The PT Cruiser is old news these days. Pedestrians no longer stop and stare as they once did. There is still no other production car which looks quite like it, but after five years the shock value has faded almost to nothing. Its sales peak occurred back in 2001, and although it's partly coincidental that Chrysler's overall success has fallen slightly since then, the Cruiser is still one of its most important products.
And so Chrysler has had to develop the car. A diesel version appeared some time ago, and for 2005 Chrysler has abandoned the old two-litre petrol engine and replaced it with a 2.4. This is the only engine option for the car tested here - the GT special edition, which is effectively in mid-range Touring specification but with the addition of a body-coloured roof spoiler, extra interior chromework, cruise control as standard, sports suspension and 17" alloy wheels rather than the normal 16".
As well as having just one available engine, the GT is also unusual in the Cruiser range in that you can't have automatic transmission (the same applies to the entry-level Classic). Past experience of Cruiser automatics suggests that this isn't a hardship, but the manual five-speed in our GT didn't make much of a case for itself either, since it had the most dreadful gearchange quality I've experienced for years. I don't remember other Cruisers suffering quite so badly, so perhaps this car had a specific problem - let's hope so.
In any case, there were several other matters for concern. The 20% increase in engine size might lead you to expect a big performance improvement, particularly at lower revs. The old two-litre, after all, didn't get going until the revcounter needle it 4000rpm.
Well, unfortunately the same thing happens with the 2.4. Nothing much happens before you reach that magic 4000rpm figure, at which point the Cruiser takes off. You can whisk along quite smartly as long as you keep the engine screaming, but the Cruiser just doesn't seem like the kind of car you would want to drive like that - and even if you do, Chrysler's own figures show that the 2.4 is barely any quicker than the old two-litre, though its emissions are at least Euro IV compliant.
And then there's the suspension. The Cruiser is, of course, based on the same platform as the front-wheel drive Chrysler Neon (which, incidentally, and despite a lot of public demand, is why there has never been a Cruiser with a big V8 driving the rear wheels, with the exception of Paul Marston's very, very, very non-standard and rather wonderful PT Bruiser drag racer pictured here).
Both before and after a mid-life revamp, the Neon was never particularly well set-up for UK roads. The steering was nice to use, but the very choppy behaviour of the rear suspension affected both the ride quality and the handling.
The Cruiser feels pretty much the same. The steering is still lovely - in fact I can hardly think of any other car whose steering action is so effortlessly fluid - but the jarring from the back end is obvious at any speed from 20mph upwards. And whatever Chrysler actually means by "sports suspension", the GT displays a distressing new trend: the front of the car starts to wallow as you pick up speed on country roads, and the dampers can't keep up.
In modern terms, it's remarkably easy to let the power dominate the chassis, leading either to wheelspin or to an unexpected change of direction. The sad conclusion must be that, even in this supposedly sporty form, the Cruiser just isn't ready for a 2.4-litre engine.
Chrysler makes a point of emphasising the Cruiser's interior space, and quite rightly - for such a short car it's remarkably roomy, though most of the interior volume is created by the very high roof. It's not really suitable for four large occupants, unless they all have short legs and long backs, but it does make sense as family transport. The ride quality is likely to cause complaints a long time before the amount of available room does.
There is also quite a lot of space flexibility, since the Cruiser can be converted from a five-seat saloon to a one-seat van. In the latter state it can carry loads up to eight feet in length with the tailgate closed, and total available volume is 1082 litres.
It's at this point that the Cruiser begins to make more sense. As a town- or city-based workhorse which also looks cool on Saturday nights (as the GT in particular certainly does, with its attractive alloys and especially in the test car's Dark Plum paintwork) it has a certain appeal. But if you want something that's fun to drive, or is comfortable on long journeys, this is not the place to look.
