We took off down 81. Well, "took off" in the kindest sense, as we were following Mark's Fox, and the PT doesn't have a whole lotta power to go around either. Kyle got it up to 75ish and there we were, 81 to 64 to a shit-ton of back roads. Gas mileage was horrendous. We were probably 30 miles into the trip - 5 people + A/C - and down by 1/4 tank. The backseat was decently comfortable, considering I shared it with two others. We all agreed by the end of the 2-hour ride that one cheek per person was numb.

So the wedding happened. I do, I do, kiss the bride, etc. :wink: Time to go home. I offered to drive and was given the key.

The driver's seat was easy enough to adjust. I was comfortable, which is not always the case (6' 1") in smaller cars. Steering wheel is huge. The radio, save for the Aux-In jack, is awful -- muddy sound even with "Treb" set to 9, which Chrysler thinks is close enough to 11, but sadly is not. The Cruise was easy to set, but it's on that Toyota-style stalk that sticks out from the wheel. I hit it a few times accidentally.



The gauges are nice at night. Trip computer under the tach was cool too - it showed a compass and the current radio setting (Aux), or average MPG. We got about 20 mpg on the trip. Some downhill parts (with CC on) let me push it to about 23 mpg.

It was a decent car to haul people and their stuff. We fit comfortably enough. Nothing overly spectacular, but it's becoming a stale design (even with that 2005ish refresh) and will need to be re-done soon anyway.