I've been looking to get a beater car for my 17 year old daughter to get back and forth to work and school. Last weekend I ended up buying a 2002 PT Cruiser with only 65K miles. There are some minor dents and scratches, but I only paid $3900, at a dealer nonetheless. I know it needs a little bit of work, and replaced two tires yesterday due to cracking/dryrot. But it runs very well and hope she can keep it for a couple years.

So now I have two different retro cars in front of my house. Ironically when I was getting the new tires put on yesterday, the mechanic called the PT Cruiser an HHR. Usually it is the other way around! Everyone is going to be really confused now.

My daughter had been spoiled, as I had been letting her borrow my HHR SS from time to time. When she got in the Cruiser to drive it, she said "but it looks so old". I was trying to explain to her that is the way it was designed, similar to the HHR. "Oh no, the HHR is much more modern than this car". I had to laugh.

 

Did you tell her they were both designed by the same guy working first at Chrysler and then at GM. And yes the HHR does look more modern to my eyes even though both are retro designs. It seems Nesbitt's skills improved between 1996 when work on the cruiser began and 2003 when work started on the HHR.

 

I agree. It also helps that my HHR is loaded with options while her Cruiser is a base model. Funny thing is she is realizing how slow the Cruiser is compared to my HHR SS. The 2.4L engine in the Cruiser is a dog.