I just had a nice road trip, from Seattle to Salem in our car, then from Salem to Monterey California in a PT Cruiser. I got plenty of driving time in the Cruiser, and here are some thoughts on the vehicle.
On the plus side: I love the compass and outside temp indicators. At one point, the outside temp read as 114F, which didn't seem likely. More often it was like this...
I also liked that it locked the doors once we got underway. Nice safety feature that I'm sure tons of cars have nowadays. As both our vehicles are over 10 years old, it's hard to know for sure.
On the bad side: The car has freakin' HUGE blind spots. Freeway driving wasn't too bad, but driving through a town was a hair-raising proposition. If a PT Cruiser cuts in front of you sometime, odds are the driver couldn't see you. Even doing head checks I often found I couldn't see what was next to me.
Also, the steering was oversensitive. Until I got used to it, I nearly drove off the road whenever I had to stay tight in a curve. Even once I was used to it, I found the steering immensely uncomfortable.
The car also had the tendency to want to go faster, but fully loaded with four people and their luggage for a nearly week-long trip, it was weak on power when climbing hills. Going downhill it was easy to hit 80 without realizing it (until you got into a tight curve and the steering sensitivity nearly took you off the road), but on some hills it couldn't get up to 40 and we were being passed by semis.
Not much leg room. Even when I'm skinny (which I haven't been in far too long) I have long legs. Trying to fit into a PT Cruiser was slightly claustrophobia inducing. My horrible back problems started up on the second day and still haven't let up. With four people in the car, there simply wasn't enough room for a long drive like ours.
Conclusion: it's a somewhat pretty car, but I have no intention of ever buying one.
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