Chrysler PT Cruiser Cabrio : OPEN SEASON ON CRUISING

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Chrysler's PT Cruiser Cabrio Will Certainly Get You Noticed. Jonathan Crouch and Family Put It To The Test

Never mind the quality, the Chrysler PT Cruiser Cabrio will certainly allow you to feel the width of your exhibitionist streak. If the hard top car attracted a lot of attention, the drop top version will be a magnet for gawpers, rubberneckers and all manner of sundry droolers, dreamers and tyre kickers. If being stared at is anathema to you, look elsewhere.

Chrysler origionally put a tentative toe in the water with this model, importing a small number of left hand drive versions to test the market before committing to a full right hand drive production run. Despite our notoriously unpredictable maritime climate, Britain is Europes biggest Cabrio market and we buy more soft tops here than the combined marklets of Italy and Spain. If the PT Cruiser Cabrio couldnt sell here, there would be no hope for it but, fortunately, it did rather well. As a result, UK buyers can now get the car in right hand drive form, the latest models getting the slightly revised styling and welcome revised dashboard applied to the five-door PT Range.

The car is being promoted on the basis that it offers more room inside than virtually any other soft top model. "Our engineers wanted to make the PT Cruiser Cabrio a Cabrio that you can actually do things with," said a spokesperson at the time of launch. "Nine different seat configurations and a pass-through boot opening with enough room to store two golf bags make the car more versatile than its competitors." Golf bags seem to be the new unit of measurement when it comes to boot space. Even Ferraris are now manufactured with boots that can accommodate a golf bag. Its hard to see the PT Cruiser Cabrio at your local municipal. It would look happier crawling along a drive-thru lane or parked outside a trendy bar.

The hood is an electrically powered fabric affair and takes all of ten seconds to fold back. Youll need to twist a centre latch and then prang a dash-mounted button to lower the roof and if you really want to neaten things, theres a vinyl tonneau cover that, unlike many of its ilk, is surprisingly easy to fit. It is, however, quite a bulky affair and takes up a good deal of boot room when not in situ. With the roof down and the windows raised, theres precious little buffeting for the front seat occupants, although those taking advantage of the most generous rear legroom in class will get a sound battering from the wind at speeds much above 50mph.

The fixed roll over hoop helps to cut wind intrusion at low speed but even that cant do a whole lot when you really press the throttle pedal.

"Despite our notoriously unpredictable maritime climate, Britain is Europes biggest Cabrio market"

We put our car to the test with a family trip to Dartmouth in Devon and found that with the hood in place, you get good news and bad. The good news is that noise insulation is superb. the Cabrio being only marginally louder than its tin top sibling. The downside is that rear three-quarter visibility is very poor, a huge blindspot forcing you to pay very close attention to your mirrors when overtaking.

Though three different engines are offered to our transatlantic cousins in this car, UK buyers only get one the the 150bhp 2.4-litre unit used in the normal PT Cruiser hatch. This is mated to a five speed manual gearbox at £16,670 but you can opt for a four-speed automatic for £17,470. The chassis is surprisingly rigid, Chrysler claiming that the PT Cruiser was designed from the outset as a Cabrio, and that much of the strengthening required to engineer a drop top was already accounted for.

For good measure, a section behind the rear seats has been added as well as some additional welded gussets around the doors. The old Chrysler Neon saloon provides the basic platform for this car but you wouldnt know that from a glance inside the far more spacious cabin. Its a bit of a shock to climb inside and find that here, things are a lot more conventional than youd expect from the wacky ZZ Top-style outside. To be fair, various efforts have been made to jazz things up a bit.

Some of it works - the pool ball-style manual gear knob is a nice touch but much doesnt. The the thin four-spoke steering wheel feels a bit cheap for example. As already suggested, theres a surprising amount of room inside for a car just 169 inches in length certainly enough for four adults. Naturally theres not as much luggage room as youll find in the fixed head version although its certainly not bad in this respect.

We were delighted in fact by the size of the boot which is 50% larger than that in a Volkswagen Beetle Cabrio. We could not have taken the Beetle on our trip to Dartmouth but the Chrysler coped just fine. That extra luggage space really does make that amount of difference, so make sure on that point before buying something else. Chrysler have thought long and hard about versatility and the ability to access the boot from the cabin certainly helps when transporting longer items.

The four seats are very supportive and even with the hood in place, theres more headroom in the cabin than most will ever need. The back does feel a little claustrophobic with the roof up, and rear seat passengers only get a very small aperture next to the roll bar where they can see out. If youve ever wanted to emulate a Victorian portrait photographer, the back seat of the PT Cruiser Cabrio represents your calling. Perhaps the collective weight of letters to Chrysler dealers could eventually bring us the full Range of PT Cruiser Cabrios although we suspect that UK buyers will only ever be allowed the 150bhp car.

Even with this modest power output, the Chrysler is enormously appealing. Just so long as you dont mind being stared at.

Facts At A Glance
CAR: Chrysler PT Cruiser Cabrio 2.4
PRICES: £16,670-£18,970 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 15
CO2 EMISSIONS: 231-251g/km
PERFORMANCE: Max Speed 118mph / 0-60mph 11.1s
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (urban) 24.6mpg / (extra urban) 40.4mpg / (combined) 32.5mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Driver, Passenger and Side airbags, ABS
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height 4288/1705/1539mm