Here's a surprise
On another forum they were talking about towing and a guy said that the PT Cruiser wouldn't be good because it only had 4 cylinders and he needed 6 cylinders to pull his boat. I did a little research and found that the 4 Cylinder PT Cruiser has practically the same HP as the Ford's F-150 V8... that's V-EIGHT, not V-SIX !!!
Ford F-150 with a 4.6 L V8 has 231 HP
PT Cruiser GT with a 2.4 L 4 cylinder has 230 HP
The F-150 has more torque (293 vs 245), but the PT Cruiser GT still beats the torque of most 6 cylinder pickups, including the Ford Ranger with it's upgraded 4 liter V6.
Torque comparison (from Edmunds.com):
Ford Ranger 3 liter V6 - 180 lb-ft @ 3950 RPM
Jeep Wrangler 4 liter inline 6 - 235 lb-ft @ 3200 RPM
Dodge Durango 3.7 liter V6 - 235 ft-lb @ 4000 RPM
Ford Ranger 4 liter V6 - 238 ft-lb @ 3000 RPM
PT Cruiser GT 4 Cylinder 2.4 liter Turbo - 245 ft-lb @ 2800 RPM
The PT Cruiser beats all of those, and at a lower RPM.
HP comparison:
Chevrolet Uplander Cargo Minivan 3.5L 6cyl - 201 hp @ 5600 rpm
Ford Explorer 4.0L 6cyl - 210 hp @ 5100 rpm
Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.7L 6cyl - 210 hp @ 5200 rpm
Chrysler PT Cruiser GT 2.4L 4cyl Turbo - 230 hp @ 5100 rpm
Ford F-150 4.6L 8cyl - 231 hp @ 4750 rpm
Dodge Ram Pickup 1500 4.7L 8cyl 235 hp @ 4400 rpm
It seems you need to go to 8 cylinders to compete with the turbo.
The only problem with the PT Cruiser GT seems to be that the towing capacity is 1,000 lbs. Does anyone know why the towing capacity is so low? I seem to recall reading that Chrysler chose a "beam" axle over independent to increase it's load carrying capacity. Can the chassis be reinforced to increase towing capacity?
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