Wednesday 12th November 2003

Chrysler PT Coupe

Classy modern vehicle or hideous offspring of PT Cruiser?

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The SEMA show in Las Vegas attracts all sorts of modified cars and the manufacturers aren't afraid of having a go themselves.

Chrysler are there with a number of concepts including a carbon fibre panelled Viper and this bizarre creation. It's a mutation of the PT Cruiser. The cruiser broke all the rules of modern jellymould design to come up with its unique retro-ish shape. Love it or hate it, at least they pushed the boundaries a little.

So what of the coupe? Ground breaking styling or unimaginative offspring?

[greg_d]

I think i am going to be sick!!!!

[FourWheelDrift]

It's a Tonka toy, surely?

[count duckula]

Who let the dogs out.

Malc

[GregE240]

Oh dear.

[bga]

that just looks plain stupid. Surely the designer was pushed under his CAD station and kicked by his colleagues after they saw that.

[RobDickinson]

And to think of the exeptional car designs being churned out by designers everywhere and end up staying on paper, and this gets made into metal?

[agent006]

Audi TT roof, with a2 rear end. Not lovely, but better than the original P'design copout'T

[ScoobyManchester]

[Tazfan]

Dare I say I like it?

[Stephen White]

I think that the fact that this thing exists, says a lot about the whole auto industry, and how it's gotten to the F**ked-up situation it's in today. The whole 'Car biz' shows the limits, for both good and ill, of "market-driven" systems.

[dejoux]

Wonder how much money they wasted on that?

[FourWheelDrift]

The "rear wing" is a bit optimistic.

[cortinaman]

the side profile from the rear of the front wing to the rear arch reminds me of a morris minor.

[nickwilcock]

What the PT Cruiser needs is a chopped version with a lowered roof, dark windows, fat tyres and a GREAT BIG YANKEE V8 going whoompah-whoompah under the hood. In metalflake candy apple red with chrome sidewinders and a hood scoop!

At the moment it looks a bit too much like an ancient Austin Ten!

[shadowninja]

A tall RX8?

[v8thunder]

I've got to hold my hands up to liking the PT cruiser for one simple reason - if you had 3 kids, and the choice was this, or some horrid mumsie MPV, what would it be?
Can't say I like the coupe, but I've seen some decent 'rodded examples with '50s-style chopped rooves, flame paint-jobs, billet wheels and chrome bumpers doing the rounds at the American shows, and they look cool, especially with a couple of surfboards on the roof.

[LuS1fer]

I like the PT Cruiser. I'd like it more if they stuck a Willys Coupe back end on it but this is VOMIT. It reminds me of the Paris-Dakar Citroens or a LandRover GT Coupe. Pointless, totally pointless.