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Slashdot PT Cruiser Spotted In the Wild 94

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the temporal-disturbance dept.
You may remember the Slashdot PT Cruiser if you've been around long enough. You might even wonder what fate befell it. You can sleep comfortably tonight for it has been spotted alive and seemingly well in Walnut Creek.
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Slashdot PT Cruiser Spotted In the Wild More

Slashdot PT Cruiser Spotted In the Wild

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  • At least it wasn't an Aztek (Score:3)

    by NFN_NLN ( 633283 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @01:51PM (#46102423)

    PT Cruiser... that's one step up from the Pontiac Aztek at least.

    • Re:At least it wasn't an Aztek (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @02:15PM (#46102677) Homepage Journal

      PT Cruiser... that's one step up from the Pontiac Aztek at least.

      Years back when I blew a heater hose on California 17, heading home from Santa Clara, I chatted with the tow truck driver. "Which cars do you tow the most?" "Oh, PT cruisers, I get a couple every day, they break down a lot." I'm sure they have the issues sorted by now, but tow truck drivers area great people to ask about what not to buy at the present.

      • In Germany... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Quila ( 201335 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @02:20PM (#46102743)

        You have the ADAC, the national automobile club. They have yellow cars and trucks running up and down the roads constantly, and in a breakdown you call them and get helped fairly fast. They publish a yearly list of the cars they have to rescue the most. It's more helpful than any other metric of reliability. It's like getting that tow truck driver advice from most of the tow truck drivers in the country at one time.

        • It's also important to factor in the number of miles driven by each model of car. For example, if the data said car A broke down twice as much as car B, you would think car B is better. If car A was actually driven a combined mileage that was 10x car B's mileage, car A would have less break downs per mile driven.

          • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

            by Quila ( 201335 )

            None of those are among the most popular brands of car in Germany.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mjwx ( 966435 )

            It's also important to factor in the number of miles driven by each model of car. For example, if the data said car A broke down twice as much as car B, you would think car B is better. If car A was actually driven a combined mileage that was 10x car B's mileage, car A would have less break downs per mile driven.

            One of the biggest myths in buying a car is that mileage matters.

            Mileage is by no means an indication of reliablity. A car with more KM's on the clock may be more unreliable as a car with half the KM's because it's been looked after. The biggest indication when buying a used car for reliability is the service history. A car that is regularly serviced, gets parts replaced when needed, has had all the oil/brakes/belts changed on time is going to be more reliable than a car that hasn't but has half the K's

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Mr Z ( 6791 )
            Not just mileage, but also number of cars, and age at time of breakdown. If you have a bunch of 20 year old cars of Brand X dying along the side of the road, the fact they're 20 years old is more an endorsement than an indictment.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by drainbramage ( 588291 )

        I thought you were going to tell us about the time you blew a seal.
        Or was that a walrus?

        • I thought you were going to tell us about the time you blew a seal. Or was that a walrus?

          Just fix the damn thing and leave his private life outta this, OK, Pal?

        • I thought you were going to tell us about the time you blew a seal.

          No, it was just ice cream.

        • You'll have to get him drunker than that to hear the story.

      • Well, of course, PT Cruisers come free with three boxtops from Cheerios, so there probably would be rather a lot of them getting towed. You would have to compare the relative frequency with the number of that vehicle out there.

      • I was told something similar about Ford/Mercury Sables a few years back. I think it has a lot to do with how many of the cars were sold in a given year, and how long that model can expect before a break down. If there were a LOT of PT Cruisers sold in a given year, and we could expect a 5 year average (for example) before a significant malfunction, then in that 5th year tow truck drivers would see a significant number of PT Cruisers on their hoists - regardless of the quality of the vehicle.

      • I bought a PT Cruiser for my daughter when she was in high school. It is a convertible. Her requirement was "convertible." It was by far the cheapest available. Bought it new for $17,500. It was the last one they had in Connecticut. Other than me breaking the seat belt buckle, which caused the airbag system to fail, and a crankcase sensor that needed to be replaced, it has been uber reliable and trouble free. Never stranded anyone, ever. Has 60,000 miles on it now, and have only done brakes, tires an

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        I chatted with the tow truck driver. "Which cars do you tow the most?" "Oh, PT cruisers, I get a couple every day, they break down a lot."

