Chrysler's cool dude

Chrysler believes it has hit the jackpot with a car so cool it can't be categorised, and Americans are flocking to it in droves. ALASTAIR SLONE
reports.

If Humphrey Bogart was still around, he'd drive one. So would James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. Bonnie and Clyde would have killed for it as a getaway car.

Dean Martin could have crooned his way into one and put a bar in the backseat. Elvis surely would have used it in a remake of Jailhouse Rock or King Creole. Bruce Springsteen could still use it on a new cover for Born in the USA.

What is it?

It is the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a yesteryear lookalike which is knocking the bobby socks of Americans, dulled into a diet of conservative cars over many years.

The Cruiser has more street-cred than anything on the market. It is cool - so cool that it had its own dedicated car club months before its launch in the United States last week.

The mere image of the car is transporting Americans back past the televised "happy days" of the Fonz to Route 66 and 77 Sunset Strip, to the days of Steve McQueen and James Dean, when cool was created.

More than 300,000 Americans say they want one. Chrysler in Australia has 1500 orders. New Zealand dealers have filled order books for the launch here in July/August.

The PT Cruiser - PT is for Personal Transport - is a mix of past and present, borrowing its styling from American cars of the 1940s and 50s and its underpinnings from technology of the 1990s.

It look likes a 1948 Ford Pilot with a bit of Buick, Packard and Plymouth thrown in. The grille, mudguards, roofline and pretend running-boards might even have been inspired by a 1939 Chevrolet. Indeed, some early sketches were literal interpretations of 1930s models.

And, like the popular transport of 50 years ago, it is affordable - $US16,000 in America last week and less than $NZ40,000 when it gets here.

Chrysler in New Zealand sees the PT Cruiser as a competitor of sorts for the similarly retro-styled Volkswagen Beetle, and it is expected to price the car against the $37,990-base Beetle. Both cars are built in Mexico.

Chrysler plans to build 180,000 PT Cruisers each year, of which 150,000 will be sold in the United States and the rest exported to more than 40 countries.

Stylists borrowed the PT Cruiser's front-end look from the Plymouth Prowler, a limited-edition hot-rod with which car-hire companies in America do brisk business.

The Prowler honours America's love affair with the hot-rod, just as the PT Cruiser salutes everything great about the good ol' US of A car industry.

The Cruiser first appeared at the Geneva Motor Show in 1998 as a two-door, concept coupe called the Pronto.

Chrysler took the concept further, shortening the front overhangs to look like they were wrapped around the wheels, and raising the vehicle's back to retain the hot-rod look.

Former Chrysler chairman Bob Eaton said: "The PT Cruiser is our interpretation of a vehicle that blends many characteristics to create an all-new segment.

"It could easily be called a flexible activity vehicle, but it's too cool to categorise."

Chrysler says people want to be able to personalise their cars to suit their lifestyles, which is why it extended the PT Cruiser's interior flexibility.

The rear seats are split 63/35 and the seatbacks fold forward flat. They can be removed completely for extra room. The front passenger's seat can also fold forward flat, enabling long objects like a ladder to be carried.

The rear parcel shelf, billed as a security blind for luggage, also serves as a picnic table.

Occupants can make full use of the vehicle's tall roof to sit upright. The stadium seating in the rear allows passengers to sit slightly higher than those in the front.

Chrysler has followed up the PT with the Cruiser Panel Van, to go into production soon and expected to reinvent the 1960s surfin' USA culture, wood panelling, elaborate paint jobs and all.

The rear doors and windows have been replaced by blindside panels and the rear seats have given way to a flat load floor.

The PT Cruiser is based on the Chrysler Neon, although it shares little other than the floorpan and engine.

The American model will be powered by a 2.4-litre, four-cylinder engine mated to an automatic transmission. But the right-hand-drive Cruiser will use an updated version of the Neon's two-litre, four-cylinder engine mated to a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission.