pt cruiser issues? any i shouldknow of?

wife is looking at a 2005 pt cruiser turbo vert for her "fun" vehicle, any outstanding issues with them? thanks in advance, dave

You will have lots of fun with the turbo, even in stock form if it is the GT version. If it is a touring model then do the PCM upgrade to stage 1. Big downfall with the vert model is very small trunk.

Yeah, Stumpy has one. You don't want to end up like him do you? You might begin a string of REPOST! posts and stuff like that.

Timing belts are supposed to be a B____. I need to do the SO's.
Some have had lower ball joint issues.

When servicing the car and disconnecting the battery, roll down the windows first. It has power windows. They roll down slightly when you open the door, then when the door is closed, the window goes back up into the seal.
The fancy ones with RKE have a module that has gone flakey on some cars.
The front and windshield seem to get more rock chips than the average car. Look it over carefully.
The rest is just the usual used car stuff. Try to find the best example you can find.
I prefer the early interiors to the late ones, but that's a personal preference and the later gauges are easier to read. An '05 is the early style, they updated in '06.

My neighbor has one. He likes it much better than his previous car, a Ford Taurus.

I rented a basic 4 door PT cruiser once. I liked it overall, especially the seating position.

I really like mine. Most of the things that need repair, like the ball joints,(I replaced the lower control arms for $65 a piece) can be done at home with basic tools.It is very quiet and comfortable inside and the interior heats and cools well. I bought the SCT 93 plug in tune up and picked up about 25hp. It hauls butt when the turbo kicks in. The only drawback is the best milage I have been able to get is 18.5.

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wife is looking at a 2005 pt cruiser turbo vert for her "fun" vehicle, any outstanding issues with them? thanks in advance, dave

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I have an '05 base model (non-turbo) with a 5 speed. I bought it in '09 when it had 16,xxx miles on it. It had been sitting since '06 due to an accident. I repaired it and have been using it as my gas saving fun car. Due to the manual trans and base motor, my mileage averages in the high 20's. I took it on a 1400 mile trip and averaged over 31 mpg with a best of 34 on one tank, and I used the a/c every mile of the way.
I have 41,xxx miles on it now and have had 2 problems with it, possibly brought on from not being driven for 3 years before I got it.
At 19k, a brake caliper started sticking intermittently. A reman caliper took care of that.
The second wasn't so easy to fix. I had noticed a slight oil leak when I was changing oil. I didn't think too much about it the first couple of times I changed the oil but then it started getting worse. By the time it had 35k on it, it had leaked nearly a quart by the time it was ready for a change. Long story short, I had to have the headgasket changed as it was leaking the oil at one corner of the head.
The point of this long story is to be sure to check for a leak that looks like it's coming from the sending unit but is actually coming from higher up at the block/head mating surface.
I've put about 6k on it since then and the car is now about as perfect as a used car can be.
Dallas
BTW, I also owned an '07 wagon with the turbo motor and an auto trans and it had quite a bit more power but the mileage was only in the low to mid 20s.