Announced as "to be discontinued" in early 2009, Chrysler' retro-meets-future vehicle got saved in August last year by the American manufacturer because – hold on - it is "too cool to categorize.” So cool that it will get sent to history books on July 9, according to Freep.
The PT Cruiser, even if "cool," didn't manage to live to all the wows! which came with it. This year, Chrysler sold a staggering... 5,452 units, deciding consequently to kill the vehicle. To date, in ten years, that is, Chrysler sold 1.3 million PT Cruisers.
Most place the blame for the PT hitting the brick wall of poor sales on Chrysler's bad management of what once was on of the best selling models in the lineup. Initially meant to be a Plymouth (it is, after all, inspired by the Plymouth Prowler), the vehicle got slowly sidetracked during the Daimler rule of the American automaker.
It received the Chrysler name as Plymouth got discontinued in 2001. It managed to keep up the sales numbers until sometime in 2006, the date when the last generation PT saw daylight. With that generation, a vehicle which was considered one of the most high-quality in the Chrysler lineup got cheap, receiving a somewhat below-average interior.
The death of the PT Cruiser also marks the death of the last car designed to be a Plymouth.
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