        I'd never touch a PT cruiser because they're ugly as sin. Lets ignore the pissweak engine.

        But they're unreliable too.

        I once saw a PT Cruiser Cabriolet, the one thing you can do to make the worlds ugliest car even uglier, is chop the roof off.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by SpzToid ( 869795 )

      Babe Magnet Deluxe if ever I saw one!

    • PT Cruiser... that's one step up from the Pontiac Aztek at least.

      The Aztek: what happens when a Grand Prix gets crushed by a falling Sunfire.

    • What other car comes with a center console that is also a removable cooler?!?

      • Hey, at least the Aztek was trying to do something different, even if it didn't "click" with car buyers. I consider it a much more interesting vehicle than the boring, ugly, and utterly generic CUVs that now roam the streets.

        • It might not have been popular in the new market, but we never had a problem selling one in the used market. It was one of those vehicles before its time, and you really can see its influence in newer offerings.

    • PT Cruiser... that's one step up from the Pontiac Aztek at least.

      Nope, a step down...

      The Aztek was just ugly, much like the Nissan Cube, but was fairly reliable. The PT Cruiser, on the other hand, was the cheapest piece-o-cr4p. Shortly after they first came out, I rented one while in Florida for a day before we went on a cruise. It was like riding in a tin can.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ackthpt ( 218170 )

        PT Cruiser... that's one step up from the Pontiac Aztek at least.

        Nope, a step down...

        The Aztek was just ugly, much like the Nissan Cube, but was fairly reliable. The PT Cruiser, on the other hand, was the cheapest piece-o-cr4p. Shortly after they first came out, I rented one while in Florida for a day before we went on a cruise. It was like riding in a tin can.

        My assessment of the Fiat 500. People think they are 'cute'. They don't like to do 80, so not your best before any state with that limit on the highways. Noisy, too.

  • ... all units converge on Walnut Creek?

  • Can we have a new contest to reimburse the owner and bury this sad memory once and for all? I nominate the Atari ET graveyard for a proper disposal facility myself.

  • Not what Slashdot drives, but what drives Slashdot (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jabberw0k ( 62554 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @01:58PM (#46102511) Homepage Journal
    More importantly: Whatever happened to Slashcode, which is what [cue the In Soviet Russia jokes] drives Slashdot?The last version [sourceforge.net] seems to date from nearly a decade ago now.
    • If you disable AdBlock,there's a download now button in the right. *runs, ducks*

    • But...that's...that's GPL!!! You want them to release code instead of making their new Beta version a handy proprietary Slashdot-only box!? Why, that's insane! That's heresy!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gmhowell ( 26755 )

      Surely you recall it was like pulling teeth to get Malda to post even that much code.

  • I see it now and then (Score:3)

    by crgrace ( 220738 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @02:01PM (#46102539)

    I grew up close to Walnut Creek so I'm in the area periodically and I've seen the PT Cruiser now and then. I'm pretty sure it's green though. The picture makes it look blue!

  • I saw it in El Cerrito (Score:4, Informative)

    by linuxwrangler ( 582055 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @02:05PM (#46102595)

    About a year ago: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9... [flickr.com]

    Like any good geek car, it was parked near a brewpub:
    http://www.elevation66.com/ [elevation66.com]
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/9... [flickr.com]

  • Ended up renting the PT Cruiser a couple of times, while on work trips, and hated them... they really should be called the PT Crapper.

    • They have this motor mount that breaks all the time, and you can easily see it from the top of the engine. Only much later do you realize that it is a five hour job to change it. Most PT Cruisers have a lot of engine vibration...

  • At Walnut Creek? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mikkeles ( 698461 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @03:06PM (#46103157)

    So, is it used to cart CD-ROMs around?

  • PT Cruiser? (Score:5, Funny)

    by sootman ( 158191 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @04:26PM (#46103947) Homepage Journal

    No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. [wikipedia.org] Lame.

  • It was hard to browse at -1 for awhile without seeing dozens upon dozens of

    CRUISIN' FOR PRETEENS IN MY SLASHDOT PT CRUISER!

    I thought I'd forgotten that particular troll.

  • There are actually 7+ year old PT Cruisers still on the road?

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