36 - North Shore News — Friday, April 7, 2000

openreag.

Younger people drawn to Cruiser’s style

From previous puge

where the PT Cruiser will also
be sald.

In my first test-drive of the
PT Cruiser, f found that both
younger and oider people
were deatvn to it, but particu-
larly younger people. Given
that most younger # people
have no memory a! from
the °30s and °40s, (other than
what they’ve seen in old
movies), this might seem sur-
prising — nevertheless, peo-
ple from 14 to 30 think the
PT Cruiser is “cool.”

Appealing PT Cruiser
styling features include a tall

* grille with horizontal grille
bars, a tall hood, protruding
front and rear fenders, a high
roofline, and an almost-verti-
cal rear hatchback. The interi-
or is more moder, but there
are a couple of retro styling
touches such as the bedy-
cefoured “metal” dash inserts,
and round shift knob on the
Manual transmission lever.

“Mercedes-Benz
ERAT asia cobetey
STi 28,800

78,000 bees, both ~
SEs soo

. feduce glare, however

Getting in and out is rela-
ively easy because of its tall

, big doors, and elevated
seats. The rear doors in par-
cular open aut 74 degrees,
or about 10 degrees more
than most cars.

Like a minivan, the PT
Cruiser’s elevated seats pro-
vide upright seating positions,
improved visibility, and
increased legroom, particular-
ly rear legroom and footroom
for rear passengers.

With plenty of window
glass, including a third side
window, the PT Cruiser offers
excellent outward visibility.
The base of the rear window
is high, but the PT Cruiser’s
elevated driver's seat provides
good rear vision when back-
ing up

Directly ahead of the dri-
ver are three pods containing
round gauges — the cenire
pod has a speedometer and is
Hanked by fuel and coolant
gauges on the left and a
tachometer on nt pods he The
deep instrument help
I found
that they obscured a portion
of the instruments, particular-
ly the left side of the
tachometer,

The centre dash area
includes easy-to-use rotary
ventilation and heater con-

standard

area also has bencanie tel the
fogger, rear wiper /washer,
and (optional) Tecton
Control on/off button. Front
passengers have two 12 volt
points, one on the -
dash and one in the lower

1S it a car? Is it a minivan? ...a eport-utility? Chrysler
says the PT Cruiser is whatever you want it to be.

centre console.

The buttons for the front
power windows are in an
unusual position at the top of
the dashboard (it took me five
minutes to find them) while
rear power window buttons
are located on the back of the
centre console. This means

¢ front passengers can’t
operate the rear windows
without reaching back over
the ceptre console, nor can
they fock out the rear win-
dows.

The lower centre console
area has four cupholders, a
washable coinholder, an open
storage bin, and a pen holder.
Intenor storage spaces include
two large front door pockets,

an underscat drawer, and a
small glovebox — an arm-
rest /storage bin is not
offered

_ Standard safety features
include dual front airbags,
height-adjustable front and

1 if our com ate
y Gilly. ?

rear head restraines for four
ngers, three-point safety
{ts for four passengers, and
a rear lap belt for the centre
rear passenger. Front side-
airbags, which protect both
the head ard chest areas, are
available as an option.

Versatile cargo area

One of the PT Cruiser’s
mest ing features is its
versatile seating and cargo-

g capabilities.

The split 65/35 rear seats
will tumble forwards individu-
ally, of remove individually —

seat has a carrying
dle and rolier wheels. With:
the seats removed the cargo
area is 15m: (5.0 ft.) Jone.
and 1.1 m (3.5 ft.) wide. In

objects u to 2.4 m (8.0 f.)
tong to ft inside the vehicl
wre tie back of the front |

seat can be used as a table for |

fer: mos, OAC.”
Santos fengmm a PDO.E:, M.S.RP. $16,390.
00ign (37 mi/gal)

Technical Bata

Base PPiCe........essccecscoseeccncseessecconsenesesestene santsseseassennes
seoneseasees sucssenseqassecssseasnesesseseeeed OO

four-door, five-passenger sedan

transverse front enaine/front-wheel-drive

....2.4litre, four-cylinder, DOHC, 16 valves

sesseeneee DO @ 5,500 rpm.

..162 tb.-ft, @ 4,000 rp.m.

Transmission ...five-speed manual (four-speed automatic)
wae 446 kg (3,187 Ib.)
..2,616 mm (103.0 im.)
4,288 mm (168.8 in.)

Fuel consumption.....

.1,601 mm (63.0 in.)

sevoesareunsevesoosessovecace:

Cargo capacity......538 litres (19.0 cu. ft.) behind rear seat

1,820 litres (64.2 cu. ft) rear seats out

the driver!

A unique tray in the trunk
area can be positioned at five
different heights to divide up
the cargo area into two zones.
The tray’s underside has a
rubber coating, and when
turned upsiderd down, can be
used to carry wet or dirty
items. In the “tailgate” pasi-
tion, the shelf becomes a table

r tailgate parties.

The rear natch door has 4
very low 632 mm (25.0 in.)
liftever height, ard is easy to
open and close. A full-sized.
aduit can stand unter the -
hatch.

The PT Cruiser can carry |
a payload of up to 392 kg

~ Delve sotact 4X4, 4 Cay. 7
Highway: 5.

www. infiniticonsda.con:

(865 Ib.), and tow a trailer up
to 430 kg (1,000 Ib.).

i pee 150-

wer 2.4-lize DOHC .

horsepower for everyday city.” a

and ini
but I

driving needs,
t it could use more